Yep!

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Let a smile be your umbrella! Enjoy!

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Global Warming ain’t what it used to be

From Watts Up With That? we learn that Lake Superior is freezing over. Something it historically does every 20 years or so, to be sure, but the last time it froze over was 2003 so that makes it a tad unusual for it to have done so again so soon.

Checking the satellite data it seems that every one of the Great Lakes is pretty much frozen over except Lake Ontario.

The Aerie is at the tail end of the lake effect snow from Lake Erie. The Lake, having been frozen for some time now has failed to supply the moisture for the usual lake effect snows. That coupled with short but intense warming spells mixed with rain from the south has caused virtually all the snow cover around here to disappear.

The Bolt Hole is an entirely different story! It is located down wind of Lake Ontario (the one that didn't freeze) and, therefore, has had an abundance of snow this year. Mark tells be there's still three feet of snow on the ground in the fields and maybe four in the woods. When there's been a warm spell or rain, it has served only to pack the stuff down into a denser, icier mass that is even more resistant to melting.

Odds and ends

Not much happening the last two days. I ran my errands and got my supplies yesterday so I could finish the woodworking project this morning.

I spent some of yesterday doing some maintenance on the power tools. The disc sander is a little wobbly. (I could not manage to get the darn thing off to check the set screw sitting properly. I'll have to try again.) And the table saw had a problem with one of the belt guides. The allen screw that holds it tightly to the shaft had come lose so it sqweeled like a banshee on start-up. That's been fixed and the motor got a few drops of 3-in-1 oil to keep it running smoothly. The rest of Thursday afternoon and evening was spent reading more Terry Prachet. (I finished Monstrous Regiment--again and am now reading Going Postal. I've come across a couple of excellent quotes in the latter that I want to share in a future post. And I'm only up to page 50!)

This morning I took the square out of the clamps and applied two coats of spray verathane. Man, doe tat make the contrasting colors of the oak and walnut stand out! Then ran over to Wellsboro to return one of Terry's library books. Back at the Aerie I spent much of the afternoon scanning more slides of days of yore. I first started taking slides in 1970. and have scanned about 1/10 of all I've got so far. Call it 650 slides completed, another oh, about 5500 to go. I could be doing this for a looooong time. At least I am finding I have, indeed, some pictures of people. And they are (mostly) labeled as to who they are.

Yesterday (Thursday) morning it was all of 24°F at 7 AM it later rose to over 50°F. This morning it dropped only to 34°F at 3 AM and rose steadily until it got to 60°F at 3 PM. Despite a forecast calling for scattered showers and intermittent rain (over half an inch according to AccuHunch), we got no rain at the Aerie and had several hours of bright sunshine that helped boost the temperature this afternoon.

I'm going to be positive and say Spring is definiely right around the corner! I think I even heard some bird song that was territorial as opposed to simple chatter. Any day now I expect to hear the song of an American Robin. Any day now....any day...a..n..y..d..a..y.....

Terry called this afternoon to say she made it to her friends home at the south end of Cheasapeake Bay in Virginia. They're about half way from Sumter, SC to the Aerie. She'll spend the next two days there talking stitching and stuff before getting back on the road to head home.

Tommorow is the start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Anchorage. The race can be as short as 10 days or as long as forever. The trail has lots of snow this year (maybe too much in some locales) so it could be interesting to follow.

With major league baseball several weeks away yet and the Rutgers men's basketball team a dismal 1-16 in the Big East and out of it, and the women's team having dropped out of the Top 25 completely with a very mediocre showing, the Iditarod might be the only show in town that holds any interest for me. (Forget pro basketball and/or hockey, they are not my cup of tea. Although hockey can get my attention if there's real skating/scoring/solid goal work. I don't think much of the fights.)

More Birdy Pics

White-breasted Nuthatches look very dapper. They are always on the move, however. They pick up a seed and flit away to the trees to indulge. Their movement as they go down the side of a tree resembles a climber repelling down a rocky cliff: a short, jerky, controlled fall. The only time I've seen them stationary for any length of time is when the Blue Jays give a warning squawk. Every other bird beats it for the woods, but the Nuthatch (usually hanging upside down on the side of a tree) will freeze.

