So happy mandolin is an "inside" sport!

[Ken Olmstead]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[MikeEdgerton]

It's 80 degrees in New Jersey...

I had to look and see where you were that you had snow....

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

Yeah, sorry, I was trying to use the "Tonemonster's" way of starting a thread. What can I say..I bow to the master! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif There is now over eighteen inches and it is still coming down at about an inch per half hour. My wife won't let me leave Alaska!!! Something about her family blah, blah, blah. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif This is very unusal this late in the season even for Alaska!!

[MikeEdgerton]

Springtime in Alaska... Hey, it's a beautiful state when you can see it.

[KNP String Band Mando]

Im in PA and got extremely sunburnt yesterday...Ill take some snow!

[Ken Olmstead]

You can have all the snow you want cause I would like to burn until I peel at this point!!! 7.5 inches in 2 hours and still coming down!

Seriously, it is very pretty outside. I shouldn't complain, at least it looks like it is noon out there at 7pm!

[JEStanek]

I tell you what, you post a photo of your scene tomorrow, and I'll post one of my redbud. That ought to cover the extremes. My redbud (in the Philly burbs) is about at it's blossom peak this weekend. Earlier this week some other trees were shedding white blossoms... looked almost like bigger snow flakes. Good luck, man.

Jamie

[Bryan Monarch]

NNNOOOO! Tenorbanjoguy, I just heard about that from my parents, I have to go back to the AK from college in a week. I don't want to!!! I was hoping I'd get back and just get to go straight to work!
Bryan

[Ken Olmstead]

Front yard.

[Ken Olmstead]

Back yard #1

[Ken Olmstead]

Back yard #2 http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

NNNOOOO! Tenorbanjoguy, I just heard about that from my parents, I have to go back to the AK from college in a week. I don't want to!!! I was hoping I'd get back and just get to go straight to work!
Bryan
Given this time of year, most of this should be gone when you arrive...I sure hope!!

[cooper4205]

makes me have a new appreciation for Tennessee! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Daniel Wheeler]

Good old hot and humid southeast Texas gulf coast

[Ken Olmstead]

I'm hating life now but I will check back with you boys in July!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

We are now at 21" and it is STILL snowing!!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[Joel Spaulding]

I will happily trade ALL my Kentucky summers for your snow, Paypal accepted and I will graciously pay the 3%. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Enjoy the beauty while it lasts!

[Keith Newell]

I used to live in Alaska years ago in Eagle River, just north of Anchorage about 15 miles. It was way back when they had only one flashing stoplight in town. All my cousins live there from Fairbanks down to Homer. My Mom lives in Anchorage. I used to mine a gold mine claim just 5 miles south of Denali (Mt. McKinley). Hard times during winter and spring there is about summer everywhere else timewise.
Looks like the scene when I snowmachined up Talketna pass and Big lake. The cold weather was hard but it's something you never will forget if you leave the most beautiful state. Used to be 5 or 10 degrees out and you were outside in tennis shoes, levis, a decent jacket and of coarse always a stocking type hat...you had to breathe in throught your nose and out your mouth to keep from freezing your lungs on the real cold days below zero.
#Thanks for the cool video and letting us hear good playing and beautiful landscape behind you.
Keith

[Ken Olmstead]

Thanks guys that helps! I could never leave here permenantly but I like to whine about it occaisonally. It is 10:30pm here and I just finished snowblowing the drive for the third time today and I did it in the light!!! Probabaly about 5-6pm where you guys are light wise. Pretty neat! However, it is still snowing!!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Ken,judging from your photos just how beautiful it is where you live,i'll take all the snow you've got & the rest to come,that's a seriously gorgeous looking place,
Saska

[Hans]

We have a dusting of snow so far in Mpls, but St. Cloud is supposed to get anywhere from 8-15" today. Last week we had 70's and T-storms. That's Minnesota.

[MikeEdgerton]

Oh oh. If you got it Hans, we may still get it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[F5G WIZ]

HEy Smokey, I had a friend pretty big in the Alaska Bluegrass scene just die last week up there. Did you know Dan Ison? Guitar/Banjo/Mandolin picker extaordinair.

