Open Thread – Tough Winter
Humans aren’t the only ones feeling overwhelmed by this year’s record dump of snow. I passed this guy on my way home today, up to his very tall armpits in a snow berm on the side of the road. He didn’t seem to mind me stopping to take a quick picture. All they want to do these days is eat, but anyone who gives them a hard time – beware. When you’re hungry, you’re also cranky.
Those with wings have an easier time of it. The ravens, who prefer the less populated areas in the summertime, congregate at fast food joints and pancake houses in town during the winter, where they dine on seasonal delicacies like french fries – a perennial favorite. Their scavenging ways, and penchant for second-hand junk food have earned them the opprobrious nickname “dumpster ducks.”
Isn’t thGt moose lying down?
Well, at home it is still cold, but thank goodness we aren’t there. We flew to Oahu last week, when it was snowing in Seattle. It’s so nice to be warm and have sunshine and nothing falling from the sky to make me even colder.
Last Saturday we flew to Kauai, where it’s also lovely and warm. I almost feel guilty when so many places are still cold and nasty. Almost, but not really.
http://blisstree.com/live/georgia-rep-wants-to-force-women-to-carry-stillborn-fetuses-like-cows-do-693/
Georgia State Rep. Terry England wants to force pregnant women to carry stillborn fetuses to term,just like cattle and hogs. This has to be the last straw,all these rwnj are FREAKING KRAZY and SERIOUSLY F#$@ED UP IN THEIR HEADS!!! Thank you.
I’m sure I’m not alone in my admiration and respect for Bill Moyers. Alternet has posted an entire recent episode, and IMO, it’s well worth 50 or so minutes of your time:
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/863755/watch%3A_bill_moyers_on_%22how_big_banks_are_rewriting_the_rules_of_our_economy%22/#paragraph4
How do you shop? Do you know the real price of finding a bargain?
http://www.alternet.org/activism/154499/3_Surprising_Shopping_Habits_That_Are_Bad_for_the_World/?page=entire
This may make you think twice about a good “deal.”
Nice:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/why-conservatives-are-still-crazy-after-all-these-years-20120316
For those who still haven’t read Corey Robin, this is a pretty good summary.
I adore ravens — in fact, all corvids. They’re incredible. I was so glad to find they’re the messenger birds in Game of Thrones.
We have a very active ‘neighborhood watch’ comprised of crows and grackles. There are several hawks that consider this area their own private lunch buffet, and the alarm goes out whenever they start circling high above. As soon as that squawk is heard, the sparrows and other birds dive – woooosshhh – for the protection of the evergreen shrubs.
If the hawks get too close to anything the crows consider their own property, the attack begins and the hawk is quickly driven out of Dodge.
I really enjoy watching them in the yard, figuring out how to solve problems or just finding ways to amuse themselves!
(I was also very excited yesterday morning to see the very first northern mockingbirds I’ve ever seen in my yard. It was a pair that was hopping around, looking for lunch and apparently having quite the conversation. Very pretty birds!)
We have had a mild winter in the Oregon Outback. But that hasn’t deterred the Ravens from stealing eggs from our hen house!
I wuz just out in my garden where sod from last year is nice and green. I ran a tiller over some of the sod so it won’t cause problems when I deep till later on. It has to be 80 degrees out again and real windy. I started onions seeds on the 13th and some of them are up. Got a fifty pound bag of Norland Red spuds ready to plant. 2009-10 county used up snow removal budgeted monies before Jan. This year we hardly saw a plow-even on school bus routes. Since I’m gonna have rotator cuff surgery on April 4th,that is when our blizzard will show up. I love the smell of napal…er freshly turned earth in the morning and afternoon. BTW gooseberries and lilacs have little green leaves already.
Good luck with the surgery. PM me if you want some nutritional advice. Health and peace.
You have a standing invite to come out and garden all you want. I gotta warn you that I am the only inhabitant on this section of farm ground( 1 mile square) so if you like people,better bring several.
Good luck with the rotator cuff surgery. I had it in January (plus biceps tendon repair). Very glad to have it done, but you have to be patient and keep up with PT afterwards. My best to you.
I love the ravens. At my last house they would stash bagels. I have no idea where they found them but they would leave them on the roof, in the rain guttering and once even stuffed part of one in the slats that vented the space above the garage.
Here in Southern Iowa, we are having the warmest winter I can ever remember. It has been in the low 80s the past few days. Unbelievable!!!!
I just hope we don’t have an April surprise. We once had the worse snow storm ever, on April 7th several years ago.
