ANOTHER ARCTIC BLAST--

It took Mother Nature less than 24 hours to dump between 12 and 15 inches of snow on our part of Ohio Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. This view is looking west across my pond's dam toward the house in the background which sits about 1/10 of a mile off my township road. The shoveled area in the near foreground is so I can stop the truck and unlock the chain across the driveway without suffering snow-clad feet.

A bit later I felt like the avalanche patrol guy at the mountain ski resort while I stood on my upper deck and blasted huge clumps of snow out of the overhanging pine branches with my little .410 shotgun.

I don't think any of the neighbors noticed.

Then, while warming up with a peek at the frenzy of birds feeding, a Robin showed up.  I hoped he was learning something from his seed eating pals.  I has to be tough for him to find his favorite earthworm snack with a foot or more of snow on the ground.

Finally, I remembered to swish the snow off my satellite TV antenna with a straw broom.  Hope I didn't bump it enough that my programming now begins to arrive in Spanish.

Soon after these tasks were complete and I had punched out to the road with the truck--I was back on the computer intensifying my search for snow-bird digs in the sunny South.

On the other hand, how could I have this much fun without paying someone the price of an admission.

And so it goes....