[Bill Snyder]

When we got home last night it looked like it had "snowed" leaves. The hail had knocked leaves out of the trees to the point of covering roofs, yards and streets.
I was looking at the cars parked on the streets as I walked the dogs this morning and they are covered with dimples from the hail.

[coletrickle]

Even with all of the snow I would trade you for flat as a board Northwest Ohio...

[Steve-o]

tenorbanjoguy - That's a great video of you on the snowmobile! #Really captures the Alaska culture. #I checked out your Youtube page. #Love the log cabin in Remembering Pearl... It was 78 degrees in northern Michigan yesterday and is supposed to snow for the next 2 days, but nothing like you got. Those short winter days must get depressing but the long days you have now have to help. #Good luck digging out... Nice picking by the way!

[Mark Walker]

We have a dusting of snow so far in Mpls, but St. Cloud is supposed to get anywhere from 8-15" today. Last week we had 70's and T-storms. That's Minnesota.
Hans - I hear you! Near-record high of 82 here yesterday in West Michigan; today's 'highs' are going to be 40 degrees COOLER and 'accumulating snow' tomorrow and Tuesday. The joys of Michigan are about like those of Minnesota!

[Dalton Maples]

Well tenor,

You know my feelings on being back in Anchorage. This late of a snow or for that matter the last three snows you guys have had might have p---d me off. I just cleaned the travel trailer all day to be ready for "FESTIVAL" season.

That's is a big snow even for the dead of winter. It will probably rival the St. Pattys Day snow in 03 or was it 02?

Don't want a hand cramp from running the throttle too much on the snow blower! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Dalton

[Michael H Geimer]

No snow here in WNC. Just spring, spring, and more spring! Mandolin playing is most certainly an outdoor activity these days.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t206/mgeimer/Meadow_View.jpg

- MG

[JEStanek]

As promised. My Redbud from the front yard. It sprouted something more interesting this year. I hope it matures into a mandola or mandocello by fall!

[JEStanek]

A closer shot of the blossoms

Tenorbanjoman,
We can find beauty where ever we are. We had so little snow these past two years I may trade with you... and then find myself hating the shoveling. You may want to trade with me for warm sun and flowers... and then be hating the pollen as I am now! I'm seeing beauty in all these photos.

Jamie

[Fred Keller]

North of Hans about 100 miles it's a cross between the Amazon Basin and McMurdo Station. We had 70 degrees on Wed like Hans said. Then 2 days of solid rain, not heavy but steady to the point that the pond overflowed its banks. I wake up today to a blanket of white that continues to come down. The ground is so oozy you can just about see the robins go down like a Mastodon into LaBrea.

Ick.

"Spriiiiingtime is here my darlin..."

[Steve-o]

Jamie - That's some sweet Redbud, but looks like sweet pea to me.

[Ken Olmstead]

You guys are the best! It finally stopped at 22"! That redbud is beautiful!! My wife is a master gardener so this is hitting her hard. She just curled up into the fetal position last night and finished the last Harry Potter book!! I agree about the incredible beauty here and I do take it for granted. After 41 years, I guess I am a little callous towards it. I will follow Jamie's lead and ad some mando content to the thread....

[Jim Kirkland]

Lived in AK 5 yrs, great memories. Hated the pipeline boom. Remember only one time that a severe weather hit, and everything shut down, how about 13 inch snow in 1 hr, couldn't see anything but snow. Was in the army and we were just trying to get people in the shelter. Well now we live in NM and the sand and wind is really bad in the spring. Just don't want to be out when the wind is hitting constant 50 +. So I just hide in and work on some music stuff. Enjoy the fishing and keep the mando close, it could keep the bears away and draw friends. I wounder what it would do to the big misquito the keeps bussing around the head. A guy who is homesick for East Tennessee and AK and here in Southern NM.

