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December 21, 2008
The first day of
winter, and the least daylight. The sun rose at 7:15 and set at
4:15—that's just nine hours of sunshine (if it weren't cloudy).
Actually the earliest sunset was at 4:13 on December 8th, and the
latest sunrise will be on January 2nd at 7:19. The offsets
from December 21st are because the Earth's orbit is elliptical, and it's
going around the Sun a little faster in the winter.
The big event has
been the ice storm that hit
December 11, taking down tree limbs,
power lines, and shearing utility poles—shutting down electric service
for 400,000 people in southern New
Hampshire. (Fortunately, Monday was in the 50s, and that melted
the ice, releasing the bent boughs.) It's ten days we've been
without power now.* Thank goodness for our Coleman
generator. We turn it on every morning about 11:00 and turn it
off at 11:00 at night. It uses a gallon every two hours, so
we're spending $10 a day on gas—a small price for the convenience of
electricity! Some neighbors don't have a generator, and they've
come to us for water (they have a well with an electric pump).
Here's a page of pictures from the
ice storm.
A week after the ice storm we got a foot of snow. I had just put a new belt on the snow blower and added oil,
so it was set to go. I'll share some wisdom I learned: Don't
depend on remembering where the generator
cord is when you do the snow blowing. Always take the time to
coil it up out of the way!
With snow cover, the bird feeder gets a lot of
use—mostly by chickadees.
(Notice the damaged holes on the feeder with the scratches around
them. That's the result of a frustrated bear one spring trying desperately
to get to the sunflower seeds!) The cardinal
can't eat at the feeder because he's too big for the perches. So he
gets the seeds the others let fall to the snow. The blue
jay likes the suet feeder.
Lynn and I sometimes go to the the Side
Trax Cafe in the center of Greenfield for lunch. The menu uses
a lot of railroad terms, such as "Engineer's Breakfast" and
"All Aboard." In the men's' room there's a sign
from a railroad car (country humor).
By switching the light bulbs to CFLs and installing a propane
water heater, we've reduced our electricity
usage
by 43% compared with last year.
*Epilogue: We got power
back after 13 days. Here's a news report
from a year after the storm.
Feature: Optical
Illusions
Quotes: "Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of
it." — Fyodor
Dostoevsky
The Philosopher's Cornered
- "Fool
Me Thrice..." Archives
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