Saturday, February 28, 2009

Out and About

The creek feeding the marsh allowed for an area of open water, giving some Canadian Geese a place to rest. Wednesday turned out to be a positively delightful respite weather wise. Even the morning temperatures were warm enough only to need a sweatshirt on an outing to check out all the noise from Hendrickson Marsh three quarters of a mile away. 1996 Ford F-250 Timber Life gained a different set of 4x4 wheels on January 24th, to help traverse the terrain . Sure do appreciate what a machine can do. ;) This year proved to be a challenge, even with a tractor to maintain our travel route. The diesel fuel, for the first time in 6 1/2 years of tractor ownership, had a problem providing sure performance, even with winter additives. We were not the only ones to fall victim to the evil malady of "gelling". It is just hard to tolerate when things are so awful cold and the tractor quits working a quarter of a mile from the nearest stationary plug-in. You would think with the piece of iron coming out of Russia it would start in all kinds of cold, but it isn't to be. It sat until a day got up to 25 and the portable generator turned over to get the block heated up so the oil would move. Encouragement comes now that we can see the end of the drifts that had us driving through the field to gain access to home from forays to the outside world. Things are looking a bit rutty still, but there are signs this week of warmer temperatures. Maybe some wind to give us some drying. Then the Belarus 572 can once again "Spring" into action to create a smoother ride...;)