[Clyde Clevenger]

Sitting on my front porch picking a few tunes Saturday before last, 80 degrees, sun shining, beer and bbq going, I called my sister in Duluth. HA! She was thrilled that the worst part of the storm missed them and she only had 11 inches of snow on her deck.
Now it does rain now and then here in Orygone, but so far I haven't had to shovel it.

[Dagger Gordon]

Even been outside picking today in the Scottish Highlands. Starting to get long nights now.

[Clyde Clevenger]

Bushes blooming in Salem this morning.

[Chief]

We only got 6 inches of new snow here in Northern Minnesota, but some areas Northwest of here were expecting 12 to 15 inches by tonight. You don't have to go to Alaska to get ###### weather! Sorry I can't send pictures.

[Steve L]

Wow, I just cut my grass for the first time this year here in greater Boston. I thought we had a long winter!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Well,spring has sprung albeit a wet one over here in the UK. But the cherry trees in my back yard have eased themselves into blossom.
I also have 3 small Oak trees that i've grown from acorns in pots. My wife asked me why i wanted to grow oak trees.I told her that when they got bigger,i wanted to build a cabinet.The bemused expression on her face was priceless !,
Saska

[Ken Olmstead]

I am drooling over these pictures of spring now more than any mandolin you could put in front of me. Beautiful flowers! Makes me want to have my mandolin painted by "The Fool!" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Daniel Wheeler]

I'd post a pic of where I am but unless you like smog and pollution I don't think it would do you much good...

[Bernie Daniel]

Great string!

Just for the record folks that tenorbanjo guy telling you where he is from with his avatar -- the state flag! #I remember first seeing that on the front page of a magazine like "Life" or "Look" - or maybe a news mag. -- was it back in like 1959?

These huge late snowfalls and extremely heavy snowcover and temps are the begining of a serious wedge into the golbal warming hysteria. #

Analysis shows that the global temperature has not risen since 1997 while CO2 has continued to increase. #

Thus many are starting to pay a lot more attention to the German theory that indicates the earth is really on track for global COOLING big time -- ala the Little Ice Age of circa 1600 - 1790 A.D. #

This was thought to be due to a second sun cycle with a very long period. #The Germans say it has cycled back around and we now can expect 2 centuries of cold!

Little Ice Age (http://www.answers.com/topic/little-ice-age?cat=technology)

Wonder if some will have to give back their Nobel prizes! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Kevin, the tenorbanjoguy, is on the leading edge. #

Be sure to plan a visit with Kevin in the Alaskan summer -- July 4th to July 6th every year -- before his summer is shortened by the cold! #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

Funny, in the early 70s there was talk of moving into an ice age. It was a pretty big as I remember it as a kid. I can tell you that I used to throw stones at Portage Glacier and hit it as a boy. It has receded completely out of view and you now have to take a boat to see the ice calve. I am not sure of the distance, too lazy to look it up, but it is probably several miles. It amazes me every summer to drive out and NOT see it! Such a big thing to disappear. I will leave the causes to the scientists and hysteria to the media and just try and be a cleaner, lower impact person.

Actually, the streets are complately back to pavement and this snow doesn't look like it will take more than a week or so to disappear. But it has been an unusual spring.

Those cherry blossoms are a sight for sore eyes!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif I would love a couple more mandolins basking in springs glory shots!!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Two centuries of cold ! - We've just had that here in the UK - WE WANT WAAAAARMMMMMM !!!,
Saska

[Bill Snyder]

This is one of our signs of spring. When the deer start giving birth at the edge of your driveway spring is well underway and summer will soon be here.

[JEStanek]

Wow, Bill! Did the Jack Russel leave the fawn alone? I've never heard of one being born on a driveway! Do you live in a woody suburb or rural area? Don't pose the mando next to it.

Jamie

[Bertram Henze]

These huge late snowfalls and extremely heavy snowcover and temps are the begining of a serious wedge into the golbal warming hysteria.
Global warming is not expected to just make it warmer for everybody - they talk about a few degrees on average, that's not what you'd notice.