"So many to choose from."

Woodworking 103 (4)

I'm nearly done with the wall hanging piece I began two weeks ago. I think it's come along real well, but, as the person putting it all together, I know there are flaws. So many little pieces to cut at an angle and so many edges that needed to be glued...being off by even 1/32 of an inch or a degree of angle can lead to a multiplying of the error on a piece that measures 21 inches on a side.



The wider pieces of walnut that separate the central star from the triangles and corner squares had to be individually cut and sanded to fit. The band saw and bench disk/belt sander really came in handy for that even if the sanding produced a great deal of fine dust.

The only things left to do: apply a final ribbon of 1/8 inch thick walnut around the edges (already cut to width and sanded) and a final finish of spray-on verathane. I'll get the ribbon done tomorrow morning and the verathane will be applied the next day unless there's going to be rain. (If the humidity is too high the stuff will take a long time to dry.)

I've got the materials for two more quilted pieces similar to this one and now that I know what to look for/be careful of they should be relatively easy to do.

More Birdy Pics

I spotted five tom turkeys approaching the bird feeders Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, they spotted Julie sitting in the window staring out at them and stopped their approach. They opted to head on down the hill instead. The turkeys tend to stay closer to open field down in the valley when the snow starts accumulating. There's a better chance down there for the wind to sweep the soft stuff away and leave an icy coat to walk on. Plus there's a fair shot at some warm eats when the farmer spreads manure from his honey wagon. Yum, yum!

We had a small flock of turkeys come through during our January thaw (remember that weekend?) and before that the last time we had any turkeys around was Sunday after the fall turkey season ended.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker continues to show up on a daily basis. Terry and I are pretty sure its an adult female so we've started calling her "Winnie Woodpecker."(That was Woody's girlfriend's name.) She almost always comes in to face the house so nearly all my shots are head on. Trust me, darling, it is not your best side!


And squirrels! You turn away from the window early in the morning and turn back and there's another one every damn time! There were 14 gray squirrels chowing down this morning to the disappointment of all the feathered flock. The squirrels don't actually attack the birds, they just take up valuable feeder space--not to mention lots of sunflower seeds. The little birds just back off and wait. Only the Blue Jays seem to want to contest their "right" to free food.


One new visitor this winter was a Common Grackle. With no real short grass fields nearby (there area few abandoned pasture fields that are really overgrown) ours is not their typical habitat. This one showed up two days in a row and I'm wondering if he's going to be a regular as long as the cold lasts.

Grackle's always seemed to be a bit of a bully bird to me. They've got that bright yellow eye and a drooping eyebrow that gives them a squint. The way they walk can best be described as a swagger. You can almost see them throwing their shoulders forward with each measured step. And they are dressed in the equivalent of a tux with tails. A nice shiny, satiny, iridescent tux that reminds me of shark skin.


Yesterday afternoon, the birds were raising a ruckus but no one seemed to be feeding. Then I spotted the reason:

One of several cats that roam by from time to time. None of them seem to have collars and I haven't pinpointed which neighbors own which cat. All look healthy enough. Only the stripped orange Tom (and believe me when he walks away from you it is obvious that he is a Tom!) looks to have been in any altercations. (Probably tried to get to friendly with a porcupine!) None will allow me to get within ten yards of them. I've never seen them take a bird, but I have seen one trot away with a squirrel and another with a chipmunk.

My three cats stay in side and watch. They love the deck feeders and the big glass wall onto the deck. Sometimes they will even forget their sister-brother animosity to enjoy the birds. Here's Shadow and Chester sitting side by side.

Normally Shadow won't let her brother this close unless she's really, really sleepy. Then, if she's already bedded down, she might allow him to creep up on the same chair she's already occupying--maybe. A moment after I put the camera down, Chester was allowed to lick her ear! (Considering all cats are Ferengi, this is tantamount to incest!)

Well, that's enough for this post. I don't want things to get out of hand. I've more pictures to put up a little latter.

Brrrr!

