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Wednesday I was home from work tending to Eric and his stomach bug while Kathryn went to work. Before she left for work she urged me to take the dogs for a walk. We had received 12-14″ of new snow overnight and my old snowshoe trails had been filled in. It didn’t take long for the dogs to stop romping and fall in line behind my snowshoe track.

I always take my camera with me on walks because, well, you never know, but on this day I made a conscious decision not to. I figured with all the freshly fallen snow and it being so deep that I wouldn’t see anything.

On my return loop back to the house I saw where a turkey had landed in the snow. The snow was so deep the turkey sank in the length of it’s legs and it’s wing beat was recorded in the snow. It was so clear that I could see nearly every feather of the 2.5 foot span. It must have happened within an hour as there was no snow filling up the image.

It looked like this, but way bigger, but of course you will have to take my word for it because I didn’t have my camera.

My canoes, patiently waiting for spring and the creeks to flow…….

I returned home from my trip to Melbourne FL to work on a proposal. I flew on SouthWest Airlines from round-trip from Albany to Orlando It was my 1st experience flying SW. I certainly appreciated the 3 hour direct flight although flying out of Orlando at the end of school vacation week is a little crazy.

I had a long pre-screen wait and then, of course, since I always trigger the metal detector with my artificial hips, I required a “Male Assist” in the vernacular of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). In most airports one is temporarily held in a separately roped area just past the walk though screening gate. In Orlando it is a plexiglass holding cell with air holes drilled into the plexiglass. In most situations I don’t mind the separate screening and I certainly understand the purpose. In Orlando it was hot, I was in a holding cell with no air movement and I was there for 10-12 minutes before a “Male Assist” deigned to take me out for screening. Usually the TSA person asks if I know what caused the alarm and I tell them I have bilateral hip replacements. It doesn’t change the screening process, but I suppose it eases their mind when the screening wand starts beeping at my waist. This TSA dude didn’t want to hear anything. It certainly adds a distinct flavor to the travel journey.

Parking at Albany leaves a little to be desired too. Parking spaces were in high demand. After considerable circling I got a spot on the roof of the garage. On my return flight I got into Albany around 5 and drove out to Mom’s and stayed the night with her. We chatted and watched a college basketball game. I made a breakfast of bacon and eggs on Friday AM, I did some grocery shopping for her and ran home in a light but sloppy snow storm.
Kathryn has had a pretty good cold and has been miserable so I ended up picking up the house and doing 4 loads of laundry. I got Eric from the babysitter and Eric and I ran errands: stops at two different pharmacies, the bank, eye glasses, library and my office before picking up a fish fry on the way home.

Today it is sunny so I shoveled the deck this AM and plan on taking the dogs for a walk this afternoon as they have been diprived of any walks between Eric’s illness, K’s vacation, my trip to FL and K’s illness - so they are more ready for some exercise. Trey has been blowing his coat in preparation for spring. Eric and I brushed a ton of hair out of him this AM while Scout was outside on the deck.

Our WinterCampers.com website has been hosted by Yahoo for several years and maintained by Mark.  However, as competing time demands have increased for Mark, coupled with increasing Yahoo fees had to seek an alternative for the web site.  We transferred the web site to Dreamhost and re-engineered the site using WordPress.  The goal is to reduce costs and use a web tool that will permit more people to blog and contribute content to the site.  It is still in a rough draft stage, but you can get sense of where we are headed with this at www.WinterCampers.com.

Friday night as we finished up dinner Kathryn noticed a fox in the pasture hunting for mice.  Kathryn and Eric raced for their binoculars and we watched the fox for about 10 minutes as dusk settled in.  The fox was running across the pasture and would periodically stop to rear up and smash down with it’s front paws - trying to pin a mouse.  I was surprised by the speed which it coursed the field.  It covered almost 20 acres in 10 minutes and left us.

Saturday we celebrated Dakota’s 3rd birthday at our house.  Here Dakota models the tiara and earrings she received from Eric.

Sunday was clear and sunny in the morning but as we had lunch we watched dark clouds zoom in and within a 10 minute span we went from partly cloudy to blizzardy- white out.  The winds and snow blew most all afternoon as we stayed inside and read.  About 3:30 the wind let up and we went outside.  Kathryn helped me fix the overhead barn door and we did a little sledding with Eric.