Synchronized Skating

 We had a lovely snow day yesterday. It was good to see some decent snowfall for a change. I get depressed looking at dead plants. The dormant roots that have been shivering in the bare soil are now tucked cozily under a thick, clean blanket where they can sleep until spring, maybe. It is supposed to stay cold for a while. It’s a comfort that we can still get seasonally appropriate weather.

Heavy snow

The boys had the right idea —curl up and sleep while the snow falls. There’s a great deal of peer pressure to take naps when cats are around. I almost succumbed yesterday, but got up and checked a few things off my to-do list instead.

Best plan for a snow day

The birds were hungry. The snow covered up the sunflower seeds that were on the ground, and the feeder was empty. Not much variety this time of year, mostly juncos, un-gold goldfinches, house finches. I saw a tree sparrow, identifiable by the dark spot on the chest.

Tree sparrow, left; junco, right

A male downy woodpecker worked on the last bits of seeds in the bottom of the feeder, as did a junco.

The red spot on the back of the woodpecker's head identifies it as male.

The weather report said we had 5” of snow. It shoveled more like 12”. It wasn’t heavy, praise be, but it was deep.

A "generous" five inches of snow on the deck

The glass greenhouse had squinty eyes, undoubtedly because of the brightness of the snow.

Squinty eyes on the greenhouse

The door to the coop was open when I went out to do the chores this morning, but only junco tracks were in the snow. Wussy chickens.

Coop door open; only junco tracks in the snow

I shoveled out the snow in front of the door and put down some scratch grains. The Wyandotts and Goldie got right on it. A Dominique looked out the door and said, “You have got to be kidding me,” and went back inside.

Bonnie, Dottie, and Goldie eat scratch grains; Dominique hesitates in the doorway

As much as the girls hate walking in the snow, they LOVE eating snow. It is hard to get my work done with the hens pecking at my boots.

Brownie and Dottie peck at the snow on my boots

Meanwhile, Terry fired up the snowblower to do the driveway. When I was done with the chickens, I tidied up around the garage door where the snowblower won’t fit. I also shoveled a path from the basement door to the box where we keep the sunflower seeds and over to the feeder so I could refill it. I also dug down to where the seeds on the ground were. I barely got into the house before the juncos were back.

A man and his snowblower

Terry heard on the radio that the regional synchronized skating championships were going to be in Rockford this week. We’d never heard of synchronized skating, but we had fun at a skating competition in Buffalo, so we took Friday off to go.

The two regions in the competition were Midwest (makes sense) and Pacific (??). There were only five teams that made it all the way from the west coast, and each category got four medals (gold, silver, bronze, and pewter). Almost everyone’s a winner! There were lots of teams from the Midwest.

Synchronized skating is like synchronized swimming. There aren’t any jumps like in individual or pairs figure skating, but there are spins. The trick is to get 9 to 21 people to do the same thing at the same time. Not easy. Lines form and reform. Most groups had two lines pass through each other. Only two teams attempted skating in a figure 8 with the skaters passing each other at the intersection between the two loops.

Each routine started with a huddle. Most of the skaters were white girls. Even the group from Chicago did not have any girls of color. That didn’t seem right. My assumption that this sport would be cheaper than figure skating was wrong. Terry chatted up one of the vendors in the hallway during a break and discovered that the skates run $1200 a pair. Egad. Price probably excludes a lot of girls. Too bad. It seems like a good sport, with exercise, discipline, working with others, and no concussions. Probably a lot of butt bruises, though.

Huddle

After the huddle, the team set up to begin and waited for the music. This group had more elaborate outfits than most. A fair number of teams dressed in black.

Waiting for the music

Here they are doing a pretty good job of spinning in unison. The photo shows less synchrony than we could detect live.

Spinning not quite synchronously

Here is another group with colorful uniforms. This one includes a boy, who is taller and is not wearing a skirt.

A boy at the left

Most groups skated in parallel rows for part of their program.

Parallel lines

The better groups skated in lines going around in circles.

Windmill lines

It didn’t take us long to be able to tell which groups were better than others. This team had not only the fanciest uniforms (which reminded us of Irish dancers), but also had the tightest synchrony.