Here at the Aerie it dropped down to 2°F at 7:30 AM. (It's into the negative numbers up at the Bolt Hole. The nearest Weather Underground station has the temp at -2.5°F and the cabin is usually five or so degrees cooler.) The temperature had been falling since around 3 PM Monday when it peaked at 12°F. We also had a very light dusting of snow overnight. Just enough snow fell to coat the surfaces of the deck and lawn although the grass blades still are very evident. It wind has died down for the moment and the sun is struggling to shine through the mostly cloudy sky.

The AGW Crowd and Idiots. But I repeat myself.

Appologies to Mr. Mark Twain for the title of this post, but they really are one and the same. Witness:

Well how 'bout that! Undaunted by the wrath of Gaia, approximately 2,500 protesters (estimate conveniently provided by the organizers) took part in the what was billed to be a massive civil disobedience action at the Capitol Power Plant, a coal fired facility that heats many of the government buildings in Washington, DC. (Out With A Shiver: Global Warming Protest Frozen Out by Massive Snowfall)

Protest organizers said about 2,500 people braved the blizzard to oppose greenhouse gas emissions, but the shroud of snow wasn't the only wet blanket in the nation's capital Monday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called on the architect of the Capitol to stop burning coal at the power plant last week, cancelled her appearance at the rally because her flight to Washington was cancelled.

The greenhouse gas "pollutant" they were aghast about is, of course, carbon dioxide, which is a requirement for photosynthesis and which is proving to trail temperature rises and not trigger them. Oh, and despite statements that CO2 has climbed to "record levels", it is still less than 400 parts per million (or 0.04%) by volume in the atmosphere. It was a great deal higher back in the Carbonaceous Period.

And House Speaker Pelosi was flying in from where? Any one? San Francisco! That's correct! Of course she flies home to SF nearly every weekend just like you commute to work. I wonder what the "carbon footprint" of all those cross country flights works out to, hmmm? The hypocrisy is really astounding!

The snowy scene, with temperatures in the mid-20s, was reminiscent of a day in January 2004, when Al Gore made a major address on global warming in New York -- on one of the coldest days in the city's history.

Yes, the Gore Effect is really much more reliable than the IPCC computer models. (By the way, if you really want to get a laugh, go to the Gore Effect link at Wiki and under "Note" look at the partial list of online articles confirming the Gore Effect.)

The article makes no mention of the presence of Mr. Gore or his pet "scientist" Dr. James Hanson.

On a final note (emphasis mine):

In a press release supporting the protest, Greenpeace wrote that "coal is the country's biggest source of global warming pollution" and that "burning coal cuts short at least 24,000 lives in the U.S. annually."

On a blustery, frigid day, it might be worth noting the government's own stark numbers: pneumonia kills twice as many each year.

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

Winter Weather, ain't just snow!

I awoke this morning at 5:30 AM to the sound of the wind blowing outside and Chester yowling outside my door. When it got light enough to see I noticed that there was some snow falling (or, at least, trying to fall as it was blown horizontally). Just a light dusting that will, according to the radio guy, end around noon. The temperature fell to 9.9 degrees at 7:30 AM. It's always coldest just about or just after sunrise before the sun starts to warm things up a bit. And "a bit" is all it's going to warm up today. The forecasts at AccuHunch and Weather.com says it may reach 15-17 degrees later this afternoon but with the wind blowing around 15-20 mph with higher gusts, it won't come close to feeling that warm. Tonight's lows will be somewhere around 5 degrees...or less.

The average for this day? From Weather.com:

Day	Ave High	Ave Low	Record High	Record Low
March 2	40°F	18°F	62°F (1991)	-4°F (1994)

I've mentioned to them that it might be a good idea to indicate when record keeping began. After all, to have both the high and low records in the 1990s would indicate there might be sorta a short period during which they have been recording the temperatures. No? Oh, I also suggested they indicate exactly where the freaking records are taken. To say it's for Mansfield, PA is a wee bit misleading. With all the ridges and valleys, you've only got to travel 5 or 6 miles in any direction to find a huge difference in temperature. Example: a month ago it was -6°F at the Aerie but down the hill near the post office it was a much, much colder -23°F. During the summer it can be 5 to 10°F cooler at the Aerie compared to "downtown" Mansfield.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Julie wants me to put another log on the fire.

