Just A Little Off The Top

By now the storm is old news but this is the first day that we have full internet service.  Our feelings of isolation were quite severe.  Our nearest road is nearly one quarter mile away with our snow removal machines rendered useless by the depth of the snow.  The old reliable snow pusher cleared a path from the kitchen door to the generator.  Its air intakes and exhaust were at the top of the must do list.  Next a narrow path was opened down each side of the car.  Finally Ben and his mighty truck arrived.  It took him some time but soon enough we could reach the road.

Similar narrow paths freed the truck.  Peering through a small area of cleared windshield, I  put the truck in 4 wheel drive and blasted free from the deep snow between the truck and the plowed ground.  While I continued to plow, Becky cleared off the truck hood.  The hand snow pusher rather easily cleared the roof of the truck.  Our garden tractor converted to snow plow has no space in the shed.  It was no small task to change that huge round white lump into a useable plow.

 

With open ground cleared by the plow truck, my snow blower was able to open more ground near the car.  A major concern here is where do we put the snow following the next storm so the cleared area is rather large.  We did not see any of our deer until yesterday when four appeared in the front lawn.  They pushed along in belly deep snow making slow progress.  Then one of this year's fawns decided it was time to use a series of jumps to more quickly move to the apple trees.  The rest quickly followed but food was hard to find.  On the other side of the house we always clear an unnecessarily large patch of lawn.  Prior to yesterday's dusting of new snow, a sizeable group of slate gray juncos eagerly fed on the cleared ground.  Later in the day this deer found relatively easy access to grass.  This morning deer could be seen in the darkness before sunrise right outside the kitchen window.  Our feelings of isolation are gone.

Mud Bubbles

Last night the sky was clear, the moon was bright and a heavy frost covered everything.  Morning's bright sun pulled Amy and Becky outside for a walk about.  They found themselves down by the road.  Our driveway there catches moisture from both directions.  Rain water washes down the driveway picking up and carrying the clay fines that are intended to cement the surface in place.  These fines are  trapped between the road and the higher driveway creating a muddy mess when wet.

There is a thin layer of water covering this ground  and sharp eyed Becky spotted tiny bubbles.  I have never seen anything like this and considerable time was spent peering into the mud and exploding bubbles with finger tips.  This type of activity may explain why few people make the trip up our hill.  Just how crazy we are is an obvious but unanswered question.

This close up is intended to show a bubble coated with fine clay.  If you click on a picture it will be enlarged. 

A careful look will reveal floating fines that coated a now popped bubble.  We watched in wonder as the breeze moved these masses about without breaking them up.  It reminded us that wet clay sticks to both shoes and shovels as well as itself.  The pink color is the reflection of Amy's "I am not a deer" hat on the surface of the shallow water.

This photo shows both a cluster of bubbles and the reflected color of Amy's hat.

 This magic soon disappeared as the sun warmed everything and the breeze stiffened at times.  In my seventy-six years of tramping about outside, I have never before seen anything like these mud bubbles.  Had I been here alone, I would have never seen them.  Becky has always had an eye for seeing the unusual even if it is small and easily overlooked.