It's Meeelting!!!

Without much of a thought, I carefully--and routinely--made my way across the unavoidable, treacherous ice on our driveway to what my niece calls the Kidney Bean, aka our maroon minivan. I was heading out for a meeting and then for some shopping while out in town, escaping what would otherwise have been a day spent in solitude.

Three hours later, pulling back into the driveway, I noticed not only was the ice gone, but the majority of the water from it melting had also evaporated!!! A jubilant victory song spontaneously broke forth in my head: "Ding! Dong! The ice is gone! Which old ice? The driveway's ice! Ding! Dong! The driveway's ice is gone!" Ha! Winter is being defeated!!!

We had reached temps in the high 30's, today, and tomorrow we'll be expecting temps in the low 40's! Spring is on it's way!!! --LKR

Adventures in Mud, Muck, and Slush

Hi, it's me, Mister Poochie! What a beautiful day we had, today! It was in the 60's, it was!

Ice and the white fluffy fun stuff were melting fast. Yesterday, too, was warm! Hurray!

We did not have a really long walk, today, oh, no. Mud and slippery slush kept us from going too far. For cyclists, too!

I helped Mom up this one, I did!

Some trails we had to cross over... .

Mom caught me picking up on scents, she did!

We didn't take this path, oh no!

Nor go down this trail, for sure!

Mom sunk deep into mud right here, she did!

This path is called Bump. I wanted to explore, but Mom said, "No, we go home."

I got to play wild dog on the way back, I did! I lead Mom off trails and into fields where we ran and Mom laughed.

I found a "leave it" running through the grass, I did. Mom wouldn't let me make nice. These are holes where the "leave it" live and travel. We had fun! --Mister Poochie

Big Falls

I was in great need of seeing the top of Big Falls on this beautiful day! We were relatively close by, so took a quick trip on over.

William had just done a solo for cello, and was all dressed up!

This steep path leads to right below the falls.

I love the ice on top of the rocks!

This is the top of the falls. I would have loved to have seen this with more ice and less sloshy snow, but I'm not complaining!

Cool, huh?! While we were here, a large chunk of slush slid down into the river. It was a quieter noise than the last time we were here and heard ice heaving, falling into the icy river below.

Next year, I'd like to spend more time here out in the winter! It's truly beautiful here year round! --LKR

Valentine Outing

Valentine greetings to you all! To celebrate this beautiful--but frigid--day, Hubby and I went to visit the south side of Big Falls County Park in the snow and ice.

It was a beautiful--but sometimes slippery--walk through the woods to get to the Eau Claire River.

My jaw dropped to see how the snow had melted in this part of the park. If the weather were not a factor, one would think this was a mid March day, here in western Wisconsin!!!

Yup, this river is full of shards of ice! Way cool! Hard to believe, but in all my years of existence, this was my first real up-close and personal look at a river in winter! Ponds? Yes. The Jersey shore? Of course. But never a river, and growing up, we were surrounded by the Passaic River and one of it's branches!!!

Cool, huh?! There were several formations like this close to the shore line.

Look at all the layers on this large piece of ice!!!

This kind of reminds me of the scene in the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve where he finds out who he is and where he came from.

This looks too much like spring, doesn't it?!

Shortly before we left, we heard a horrendous cracking, heaving, and crashing noise. We supposed it must have been a huge chunk of thick ice that broke free on the upper, more spectacular part of the falls at the north of the park. --LKR