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Good morning, friends!

I’m writing from the sunroom as I drink my morning coffee.  I’m watching the cats watching the five new finches I bought yesterday to FINALLY stock the aviary!  I was awoken at 6:00 AM by the strange sounds of both the cats AND Tucker attacking the beautiful piece of furniture.  I was expecting that from the cats, but not Tucker!  After some quick fortification of the aviary to ensure they couldn’t get the door open, I stumbled back upstairs and to bed for another four hours.)

I got three zebra finches and two Bengalese (aka society) finches.  In finches, it’s always good to have odd numbers (at least, that’s what I think I remember reading years ago).  Making it my last stop at the end of an exhausting trip and once I was out in the car yesterday, I transferred them from their five individual boxes into a small cage I’d brought with me to the “big city” of Duluth (where I’ve been the past two days), and they’re still in that, sitting in the bottom of the aviary, waiting for me to finish setting up the big unit and then release them.  It was a comedy in PetCo yesterday as two of them escaped while we were getting them from their cages into the boxes, but, between to PetCo employees and myself, we managed to catch them both.  So, there are no finches living in the rafters of PetCo today, as is an apparently fairly common situation.  :)

So, finishing the aviary set-up on my list today as well as wood work, snow plowing, and unloading the car . . . before going to friends’ house for dinner.  And, speaking of snow removal, this, indeed, seems to be turning into the year that Winter Never Ended.

It was snowing buckets when I left on Monday (not exactly the best weather to be driving 3+ hours), and I had to delay my noon start by two hours in order to plow (the 8+ inches of snow that had fallen) enough to get out.  I was somewhat apprehensive about what conditions I would discover last night upon returning to my Swamp River Ridge.

The loggers, who are working again about a mile down the winter driveway, had plowed in to their logging site, but I was greeting by a snowbank as their plow had curved off the road and into their site.  A snowmobile had broken through the snowbank and so, uttering an oath that rhymed with “Spit!” I aimed for that hole (although not as wide as the car) and punched the accelerator.  I made it up and over the pile of snow but landed in what was, in all practicality, now nothing more than a snowmobile trail.  The track I’d plowed out the day before wasn’t even noticeable anymore.  Propelled by nothing more than sheer determination (I did NOT want to have to walk home, fire up the truck, and then drive back to retrieve the birds, etc. after such a long, two day shopping trip), I kept the little Yaris moving over the snowmobile tracks.  Had I stopped, that would have been IT.  Amazingly enough, I made it all the way up the hill to the base of the driveway.  (I’m not sure how!)

While plowing on Monday and seeing that there was still that glare ice underneath the snow I shoved around, I’d wisely left a 5 gallon bucket of ashes at the bottom of the driveway, thinking I might need to use it coming home last night.  Without getting out to spread the dirty stuff, I made my first attempt up the driveway’s hill.  Nope.  Second attempt.  Nope.  Third attempt.  Nope.  Dammmit!  I did NOT want to get out of the packed car until I was in the yard!  Determined (and knowing I had the back-up of the ashes, which helped), I backed down and gave it a final, good ol’ college try.  Annnnnnd, spinning, spinning, but making inches of progress . . . AHHHHH!  We crested the hill!  “Yayyyyy!” I told the dogs, “We made it!” 

I’ll take pictures today, but, when I got out of the car, I could see we’d been draggin’ trow:  the new snow was at least 6” deep.  So, what’s that?  Upwards of 14” of new snow.  I had to shovel the deepest parts of the yard-to-the-house path so that I could transfer the bare essentials (birds) from the car into the house.  This winter’s been crazy:  snow, snow, and MORE SNOW!

So, with this limited post (but it’s all I have time for), I’ll sign off and suit up for a day of work . . . but rewarding work!  It was SO wonderful, as always, to arrive home last night.  Even though it means so much more work, I’ll take the pristine white of the deep, deep snow that’s still found once one turns north and off the dirtiness of late winter on Lake Superior’s North Shore!  Is it easy to get around in town now?  Yep, but it sure is DIRTY and ugly!  I wouldn’t trade my pure white surroundings for that ease ANY day of the week!  :)