Frozen Stance

I've just spent about 15 minutes outside, standing guard on the suet blobs on the generator as the chickadees came to and fro, picking up the food. I stood outside after waving off the blue jays from inside but the chickadees did not dare come down to get the blobs. So I stood outside and the chickadees started arriving. I just stood there stock still and they flew in and out gathering the goodies.

Was it cold? Oh yes; -4 degrees F. My nose and hands are very cold from standing like a statue beside the generator but the chickadees came and got all the food, flying off to the conifers with each piece snagged, either to stash their treasure or to eat.

It's also been a very disruptive three days with power going out pretty constantly. We are extremely fortunate to have a generator that keeps the house warm but the water goes off as the well house generator has to be run by hand. 

After another, mostly sleepless night as the generator went on and off at intervals in the night, with noisy fans sucking air out of the lowest level to avoid further carbon monoxide issues, today is not likely to be my most effective. But there were no more carbon monoxide warnings from the detectors.

To help with the fumes coming from the generator, yesterday I shoveled out the snow all around the area and made sure there was a path for the toxic fumes to dissipate outside. I had cleared the vents with each snowfall but it rapidly became clear that the high snow banks were holding the fumes in by the lower level. Even with weather stripping, the door to the outside allows cold air in. We also put a blanket down on the inside of the door to help keep the fumes out. It's the first time we have had outages this persistent and this long. I'm going to have to go down to the propane tank and check how much is left. If we are down to 25%, we will have to order more.

Looking forward to a thaw.