Bye bye...

The road bans went off and Frank [the plow guy] came over to pick up the skid steer and its attachments. I took a shot through the window as he was taking the huge and heavy post pounder.

It made me very sad to hear that engine wind up and know it would be the last time I heard it. Hubby loved that piece of equipment more than he loved [cough cough] his wife??? Maybe not, but it was his the one piece of equipment he adored the most.

I told Frank about the guys taking my homemade post pounder and he told me about how he made his own too. He described the very same method that Rich used. When he pulled out the skid steer, he forgot to detach the battery tender and destroyed it. He sheepishly offered to pay for a new one.

I asked him if he could make me another homemade post pounder instead. I'd call it even as I had another battery tender in the basement for the 4 wheeler battery that I take out each winter.

Yes. Soon I'll have another handmade t post pounder! Color me happy!

He then purchased a whole roll of barbed wire and gave me the going price for it even though I'm pretty sure that Rich probably got it at a huge discount years ago.

We discussed demolishing the busted garage and then regrading the area between the house and the old garage. Frank explained it all giving me a vision and direction that I could not have thought of. It will improve the drainage around the house and will improve the view from the house. [Imagine not having to look at a busted up building and seeing the forest instead!]

I got an odd phone call a bit later. It was from the Glen the Bow Hunter who leases the land next door. He sold some more 'property' in Kenosha and needed to invest it so avoid taxes. He offered for the fourth time to buy my farm and let me live on it.

I cannot see how that would work for me. I'd feel like a tenant that could be evicted at any time. So I explained to Glen that the farm is in a trust. I didn't give him the details but said that would complicate things.

Besides, once I have excavators, the bulldozer, and the forest mulcher jobs done, along with the scrap metal cleaned up... I am going to enjoy this place and its uncluttered beauty until I decide the place is too much for me.

Thursday was the ice storm. It was awful. I did watch small branches fall from trees when the winds blew.

The 12 hour rainfall with the ice was nearly two inches.

Apparently we are to get more Friday evening with heavy rain and damaging hail and winds.

March sure left like a Lion that was very pissed off.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter Weekend.

Come on Spring!!!!

The Ice Man cometh

The weather folks predicted 7-14" and we got a very bad ice storm out of it.  We had probably about 4 inches of sleet type stuff on the ground and the trees were covered in thick ice as well as anything that stuck up out of the grass.

Gate handles were encased in ice.

The trees were laced with ice that cracked and made a spooky kind of music when the breeze blew.

Chores were a bit more time consuming and difficult.  But eventually they got done and then my husband plowed the driveway. I really wished he didn't have to as I'd just completed raking all of the rocks out of the yard.

Looks like I have to do this job all over again once it melts and dries up.

It was late afternoon before the town grader came through.  The only person to travel our road was our neighbor.
The scenery was surreal and quite beautiful.

And in the evening the sun came out.  As we were doing evening chores, ice was falling from the trees.  However the sun set and the temperatures began to drop.

Some ice remained with an orange glow.

Our world was still iced this morning, but I imagine as soon as the sun peeks down into our 'hollow' the ice will melt.

Today the temperatures are supposed to rise again and there will be another quick melt off.  Hopefully this was the last of the winter weather for a while.

I can look forward to more muck in the next few days.

Ice Storm!

As you can see people don't heed the do not travel in these conditions.  At the bottom of the screen there is a vehicle turned sideways.  I checked on the camera 2 minutes later and the vehicle was gone.

There are very dangerous driving conditions that are rapidly getting much worse.  This was seen on the WI 511 road conditions website.

Around here it is coming down as rain/sleet/freezing rain.  From NOAA:

SIGNIFICANT ICING IS OCCURRING AND IF IT
CONTINUES TO ACCUMULATE...IT COULD BRING DOWN TREES AND POWER
LINES.

ICE ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM 2/10 TO 3/10 OF AN INCH. SNOW AND
SLEET ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE.

LOOK FOR AREAS OF FOG TONIGHT. THE FOG COULD BE DENSE WITH
VISIBILITIES LESS THAN 1/4 MILE. 

So you see this is not anything to really mess around with.  4 wheel drive doesn't help on ice.

Meanwhile the chores are done, water tanks filled and we leave the weather to Mother Nature now.
Here is the driveway  at 10am.  I'll take a photo of it later to compare.

Above is the sleet as it began to pile up on the ground.

Although Morris and Dixie were not bothered by the weather in the least when I took them for their morning exercise.

Stay safe!