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Brad's Blog

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Feb.1
I made a movie about falling in snow today Snefalln

Feb 4
We've gotten five inches of snow per day for the last two days. I spent 3 hours this morning with the snowblower making our paths and our neighbors' paths usable.
It's very pretty but mostly we've gotten over that by now...

Feb. 6
We got 4 inches again yesterday and 2 inches today, with another major storm on the way. The last snow was too wet to snow blow... I'll have to think up some more snow movies...

Feb. 8
We got off for a walk on the old grade during the 3 inches of snow we got in the daytime. More expected tonight, and potential flooding tomorrow. There were 14 deer on the lake ice in front of Sedlmayer's and 3 more crossed our path on the way home. We saw a wren along there the last time we walked there, and 5 deer.

From the context they might look like reindeer in the sky, but they're on the white snowy lake, looking down from the old grade.

This is the ice storm from the morning after, Feb. 9
A new old-time song (for me) Wild Bill Jones https://youtu.be/XStbG44ppLg

Feb. 13
We saw 24 deer down by Sedlmayer's on Spirit Lake today. We're having cold nights and 40ish days, which led to a drainpipe from one side of our garage plugging up with ice. There's still a foot of snow on top of the garage, and rain is predicted in a couple days, so we had to figure how to make it work to avoid flooding the garage. I first tried a drill with a long bit, which penetrated about 8 inches. From the unplugged side I ran a snake in, and found that there was up to 6 feet of frozen 4 inch pipe to clear, so the drill was not going to cut it. Then we tried a heat gun, same result. I finally hit on running a hose from the hot water faucet that services our washing machine, and spraying up the clogged end with hot water. It took a couple tanks of hot water, but we're ready for the rain...
Here's photo from frozen Priest Lake yesterday:

This isn't really a blues, it's a fun guitar tune by Sam McGee, one of my oldtime guitar heroes...
Franklin Blues

Feb. 19th
After 3 days, my nose is finally drying up after running like a firehose from a bad cold/flu...

I realized the other day that I don't take many pictures when the snow has accumulated to the point of being debilitating. So this is what debilitating snow looks like...

This is what bored cats hunkered down look like.

This is what me taking pictures out the window after a snowstorm that immediately melted looks like...

Feb. 20
Being sick with a cold, my voice is bad, but I was able to record some instrumentals yesterday:
Dream state
I dig a pony
Sam McGee Stomp
Purpose--Hymn tune

Feb. 22
The robins were finally eating the mountain ash berries, which I observed as I started pruning the apple trees standing on pieces of plywood on the snow. A brown creeper called up the tree outside the pottery as we breakfasted:

Feb. 25
I'm mostly over the cold I had, able to get out and enjoy walking along the roads mostly, since the snow doesn't support my weight. There is a seasonal creek we enjoy visiting at this time of year, to hear the water sounds, and see when the splashing against cold sticks yields ice figures:

The stream is only a foot across, and frothy enough that even a fast camera setting doesn't freeze the action...
Feb.26 I recorded a few hymn tunes last evening...
Ash Grove
Hankey
In babilone
Italian Hymn
Morning Star
Jefferson
Today we went for a 3 hour hike up our local ridge, following deer trails. We went up one draw with the stream pictured above...

At the top of the ridge is a rock shelter type cave, which Butters was just coming out of as I took this picture of it with the icicles...

Under many trees near the top we found these impressions left by deer who sheltered there for the night (while it snowed an inch)

We saw this Pacific wren.

We wandered far enough west, almost to the ridge by Silver Beach, that we found another runoff spring, which we followed down until it went into the ground, probably to join our local Rathdrum/Spokane aquifer...

Febr. 28
We hiked a good portion of the Empire Trail this afternoon. Saw lots of deer near the parking lot, and on the drive home...

This is the view of the west end of the lake, with the heart shaped clear-cut and the outflow of Brickel Creek (on the right) carving a blue line into the ice on the lake.
I walked on the Mill Pond yesterday, and the ice is still in excellent condition there...

Butters decided this was his chair when we had it out on the porch. He doesn't eject cats if they get there first, but he usually manages to occupy it in the evenings...
Najdorf likes the backs of cushy chairs as much as the cushions...

Books read and other media of note

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I'd previously glanced at this series and decided the African names or honorifics like Mma and Rra were a bit much, but this time I got over that and am looking forward to reading more in the series... It slightly resembles the Tony Hillerman novels in adopting a native persona...

The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith. Set at the end of the war in Italy, a compelling story of intrigue and love but a bit too complex for my liking...

Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter. I'm not fond of steam-punk sci fi, but this one felt totally retro Jules Verne, and kept me wondering where it was going...

Paw Enforcement by Diane Kelly. The only romance author I read is Janet Evanovich, because she is also incredibly funny. But I picked this book off the library paperbacks shelf because it was about dogs and funny. It wasn't as funny as I'd hoped, and the romance was pretty subdued, so it seemed a pale reflection of Evanovich. But it read well...

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