Brad Sondahl's blog

Brad's Blog

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January 7th
I put together a program on hobos and railroad songs and stories. It's a departure from my usual as it details some of the freight hopping I did in the 1970's and is almost more talk than music.

Jan. 8th
Here are the photos and videos I took from last weekend's music showcase...

Jan. 15th
We got 2 feet of snow, then cold set in, but more moderate than the predicted -5 of a few days ago--it was 14 degrees this morning...

With the cold came the first clear weather we've had in about a month... Here's the Mill Pond view from the bridge. Before the storms brought the two feet of snow, there was only a thin skin of ice on the Mill Pond, and basically no ice on the main lake. That changed to totally iced, but the ice is thin and there are signs of deer breaking through as they've tried to use their winter migration route into town... Even Butters tried the ice and fell through, fortunately only about 6 feet from shore...

This is the view from the public access today... Right above the snow capped pillar that holds the dock in place is a dark dot that puzzled us yesterday, such that we brought binoculars today. Yesterday it was half as large, and I wondered if it could be the tip of a deer's head that had fallen through the ice and drowned. It turned out to be a midden pile of a muskrat, who took advantage of a hole made by a broken-through deer to have access to the water plants that are its diet...
Here's a photo from some past winter of a muskrat with its midden:

The pottery is open but as expected, business is slow... The cold has caused a couple drains to freeze up, which I should attend to...Jan. 17

Jan. 17th
Drains back in order, hoping no more really cold weather for a while...
We hiked to the overhang cliff which fosters an icicle curtain today. It's a lot of effort, since there's two feet of snow untracked by any but a few deer... But worth the effort:

Jan. 25
The icicles are mostly gone, with an extended period of rain and temperatures from 30-40. Today was the winter fun fest in Spirit Lake, which in recent years has often been a bit sloppy with the weather. It rained enough today that there were no competitors, and the snow hill the city built in the middle of Maine Street was just used by a half dozen kids with plastic sleds...
Meanwhile we participated in the local library spelling bee. This year there were three adults, and the moderator's mother won first. I took third. Penitentiary.... I threw an E in after the first N....

Jan. 31
I heard the first mating calls of the chickadee today, which reminded me of Birdsong, which is a MIDI composition I did inspired by that call. I decided to make a better quality remake of the original, posted now on Youtube...

books read

Murder with Puffins by Donna Andrews. A locked down island mystery, with every famous movie reference that previously did not have puffins in it now featuring puffins.
Angel Eyes by Ace Atkin. Great authors never die--their publishers find talent to continue their style. This Robert Parker knock-off is a comfortable Spenser novel. I liked the nods to Robert Crais, who has also done well with the Robert Parker style...
Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie. This was a reread from high school, but boy, what a life!
Revenge of the Pink Flamingos by Donna Andrews. Her stories become more readable as they progress in the series... It's easy for a craftsperson to identify with the craft fair experience as depicted in the book, although the closest I came to a period fair was assisting at a renaissance fair while apprenticing...
The Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour. Like I have half-heartedly done with this blog, Louis cataloged all his reading, which was immense, and led, with his success in writing, to a huge personal library. He recounted the role of books in getting him through being a hobo, mine claim operator, seaman, and more.