A Short Post

It was 2 degrees below zero when I woke up this morning; 5 degrees below zero according to the thermometer on the other side of the house.

H was still coping with being sick this weekend and he was sleeping on the sleigh bed in the living room with the thermostat turned up, the pellet stove cranking, the sun on him, and a quilt. He woke to a noise. We walked around the house trying to identify its source and suspecting the involvement of cats.

We found shattered, nay, splintered glass all over the bedroom floor, and outside, there was a rather stunned partridge and a lot more glass. He or she had flown into the storm window (shattered), left feathers in the screen (dented), and shattered the inner pane of glass as well.

Thanks to our friends Matt and Derrick, there is now a sheet of insulation tucked into the place where the inner window was, held in by three of EE's file folders and the tension of the sash against the frame, and a brand new storm window that I bought in Rutland yesterday. There is a pane of glass waiting to be fit into the opening when the temps return north of 50 so the putty will hold (Spring?). I have a new sheet of shrink wrap plastic on the window, that I vowed never to use once I was in my own home. There are curtains on that window and the other bedroom window, and curtains on the living room windows to keep the weather outside (as I now have learned that there is little difference between the insulating value of glass and a few file folders!). There is a new electric heater in the basement keeping the water pump at 50 degrees (which seems to be as low as it goes). And....

I am cold. Did I say it is 2 below zero?  (Pretty ice patterns on the windows though).

P.S. No animals were harmed in the making of this post. The bird flew off to one of the maples when I went out to clean up the glass in the 50 mile an hour winds....
P.P.S. I said the bird was a partridge for convenience sake, but it had blue tail feathers...Not sure that it isn't actually a grouse...which is the way I feel.