40 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-8-16”

  2. I am up. Have been since 4. I am sitting at Panera waiting to cross the road in 2 hours when we open the shoppe. The roads are horrid this morning..snow and ice with 6 more inches predicted by tonight….I am a bit tired of the ice but the snow is amazingly beautiful!

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  3. Good Morning, Y’all!
    Been away for a while…hope all is well with everyone.
    Remembering today to put aside all the daily grind worries and just be thankful for all the blessings that God has poured out on me and my family!

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  7. We got our second new bird of the week to our feeder tree! This morning we had a brown creeper. I didn’t see it on any of the feeders, but I saw it fly to the tree trunk from the direction of the feeders, so it is likely to have visited one, if they do eat from bird feeders. (I don’t know if they do. It’s a species I never saw till a year ago, although we have seen it at Turkey Run State Park each of the last two years.) It’s a lot like a nuthatch in some ways, but feeding head up instead of head down. But like a chickadee, it is tiny and fast and thus hard to photograph. And it has one of the best camouflages among birds.

    The pileated was much more exciting, but it’s pretty amazing to see two new species the same week. especially since it isn’t migration season. (The hairy woodpecker dropped by yesterday on one of his rare visits, so we have had all the woodpeckers this week, not counting the sapsucker since I don’t think it goes to feeders.)

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  8. Hope you have a relaxing get-away to dote on those grand babies, Kim. 🙂

    It’s Friday, this has been our first “full” work week since before Christmas when we enjoyed two short weeks in a row. We got spoiled, now we all expect to go home early on Thursday to a 3-day weekend. Funny how quickly you adapt …

    No rain today but we’ll get another system in on Saturday. Then we should get a break of a few days, I think the next rain is forecast for Wednesday.

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  9. Cheryl, it is all about global warming. We had a snowy owl here for several months about ten years ago. We never see them here.

    I also notice they follow the weeds. As the weeds move (seems they start somewhere, put out seeds, and then move with the wind, so the next year they are further along and the first ones have died down), so do the birds. We have noticed that with all sorts of species. Makes for a moving rainbow of birds. Pretty neat to see what God hath wrought.

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  10. Nancyjill, church friend who has a 2nd home in Wrightwood — our closest/quickest mountain “snow” getaway place here in L.A. — posted some beautiful photos yesterday of the freshly fallen snows blanketing everything. I can see it from a distance only, but it is gorgeous even from that “long” view. 🙂

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  11. Mumsee, snowy owls are well known for that, showing up in placed you’d least expect them. I’ve never seen one, except in a zoo.

    Donna, that was my experience growing up in Phoenix. Snow was something my parents pointed out on mountaintops in the distance. It’s even prettier up close, but I could happily live without it. Nashville had it about right in the years I lived there. My last winter it snowed several times, but before that we’d get one light snow per winter and be done with it. Every few years they’d get more. (The winter before I moved there, they had a memorable snowfall, maybe eight inches, and they talked about all the people who couldn’t get home from work that day or took four hours to get home. But I was there for eight winters and only the last one had a winter accumulation of more than an inch; all others were maybe a quarter to three-quarters of an inch for the winter total.)

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  12. Last time it actually snowed “down here” in the coastal flatlands was in 1949. In years since we’ve only had what’s called graupel (also called soft hail, snow pellets) which accumulates and looks *kinda* like snow. 🙂

    When snow levels in the mountains are low (like they are now), it doesn’t take long to reach it by car (60-90 minutes probably at this point, there’s even snow in our apple-picking hills which are relatively close, just east of downtown) — but I think most L.A. kids would love it if it actually snowed a couple times a year where they lived.

    As it is, schools get no “snow days” here — only bomb-threat days now and again. 🙄

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  13. At the time, “they” said it was a shortage of lemmings in the Arctic Circle. I suspect, just like here, as the predator population increases, the prey population decreases. So the predators die out and the prey increases. But climate change would definitely be a factor.

    This year, we watched all sorts of new birds following the weeds. That is one reason I am not too picky about the weeds on my property. One person’s weeds are another guy’s treasures. Of course, state law says I have to get rid of certain weeds. So I do work on it. But thistles are especially good for bringing in interesting things. Certain thistles are supposed to be eradicated so I do that, but I don’t mind the others. Besides, they are edible for us, too.

