Pax and I disapprove of it.

Ice is being made at the rate of about an inch an hour on every body of water north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but it is way too cold to use any of it... I put Musher's Secret on Pax's paws and we made it around the big block, but we were both hurting by the time we got home....Mimi took advantage of cabin fever to cook up a nice dinner for us, and for the NieSeven (not that the younger members really like chicken yet)....And we have a real starling problem....see below.

This is the Canadian Hemlock planted four years ago and given up for dead. It's thriving, and actually likes this kind of weather.

Starlings have made bird feeding unpleasant. They are big, aggressive, and voracious. To counteract them, we are switching down to smaller, and less fancy food, and putting pinwheels around the feeder. If that doesn't work I'm going to Walmart and getting a shotgun—I've heard they are free with any purchase of $20/or more.