All day yesterday till about an hr. after darkness set in, a beautiful barred owl took up temporary residence in a tree brach, appeared to be watching the 2 big bird feeders. Nope, not what you think, it was not after the birds or squirrels, as the squirrels were not around at that time, & the smaller birds continued to fly to & from the big red feeders w/o the owl making an attempt to grab one. We believe it was watching for the mice that hang around under the feeders, under the snow. Yes, mice do tunnell under the snow, have their own roadways, and will quite often come up to the surface.

Last wknd. through Mon.: we had several days of temps. in the single digits during the day then below zeroes, average -15, ea. night for 4 nights. Then the wind kicked up, switched to the north, which means the Snow Machine gets turned on High. We had several days of snow, light, fluffy, what a lot of people around here call "heiffer dust", anywhere from 6 - 12 inches ea. time. So far, we have 138 inches of snow since first snow in Nov. & we are in the middle of Jan. We still have to get through Feb, Mar, & April.Since the snow is so deep, the squirrels that come into the bird feeders use their "roadways" up in the trees to get to the bird feeders. They cannot travel on the ground, get lost & buried in the snow.

I finished a trade last night w Fohrenburger (Howard). It was supposed to be unusually cold last night & cool today where he lives, he had this in his location line: Location: Florida - North Pole Weather Again - Who Left Their Doors Open & he made sure to tell me this last night in the last pm, after I told him that it might reach single digits for a high this Sat. & Sun.: One more thing, PLEASE. SHUT YOUR WINDOWS/DOORS. Obtw, it is supposed to be in the 70's Friday and Saturday.

Yeah, Howard, just rub it in, rub it in...................