Sky Watch - Cold, blue skies

 

The cold returned with clear blue sky, followed by a little snow and clearing skies. Nice, but we are ready for a hint of spring!

 

Header Challenge - Thinking and learning

Watching the little ones as they explore the world and learn to cope with it is fascinating. As a  parent, I was more focused on the care of our little ones. With grand-kids ages 28 to 5, we watched them as they became adults (some still are on that path).  As a great-grand parent, it has been a joy to watch the first of the next generation learn to think and do things. He has approached life as "watch", "think" "do".

 

 I think I can throw a football.

 I think I can play this game!

 

I know I can throw this ball.

First encounter with a small frog. What's he thinking?

Dancing at his Mom and Dad's wedding. 

He watched for a while and then joined the dancing.

 (The older boy was really good.)

Our World - Sinkhole saga continued

 

The hole seems to get a little bit bigger each day. Before the county fills the hole and repaves the road, they want to know if it will be an ongoing problem. So the  Hillis-Carnes folks are here to drill more holes (small) to see what lies below. Hopefully, they will find rock and dirt instead of air and water, and the county can fix the street so we can live happily ever after.

 

 

 

Sky Watch - Blue skies return

We had a lot of gray and white skies this month. The last few days the sun appeared and blue is again in the sky. This week's header also shows an afternoon sky.

 

Header Challenge - What's up there in the sky

Recently our sky has been filled with Winter with a capital W! No records have been broken but the TV folks said it is the ninth worst on record. My header is the afternoon sun trying to break through the falling snow. February 13 was a whiteout with falling snow. 

 

The Canada geese don't seem to mind as they look for a spot to bed down for the night. But they certainly are complaining loudly as they pass over head.

And we still have plenty of work for the tree trimmers after ice from the sky covered everything.

Our World - Sinking

Frederick County has a lot of limestone underground and at times sink holes occur. Saturday one occurred in front of our neighbor's house and both the water and sewer lines broke. It is not clear if a break in one of the pipes caused the sink hole or the collapse of the street broke the pipes. The water and sewer guys were on the job quickly and service was restored in about 6 hours. The road will take a few days.

Above sewer break and electric cables to houses across the street.

Below the repaired water main.

 

To  keep sewer service to the houses beyond the break, they set up pumps and overland pipes to move the flow to the next manhole. A geologist inspected the hole and the sewer folks are going to look inside the pipes with a video camera to be sure there are no other cracks before making repairs.

Sky Watch - Fallen sky

A foot of the sky fell over night in the form of white flakes. This morning people were digging out from under the white stuff. Schools closed but it seems no major problems in our area (Red mark is 12 inches.)  

 

Header Challenge - From the Ground . . .

. . . in Yosemite Valley I photographed the sunset as it slowly left Half Dome in the dark.

.

Not much sun left on the mountain . . .

. . . and soon none.

 

. . . the crocus appear in the spring and the soybeans are harvested in the fall.
 

. . . the tree guys removed the ice-damaged limbs that threatened our patio door. They will come back later to get some higher up broken limbs that are not a threat to the house. Vince and his crews are still working emergency jobs from the ice storm.
 

Our World - Squirrels and snow

Still  cold, still some snow around but the squirrels do not seem to mind. There are plenty of acorns under the snow and they have no problems finding them.

 

Sky Watch - Winter skies

Our skies reminded us that it is still winter. Monday we awoke to a few inches of snow. Wednesday we awoke to ice and the sound of limbs breaking. The power soon went off and we spent a chilly 7 hours until it returned. There were about 700 customers without power in our area and about 30,000 in Frederick County

The ice provided beautiful winter scenes,

and destruction.

Skies cleared Wednesday afternoon

 

and the damage is clearly visible today.

The tree trimmers are busy and will be visiting us soon.