Monday, October 12, 2009

Stocked for winter






Awhile back I took some photos of the wood bin when it was empty. As you can tell in the updated photos, I am stocked big time for the coming cold temps and white stuff that will bombard this area non-stop until after Christmas. Then in January will be the coldest time of the winter season and this follows the snow month in March. The wood bin, now full, will have to be replenished at least one more time before January, but it depends on how the weather is. If it's a warm winter, I will burn less, and if it's cold...yeah I will be like a steam engine chugging out smoke like mad. The thing is, each year the weather is different. Each year is a guessing game and so this makes it difficult to even say for sure how many times I'll be heading to the woodpiles for more fuel.

Autumn peak is here






It is that time of year, when the leaves come out and leave a mess on the ground. I couldn't believe how many leaves were on the ground yesterday 10/11/09. In some places it was ankle deep and it took almost a good 11 hours to clean up. As you can tell from the photos, there are a number of piles seen in the background. The parents do everything the hard way and as one can imagine, that means everything takes longer than initially planned. I tend to be more simple in my approach, where as they tend to be more complicated and you know they and I never see eye to eye on things due to our different dispositions. Anyways, you can tell by the photos how fast climate can change in just a days time. Yesterday it was beautiful, sunny and today it is completely yucky. Though yesterday was a major pain in the you know what, it was well worth it in preparation for the snow today. Where my parents are, they are in a group of trees that have brilliant yellow leaves which are almost all white oak with a little mixture of basswood, elm, and maple.

Snowing in October?






Egads, just what I don't want to see this early in the Autumn season...snow! Wisconsin is expected to see 1-3 inches of the white stuff by Tuesday morning. I guess this is a just a warning of what is to come at the end of November which is usually our start to winter. The last time it snowed in October was October 17th 1909 and most of the state had 2-4 inches. Good thing that tomorrow it will melt, though snow showers are expected throughout the week. As you can tell by the photos, it's pretty heavy to cover the ground. I'm certainly happy that I wont be driving in this stuff as I am sure idiots will forget how to drive and be sliding all over the place. I dislike staying indoors as with this white crap, I have no choice. It's a good thing I helped the parents rake leaves yesterday...more on that shortly.