Fancy uniforms, tight formations

Spinning

Between every five or six teams, there was a break to groom the ice.

Here comes the Zamboni

Some aspects of the competition reminded me of Girl Scout Conventions, like when groups from a particular place all wore yellow feathers in their hair. Or this group, all of whom sported tiny witch’s hats. Their team competed in black with faux-tattered skirts.

Tiny witch hats

We saw a Skater Mom walking around with a toothbrush and a giant jar of goo. Terry solved the mystery when he saw her putting goo on a girl’s hair. Every single girl on the ice, by the way, had long hair in a bun.

Skater Mom with hair goo

At the end of a class, there were awards. The entire team was called to the ice and lined up behind two girls standing on a podium designed for one. Medals were awarded to the two on the podium. The other team members already were wearing them. After that, they had their pictures taken as individual teams. The woman coordinating all this movement skated as if she had been born with skates on her feet. Finally, the girls from each team knelt down and kissed the ice. Hmm. How did that tradition start?

Awards podium

We watched for about four hours then headed for home before it got dark. We worried unnecessarily about drifting snow. It was smooth sailing.

Terry gave a good summary of the day: All of those girls got to be a princess for a day.

 

Winter days

 Some folks don’t mind an unseasonably warm winter, but those who work the land understand that cold has a purpose. Being one of the latter, I am relieved that winter has returned. We expected colder temperatures than we’ve had, but it was 26°F this morning, cold enough to freeze the soil. Freezing partially sterilizes the soil, knocking back fungi, bacteria, and invertebrate pests. Cold temperatures keep perennial plants in dormancy, too. Few things are worse for a fruit crop than buds that break too soon and get frosted when the temperatures return to normal lows. If would be fine with me if the ground stayed frozen from now until the end of February. Judging from the weather forecast, it seems unlikely.

We had a dusting of snow this morning. I’d like to see more, enough to cover the grass and make the world look clean and bright again. I’m so tired of brown, black, and tan beneath gray, drizzling skies.

Morning snow

The chickens, as I have mentioned, don’t like to walk in the snow. Last, we had another light snow, which quickly melted in subsequent rain. It was not enough to deter the girls. Note that they have completely eaten out the pumpkin Terry gave them a few weeks ago.

The girls venture out in light snow

This morning, I had to scrape the snow aside before they would come out of the coop, even though I brought a special treat. Carrot peels! Best day ever!

I learned a new word yesterday: subnivean. It means “under the snow.” I read it in the Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine. The meadow vole is subnivean. I knew that. When heavy snow pack melts down in the spring, I can see voles darting around in their tunnels at the interface between the soil and the snow. When I was out for my walk yesterday, I found a network of tunnels on the soil surface. The voles were busy after the one snow storm we’ve had. If we do get more snow this week, perhaps they will use these tunnels again.

Subnivean tunnels exposed by snow melting

Meanwhile, cold weather makes my thoughts turn to slow cooking. Pot roast was on sale at Jewel. I know beef has a huge carbon footprint, but we have cut back a lot. I’m embarrassed to admit this is more about inflation than ecological correctness, but it’s still less beef, right?

Pot roast in slow cooker #1

While I was in the slow cooking mode, I made chicken stock. When we butchered last summer, I cut up about half of the chickens and froze the pieces separately. It’s nice not to have to deal with a whole chicken all the time. I put all the backs together in a big bag. I love using the backs for stock. All of those little bones have cartilage in between them. Cartilage dissolves in the stock to give it a silky mouth feel. When I bake a whole chicken, Terry always wants to eat the back. I don’t understand. Why have mostly bones when you could have a meaty thigh or leg?

Chicken backs in slow cooker #2

When I was straining the bones out this morning, I noticed that there was actually quite a lot of meat. I regrated not picking the meat off after I roasted the backs. I have become my mother. Note: I like the flavor and color of stock made with roasted bones. If the meat is to be eaten, it has to be removed after the roasting and before the simmering. The long simmering sucks all the flavor and moisture out of the meat, turning it to sawdust.

