Corner View: Slow

My drive to work and back used to be relaxing and beautiful.

Now that Utica Shale fracking has begun,

it has become stressful and tedious.

I have to leave earlier

so that if I get behind a big vehicle,

I can still get to work on time.

It takes me ten to fifteen minutes longer to get home

regardless of heavy equipment.

When the pipeliners' and  fracking men head out for their temporary homes, 

it's not unusual to end up in a line of six to 12 vehicles.

The ones that are particularly irritating

are the semis hauling huge equipment

on Rt 147's two lanes.

We regular-vehicle folks have to pull over.

However, the water and brine bearing trucks

are the ones that can momentarily take my breath away

and cause me to come to a slow-rolling stop.

The reason?

They are heading my way and are across the yellow line.

In other words, they hog the road.

The photos below are courtesy of online photos

of the fracking industry.

Here are some photos of the drilling tower sites -

the reason why 'slow-moving' has become

a part of my daily life.

They are lit continually and it's like high-noon 24/7.

Folks have to buy black-out curtains

and no longer can sit out in their yards and gaze at the stars--

the blazing light blankets the stars.

We have many similar sites throughout our farm community.

I think it would be tough to live so close to one

because someone else owned the land next to you

and allowed the drilling site to be built.

Money talks.

However, one of the nice outcomes

is that farmers have been able to fix up or completely restore

their old barns, thus saving part of America's heritage.

They have also been able to buy much needed equipment.

 For more views on 'slow', head over to Francesca's.

Taking care of God's creatures

 We have been keeping the bird feeders full,

as well as tossing out seed and corn on the snow.

The deer 'pert near' clean us out every night,

but we're cool with that.

We grow quiet and tip toe closer to the window

to watch them.

Tonight we counted nine.

There were three groups; 

two of the groups were not the usual ones.

Mama and her two young ones

did not take kindly to the intruders.

She was quite territorial and ran them off.

At times they were on their hind feet

 with their front paws slashing the air.

"Resident Mama' always won.

My camera was charging, 

so, alas, no photos.

The birds seem appreciative of the bounty 

that hangs and lies in front of our window.

Only sudden movement frightens them off.

I never tire of watching them.

I don't know what they all are;

our bird books were packed several years ago

when Mike moved up here from Cincinnati.

We have not found them yet.

Further down, after the bird pictures,

you'll see a visitor who started coming yesterday.

He loves the corn kernels. 

Here's our latest 'client'.

He's cute to watch.

Here are my two favorite 'snow birds'.

Ginger is the only one here who is truly loving all this cold.

She loves to burrow in the snow.

She licks and eats it.

She buries her nose in it.

She is content to lie in it,

even in single digit temps

and often does not want to come inside.

That's a husky for you!

But she also likes to curl up on the couch.

George does too, but he does not snuggle with Ginger.

Notice all the hair - twice a year,

huskies molt, not shed.

They have two coats and they rid themselves of the top one,

and a new one grows in.

There is white hair everywhere.

And no, I did not research that before we got her.

We clean this blanket regularly,

but within thirty minutes it is covered.

However, we still love her!

 We are staying warm and safe.

[We have now missed 15 days of school!!!]

Corner View: Vision

 The phone awoke me this morning.  

I had set my alarm for later than usual, so I was not up yet

when the all-call went out through our school district.

The superintendent did not try a two-hour delay; instead,

he went straight to " N . . . L . . . .  schools are closed today."

We had known it was coming since last week,

but last night the storm had been down-graded by some weather reporters.

Their downgrade was in relation to inches in snow, 

but that was not the danger; it was ice, ice, 

and more ice raining down on us non-stop.

So instead of what I had planned for this topic,

I chose to highlight our icy landscape.

Mind you, I took photos

from inside the house!

The birds were a bit frantic this morning,

because the deer had eaten a bunch of corn and seed

the night before.

Their anxiety seemed to have lessened considerably 

after Mike refilled the feeders.

The photo below is a close-up of the bush featured in the first photo.

I did walk two steps out on the front stoop.

This was taken after a snow storm.

This same bird (or a close relative--Ha!) is shown after our ice storm.

(My camera was set on a more sensitive dial.)

I like this little guy who somewhat sheltered in that bush

for awhile.

The bird feeders exhibit the ice well, don't you think?!

Last, here is a set of handy 'tools' to enhance our vision.

My husband leaves a pair of his reading glasses 

throughout the house - literally every room that he's in at some point.

The above is on the stool by where he sits in the living room.

For more corner views on vision,

hop on over to Francesca's place.