Friday, February 21, 2014

A Tip for the Unusually Cold Southerners

We're setting record cold temperatures this winter all over the United States.
I don't know if any folks from the south read this blog but I thought they might need some tips from us northerners on how to keep warm when the air around you isn't.  It must be so hard for people who shiver when it's forty degrees to navigate in snow and ice and to take the chill out of the bones after being outside in 20 degree weather.  I know that they will instinctively pile on the clothing and stay near anything that is giving off heat but here's one little tip that really helps keep the heat in the body.  Sure, it would be nice to keep the temperature set at eighty or more but most of us folks couldn't afford the fuel or electricity costs.  So, here's my tip:  tuck your pants into your socks.  Yep, simple as that.  It makes you look like George Washington but it really works.  Instead of cool air around your ankles, you're nice and snug from hip to toe.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

It's Still Snowing!!!

I'm finally signing in again and the cold white stuff is still falling outside.  My meandering path is mostly impassable now so I've faced our treadmill looking out the window so that I can still get some walking exercise while pondering nature.  I use the time on the treadmill to say a lot of prayers but as I pray my meandering mind moves rapidly to other thoughts.  I see the lake from the window.  The lake is frozen solid to a depth of about 26 inches and the blanket of snow is at least that too.  But seeing the lake isn't that easy from our windows because the neighbor's lakefront is full of brush and small saplings.  But, the good thing is, he said we could take out whatever we wanted to.  I love to do this type of work and today I trudged down the hill with our purple sled and logging tools and continued on my quest to make a nice clear view.  Whenever I finish  and come back up the hill to see how it looks, I find some more and know there will be more workdays ahead.  The pictures show the tools, and some of the work.  Everything looks black and white these days - that's why spring and its vibrant greens are so welcome when the season arrives.