Tag Archives: ice

What’s Good for the Goose…

Last week we had an ice storm. 

No, that’s overly dramatic and not very accurate.

Last week we had lots of nice beautiful snow.  Then the temperature did un-winter like things and the precipitation that fell was not snow. One morning I woke up to discover that we no longer had snow. Instead we had white ground covering what looked like snow but was actually ice and it was still raining/sleeting/hailing/anything-but-snowing.

It’s like snow, but instead ice with hail frozen to it’s surface between the puddles of water. Notice the dog isn’t even running- it was that slippery.

I headed out to do the chores and while ice was glistening on all the branches making a beautiful sight it took me an unprecedented amount of time to haul my buckets of water across the ice that was masquerading as a snowy yard to the birds. 

I let my birds out and the geese walked down their ramp and tried to walk across the snow-ice to their water pan but their big ol’ feet kept slipping in old ruts and they fell on their faces.  I would have taken a video but they don’t like me laughing at them and if they found out I had done that they would have held a grudge. You don’t want a goose with a grudge.

Instead, I slipped and slid and swore my way over to the brooder house with it’s winter supply of straw and then slipped and slid and swore my way back over to the poultry and spread them a nice layer of straw so they could stand and walk without slipping. Satisfied they’d be fine for the day I started back toward the house doing my now second-nature awkward penguin shuffle with the tiny steps as slipped in and out of every old foot print I ever made, occasionally flapping my arms like a dancing ostrich to keep my balance.

Then I stopped the insanity, looked back at the geese happily walking on their straw and headed back to the brooder house.

You know what they say, What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.

And me and the dogs…

Happy with my straw trails, I shortcuted through the non-slippery house to the front to see what sort of beautiful ice coatings I could find and to check out the driveway.

The ice was indeed beautiful.

The driveway was indeed ice.

But what’s good for the goose…

… it looked odd, it was a bit unorthodox but it worked!

 

 

Looking Through The Lens

(It wasn’t an outright question so much as a raised eyebrow of disbelief. But you see…) 

There is a shift that my brain makes when taking pictures, where it goes from what catches the attention of the naked eye to what can be captured through the camera lens.

Some times the shift is hard to make.

It takes more concentration than I have if I’m talking or multitasking so I don’t often take many pictures in a group of people. Instead I make the shift most often when I’m on my own.

When there is no one to tell me to hurry up (except the dogs and they never mind if I fall behind) and nothing to distract me. Then when my focus shifts I can find hundreds of tiny details and shapes that I want to try and capture.

I fiddle with my camera as I experiment with the best ways for it to help me catch the possibility I see in my mind.

I bless the digital camera gods as I snap and review, fiddle and adjust, and snap some more.

Once I’ve started looking through the lens everything seems photogenic if I can just catch the right light, angle, focus, background…

When it comes time to review pictures on the computer there are more misses in my captures than keepers.

And many pictures like these geometric shapes that caught my eye…

…still look just like the rabbit poop and dried corn leaves that they really are.

(And that, Honey, is why I took a picture of rabbit poop.)

 

An Icy Reminder

Last week, after a few warm days, winter came back to ensure we all didn’t forget about her while in the throes of spring fever.

She showered us with sleet and rain and snow and ice – just because she could.DSCN1711-(2sm)

Winter stopped by for a day, perfectly encased the world in ice, then let the sun out the next morning to show it off.

By the end of the day she was gone. Every last bit of her.

Today the daffodils are showing yellow in their buds.

I told them to hold on.

Winter has gone but I think she’s still hiding just beyond the next bend.

I encourage you all to head over and visit Jerry Johnson on Dispatches from a Northern Town and read Glazed. He got hit a bit harder than we did with the same storm and he describes this weather perfectly. (Also I’m pretty convinced that he has re-adjusted the “in like a lion and out like a lamb” saying about March just right…)

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes

This weeks photo challenge was to use three pictures to tell a story. So, as proof that we have gotten outside to play, even in the frigid weather I give you – Driveway Sledding!

We’ve yet to find another path down the hill that works as well as the driveway for sledding – we’ve got an apple tree obstacle problem everywhere else.

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago, if the girls were playing on today I’d have to title my pictures Driveway Luge or Perhaps Driveway Skeleton.  I’ve needed multiple runs to get up the driveway if I’m not in 4-wheel drive and while spreading ashes from the wood-stove on it this afternoon all I had to do was balance and shake my bucket as I slowly slid down! To say it’s a bit icy would be an understatement!