What you'd notice, on the other hand, and what is to be expected from global warming is a stronger heat transport by airstreams, because it decouples local temperature from season. In other words: any weather at any time of the year. This is only the beginning of an interesting age, featuring a certain lack of Florida (then below ocean level).

No need for hysteria - it'll all make entertaining footage, and you'd not even need TV. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Bertram

[Bill Snyder]

Jamie, I live in a small town just outside of Temple, TX on Belton Lake. One of my neighbors can feed some of the deer out of his hand while he pats their belly. I am not near that fond of the pesky critters, but the fawns are cute.
As for the Jack Russel, last year we were walking after dark when he came to something in his path at the edge of the street. I flashed the light on it and it was a new born fawn. He sniffed it and we kept on going. I have heard that new born deer do not have a sent. I am not sure how that can be, but Spud has a pretty good nose and that fawn did not interest him much. Squirrels, cats and foxes on the other hand get him stirred up. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[El Greco]

nice thread guys...

keep fessin' up http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Khmando]

Its supposed to be in the 70s here today in Colorado. Tomorrow its supposed to drop about 30 degrees! We're expecting a rain/snow mix on Thursday and Friday. I have an outdoor gig on Friday. We'll see if it still happens. I can't wait for spring to really start here!

[Links]

There are other activities much more conducive to "snow"!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/linksmkr/DSC_0263.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/linksmkr/DSC_0255.jpg
Below - same golf course (Royal Dornoch - Scotland) fifteen minutes earlier!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/linksmkr/DSC_0246.jpg

[Ken Olmstead]

Bill- that Fawn is awesome!! You know, I see baby moose in my yard all the time and I look at them like they are a bird or a squirrel or something! I really take too much stuff for granted sometimes. I MUST change that! Thanks!!

Linksmaker - the golf course in Scotland is priceless! Now that is what would make me get into Golfing!!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Links]

If you fly five thousand miles (I guess or more) to play golf #- #you play golf! #By the time you rolled your putt to the cup, it was about twice as big as when you first struck it.

We were there at the first of April and all of the weather was not like that. #Here is a view of the 18th hole from our hotel room (Rusacks Hotel) at the "Old Course" at St. Andrews. (Wonder why they would not let us reserve it for the next Open Championship there #- #at the present rate?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/linksmkr/DSC_0064.jpg

Photo of me and my son on the Swilcan Bridge (any resemblence to Jack Nicklaus is purely inciidental). #Matthew's drive on eighteen ended up in the "Valley of Sin", the large swale just short of the 18th green, about ten yards short of the green #- #a drive of about 340 yards!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/linksmkr/DSC_0117.jpg

[JeffD]

Alistair Begg once said he could not understand going fishing, especially with all those great golf courses you pass on the way.

[Links]

Mr. Begg was obviously a brilliant gentleman!

I heard an interesting story from George Peper (former editor of Golf Magazine) while in St. Andrews. He mentioned how difficult it has become to get a tee time on the Old Course, and a few years back an important match was to be played in St. Andrews between Jack Niclklaus (and maybe Arnold Palmer) for a well known charity. It was important enough for a bunch of American sports reporters to go over to cover it. It turned out that the Old Course was not available for the event, so it had to be staged at another course nearby. As Furman Bisher (fine old sports editor of the Atlanta Journal) and another reporter were about to leave their hotel for the match, someone said they had a tee time at the Old Course and invited them to join them. After very little thought, they decided that the match was not all that important after all, and would rather play golf than watch.

Upon returning to their hotel later in the afternoon, with golf bags on their shoulders, an embarrassed Furman Bisher ran right smack into Nicklaus in the lobby. When asked by Nicklaus where they had been during the match, Bisher replied, "we've been playing the Old Course - I understand you were not able to get a tee time".

Nicklaus just laughed, and surely understood the lure to play golf at the Old Course rather than watch him!

OK - back to mandolins! Sorry!

