[exercise]

I think this February has been the best snow month that I can remember. Not counting loss from snow melting, I'd say that cumulatively we've had at least three feet of snow this month. I am still a little disappointed though. I haven't had the time or energy to get out into it enough to satisfy my love of the white fluffy stuff. Even though we've got some more snow on the way this winter, I'd say that it's time to start getting ready for the rest of the year.

Now that I'm working in Ashland this year, it seems a little more likely that I may be able to ride my bike to work. It's pretty much exactly 8 miles. The distance is doable, its just the hills that may kill me at first. So even though I am enjoying looking at the snow, and look forward to playing in it, I am also looking forward to this spring and being able to get outside and ride the bike, hike, and garden.

I'm also thinking about adding more pictures and videos to the blog. Right now there's probably a lot that I could be adding, but it doesn't seem like it to me. Hopefully once the weather clears out a bit I can start adding more elaborate elements to this site.

[vacation]

This vacation is wearing me out! Tuesday we spent the day in Orlando at Universal Studios. It was a pretty good day of seeing the sights and going on the rides. The only real disappointment for me was that the ride "Disaster" was out of commission. Wednesday we went down to Homasossa Springs and visited Caseys Manatees. That was a pretty good day. Then Today we pretty much laid low and visited the sights around where we were staying. We bought a lot of citrus like Grapefruits, specialized oranges. It's amazing how many orange trees are in Florida!

[winter flying]

Wouldn't you know it, it's snowing again. Ohio seems jealous that we are trying to leave and visit Florida. We haven't had any snow of any significance in the last week or so, but now that we are trying to leave we've got to contend with a snow storm. Since noon it has dropped about an inch or two of snow, effectively closing down the runways until they could brine, or salt them. I don't know how long they were closed, but they just announced that they are starting to land and takeoff more planes. It's the wet and clumpy sort of snow that binds together to make large clumpy flakes as the snow is falling, so it's not really that bad, it is just accumulating more than a really dry snow.

I've never flown during the winter before, at least not when the snow is falling and piling up rapidly. I have to say that it makes me nervous. I do have faith in the flight institution though. Weather simply makes things a little less predictable, and I would imagine a little more difficult to manage.

Well, that's all for now.

[jeep cherokee]

This winter I am especially thankful for having a 4x4 vehicle. This morning for example I had to power through a quarter mile of snow drifts before even getting to the street. It's definately worth having Even if it doesn't get more than 20mpg.

[summer work]

Looks like I'll be joining the ranks of the Camp Mowana Staff this summer! I'm pretty excited to "be back at camp" if you will. I mean, I live here and typically am around during the summer and intermittently throughout the year. However, the last couple of years have been pretty interesting because I am here, but not a real part of what is happening.

I've got some plans for things that I'd like to accomplish, but you never know what will come up at camp. For one, I'd like to do some serious work on the trails that are used routinely. Trails that over the last few years especially have been seeing some major erosion. I'd also like to continue working on the progress that has been made with some of the camps buildings to rejuvenate them. Of course theres all that lawnmowing, weedwacking, woodsplitting, and fixing stuff that breaks randomly. At the least I'll hopefully have some good posts to put up here.

[Mowana]

Today was a pretty full day at camp. I woke up bright and early in anticipation of having to dig out from the major storm that went through. I was right, and quite happy with the amount of snow that we got. Why in the world you ask? Well I'll tell you. I GOT TO PLAY IN IT! Yes, I'm a child at heart, with big boy toys. The 4x4 Cherokee that I have was useful, I got to use the Snowshoes I got last Christmas, and i got some excercise shoveling snow. I won't bore you with all the details of the day, but it took quite a bit of energy to dig out, deliver food to the Retreat Center, and do all the things that needed to be done to make sure that our guests had a good stay. There is an issue with the water at the Retreat Center, so I also got the opportunity to keep going into the utility room and push the series of reset buttons that kept the water running to do dishes and flush toilets. I also took a group on a hike out to the barn so that they could see the new building and animals.

It's only 10 pm right now but I'm exhausted. Theres also the potential for another foot of snow tonight from what our radio weather forecaster said. So I may get to do it all over again tomorrow! Doesn't that sound FUN? Did I mention that after a day of being cold outside for a good part of the day I also get to be cold INside at work tomorrow? RadioShack, please, Please, PLEASE be warm tomorrow!

[spectacular snow]

The snow is certainly falling...

Just before noon when I was on my way to work I drove past a ODOT salt truck sitting in a vacant parking lot waiting for the goahead to start salting the rural route 42. I haven't left work since the snow has started, but we've probably got about an inch or two once it started to stick. I'm definately planning on some major snow tomorrow. I definately like snow more than rain. I think it stems from the fact that rain makes mud, and when the dogs go outside they get all muddy. In the winter everything is frozen and the dogs just track in a little bit of ice and snow that melts and evaporates pretty quickly. It's also neat to see how many animals are in the neighborhood.

