Meddybemps News

Linda Baniszeski 

Warm happy birthday wishes to Jean Voelker on January 12.  Warm wishes to everyone celebrating special days or occasions.

The above wishes are very sincere, but about the only warm thing in these parts right now.  Although, we had a real heat wave this morning, when the temperature nearly reached 20 degrees.

After days of minus and single digit temperatures, Barry said, “It’s quite balmy out there” when he returned from bringing in firewood for the stove.

We do have a gentle snow falling on Monday as I write this.  It is a pretty sight and would be perfect if no one had to go anywhere on the icy roads.  This too shall pass. We can generally tell when inclement weather is coming our way.  The birds always fuel up at our feeder before storms.  We have a lovely flock of those cute little juncos coming to the feeder most every day.  Doves for breakfast in the morning, followed by a days worth of the juncos, chickadees, woodpeckers and some I don’t know the names of.  The bratty bluejays are a regular attraction.  

Last Thursday’s snow count here was about 10-11 inches.  It would have been much more if it had not been mixed with sleet and rain intermittently near the end of the storm.  That  storm made a grand finale with more heavy snow and high winds.  We are fortunate not to have lost power.  The trimming of trees surrounded by wires by the electric company wires last summer seems to have really made the difference. The next day’s return to frigid temperatures froze remaining surfaces into ice like boiler plate.  Although we lost our t.v. signal from time to time, we never lost power.   The storm was followed by men on tractors and plows clearing it away.  A meteorologist we listened to many years ago used to say, “the forecast is heavy snowfall followed by kids on sleds.”  The first snowmobile was riding across the edge of the lake on Saturday night.   

Quite a variety of wildlife continues to frequent our community and surrounding areas.   In talking with a resident the other day, she shared that in late summer, there was a dead bobcat in her woods.  She contacted the Game Warden and they collected the body and had it tested.  Thankfully, it did not have rabies, but the cause of death was not determined.  A fox is around as well.  Maybe that’s what Scuffy gets afraid of when she looks into the woods at night.  Or, perhaps, she is just a fraidy-dog when she hears the wind and cracking tree branches.

Please send your news to LBaniszeski@myfairpoint.net or phone 454-3719.