Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How's your Winter?

Tony:

Get out there and put the taps in. I cut a couple of Maples the other week and had a river running out of them with temps in the low 20's in the middle of the day.

Went yesterday and spent all day goose hunting. We dug 4' deep pit blinds in the snow covered ditch to hide in, and were still standing on top of 18" or so of snow/ice. One of the guys jmped down into his pit and put his foot thru - water was up to mid calf. We were walking out in the fields thru what I thought was 10" of snow. Nope. There was about 10" of soft snow on top of about 12"-15" of hard snow. Without a snowmobile, we would have never gotten very far off the road.

I want to see another month of this stuff, then thaw all at once so surface water will fill up my pond.

So missing the important stuff, how many geese where added to a warmer place (the freezer)?

Short version, not as many as we thought we'd have. 5 hunters, limit was 5 each. We walked out of the field with 17. Couldn't figure out why the birds were flaring at 50 yds or so. Looking at the GoPro video last night, we think we know why. 3 rookie hunters. We had one experienced guy saying when to take 'em. Some of the rookies were standing up in the pit with the gun up ready to shoot when the birds were 70-100 yds out.

We were set up (individual pits dug in snowfilled ditch about 10' apart, dekes out, etc.) by 7:30 a.m. Didn't see ANY birds flying until maybe 2:45 p.m. The previous day the birds were in the field when it was checked at noon.

First pair of birds came in and almost landed at 20 yds. 3 or 4 shots fired. Birds didn't fly away.

Next a 4 birds came in, flaring about 25-30 yds. All hit the ground. 3 of those 4 birds were banded.

We ended up shooting one more banded bird that day.

Sweet, that is more banded birds than we shot all season, including Canada.

Mark, when you get a chance, check your e-mail. No rush.

Supposedly a warmup on the way. If the forecast holds, I'm tapping maples this weekend.

Tony, -16.1°F here for a low, it climbed all the way up to +11.2°F today. Now at 8:16 p.m. it's on it's downward spiral again, and it just passed -3°F. Last night they said South Bend would see -8°F. Tonight they are saying that SB will see -10°F or so. I might be even colder than last night!!!

My Amish maple syrup supplier hasn't tapped any trees yet ( I stopped there today). A local Amish grocery store had some on the shelves - for $8.99 per pint!!!

Don't think we hit more than a couple days below 0°F. Inland, Maybe -5°F on the downside for static temps for a few day's of the season.

Dang snow that keeps falling

9 bucks? If you can wait a spell on the pancakes I'll see that you get some for less than that

I plan on cooking off a special batch just for Yolk Sac...it will be infused with the essence of Cyanellus. He asked me not to tell anyone, but I figure we're all family here and shouldn't keep secrets from one another.

I'll try not to get your bottle confused with his.

I volunteer to make my special pancakes for anyone who wants to come enjoy. Bout the size of your plate with lotta tasty goodies in them.

Tony, another member on here wanted some, so I was checking for him. I have a standing order with an Amish family that seems to keep growing every year. I have to order next years supply a year in advance. IIRC this year I'll be asking them for 6 gallons for 2015. I'll use at the most 1/2 gal a year.

That's a kind offer DNickolaus, but the last time I ate something labeled as "special" was years ago and..........

They were awfully good brownies though.

They aren't THAT kind of special. I feed them to my kids regularly, though they generally only get one down before they're full. Whole wheat, blueberries, raisins, cinnamon, etc. Tasty. Would be nice with real maple.
If you're truly in Freedom, that's not too far from us.

Drilled a hole in the pond the other day and we have a easy 30"s of ice. Crazy cold winter. Broke a record for cold weather the other day that stood since 1958 here in Ontario.

Cheers Don.

I have half of that and I thought that was bad!

"How's your Winter?"

Going away soon!

Well, the sky has been falling here since yesterday afternoon. Here is what it looked like this morning. We got another 4-6 inches after I took these pictures. All together, we got about 22 inches from this storm.





More is supposedly on the way tomorrow night.

Do you still have ice under that Ken?

It warmed up enough one day early this week and I was able to scrape most of the last of the ice off the driveway. But it was costly. I knew this storm was coming, so I was also pushing the snow banks back as far as I could. I figured I'd need a place to pile the new snow - which I did. I was going downhill at a pretty good clip, with one side of the tractor and snow blade straddling the ditch. When I got to the bottom of the ravine, where the snow bank absorbed a lot of water from the ditch and froze solid, I hit about a 12-16 inch high chunk of solid ice. It destroyed my quick hitch and did a little other damage too.

In some ways I am disappointed that the last storm only gave us 4" and the next one is missing us, but in others I am quite glad.

Relentless is the word I would use for this cold.

Next week we are expecting a significant warm-up with the cost of potential severe weather in the form of thunderstorms! For February that would be unique, and probably make for some amazing runoff as the ground is frozen very deep and very hard.

I saw a photo once of a tornado with snow still on the ground out west somewhere. Apparently it warmed up so fast the snow didn't have time to melt! Never say never with the weather!

We are 1/2 inch from setting a record for the snowiest winter on record and it is -2 F right now. Like most folks around here, I am ready for Spring!

Hey Key that is a real "snow job" you've got there in WVA.

I was going to take a picture yesterday of how we keep air conditioners cold in the winter, but couldn't get out of the darn door on the North side of the building that has an "Emergency Exit" sign right above the door. At least 5' or so back there, and a good +3' on the A/C roof.

It's slowly starting to melt, and I actually saw a little bit of concrete in the parking lot

We're getting some sun beams today!

Found out why

Before the snow started to fall, one early Saturday morning there was this Thud! Next thing, there were red flashing lights for a couple hours attached to an EMS unit.

Diabetes attack!

Later that day, the guy that all this attention was being payed to knocked on my door.

He asked for some assistance to help straighten things out a bit, which was no inconvenience to me. Glad to help!

Talked to his sister today and he's in the hospital, and may not pull thru.