On Friday morning when I finally got the shades up, I saw the juncos out under the feeders. There were a couple sparrows with them.
I was taking the photos through a window and a storm window, so forgive the quality.
I saw a goldfinch come to the feeder next.
I’d seen 2 cardinals in the shrubs with snow on them but had been unable to take a photo. So when this less flashy one appeared, I tried for him.
I liked the funny way he’d tilted his head in this one.
He had a very dark brownish back in his winter plumage.
After going to bed so late because of the ER visit, I didn’t wake up until 6:30, very late for me. When I looked out, there was about 2” of snow and still coming down.
I ended up having to go out to feed the cats late, as the neighbor hadn’t understood she was to do it. I swept the walkways and steps when I went out. In the meantime my helper friend didn’t show up, probably snowed in.
The carpenter arrived sometime after that and said his helper was sick and couldn’t plow. I tried to reach another helper to see if he could plow, but no answer.
The carpenter went up to start the truck and came back saying it would not start, had no gas to the carburetor. So I called the mechanic, but he was out plowing and couldn’t come look at it until Saturday.
So I called the company who does the neighbors’ and explained the situation and they sent someone out. He was so fast, that by the time I got dressed and outside, he’d left, only doing half the job, as I hadn’t been able to tell him what I needed done.
I get inside and sit down and I am told the carpenter has broken a tile. In the meantime I’ve answered the phone 20 times before noon, various people returning calls or calling to see how I am or offering help. I took up the offer of the help.
One of my cleaning helpers got the prescriptions ordered by the ER and then finished the walkways I hadn’t been able to do. She said she’d be back on Saturday with the other cleaning helper and one would clean up the floors from the tile work mess and the other would help me empty the trash shed and get the stuff to the dump, somehow.
After noontime the phone calls stopped and I lay down to watch a movie. Then Tom called and said he’d come out and look at the truck and see what he could do. Well, he got it started and did a lot of the plowing that needed done. He loves plowing in that truck! I called the mechanic and told him he didn’t need to come after all.
Tom came inside and by then my intern had arrived to check on me and I gave them a tutorial on lighting the masonry heater. Tom had lit it the night before and it had been warm enough that what he did carried us through the day. But I wanted them to learn what I’d learned since last winter, as the bricks in the firebox need to be protected from the kind of heat I was generating in the previous winter (no insulation/winterization).
Tom will come back on Saturday with the milk order and finish the plowing. Before that I hope to have the truck loaded for the dump and he will drive it over for me. I’m not good enough to drive with that huge plow on front.
In the end we got about 3½” of snow, not a lot, but enough that if it didn’t get plowed it would form permanent ruts for the rest of the winter as bitter cold is coming next week.
So it was a typical crazy Friday.