Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Christmas Tree Perils.
Good morning! Christmas is getting closer and the weather is getting nicer all the time. The snow on my deck was melting today. The sun was shining. LB, the squirrel, was having fun playing in the snow. Not that we have much. Perhaps about 5 or 6 inches. Not much considering what we would normally have this time of year. Tomorrow it is supposed to continue with sun and a temp of 40F. Very nice indeed. Good weather for taking some nice pics of the birds. Except, with the nice weather there isn’t many birds around. Sigh.
Nearly Christmas. Dad and I went out every year in search of the perfect Christmas tree. One would think that with all the trees we have it would be an easy thing to do. Not so. One year was very cold. Actually, that’s normal. But anyway, Dad and I were off once again to get our tree. There wasn’t really a lot of snow that year, maybe a foot. So it should be quite easy. We stopped at one spot and of course we needed to cross a ditch again. You go first, says Dad. Naturally. Off I went across the ditch. The snow was only ankle deep. Not deep at all, I called back. Dad started off. I continued walking off into the trees. I stopped. Thought I heard something. But it was windy so it was hard to tell. I listened carefully. Sounded like Dad calling. Hey, maybe he found a good tree already. I turned around. Hard to believe what I saw. Dad was just sitting in the middle of the ditch yelling. I went back. As I got closer I noticed that he wasn’t sitting. He was up to his stomach in snow. Apparently the snow was just hard packed from the wind and the recent snow we had was what I walked through. Since Dad was quite a bit heavier than me he fell through that hard packed layer of snow. What a sight! I burst out laughing. Ha, ha, said Dad, you’ll have to dig me out. Can’t you just pull yourself out?, I asked. When I try my hands just push through the snow, he said. I started laughing again. What am I supposed to dig with? There’s a shovel in the car, said Dad. But Dad had the keys. In his pocket. Which was buried in the snow. I dug down enough so I could get the keys. Laughing the whole time. Don’t know why Dad didn’t see the humor in the situation. I came back with the shovel. Be careful, said Dad. Naturally. Things were going well but after tossing a shovel full of snow I swung the shovel back and accidentally hit Dad slightly on the back of the head. AAAAAAAAA!!!!!! I said be careful, stated Dad. Sorry about that. Finally I was able to pull Dad out. Lost your boot, I said. Dad looked. He actually hadn’t noticed. He bent over the hole to look. So did I. Now, Dad claimed I bumped him rather hard. Actually, I barely touched him. He dropped his glasses in the hole. I’ll get them, I said, and jumped into the hole. AAAAAAAA!!!!!, said Dad, be careful. I was. Found his glasses and boot which was full of snow. Now Dad’s foot was getting wet. Should have brought extra socks, I said. I know what I shouldn’t have brought, he answered. Not sure what he meant by that. We actually found a tree rather quickly. Amazing. A hairy woodpecker was working away at a tree nearby. A squirrel was sitting at the base of a large pine tree eating pine cones. Neither of them were paying attention to us. It was cold. Food was the main thing to be concerned about. No other wildlife was around that morning except for a raven that flew overhead. Dad took a long way back to the car, he didn’t want to cross that ditch again. I took the short way. After all that we needed a COFFEE! So we went to our favorite COFFEE shop. Nothing like a cup of hot COFFEE on a cold winter day. Or any day for that matter.
But I do like herb teas as well. And I am enjoying a cup of mint tea at the moment. Perfect after supper. I hope you all can enjoy your weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
Busy Birds And Other Things.
Good morning everyone! Amazingly we still don’t have much snow around here. Very unusual really. It is nice though. Especially since I can no longer shovel snow. But it has been a bit on the cold side lately. But that seems to be normal. It’s been colder than normal since mid September. So no surprise that it is continuing that way. That part isn’t so nice. Sigh. Cold weather and I just don’t mix well anymore. Didn’t bother me so much years ago. I have never liked cold weather, but it didn’t bother me. If that makes sense.
The cold weather doesn’t seem to make a difference to the birds however. They go about their lives normally like the cold doesn’t exist. Amazing really. There isn’t much to those little birds. Such as the chickadees, nuthatches and pine siskins. They are tiny. One would think their little legs would freeze completely. But these little birds keep bouncing around, flitting from branch to branch. But mostly they just spend the whole day flying from a bush or tree behind my apartment to the feeders and back to the bush again with their prize of a sunflower seed. Then they manage to hold that slippery little seed with their feet and peck it open, quickly eating the contents, then back to the feeder. Doesn’t take them long. And that’s their day. Back and forth. Periodically they change the routine and land on the suet feeder to grab some extra energy.
Then it’s back to the sunflower seeds. I have been trying to entice the pine grosbeaks to come to the feeder as well. And have had some success. But unfortunately the rock doves chase them away and finish off the sunflower seeds in seconds. Sigh. The pine grosbeaks won’t go to the hanging feeders. They need something flat and solid. Which is why the problem. And their natural food supply is fast disappearing.
So they probably won’t be around much longer. But at least I have been able to get some nice pics before they move on to another area in search of food. And that is nice. They are only here during the winter. I almost had a head on collision with a hairy woodpecker the other day. He came flying around the corner of the apartment while I was on the deck. Fortunately he managed to veer off to the side just in time. That would have hurt. Both of us.
Wanted to have some eggs for breakfast the other day. Hope none of my bird friends find out. Anyway, I got the eggs out. Took 2 out of the carton. I should know better. Take one at a time. No. Not me. I took 2. One slipped out of my hand. Naturally. I tried to catch it. Bad idea. Broke the one I was still holding. In my hand. Missed the other one. Naturally. Which hit the floor. With quite a splat. But amazingly it missed my foot. Barely. But it missed. That’s the important thing. I cleaned my hand first. Then turned to clean up the egg on the floor. Scrunch. Rats. So much for missing my foot. Sigh. Oddly, Muffin was a bit slow getting in to check out the action. Must have been sleeping soundly. But she did come. And proceeded to clean up what was left of the egg on the floor. She likes to help. She helped with the Christmas decorating too. I don’t have a tree. Probably a good thing. But I did decorate. Took a little longer than it should have. But Muffin really wanted to help. Every time I brought out a different decoration she had to check it for damage. By playing with it. Or just running off with it. One is still missing. Sigh. But she did seem to be enjoying it all. I was sitting on the floor pulling my hair. But it’s done. Only one item broke. An antique glass ornament. No. Not Muffin. I was to blame for that one. Sigh.
Days are so short now. Maybe I should say the daylight portion. The chickadees are the first to arrive in the morning. It is just barely showing some daylight when they arrive. It is dark now. Not quite so cold today. But the humidity was high. So it still felt cold. To me at least. Did get some nice pics today. Like the ones I’m sharing today. Except for the featured image at top, it’s not mine. Enjoy your week and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
Steve`s Country 