Weather Report ---> Kinda Cool

Well. We are doing a Polar Vortex thing here in our area, again. Last week the weather was mild and rather comfortable.

We are now celebrating when the temps rise above 0 F. This morning, I didn't do chores until it was -10 F, and yes, I stayed quite comfortable outside. It may look goofy, but there is something nice about not being cold while out in the cold.

 We are in a Cold Watch which will become a Extreme Cold Watch Thursday late through Saturday. My girls seem to have everything under control with their lovely thick winter coats.

More snow is supposed to happen tonight and Wednesday. -20 to -40 windchills are forecast to go along with that. Looks like a good time for a nice big pot of homemade soup.

Regular temps are predicted to look like this  👇

Brrrrr.

Thursday during the day looks decent enough that I might get out and do a bit of hiking with Charlie, but I doubt I'll be out and about Friday other than chores.

The shots below are from a bit of wandering around our forest today.

I just don't mess with extremely cold temps. I had enough of that when I was working night shifts at a place 30+ miles from home. Driving home in -19 temps in the middle of the night was concerning. 

Things break in the cold. 

Thank goodness, my old beater didn't mind cold weather.

The summer pasture wasn't full of tracks but the forest had many tracks. Deer had been browsing and making beds inside the woods.

Charlie didn't want to go with me for some reason, so I took Chippy.

Chippy rather enjoyed the adventure.

He always looks happy!

Well, there you go. There is the WI weather report for SW WI.

It's gonna be kinda cool.

Outside Exploring

Yes, I did get out for a bit even though it was cloudy with a mix of drizzle and rain. I walked along the creek bottom to see what I could find. I like to observe how things change and what is going on in the woods.

There is a pool that is about knee deep or so next to a rock wall. During the summer it was nearly dry, but with some of the rain and moisture we've had, it appears to have more water in it!

I was so happy to see the little trout swimming around.

I love to just sit and watch them. If they notice you, they flee to a darker shaded area of the little water hole. So I waited a few minutes and then they came back out and began to swim around. 15 second video.

I found the partially fresh carcass of a deer. It was mostly bones but there was enough color in the bones to indicate that it had only been there a couple of days. 

The birds were happily cleaning what they could off the bones.

I climbed out of the creek bottom and made my way along an old deer trail when I spotted a old birch log in the wet snow. I recall reading somewhere that one could start a fire in the woods even with wet birch.

I had some time so I decided to try that theory out. 
I picked birch bark off the log and made it into strips than piled it in the snow on another log.

I had a lighter in my bag, so I thought I'd try making a tiny fire.

Imagine my surprise when it worked! I watched the little fire catch and burn and then stomped on it. There was no danger of it spreading anywhere. However, now I knew if I could find birch [which is common in this area], I could always build a fire if I needed to.

This was my New Year's Eve day adventure. I had about an hour or so to use up and so I hiked through our woods and enjoyed fresh air.

I hope to start out the New Year once more Exploring. After all, I love that the best.