Cold, Cold, Cold

Sustained cold temps but no rain since last week. Breaker needs to be turned on every night to keep the water troughs clear of ice. Everybody is staying out, all night. The Moon is waning, but still very bright.

After he wrapped up the latest electrical project we went for a quick ride. We trailered a mile to the Park, crossing Annapolis Rock in the direction of Mullinix Mill.

In the parking lot, which also had a large frozen puddle in the center, was a busted up recycle bin. I knew it was our missing bin, turning it over confirmed that it was! Our house number had been written in Sharpie on the bottom. How it got down here I'll never know. This is the second one that we've lost, darn it.

Our county has been dubbed 'the Nanny State' and for many good reasons. One is the recycling program. It's free and compliance is pretty much mandatory. It's cheaper to recycle than to haul it somewhere, land being expensive and at a premium. Everything is recycled: magazines, boxes, bottles, cardboard, plastics, metals, newspapers, appliances, junk mail, tires. Consequently, our genuine trash is minimal.

We got across the roadway and into the planted Pine watershed. So quiet in there! It wasn't long before we came across a downed tree, which had taken a couple other trees with it. We have saws and clippers and cleared that. The recent flooding caused some undercut to the river bank; he cleaned up a 'go-around' so that we weren't on the very edge of a hollow path!

With all the leaves gone it was easy to see the definition in the park, and realize how thin it is. Seeing houses and barns so close to the boundary was interesting. Some people are very lucky to be able to walk out of their house and into this beautiful park.

We continued through the park, planning on riding home, picking up the trailer after that. The trail was mostly in good shape, only a few obstacles that were easily dealt with. It was soft or slippery in some places, iced over in others. Frost was still lingering in the meadow that is always in the shade. We saw Deer, Crows, assorted local song birds, Squirrels, and a Red-Tail Hawk.

KC remembered our turnoff to head home and immediately we were confronted with downed limbs and branches. This obscured our path to the river crossing. We have to revisit this section when we aren't chasing daylight.

Hunters had obviously been back here, using our new path. They left beer cans and a deer carcass. A tent was also left in the power line right-of-way! Looks like "Occupy Power Lines" and the boys were not happy to see this hulk on their path.

We were back home in no time and retrieved the truck and trailer before dusk.

Later I was up in the hay loft, getting a bale of hay - and there is a HAWK up there! It was still there this morning (still dark when I was there, too) and could hear it screeching. I was surprised at 10:pm to see that up there! flying around, trying to escape, but all the windows up there are closed.

It can stay up there, don't care, wish it would eat some mice while he's there.