In my winter boredom, I have been ordering things online. Also bad for my carbon footprint. Good for the cats, though. They have been having the best time with this box. I have no idea why they always want to try to get at each other through the cracks. Must be more of a challenge.

A different sort of cat box

Kate came back from Christmas in Oshkosh with a jigsaw puzzle for me, “because January is long.” The connection is that I brought her some Petoskey stones from Lake Michigan after I went back to Michigan for my 40^th high school reunion. Petoskey stones are bits of fossilized coral and are the state stone of Michigan. Not that under the picture it says, “The Insanity Series” and “1000 pieces.”

New jigsaw from Kate

Jane came for a visit and pot roast supper yesterday. While Terry watched football, we worked on the puzzle. We started by separating the edge pieces and turning all the pieces right side up. We soon realized we had nowhere near enough room on the card table for all 1000 pieces and put some back in the box. After 2 hours, this is what we had gotten done.

And after 2 hours...(if you look closely in the top left, you can see two little Banjo eyes)

It is truly insane! The pieces are shaped weirdly, the pattern is difficult, and, I discovered after Jane went home, the edge pieces sometimes don’t interlock—they abut, and are locked together by a middle piece. This is going to keep me busy way past January! I think after I stare at it for a while, I will be able to see nuances in the colors of the stone that will help me put it together. It’s a good thing to watch during the playoffs, since I am now bored to death with football, but Terry is still riveted. Stay tuned!

North wind

My mother taught us a lot of poetry when we were young. These poems often come back to me, triggered by one thing or another. When I went for a walk Friday, the poem was this:

The north wind doth blow,

And we shall have snow,

And what will poor Robin do then, poor thing?

She’ll sit in the barn

And keep herself warm (Following Mom’s lead, we pronounced this to rhyme with “barn.”

Her head tucked under her wing.

Poor Robin would be seriously screwed if she’d waited this long to clear out. The north wind was certainly blowing. The temperature and the clouds were both low. But it was my day to walk, and walk I would, eyes watering and nose running like a faucet. I’m studying for a bone density exam at the end of February.

We had a dusting of snow Thursday night, which made for good tracking on the driveway. A wee beast (Mouse? Vole?) had made a run for it from one ditch to the next.

Wee tracks of a wee beast

A squirrel had run from the north oaks to the south. Squirrels are fast; it’s hard to see exactly what they are doing as their tails follow their bodies in graceful arcs. The prints tell the whole story. They land on their front paws then bring their back paws ahead of where their front paws were.

Squirrel tracks, with back paws ahead of front

I walked south first, keeping the wind at my back. In the rows of maple trees, a patch of ice had prints of some kind of canid. I looked them up when I got back to the house. Definitely not cat, which has even toe pads more or less in a straight row. Coyotes, dogs, and foxes all have the outer pads below the middle ones. I would need to know how big the prints were to make a determination. I don’t walk with a ruler.

Canid (dog family) tracks

Another wee beast ran along the same patch of ice, but probably not at the same time. No signs of struggle or blood on the snow.

Another wee beast

At the south end, there were deer prints. They had been through before the ground froze, as evidenced by the smeared track in the mud.

Deer prints

It was a good day to see where deer had bedded down. Their body heat would have melted the little bit of snow on the ground. There are numerous game trails into the woods. (Note to urbanites: “Game” here means “wild animals” rather than, say, “Monopoly.”) Most of them were undisturbed.

Undisturbed game trail

Finally, after walking into the bitter wind all the way to the north side of the property, I saw a game trail that had been used overnight. I didn’t see any deer beds, though.

Recently used game trail

I found deer beds in a surprising location—right at the edge of the field. I expected them to be in the shelter of the woods. Terry, a long-time hunter, pointed out that they like to be where they can see, hear, and smell trouble coming, i.e., out in the open. The deer was facing left. The melted spot is wider at the shoulder and curved around the back with the front knees sticking out. It would have slept with its head resting on its body.

Deer bed. The deer was facing left, back at the top of the picture, front knees sticking out to the bottom left.

I saw three more beds along the edge of the field. This also violated an assumption of mine, namely, that they would sleep in a tight group. Clearly what I know about deer wouldn’t fill a thimble.