[Bertram Henze]

Haven't the Scotch golfers a backup system for cold weather? I think it's called Curling...:D

Bertram

[man dough nollij]

Funny thread. Hmph.
Lee
McMurdo Station
(currently -17F with 30kt winds, mild for early winter)
Pretty soon, it'll be gettin' cold.

[Dagger Gordon]

What date were the Dornoch pics taken, do you know?

That's near where I live. You really can get 4 seasons in a day in the spring.
I'm busy lambing sheep then. You can get anything from blizzards to wearing shorts all day. I met my wife in 1980, and she did the lambing with me in 1981 and 1982 when the weather was fantastic. She thought it was always going to be like that. 1983 wasn't bad either. However, after we married in Oct 1983 we seemed to get years of wretched springs and very tough lambings. She thinks she was tricked!

[Links]

David (Dagger):

The Dornoch photo was taken this year on April 5th - and you are right - we got all four seasons in the space of about four hours. One of the caddies was quite optomistic regarding the weather forecast as he had on short pants. I took my rain gear (snow gear) off and put them back on at least three times during the round.

You are indeed lucky to live near Dornoch - one of my favorite places (and golf courses) in the entire world. I wonder if you are related to an old American golf course architect by the name of Dave Gordon!

[Dagger Gordon]

I suppose I might be related to Dave Gordon. Did you play in Tain at all, just south of Dornoch over the bridge?

I live about 20 mins from Dornoch, 10 mins from Tain. My dad was a very good golfer, captain of Tain Club actually, but I don't seem to have much time with farming, music (we play Skibo Castle, near Dornoch quite often) and family life.

Good to hear from you.

[Ken Olmstead]

Funny thread. Hmph.
Lee
McMurdo Station
(currently -17F with 30kt winds, mild for early winter)
Pretty soon, it'll be gettin' cold.
Oh man, YOU WIN!! How about a picture? Do you have a mando with??

[man dough nollij]

This was taken on the day of the last sunset (April 25th). After that, the sun never breaks the horizon, at least until August sometime. A coworker shot this-- I think he pasted that moon in there. At the time it was about -10F and blowing about 25kts. I was out taking antennas off the roofs of buildings at Pegasus, the "blue ice" runway on the ice shelf. Brrr.

[Ken Olmstead]

Now THAT is a desolate looking place. Get to play much mandolin or is it all work? How long are your "stints" there?

[man dough nollij]

I'm down here for the winter (Feb 18- Oct 1), so it's a stretch. No flights in or out for four months, and pitch dark for three months. I brought a Weber Sweet Pea down with me, but it has been sick from the extreme dryness (see other threads). Thankfully, I have access to a couple of very cheap plywood pac-rim jobs, so my winter won't be completely mandoless. Lots of time to play, too. Good thing-- I need all the practice I can get.

P.S.: I grew up in AK-- Anchorage, Big Lake, Wasilla, Fairbanks... 1972-1987

[JEStanek]

Lee,
I have a nice (warm) connection to Antarctica. My Botany Prof at Virginia Tech had done research in Antarctica and was able to name a mountain after his bride (Mt. Christine). I'm a night person but, I don't know if I could handle the long dark down there. Good luck and keep picking. Don't watch any John Carpenter movies.

Jamie

[man dough nollij]

A hero shot, on top of 1882, a mountain overlooking the McMurdo Dry Valleys, where your professor may have worked.

[Ken Olmstead]

Man that is sooooooo amazing!!! Look out, the THING is RIGHT behind you and he is disguised as your coworker!!! I would demand a blood sample from everyone there and touch the blood with a hot mandolin string heated from a super uptempo version of Rawhide!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif #Jamie, your hysterical!!!!!!!

Fairbanks is not too different than what you have there except it is flatter and it has people. Did you graduate high school in AK? If so, maybe you could PM which one and year. Just a curious Alaskan veteran!

[Links]

man dough #- #did you take your golf clubs? #Never mid, if you flew Britsh Airways, they would have lost them anyway!

[JEStanek]

If he did bring them I hope he has orange golf balls!