I find it strange when having this warm weather early. It does something to a persons regular routine. I am at odds as to start doing things that I would regularly do at a later date.
One thing for sure—-We get to keep money that would be going to Alliant Energy!!! YEAAAAA!
That’s true about saving money on heating bills. The warmer than usual temperatures this winter have saved a lot of people money they would have spent on gas and oil.
It’s also saved a lot of municipalities money usually spent on heating government buildings, road salt/sand and plow overtime. Here in Rochester, the crews that usually spend their time plowing and sanding streets have been out doing roadside cleaning, road and bridge repairs and other general springtime maintenance – getting ahead of their usual schedule.
On the other hand, I don’t want to think about what my snow plow service got per visit since I pay a seasonal contract and he only came a handful of times! Fortunately, I’ve used his service for about 11 years so the slow years eventually balance out with the busy years.
Good news for Wisconsin. State Senator Pam Galloway has resigned, and Scott Walker is now going to be forced to work with Democrats (gasp!):
http://www.care2.com/causes/major-developments-in-wisconsin-recall-elections.html
Ha! Now we will see what he is really made of. I doubt he will prove he has the state’s residents best interests in mind.
Good positive article. Thanks for posting the link.
We have had 3 snowstorms this winter. Each had less then 10 inches of snow.
Today is sunny and will be 71. This is the warmest winter I can remember in the 34 years we have lived this far north.
I have dried my clothes outside several times already, towels, jeans, all have dried.
The other night we had thunder and lighting and a downpour. In March!!!!
we’ve had a really dry and mild winter here…presently raining, but I’ll be transplanting my tomatoes outside today, and covering them with clear plastic bags over the tomato cage to see if things will speedup, as well as act as deer protection ! plum trees have been pollinated thanks to neighbor’s hive of bees, and pear tree has blossoms now, camilla in full bloom and magnolia in front yard making a MESS with it’s flowers now dropping..beautiful tree, but I swear to the Almighty I wanna drop that sucker every year cleaning up after it !…
What strange weather we are having eh? Our current low temps are higher than our average highs for this time of year. I am way ahead in yard work. I weeded and mulched all my flower beds this week and may even get to finishing the paint job on my house.
Our weather is much the same. Each day we seem to set a new record for the warmest day since they started recording daily temperatures! Yesterday, was truly amazing. I grew up near Philadelphia, spent my adult life in Michigan – outside Detroit and now in northwest Lower Michigan – and I have never been outside on a St. Patrick’s day minus coat, gloves, and for the last thirty + years boots and a hat – until yesterday. Our blizzard snow of two weeks ago is virtually gone, the grass is beginning to green up, the trees have buds, and some people already have crocus blooming. Even Mrs. Duck has reappeared in the neighborhood!
While it feels great, it is also ominous because the weather should not be behaving like this. I worry about the fruit crops if there is a sudden drop in temperature well below the average for a period of a week or two at this crucial time of year for regional agriculture. A few years ago a warm spell followed by very cold temperatures about eliminated the cherry crop that season, one of the mainstays in this part of the country.
Same here in western NY. We’re having temperatures in the 70s all week – more typical for May than March. We’re breaking high temperature records all over the place and I, too, worry about what this will mean for the rest of the year.
Plants are sprouting out of season, insects and other plant diseases haven’t been killed off by a sustained cold and we didn’t have the usual snow to restock the ground moisture. Our lilacs are starting way too early to be be in bloom for our annual festival which brings millions of dollars into our local economy, and the local orchard owners are worried about their fruit crops, which are a huge part of western NY agriculture.
While it’s certainly nice to be wearing t-shirts and enjoying the unexpected warm, sunny weather, it may come with consequences that are not pleasant. It’s always scary when the weather behaves in ways that are SO atypical, be it too cold and snowy like in Alaska or too warm and dry like much of the eastern US.
I’ve been following the weather guru who blogs at the Old Farmer’s Almanac website. She says it’s all due to the volcano that blew its top in Iceland last year. That increased the stratospheric dust and the increase in the North Atlantic Oscillation (spelling?) sometimes called the Icelandic Low. Check out http://www.almanac.com/blog/weather-blog/nao-crossing-guard-atlantic and her other blog articles
I once read an interview(in a leading mens magazine) a beached whale gave to some newspaper reporter. The reporter asked why whales beach themselves and the answer given might suprise you. The whale told Her,with a straight face,that they beach themselves solely for the publicity they receive. Pretty much every whale beaching makes the eleven o’clock news, I suspect mooses are the same in that regard.
There were huge ravens all around our Ford today at Costco…one so close I was startled when it cawed behind me.