THIS ISN'T MINNESOTA

Happy New Year!  This is not the way I was expecting to finish 2014 and to start 2015.  The following pictures show our not so nice weather today.  At least we don't have to get out in it.  We are suppose to go out to dinner with friends tonight, that may get postponed.  Anyway, hope everyone has a nice 2015!

Our bird feeder already has snow build up on the roof.  The Palm trees are blowing in the wind and snow.  The birds are glad to have an easy place to eat this morning.

Snow building up on the ground already.  Probably won't be enough to shovel.

Neighbors orange tree in the snow storm.  Really a contrast to have an orange tree with oranges turning white with snow.

Patrick

Christmas day trip

We took a short trip to the Blue Water casino near Parker, AZ today.  It was a nice sunny day for a drive.  The following pictures are of the first Hummingbird on our feeder and some scenery shots of the trip to Parker.

He/she is getting ready to eat here.  Not sure what the color on the side of the head is.

He/she is chowing down now.  I sure we will see a lot more of the birds now.

This is a shot of the Parker dam from the down river side.  This is the dam that makes the Colorado river into Lake Havasu.

This is the river as it flows on south below the dam.

Just a scenic shot along the road.

 Another scenic shot that also shows some of Lake Havasu just above the dam.  The bridge you can see in the center of the picture is where we eventually get to as we are going home.

A shot of the lake above the Parker dam.   The lake was made by filling up the canyons
with the Colorado river.

Patrick

Trip to AZ

We left last Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. on our way to Lake Havasu City, AZ.  We made excellent time and arrived here at 3:00 p.m. Sunday.  Only had to spend two nights on the road.  Total mileage was 1759 miles.  By the way, we got 18.3 average mpg for the whole trip.  I thought that was very good for the Yukon XL with the size of the load we had in the back, see picture.   The following pictures were taken just before we left and along the way on the trip.

This is a picture from the rear of the vehicle showing how full it was.  Under all that stuff was two sets of golf clubs, two large suit cases, a large tote container that probably weighed over 50 pounds and a lot of other "stuff".

This is a picture from inside the vehicle showing the load in the back.  I could still see out the rear window to check on traffic.

This is a picture in New Mexico showing the wide open country we traveled through.

The road builders had a lot of work to do to get the road through this area.  I would imagine there was a lot of blasting to do the job.

This was the first we saw of the mountains in Arizona with the snow on the top.  You might also notice all the trucks ahead of us.  I-40 is a very heavily traveled road by trucks.

This is another closer shot of the snow capped mountain.

This is a shot of the wide open country west of Flagstaff, AZ

More of the wide open countryside.

Some cliffs along the way.

Our first view of Lake Havasu as we arrive in town.  To bad it wasn't a sunny day.  It was warm.

It was a tiring trip, but we are all settled in and ready for a nice winter.  Hope you have one to.  Happy New Year and the best to all for next year!

Patrick

Happy Birthday, Charles

Today is my oldest brother's 84th birthday.  Since it's too hard for him to leave his house, my sister, Joanne and I made the food and brought it to his house.  His son, Steve, stopped by to join us too. 

 Charles and son, Steve.

 Joanne and Jim (sister and brother-in-law)

 Two Pats

Charles seemed very happy that we remembered him too!  

Lost Dove

The last several days there has been a Mourning Dove visiting our bird feeders.  We see them a lot during the summer, but normally they are long gone south by now.  I think this one is either lost or just not very smart.

This is the dove mentioned above.  She/he looks healthy, just not smart enough to go south.

 This is the new feeder set up I just installed yesterday.  The feeder on the right is a new one I just finished.  It is made out of redwood that I got from one of the railings around our deck.  The deck is being replaced next spring, so the railing won't be missed.  The other feeder is the first one we ever put out and was made by my father.  I just finished refurbishing it with new windows.  On the ground you can see the Dove shown above and a couple Juncos.

Patrick

THE FANGS OF WINTER

We have two skylights in our roof and both of them are above large holes built into the ceiling to allow the light to come in.  These holes are perfect for hot air to rise into and then melt the snow and ice off the skylights.  After this last storm, there was considerable snow covering both skylights and it has been melting since.  This water runs down the roof and then forms icicles as it drips off the gutters.  One skylight is above the kitchen and the other above the loft and it drains down to drip off outside the bedroom sliding glass doors that go out to the deck and stairway to the Gazebo.  The following pictures are of the "Fangs" (icicles) that have formed since the storm was over and the snow drifts on the deck and stairway area that goes to the Gazebo.

These are the "fangs" outside the kitchen window.  They don't seem to bother the birds coming to the feeders.

These are the "fangs" outside the bedroom sliding glass door.

