Remembering... Pepperell, MA

Remember When, by Bob Poulin

Beautiful storm photography - Wall to Watch

Beautiful storm photography - Wall to Watch

I'd be driving as fast as my vehicle would take me in the other direction, these are some scary looking storms. Well done. I think I'd like to see the color images too, i can't help wondering if the B&W makes them look more ominous than they were originally.

Winter's cold sets in

 It was 8 degrees this morning when we woke up, and it's stall mucking day.  Stall clean up is easy when it's all frozen solid.  I tried to pull start the snow blower, it laughed heartily at my effort,  so I knocked on the kitchen door and asked Rose to send me out an extension cord for the electric start,  that did the trick after 30 seconds or so.   I used the Snow blower to clear a path to the manure pile, just didn't feel like it earlier in the week when it snowed, then we got busy, you know how it is.  The wind was blowing the ice crystals back into me face, I had to keep turning away from the blast, actually stopped the blower, went over to one of the sand barrels along the walkway and got out a pair of gloves I'd seen there earlier in the week. (Don't tell Rose I put gloves on...)

 Heading out around the back side of the workshop with the wheelbarrow full I noticed a familiar set of tracks. We got a visit from the local Red Fox last night or early this morning.  Even in this cold it's good to get out in the fields to see what's going on in the natural world.

Red Fox - 2009

 We noticed the pond is are starting to look quite a bit more solid that they have been, I'll have to go down and check out the pond to see what progress the cold has made.

  It's 7:40pm now and it's 7 degrees F. the temps are dropping off a degree an hour.  Buttoned up the barn, a little extra feed and hay all around it's gonna be a cold one.  So far the Pellet stoves are keeping up well though.  We'll have to turn on the oil furnace on to warm up the basement so we don't lose any water pipes overnight.

Full Moon Ice

  Chloe (our Akita) and I went for a walk tonight,  nice out, the wind finally dying down.  As we walked past the bakery the pond ice started, boom, crack, hiss, then another boom, Chloe let out a single barely audible, not sure what the heck that was "woof".  I told her it was OK, and we moved on not looking back.  It's been to many years since I heard the music of the winter ice,  I remember being out on the ice hearing the eerie booms, pops, shattering glass sounds the ice would make trying to imagine how this could possibly be safe to walk on.

We'll have to go skating, or maybe just have a bonfire down by the pond.

  We walked on across the intersection headed east for the river, the river is a destination not always achieved as Chloe is getting on in years and her hips don't always go as far as she'd like.  So we walk until she starts to tire then we turn around and walk home again.

 Chloe

 

Finally Saturday, Cutting trees, and Excalibur...

Lots to do today,   We need to put the van in the shop for inspection as it needs a new exhaust installed, lots of VAN related chores to do today, so we're off to the town dump. We picked up our hay and grain, and walkway sand at the grain store on the way home.

Rose got me a new Husqvarna 240e chainsaw for Christmas, today was the first time using the machine.  "What a real nice machine, quiet, zero vibration, cuts through wood like warmed butter!"  Made short work of all the downed tree branches I needed to cut up today.  Took out some downed Poplar, Pines and some more downed apple.  Cut up and piled the small stuff for burning and left the logs piled to cut up later.

Excalibur (the dehydrator) was put into action tonight, our first time using this particular model, it has a huge following.  This year we finally decided to purchase one.  All of our other dehydrators (3 or so) are heat on the bottom convection only models definitely serviceable, but relatively slow, and because there's no fan occasionally blackens (especially Basil) what we put into it.  The Excalibur though comes in a multitude of models, has a fan in the rear that blows across the trays and 600 watts or heat to make quick work of anything we put into it.

Here's the first load of vegetables loaded up.

If the weather holds tomorrow I am going down to the pond to cut some nice Ironwood walking stick blanks for Rose, and the boys.  I have one I made years ago back when I was living in Townsend Mass. that I still use. We're planning some hikes this spring, Uncanoonuc Mt. trails, maybe New Boston Swamp trails too. (Maybe even this winter if the weather holds like it is today, 53 degrees, nice...)

What a difference a day makes!

Just the other day I was talking about it feeling like spring, look what that got us into...  

It's not fit out for man nor' beast!  

It's 14 Degrees with a brutal 5-10 mph breeze blowing on top of that.  

I was just out with the dogs and you can hear the trees creaking and cracking from the cold.  Your pants freeze stiff in seconds, dogs won't stay out more that a few minutes at a time.  

I took some extra time to button up the barn tonight making sure the doors were all shut well.  A little extra hay and a handful of grain go a long way in this cold.  Water for the chickens (heated during winter as is the horse bucket) collected the eggs before the overnight freeze gets them.

The Quadrantid meteor shower http://earthsky.org/tonight should be good, ~2AM eastern time I hear, don't know if I'll make it up till 2am again, (couldn't sleep last night.)

You waiting up for it?

New Years 2012 looks more like spring

The Poplar trees are budding out, I think this winter is going to be brutal on the plants. Lots of the shrubs in the yard are already budding out due to temps in the 40s. We were in Hookset the other day and it looked like the Maples had budded too.

Mud season has arrived early this year as well, the dogs are already making a mess of the yard. Harley is having a blast sliding through the mud skidding around corners.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  

Foggy start to this new year, it's just starting to clear now as I post this pic.