The Old Folks Home

[Bunnylady]

I spent 3 years of my childhood in Cape Vincent, New York - right where Lake Ontario becomes the Saint Lawrence River. Can anyone say "lake effect snow?"(*ploof!*) My Michigander father took it in stride, but it was all a bit much for my Georgia peach mother. One thing I love about Wilmington is that the winters are mild here. We seldom have days when the temperature doesn't at least get into the 40's, and even when we do, they don't usually last for more than a week or two before the thermometer starts creeping up again. It doesn't snow very often, and it doesn't last long when it does, so snow here is magical.

In the winter with a good snow storm, or just a little super dry fine snow, it blows all over, fills up the ditches, and you look out and see a perfectly featureless flat white landscape.

In 1989, we got a cold snap that set an all-time record of 0° F, and it came with a record snowfall of 15". Critter and I had 5 dogs then, and after the weather settled down and the electricity came back on, we took the dogs for a walk through the neighborhood. The three smaller dogs sensibly trotted along in the convenient tire tracks on the road with us, but the bigger two (rescues, possibly Belgian Shepherds) went charging around all over the place. A couple of lots up from our house was a lot that hadn't been built on, which a neighbor used for a garden, and Bunsen and Cisco bounded into it and frolicked around. By luck, they had hit the driveway going in, but when they started to come out, they had to cross the ditch, which of course they couldn't see, because the snow had filled it in. Now you see 'em, now you don't! As they floundered out into the roadway, they looked like, "what happened?!"

 

[getaclue]

I need to get a couple more soft polishing discs for my dremel. Dh brought out a pair of handcuffs. That type was made from the 1860's to the early 1900's. When he was young, he and a friend earned a little money by helping an older lady clean out her barn. Among the "treasures" in the barn, he found the handcuffs. The lady let Dh have them. He's kept them rust free through the years, but they turned dark, and looked sort of tarnished. He got the idea to try the dremel with a polishing disc, and a bit of metal polish. He got about 3/4 of the way done, and they look brand new where he's polished them. The thing is, the discs for the dremel are small, so they get used up pretty quick.

 

[getaclue]

My granddaughter had an awards ceremony yesterday. Dd was commenting how lousy her phone was at taking pictures, and how Dh's phone was so much better. They're the exact same type phones, and have excellent cameras, so hers should do really good pictures too. Dh decided to look at her settings. ????? The software for her camera is different than his. He began checking further, and discovered that the software needs updating. He had it update. NOTHING. He had it update again. NOTHING.

He called tech support. Her phone has never updated, since it was bought. Never. It's a known issue. Tech support tried to force an update. Nothing happened. They tried again. Nothing. They have another method, when this situation occurs, and it could take up to 24 hours. Since updates are automatic, Dd thought her phone was automatically updating like it should, and never gave it a second thought. Boy is she in for a BIG surprise when it finally updates. All the icons will be different, and they will be a different color from the originals, that she's grown used to. She will have to go in a redo all her settings too.

 

[microchick]

3 inches of snow overnight. DH was singing 'I'm dreaming of a white Halloween' when I woke up this morning. It's still snowing but not as heavy as it was last night. *sigh*

We would have loved to have moved farther south but we knew that retiring and relocating was going to take time so we chose an area that was at least drive-able between home and office. 3 hours was about all we could manage at the time. Still the snowfall here is half of what it was in IL. Average is 22 inches compare to IL's 44+. Sometimes here we don't even get the average. Last year we got more than the average. This year isn't starting out good.

We enjoy snow, BUT. Face it, as we age snow gets harder and harder to deal with. DH has the tractor to clear our driveway and plow paths to the barn and chicken coop but road maintenance is sketchy at best and sometimes it's taken them 2-3 days just to get to our road when we have a heavy snow. Being prepared in rural Missouri is almost a prerequisite to living here.