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  15. We don’t eradicate our weeds either, Mumsee, and lots more grow along the ditches and hedgerows around here. Second sibling-in-law has asked if he could keep bees at our place, as there are so many wildflowers around the area.

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  16. I don’t spray for weeds either. If I did I wouldn’t have a lawn. And the spring flowers around here include violets, dandelions and another small flower I can’t identify.

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  21. Still stuck in the Pensacola airport. My 9:15 am flight is now scheduled for 2:50 PM. The have fed us snacks. Now they brought in pizza and people I haven’t seen today are eating it. I don’t think the y have paid their dues but remember my comment about food yesterday.

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  22. Waited all day for the freezer repair man….He didn’t come. Sigh. I’m glad I have another freezer available to use! It’s not exactly convenient, but it could be much worse! At least with the freezer turned off the refrigerator has enough solar power to run properly. But I’m going to have him check that too. It’s not as cold as it should be. I’m thinking it may need Freon or whatever gas they use a coolant these days.

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  23. Roscuro, cool traffic camera shots!

    Mumsee, from what I understand (if I remember this correctly), lemmings have a five-year breeding cycle that no one quite understands, where every fifth year their numbers will be really high and their predators breed eagerly and try to eat them all, and the next year there aren’t nearly as many. But the cycles are regular and fairly predictable. On winters that the numbers are low, snowy owls can end up just about anywhere–as far south as Florida, I believe. They are spectacularly beautiful and very large, and I’d love to see one someday. But I have multiple species of raptors that occasionally show up in my backyard and I know where to go in late winter to see bald eagles, and I’m content.

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  25. Aji suun, we waited most of yesterday for the stove repair man, and he finally came after the “window.” Well, not the original window–I think they initially said eight to five. Then they narrowed it down to 2:00-3:30, and he came about 4:15. But he was able to fix the burner quickly–he had the spare part he needed–and we now have a working stove again. Well, most of it worked, but the right front burner got stuck in the “all the way on” position, and was red-hot at even the lowest setting, which isn’t exactly good.

    My husband went out this morning to buy a new teakettle, and when he came home he pushed the button on the handle to show me how it opened the spout. I was just about to say, “I wonder how long that will work” when he closed it and “boing” the cover broke off the spout. So we took it back, and tried three stores before we finally found a kettle that had an all-metal spout instead of the mix of plastic and metal in that first one.

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  26. Chas, except all of my neighbors are farmers who use pesticides and herbicides and that may not be so healthy for the bees. I am trying to develop a consistent three seasons of flowers before opening my bee hotel.

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  27. Cheryl, the snowy owl was pretty neat and I was surprised because we have Great Horned owls roosting in the same trees the snowy owl chose. And lots of raptors.

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  29. I had a baby in Baltimore.

    Husband made banana zucchini bread and I am using the leftover batter to make pancakes. Mmm mmm. Seems he also put chocolate chips in them.

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  31. Whew, just caught up on the last few days on here – lots going on.

    Donna, my dog is scared of every little sound or bump but could NOT care less about thunder – very strange for a dog.

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  32. Kim finally made it to Baltimore, according to FB 🙂

    I’m still researching washers/dryers.

    Hard day at work dealing with annoying, snippy sources and then a disturbing newsroom discussion in enthusiastic support of the “right to die.” But of course, who wouldn’t be on board with that?

    😦

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  34. Misten doesn’t like thunder, but especially when I was single and she slept in my bedroom, I’d simply shut her in my room at night if there was thunder, and the moment she jumped up to bark I’s make her lie down. Once I had done that three or four times, she’d remember it was harmless and even an especially loud clap wouldn’t get her going. After that, she’d be desensitized for weeks and would ignore it. But let three or four months pass between storms and I’d have to do it all over again. But I did like it that she was OK with it for a few storms at a time.

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  35. I have never noticed my dogs being scared by thunder. Haven’t noticed it in the horses or goats or chickens or turkeys or rabbits or children, either. And who knows anything about the quail eating cats.

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