Three (maybe four) sleeping spots along the edge of the field

The snow was not so deep that the chickens wouldn’t come out of the coop. I was spared shoveling. They didn’t like the wind ruffling their feathers, though, and hung out in the shelter of the kennel much of the day. At least they weren’t making a mess in the coop.

Many of the hens prefer to stay out of the wind

After two laps around the perimeter, I was more than ready to go inside and warm up. Banjo’s new trick is to crawl underneath the blanket on Jane’s chair.

Banjo finds a way under the blanket

How can I get mad at such a cute little face?

Once Banjo is under, Bingo has to investigate.

Hey, what's going on over here?

And both of them need to be expelled before they get fur all over the chair. We are tucking in the blanket more vigorously. We ruin all their fun.

They don’t seem to have long memories. Soon they were wrestling on the floor.

The fight begins

They are especially fond of kicking each other in the head.

Mutual head kicking

Yet through all these attacks and counterattacks, they never make a sound—not a hiss, growl, or meep. If someone kicked me in the head, I’d have something to say about it!

 

 

How Cats Train Us

A definite perk of getting the cats is that when I’m at a loss for a blog post, I can always get some cute cat pictures. Jane says you can’t have too many cute cat pictures.

Cats don’t talk, yet they are adept at letting their owners (or staff, some would argue) what they want. When we first got the cats, we got a cat tree for them. We put it in the basement because that was where they stayed for the first couple of weeks as they got acclimated. We still put them in the basement at night so they can run around without disturbing us. The cat tree stayed where it was.

When Farm and Fleet was having a 20% off sale, I bought a second cat tree for the study so the cats could hang out with me when I was working in there. The tree had a half pipe on the top and a shelf underneath. Two spots, two cats. That should work out, shouldn’t it? I knew I was being overly optimistic on that one. Only the half pipe afforded a look out the window. Still, both cats didn’t have to be in the study at the same time. There were plenty of comfortable places to sleep in the living room.

Of course, watching me type is quite fascinating. Even more importantly, the study window faces east and would get morning sunlight if the sun ever shines again. The cats had An Issue.

No room in the half pipe

Without adequate room for both of them, one of them, in this case, Banjo, sprawled on my desk. From my perspective not ideal.

Alternate resting spot. Not ideal.

Worst yet, the moment I left the room, Banjo took over my chair! We definitely had an inadequate number of cat trees.

That's MY chair! Dude, you have gone too far!

Farm and Fleet was having another sale. Jane and I checked three different stores and finally located a matching tree in Sycamore. She picked it up for me and delivered it Friday.

The boys took to the trees like flies to poop. First they both faced the windows.

One tree each, facing the window in parallel positions

Then Banjo noticed that Bingo needed to have his head groomed.

Let me tidy you up a little

Later in the morning, they both faced the hallway. I have not yet seen them oriented in opposite directions.

What are YOU looking at?

After I finished my email, I got up to brush my teeth. When I got back, Banjo was standing on the keyboard. I shooed him off and saw the outcome. His first Google search! They grow up so fast.

Banjo's first search

I am not surprised that a long string of 5s followed by a long string of semicolons did not produce any search results. I wonder, however, why “90I form Louisiana printable” is a related search.

A few days ago, Banjo discovered how to crawl inside the pillowcase covering a cat bed in the living room. Unclear on the concept. The pillowcase is supposed to keep the cat hair off the bed, as a pillowcase is a good deal easier to wash than a cat bed.

Banjo in the pillowcase

It didn’t take Bingo long to follow suit.

Bingo in the pillow case

But what’s really fun is when one cat, in this case Banjo, gets in the pillowcase

Banjo's tail sticking out of the pillowcase

and the other jumps him. Remind me again—why do we spend money on cat toys?

And Bingo jumps him

Just one more thing to report this week. I bought myself an Aerogarden for Christmas this year. I’m not sure why it’s called an Aerogarden because it is, in fact, a hydrogarden. In any case, my first lettuce is 25 days old and growing rapidly. I am finally living the dream of growing greens in the winter!

First lettuce from the Aerogarden