This is the snow drift on the deck outside the bedroom sliding glass door.

This is the same snow drift shown above from a different angle.

This is the stairway down to the Gazebo.  Won't be anymore trips down there this year.

That's the show.

Patrick

SNOW!!!

We had a snow storm today and so far have gotten around a foot of snow.  It continues to snow now at 3:15 P.M., but not as heavy as it was earlier.  From looking at the weather radar and the forecast, we will probably get a few more inches.  The following pictures show what we have been watching most of the day.  The birds have been very busy on the feeders.  They are a lot of entertainment.  Sure is nice that we don't have to get out and I am not sure we could anyway.  I just saw the neighbors leave on a 4 wheeler.  I think she had to go to work and that was the best way to get her there.  Enjoy the pictures.

This is a picture of our bird feeder tree before all this snow started.  It was taken yesterday.

This is what the bird feeder tree looks like about half way through the storm.

This is a picture of our grill taken around 10:00 this morning.

This is a picture of the same grill as above taken at 2:30 this afternoon and it is still snowing.  No grilling for awhile.

This is a picture of our driveway taken around 10:30 this morning.

This is a picture of the back yard taken around 10:30 this morning.

This is a picture of one of the pesky squirrels that come visit out bird feeders.  The snow was just about over his head.  I sent him home with a sore spot on his butt.

This is a picture of a female Cardinal sliding down the roof of one of the bird feeders.  Pat took this picture this morning.

This is a picture of one of our bird feeders that hangs from the deck outside the sliding glass door from the kitchen.  There have been birds on it almost all the time today.

This is a picture of a male Cardinal that was on the feeder outside the picture window in the kitchen.  The snow is from snow sticking on the window and some is also from the falling snow.  This feeder has sunflower seeds in it which the Cardinals really like.

This is a picture of a female Cardinal sitting in the Cedar tree right outside the picture window in our kitchen.  There are at least 3 pairs of Cardinals that have been using the feeders today. 

That's the show. Hope you enjoyed it.

Patrick

End of Another Boating Season

Yesterday we pulled the pontoon out and took it to storage.  Summer sure did seem to go fast, but I guess missing most of June because of the high water made it a lot shorter.  We had several good boat rides and will look forward to next year.  The picture below is from my file of pontoon pictures and was taken a couple years back just before we took the pontoon to storage for the winter.  That is our red truck we had before the current red Yukon XL.

Patrick

Bird Feeding Station Updated

We have a bird feeding station right outside our kitchen window that provides a lot of entertainment while we watch the birds.  There are all kinds, colors and sizes of birds that show up.  A couple of the feeders were starting to get to be in pretty bad shape. So, I replaced two of them with new feeders and refurbished the other two.  Also painted the Squirrel guard and the pole that holds all the feeders.  The following three pictures show the before conditions and the after results.

This is the closest picture I could find of before I made the changes.  The house with the blue roof in the back was one that was replaced.  Also raised the mounting pipe that feeder was sitting on so that the replacement would show up better.  The three feeders in the front row are still there with some changes.

 This is the feeder station after all the changes.  The small blue feeder in the back is by far the oldest.  It was built by my father back in the late 70's.  It was made of good solid wood and has stood up to the weather very well.  I did have to put a new roof on it and of course repaint it again for probably the 5th or 6th time.  The feeder on the left is the Smith feeder and is a brand new one.  It has been on the pole for about two weeks now.  It was built for our friends the Smiths and was suppose to go to Arizona this winter.  Plans changed, so it got a spot here to feed the birds.  The feeder in the center is the "green" feeder and is a couple years old.  It also got a new roof and a paint job.  The feeder on the right is the newest one and was made from a cedar deck board.  We will get to see how it stands up and changes color over time.  We are considering a new cedar deck for next summer to replace our old one.  The suet feeder in the front is the same and draws a lot of Woodpeckers as well as other types of birds.

 

This is just a closer shot of the feeders.

Patrick

Mississippi Headwaters

Today we took a day trip to Itasca State Park and the Headwaters of the Mississippi River.  It was a beautiful day for the trip and we saw a lot of new country.  The following pictures will show some of the trip and the headwaters area.

Here is the info on how the headwaters were found.

We are getting close now.  Pat is holding her sucker.  You will see mine in the next picture.

We are at the headwaters area.  That's a sucker in my mouth.  It was very good.

These are the rocks you can walk on to cross the river.  This is the headwaters of the river.

 The rocks looked to slippery, so I decided to wade across.  The water was not cold at all and only knee deep.  The gravel and sand on the bottom was a little hard on the bare feet.

Stopped for a rest in the middle.

Made it to the other side.

On the way back now.

And that was the visit to the Mississippi headwaters.

Patrick