January 30

1/30/08: Wednesday, 8:00 AM. –22, barometer predicts sunny skies. Wind N, gusty. Fine snow is falling, and there are white-out conditions on the channel and highway. Very dangerous!
I filled the feeders and that is all Lucky and I are going to do outside until at least the wind dies down. There is about 2” of snow on the driveway.
The birds are out feeding, packing in the calories, and they are all puffed up to keep warm. A female cardinal is as big and round as a baseball. They are quite motionless at the feeder, trying not to loose the air insulation between their feathers. They are probably thinking warm thoughts, and wondering why they aren’t somewhere else.
One wonders how the Indians, and the early settlers as well, managed to survive under these conditions. Sometimes they didn’t, of course.