Saturday, December 13, 2008

Back on the Grid!

Hooray, the power is back on. Folks were saying that it would be "several days" but it has been only a day and a half. Seems longer than that. First thing I did is make myself a cup of Earle Grey. Then I turned the furnace on in the shop. Now I am here on the computer, waiting for the hot water tank to heat up so I can take a bath.

Things to remember for next time: Fill the bathtub any time the weather starts getting weird! The well pump doesn't run without electricity. Always have blank discs and a fully charged camera! Otherwise I waste a good photo op like yesterday with the ice coating all of the trees. It's a blessing that the tamarak pulled through without major damage. There's a big limb down from the second big pine tree. I'll have to investigate that this morning.

The birds were on the suet feeders like crazy and now that the seed bell is gone they are back on the sunflower feeder. And the big brown woodpecker was here twice! That prompted me to put out a second sunflower feeder to replace the bell, and a third one outside the library window. I need to look up that woodpecker. I've seen a picture . . . OK, "Familiar Garden Birds of America" by Henry Hill Collins, Jr. (Harper & Row, 1965) on Plate III shows its a yellow-shafted flicker (male) which belongs to the woodpecker family. That's him! He's beautiful and bigger than a blue-jay.

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