The Backyard - Joe's Almanac: winter

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Ice Dams

The erratic freeze/melt cycles this past winter made ice dams worse than I've ever seen. Below are some entries and photos from one of my other blogs. And, not to worry, safety precautions were taken during the shooting of these photos. The ladder was leaning into and propped up by the clothesline pole and the wires you see were no where near as close as the photos make them look. My photographer (Dale, of course) kept a close eye on me.

"We’ve had SO much snow over the last 7 weeks and it’s been quite a number of years since we’ve had ice dams this bad. What you see in the above photos is despite doing a pretty good job of keeping the roof raked. I worked on another part of the roof yesterday and here I’m just getting started on a part of the roof right above the kitchen sink."

"Hard at work. In the first picture I’m holding the hatchet with my good hand. This is the hand I chopped with. Don’t worry, I didn’t chop with the hand with the broken wrist as the second picture would seem to suggest. I’m just hamming it up for Dale’s photo. The broken wrist doesn’t hurt when it’s in the splint and held steady. "

"Good work."

Photos from March 5, 2019

Odd Winter

Odd year weather-wise. January was more like March and March was more like January.

Once winter kicked in it was overcast more than usual and didn't want to release its grip. It lasted forever but eventually relented to a late, long, dark gloomy spring. I usually do okay with winter but this year really took its toll.

Once in a great while there was a bright, beautiful, sunny day. Above photo dated March 10, 2019. Odd winter but I have a feeling this may be the new normal.

The following was posted on 3-10-19 on one of my other blogs:

"We ended up with about 5 inches of wet, heavy snow overnight. Thanks to Dale for all the shoveling. I helped a little but only as much as was comfortable for my wrist. You’d think the months noted in the top to pictures should be reversed! Also, the flocked trees are even more beautiful than they look in the picture at the bottom."

Sunday, February 7, 2016

February 2016

"Winter lies too long in country towns, hangs on until it is shabby and old and sullen."

-Willa Cather

It can feel like that in the big city too. This year however has been so mild that it feels like winter is just getting started. There's a blizzard warning south of us and we're under a winter weather advisory so I suppose we'll get some of it.

Monday, January 19, 2015

January 19, 2015 - Drawing a Tree

It's MLK Day today so I'm home. I picked up a book this past weekend titled When Wanderers Cease to Roam by Vivian Swift. It chronicles the author's month by month stay-at-home journey and "shows how the memories of our past and the delights of our daily lives are always with us, to be savored and celebrated year-round."

One of the things the author recommends doing in January to develop a winter mind is to learn how to draw a tree. "Now is the best time to see what a tree REALLY looks like," she says. I tried it by making a free-hand based on a drawing of hers. I then photographed the drawing and colored it on the computer. I then ran it through some different filters. My effort is shown above.