Jamie

[Lefty5]

tenorbanjoguy, where are you at in AK? I just moved to CA after 14 years there in Anchorage.

[Ken Olmstead]

Lefty - I am in Anchorage. What took you to Califoria? I would love to live in Monterey but pretty expensive to do so. I bet you don't miss late springs anymore! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Lefty5]

Hey I just checked out your vids. I remember doing some jamming with you at the Folk Fest and seems like at someones house... Maybe Bill Mac's? I used to play banjo with him in the Leftover Biscuits. I play lefty banjo which singles me out pretty easily. Sure do miss the good jams in Alaska. I married a Cally girl so had to move down here. Still have my house up there though so come back in the summers for a bit.:)

[Ken Olmstead]

When you come back, PM me and we can get together. I will be that guy that shows you the bad habits that a real teacher has to undo later!!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JD Cowles]

Still snowing in Colorado (we need the moisture). Those shots from Scotland reflect spring here to a 't'. The old saying is sooo true

"...if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes..."

[Ken Olmstead]

Follow up! Here it is about 12 days later!! What was all the whining about?? #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

I'll add that I beat my neighbor to the raking!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

Back yard.

[Ken Olmstead]

Last one. My beloved in the last patch of snow in the yard!!! Whahoo!!!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Lefty5]

I gotta say that raking 30 bags of snow-packed soggy birch leaves is NOT something I miss about Alaska.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Well,i'm glad to say that here in the UK after weeks of dismal rain,the last 3 days have been gloriously hot & sunny & all my pot plants (as in 'plants in pots')are coming on great. This was last years effort :-
Saska

[Joel Spaulding]

Saska,

Very nice "pot plants" indeed!
Perhaps the many years you invested in the banjo has paid off with a green thumb - or vice-versa?

Cheers,

Joel

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Joel - Thanks for the praise re.my 'POT' plants & i've certainly invested a lot of time in playing Banjo alright !. I've always seemed to be able to grow things,either from seed or cuttings.I think that ALL growing things are a delight. The Palm in the bottom right was a gift from the guys i used to travel to work with on my 'forced' retirement a year last November. Fortunately it's held up even in frosty weather.
I don't think you'd need to scratch much below the surface of most musicians to find a person who loves nature in all it's facets,
Saska

[Ken Olmstead]

I gotta say that raking 30 bags of snow-packed soggy birch leaves is NOT something I miss about Alaska.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif #Yeah, we raked pretty good in the fall so we only had 15 bags!!

Saska - Those "potted plants" are really nice! I agree most musicians have some depth to them and see beyond the obvious sometimes. I guess that's a good thing? # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

This is in response to the baby deer in the driveway!

One of those "take it for granted" things about where you live. There are at least 3 moose that resided in my neighborhood this winter. This yearling was eating the Mountain Ash tree across the street this morning when I woke up!

They are rather annoying to us sometimes since they like to eat the trees that we pay money for and not the ones that grow here for free!! It is amazing the sheer damage one of these things can do if you it them with your car!!

However, they are super cool to watch and we have plenty of opportunity,

I was too chicken to walk over and hang my mandolin in the tree for fear she might eat it!! Sorry Jamie! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[Keith Erickson]

Still snowing in Colorado (we need the moisture).
JD,

You've had some good snow fall up there this year. #My brother in law has had a great irrigation season this year because of all of the run off that you've given the Rio Grande.

Thanks #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Chris Travers]

I wish it would snow in Alabama! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[Ken Olmstead]

I wish it would snow in Alabama! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif
You guys get snow every now and then don't you??

[Ivan Kelsall]

I see that you've got your meat supply sorted out Ken - it walks up to your front door - COOL guy !. (only joking).
There's a scheme going on in Scotland to re-introduce some of the wild animals that used to live there a few hundred years ago. I think that currently they have re-introduced wild Boar & a few European Moose. There was a plan to re-introduce Wolves as well (all within a huge fenced area,i might add)but of course as usual,miles of red tape have been introduced as well,so things are on hold re.the Wolves for now,
Saska