[UPDATE: Monday Noon: Terry reports that they got just a dusting in the Sumter/Columbia area of South Carolina but that there were 6 inches int he northwest mountains. Meanwhile the MIL and Daughter got about 6 inches in Linden, NJ with a possibility of more later in the day. It has stopped flurrying here at the Aerie and the sun is actually trying to break through the clouds. What snow we got was mostly horizontal rather than vertical. It can seem like more when it covers distance rather than ground.]

Global Warming my A**!

The Barrister has a brief post over at Maggies Farm: The Gore Effect. It reads in total:

It's amusing to see the the Gore Effect afflicting James Hansen. Will his big climate-scare protest in DC tomorrow [That would be today, Monday, March 2nd] be snowed out by a late season blizzard?

If so, one might consider it to be Gaia's justice.

As Bugs Bunny would say: "Mmmm, it's a possibility!"



The key passages in the passage above:

THE HIGHEST TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS STILL ARE EXPECTED TO RUN ALONG AND TO THE EAST OF INTERSTATE 95. TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 6 TO 9 INCHES IN THIS AREA...WITH THE HIGHER END OF THE RANGE MOST LIKELY OCCURRING ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MARYLAND AND INTO VIRGINIA NEAR THE FREDERICKSBURG AREA.

TO THE WEST OF INTERSTATE 95...A TIGHTER GRADIENT OF SNOWFALL
ACCUMULATION WILL OCCUR. A RANGE OF 4 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW IS
EXPECTED WEST OF INTERSTATE 95...WITH LOCATIONS NEAR THE BLUE
RIDGE FAVORING THE LOWER END OF THE SNOWFALL RANGE.

Check out a map. If not for the beltway around D.C., I-95 would run smack dab through the heart of the city.

Mayor Fenty has already declared a snow emergency basically telling people that if they don't have to go out DON'T GO OUT so as not to get in the way of the workers trying to clear the streets, etc.

More:
Rare snow blankets South as East braces for storm Take a look at the picture. That's ALABAMA, for crying out loud.
New York City Area Braces for Up to 14 Inches of Snow Okay, 14 inches is the worst case scenario and NYC is more likely to get a "mere" 6 to 10. But on a Monday? Travel usually sucks around there on Mondays as it is. From the article:

“It’s a good, old-fashioned snowstorm,” said Gary Conte, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, New York. “The record for March is 10 inches (25 centimeters), set in 1896. Obviously, based on our forecast, that is in jeopardy. March is coming in like a lion.” The 1896 record was for daily snowfall.

The final sentence is important because the Great Blizzard of 1888 also occurred in March and dumped over 30 inches of snow in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area but it fell over the course of four days: March 11-14.
From the NY Times: Snowstorm Moves In, Causing Delays and Closing Schools A heck of a way to start off the week.

And a final word this AM from the Washington Post:

Snow Blankets Washington Area
Region Braces for What Could Be Largest Winter Storm in Three Year

Forecasters said snow would fall steadily through mid-morning before tapering off, with an additional one to two inches of accumulation expected, making it potentially the largest winter storm in three years. The strong winds sent flakes dancing through the air, and temperatures hovered in the low 20s, allowing the snow to stick. Temperatures will remain below freezing all day, forecasters said, and the wind might push the wind chill to single digits tonight.

By 5 a.m., 9.5 inches of snow had been reported in Hollywood. Bobby Cooper, manager of the highway department in St. Mary's County, said his road crews were reporting 10 to 12 inches of snow in many areas, and it was still falling "pretty heavily."

I gotta stop now. I'm spilling my coffee as I laugh out loud at the thought of a Global Warming protest going on in DC today. Maybe Richard had it right when he posted this picture yesterday.

Sliding away!