[summer garden]

Today it occurred to me that it's time to start thinking about next years garden. Last year we were able to eat a few things out of our garden, but I'll admit that I was a little disappointed with the results. We had salads for a few weeks during the spring, then they started to bolt. We were also able to get a few tomatoes, but that crop got hit by a blight. I had at least five or six varieties, but I only ended up getting a few tomatoes from each plant. My corn was pretty puny, and the raccoons ended up getting into it so I only got a couple ears. My prize pumpkin ended up getting shared with the deer. The only thing I ended up getting any quantity of was the spaghetti squash. Last year we also picked up two small blueberry bushes. They still excite me. This year I am hoping that they will provide us with a little more than a handfull of berries, but I think it takes a couple years for them to become established.

So what am I going to try this year? I'm thinking...
-tomatoes -peppers - winter squash - sunflowers for Casey - lettuce - another blueberry bush or two - cucumbers - beans - melons - carrots - potatoes - flowers - garlic -

I guess from my writing above it sounds like the garden was a failure, but I am looking at last year as conditioning the ground for the garden this year. it was kind of an experimental year to find out what I have to contend with. I am pretty sure that Virgil had a garden there, albeit quite a few years ago. Hopefully now that I have broken the ground and gotten rid of most of the weeds and grass that I had to contend with last year I'll be able to do a little better job at my weeding. I am also Hopeful that the ground this year will be a little less compacted too, so that the roots can get down a little further into the earth for that good ol' nutrition and water.

[low-cost multipurpose minibuilding made with earthbags]

Low-cost Multipurpose Minibuilding Made with Earthbags

The article above is a pretty cool and interesting way of using economic materials that would be otherwise thrown away. It also reminds me of Bilbo Baggins house. It would be the kind of building that I would consider for a garden shed. Even better yet would be a micro-retreat space.

[animal house]

It seems that all of the animals in the neighborhood want to live in our house. Of course being in the country and living in such an old house I would expect to have the occasional mouse infestation. But that isn't even the beginning

Let me start counting what I know has lived in our house... We had a Raccoon family living in the attic above our Kitchen. In 2008 when I started living in the house part time and before any of the remodeling was done I heard banging in the kitchen. there was what appeared to be a growing stain in the corner over the cabinets. I peeled away the paper to see how bad the damage was and guess what, there was already a small hole there behind the paper. only a few days after removing the paper I realized that the hole was quickly getting larger. One night I heard some general banging above the kitchen and walked in just to see a small black hand remove itself from the hole in my ceiling. I don't mind raccoons, but I don't want them living in my attic. That's just no good. I sealed the hole temporarily with the cover of a mildewed encyclopedia that was still left in the house. Later that spring some men from St. Johns Builders came up and did a lot of work on the house including installing a new ceiling in the kitchen since the plaster lathe was so bowed. That summer the gutters on the house were also replaced and those workers graciously blocked the vent that the raccoons had used to enter that attic over the kitchen.

Next, I noticed that we had groundhogs living under the crawl space under the dining room (formerly our living room) Nate dispatched of a couple groundhogs that summer as well. I still have the hole to fill in the foundation, but I haven't noticed any more activity recently.

Last winter we had mice running around our house and they got into our lazy susan pantry, so that needed to be cleaned and sanitized. I used GoodStuff and steel wool to block any cracks and crevices that they may have used, and we haven't had any more problems since that.

About 2-3 months ago when my Jeep was out of commission mice entered and chewed on the crumbs that were on the floor, ate a shirt I had left in there and left lots of black rice everywhere. I set a living trap for them and caught a chipmunk instead. Unfortunately the chipmunk was too strong for that trap and partially was able to remove himself but then got stuck. I thought that he was dead but after I removed him, he started breathing again, and I let him loose next to a pine tree. Later when I checked on him before the dogs got let out, he was gone. I haven't used that live trap in the garage again because I'm afraid of that happening again, so we still have mice in our garage.

Two nights ago I heard some scratching in our walls and investigated to find mice in our crawl space under our kitchen and porch. I used the live trap in the crawl space and successfully caught and released three cute little brown and white field mice. I let them go next to Larry's garage (jk, jk) I let them go in the back corner of the camps property, at least a half mile from any building.

Lastly, the whole reason for me writing all this.... we have a Cardinal that insists that he fly into all the windows on both floors of our house. He REALLY REALLY likes the kitchen window though. I've decided that it must be because Virgil had a feeder that actually attached to that window, and was a concave shape that actually allowed the birds to sit inside the house and eat their food while you watched. I have installed a hanging feeder in another location, but he doesn't seem interested in it at all. *chirp* BANG *chirp* BANG *chirp* BANG *chirp* BANG