As for prepared....@trumpeting_angel, we have 12+ cords of wood piled in the barn. We have oak, hickory, elm, poplar, walnut, black locust and honey locust on our property. We are trying to get rid of the honey locust because of their thorns and ability to spread like wild fire as they are very proficient seed producers. Those things produce unbelievable heat.

This picture shows the beginning of the 'keeper log' pile. This is the only wood that we stack.

The Amish seem to harvest their wood as they need it year round saying 'it heats you up twice that way' but one of the concessions to being a bit long in the tooth is that we harvest our wood during the spring and summer months so we don't freeze our tushes off.

 

[microchick]

The view of our deck this morning:

 

[trumpeting_angel]

That’s a gorgeous supply of wood!

We had to clear a large section of honey locust last year. Heavy pants, heavy gloves. It was all over our super steep backyard hill. Cut it down, dragged into piles, and painted the cut stems with glyphosate. Nasty work! Those inch-long thorns are awful! I don’t see any grown trees. We think it came in when they bulldozed up there for the leech field and brought in topsoil for fill. Ugh.

 

[ronott1]

I need to get a couple more soft polishing discs for my dremel. Dh brought out a pair of handcuffs. That type was made from the 1860's to the early 1900's. When he was young, he and a friend earned a little money by helping an older lady clean out her barn. Among the "treasures" in the barn, he found the handcuffs. The lady let Dh have them. He's kept them rust free through the years, but they turned dark, and looked sort of tarnished. He got the idea to try the dremel with a polishing disc, and a bit of metal polish. He got about 3/4 of the way done, and they look brand new where he's polished them. The thing is, the discs for the dremel are small, so they get used up pretty quick.

Did you check to see if they were worth more un restored?

You ever know about antique things and value

 

[getaclue]

Did you check to see if they were worth more un restored?

You ever know about antique things and value

Nope. He didn't grind them, or anything. Yes, I know that the patina from age can add value to some things, but to him, it's not about the resale value. He's got the keys, and they work just fine. To him, it's not just about preserving them in perfect working order, in almost pristine condition. They're his. If that's what makes him happy, then I won't deny him his little bit of happiness.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Yep.

I need deep ditches all along the driveway so it drains well and fast and doesn't get soupy and start to swallow cars. Soupy roads happen in the spring.

In the winter with a good snow storm, or just a little super dry fine snow, it blows all over, fills up the ditches, and you look out and see a perfectly featureless flat white landscape.

Then how do you plow the road, and not slide into those ditches? The ditches that you can no longer see.

Road markers.

Our driveway has trees all along it on both sides, so no need for markers.

 

[CapricornFarm]

3 inches of snow overnight. DH was singing 'I'm dreaming of a white Halloween' when I woke up this morning. It's still snowing but not as heavy as it was last night. *sigh*

We would have loved to have moved farther south but we knew that retiring and relocating was going to take time so we chose an area that was at least drive-able between home and office. 3 hours was about all we could manage at the time. Still the snowfall here is half of what it was in IL. Average is 22 inches compare to IL's 44+. Sometimes here we don't even get the average. Last year we got more than the average. This year isn't starting out good.

We enjoy snow, BUT. Face it, as we age snow gets harder and harder to deal with. DH has the tractor to clear our driveway and plow paths to the barn and chicken coop but road maintenance is sketchy at best and sometimes it's taken them 2-3 days just to get to our road when we have a heavy snow. Being prepared in rural Missouri is almost a prerequisite to living here.

As for prepared....@trumpeting_angel, we have 12+ cords of wood piled in the barn. We have oak, hickory, elm, poplar, walnut, black locust and honey locust on our property. We are trying to get rid of the honey locust because of their thorns and ability to spread like wild fire as they are very proficient seed producers. Those things produce unbelievable heat.View attachment 1948524 View attachment 1948525 This picture shows the beginning of the 'keeper log' pile. This is the only wood that we stack.

The Amish seem to harvest their wood as they need it year round saying 'it heats you up twice that way' but one of the concessions to being a bit long in the tooth is that we harvest our wood during the spring and summer months so we don't freeze our tushes off.

Wow! Impressive!