Snow, Snow, Snow!

 Snow began to fall a couple of days ago...a little junko

 A towhee braced against the wind

 It's such a colorful little red-eyed bird!

 Junko

 Scrub jay eating suet: "Is it really worth all of this trouble for a frozen little bite of food?!!!"

 Bill is standing by our Tundra. We're getting ready to go to town.

 Mailboxes at the end of our lane

 We bundled up well! We did errands, ate at a restaurant, and took in an afternoon show. The life of a retiree! :-)

 Beautiful winter world!

 Cherry orchard near our home

 Christmas tree farm near our home

 After arriving in town, Bill scraped ice off the windshield.

 Next morning: varied thrush...first one this winter

 All of our boots were in the garage :-).

 Flip flops in the snow...

 NOW we are ready for the day!

 Looking out from our hill

Looking toward our shop

 Our deck

 Chestnut-backed chickadee

 A Robin too cold to plant both feet at the same time!

 Our birdbath

 Can you identify this bird now?

 Song sparrow

 Varied thrush defending his position on the paper plate full of seed!

 Looking out from our hill

 Bill is taking the weight off the deck. This is the most snow we've EVER had. However it is very "dry" and light. I can't even make a snowman (sniff, sniff).

 Paul's car

 Prickly fir bow covered in a soft cushion of snow

 Our walk to the neighbors

 Frozen grasses

 Looking down our lane (the tire tracks are from the night before when we returned from town; we saw several cars and trucks stuck in the snow, and the freeway was like a parking lot)

 One of my favorite oak trees just above our home

 This is my all-time favorite oak tree. It sits on our neighbor's property just over the fence. I hope they never cut it down. It has so much beauty and character!

 We have several madrona trees around our property. They shed much of their bark in the fall exposing beautiful, smooth, red limbs. The branches of these trees make wonderful bird perches for both tame and wild birds.

 Bill heading down to our house

 Wood that needs splitting

 Our home

 Shoveling more snow

Looking up at the wood shed from our deck

Trimming Our Trees

 Our nephew Derek brought a crew with him to clean up some trees on our property. It was amazing to see what they could do! Derek came with his dad, Delbert, his friend, Don, and Delbert's grandson, Jackson.

 Jackson was the "tree climber" who cut all of the limbs. He left sections of limbs in order to climb the tree and maneuver around. When he was finished with the tree, he cut these limbs close to the tree as he descended.

 We have been concerned about this tree above our house for some time. Derek said it was a healthy tree and he didn't think we needed to be concerned about it coming down in a storm. We were glad to get the limbs away from the house, though. Perhaps you can tell from the sky that there was a storm coming. Right after all of the guys left, it began to pour down rain and blow hard!

 It looked like hard work up there!

 Derek, Delbert, Bill, and Don kept the limbs cleaned up under the tree. I helped a little as well.

 Jackson took the limbs off of another tree in our field that was quite a mess. Several limbs had broken during past storms, and it was nice to see it all cleaned up.

This is not something you would catch me doing!