Yeah, this has been the first cold snap of winter, and it’s welcome to leave. As little effort as the weather put into warming up yesterday and as quickly as it went below freezing last night, I knew this morning would be one for the special gear.
This is stuff I might not pull out five times in a winter…
The Mad Bomber hat…
The snowmobile gloves…
And the feels-like-you-taped-a-brick-to-your-foot Sorel boot.
The only one of these I actually bought was the hat, and even that was modeled on a hat Claire sent me years ago that I loved except it was too small. They came from neighbors at different times, and I bring them out annually with a certain amount of affection. Along with the lined pants which I don’t recall where I got those, and the reader-gifted Carhartt coat that gets used a lot more than five times per winter.
With all the snow that evaporated when the sun hit it yesterday I knew the frost would be really thick this morning so I parked the Jeep down the driveway where the early sun would hit the windshield and keep me from having to walk to Landlady’s to tend chickens, which had to happen pretty early because their water would be frozen. Brought a gallon of known-to-be-liquid water from the Lair: The water stored in the powershed was probably not frozen, but it’s a long cold trip and why be disappointed?
Then after tending chickens, stop by the watering station to tend the game camera, and break ice.
And that very incomplete little drama was all that was on the memory card. I’ve often wondered how much the camera misses – There’s no way to know, but I know it misses stuff. That should have shown the bundled-up geezer trying to break ice with a small stone, failing, going back for a big stone, and then hitting the ice five or six times. It missed most of that.
I used to think of excuses why I’d have to put my Sorel Caribou boots on….and keep ’em on. Folks would look at me funny when I’d come out of the mountains into the flat land wearing them. Most comfortable thing you could ever put on your feet. Keep up the fun posts, I check them out daily now.
Sorel Pac boots are wonderful for winter. I’ve had the same pair since 1996 and the only thing that I have had to change was the wool liners. I was sad to learn that Kaufman, who made the boots, went out of business around Y2K. The company that bought the rights, Columbia Sportswear, moved the manufacture of the boots to Vietnam.
You always show us the dramatic game that comes into camera range – how’s your traffic of smaller birds with that camera? Do they even make enough of a stir to get captured?
We’ve got an early shift around here (so I hear anyway…) that gets up in the AM during the cold times and breaks the ice in various spots for the birds. On the colder mornings they even bring out a hummingbird feeder kept inside for the eve – don’t want our holdouts to suffer!
The small birds seem to really appreciate that morning drink and fluff – probably like I enjoy coffee and a cigarette. It gets pretty noisy here when they all show up shortly after sunrise – almost enough to wake a person.
I remember one winter several years ago here that Bluebirds stayed around the property and showed up for water all at the same time in the morning. For watching birds – it was pretty dramatic. Haven’t seen Bluebirds around here since that one time…
Just wondering if your camera was picking up creatures at that scale. Is that dictated by how close they are to the camera?
I think the trough might be a little far from the camera to pick up small birds, since logically they must be more common there than the pictures suggest. Never anything smaller than a jay, and those not often. Flickers in season, ravens quite often, sparrows virtually never.