Feb. 3-9, 2019

Weather | 2/3, 44°, 51° | 2/4, 27°, 51° | 2/5, 15°, 27° | 2/6, 0.28" freezing rain, 21°, 29° | 2/7, 9°, 27° | 2/8, 0°, 15° | 2/9, 3°, 26° |

• On Sunday (2/3) Mary watched coyote hunters. They always seem to show up on Super Bowl Sunday. Three pickups were parked on the gravel road, just south of our property. She said she walked down the lane and watched them with binoculars. A small coyote ran across the road and into our woods. A minute, 30 seconds later, 3 dogs came following the scent. The dogs lost the coyote in our woods. Mary said no hunters shot rifles onto our property. She thinks them seeing her with glasses on them prevented that. Mary said Churchill got upset. He hates coyote hunting hounds.
• The warm weather melted all but snow patches on the north side of woods.
• On Tuesday (2/5), we fired up the tractor and cut firewood in the woods north of the bins/machine shed. 
• After we unloaded the wood, it started misting and raining, instantly freezing. I texted Shane, since I probably wouldn't make it to work, when I was supposed to open the store at 8 AM. We decided that I'd switch with Mary Moffet. She works my hours on Wednesday (2/6) and I'll work her hours on Friday (2/8).
• On Wednesday (2/6), I started this new blog on this website. I also cut Mary's hair. Ice never melted and weather prediction is for 0.2" ice accumulation overnight.
• Thursday (2/7) started with freezing rain, then mist, sleet, and snow flurries. Mary & I walked to the gravel road. There's no rock on the road, due to the roadgrader from the dairy west of us taking several passes to clear snow off, so it's a solid sheet of ice, without any gravel for tires to grip to. I texted Shane to let him know I wasn't coming to work. He asked me to contact dog training clients to cancel today's class, which I did. Mary made 4 loaves of bread. I vegetated in front of the stove with dogs & cats.
• Friday (2/8) the sun warmed the east and south facing windows of vehicles enough for me to open the driver's side door of the Cadillac. I started it and ran it for 30 minutes to melt the 1/4" of ice off windows. Then, I made a test run to the pavement and back home. It was hairy...shear ice...but slight traction from cold temperatures, and they sanded/salted County Road J. I got ready and went to work. Dropped off our Cadillac payment at 1 bank and a reimbursement Petco check for a hotel stay in Quincy a few weeks back at our main bank. Shane sold me 6 outdated boxes of Purina Pro dog food for $4.50, which would have been well over $100...advantage to working at Petco. Our garbage pickup service hasn't been by for 3 weeks, so I dumped the latest bag of garbage into the Petco bin after I clocked out at 9:30, then drove home just fine. The Caddy has amazing torque and traction on ice.
• Saturday (2/9) the sun melted ice so that the gravel road was mostly open. I shopped after I got off work at 7:30 PM.