I've been spending a lot of time scanning slides (when not splitting firewood or photographing opposums or birds out the window) and have come to the conclusion that back in the 70s when I was using a Minolta X-102 (I think) I really stunk as a photographer. Many of my slides are blurry (no auto focus on that old camera) and the lighting was terrible. I got better over the years and some of the photos I took in the 90s, when I got a newer Minolta X-700 are not to bad. Of course, the digital SLR I'm using now (a Sony Alpha) is a gazillion times better. (Even the pocket sized Canon PowerShot S40 and the Nikon CoolPix I've got on my spotting scope for digiscoping are head and shoulders above that first Minolta.) Even I don't screw up more than three or four shots out of every twenty-five or so. And then it's because I was in a rush to snap a picture and didn't pay attention to what the camera was focusing on.

I also realize (too late) that I never took enough pictures of the people. I've tons of pictures of landscape, birds, flowers, etc. but very few of people. That's just the opposite of the box of photos Mom and Dad left. Almost every one of their pictures was of someone or something really, really important. Friends, neighbors, relatives, Christmas morning under the tree, a new car or house (with the proud owner standing in the picture) are all found in those one or two boxes and albums. Not so much in my slide boxes. *sigh*

Another visitor to the Aerie

We have four or five different cats that come by from time to time to try their luck under the bird feeders. Whether they have ever been successful in capturing a healthy bird, I do not know. I've see one cart off a chipmunk and I'm sure they get lucky with a mouse, vole or shrew from time to time. (Well, maybe "luck" isn't the right word for catching a shrew. When we let our cats outside when we lived in Dover they caught lots of shrews. They just didn't eat them after the first one made them ill. Poison saliva glands will do that to ya I guess. They always left the little buggers on the porch steps...decapitated.)

Anyway, the critter pictured below started to show up the last few days. I'm sure it would dine on any worms or bugs it found in the sunflower hulls but right now it's probably happy with the black oil seeds the birds and squirrels miss.



The first few times it showed up, it was just after dark. Today it was out there in the mid afternoon. I hope that's either because it feels comfortable around the house or because it senses a disturbance in the weather (gonna get real cold for a few days) and not because it is ill. I can do something about the comfort level and I can hope it disappears again when the weather warms up and there's better forage elsewhere, but if it's ill, I may have to resort to the air rifle.

This is one ugly looking critter. Very primeval. It always is a surprise to see how larger their heads are considering how small their brain cavity is. (Yeah, I've found and examined a few skulls of Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in the past.

It's probably denned up in one of two or three holes in the woods formerly occupied by ground hogs who have gone to that great hay field in the sky with a little help from Mr. Air Rifle.

Bwahaaaa!

Sooo...Terry went down to Georgia looking to get out of the winter weather we have here in the Pennsylvania Northern Tier so her Smocking Arts Guild of America executive board could meet without transportation worries. As a result, we (the cats and I) have had one day of medium rain, three days of glorious sunshine with temps in the 40s or better, and two days of regular sunshine with temps into the low 30s.

Terry had one great day before her meetings started and three very nice days while they were inside. But that all ended last night and into this morning. It started to rain. Not normal every day kind of rain, we're talking monsoon, get ready to build an ark and batten down the hatches weather. All through the southeast. As a result the Atlanta airport started canceling flights. Especially if you were headed up the coast toward NYC. Some of her ladies were up all night trying to get flights that would get them home. Some--one bound for Richmond and one for Philly-gave up on the plane and got tickets on AmTrack. (There's a story about the difficult time they had finding the Savannah Railroad Station at 6 AM, but Terry did get them to the train on time. I understand they had a whole minute before it left the station.)

Terry drove from Savannah, GA to Sumter, SC in the little yellow Aveo and through a downpour predicted to produce 3-4 inches of rain. It's a good thing she plans on staying with her cousins for a few days, however. Sumter and Columbia may get 1-3 inches of snow tonight. The Aerie will get 0 inches to a dusting--maybe.



Terry's down there in the southeast side of the snow map in the light blue and the Aerie is up there on the border between PA and NY just where the light blue ends.

Now, that doesn't mean I won't be quite a bit colder. That's the reason I was out splitting firewood this afternoon and filling the rack in the garage. The forecaster on the radio said something about 15 degrees being the high temperature tomorrow and a wind chill tomorrow night in the negative range. I'm okay with that as long as the snow stays to the east. Besides filling the bird feeders, I've got nothing I need to do outside anyway.