I can identify with that poem. My grandfather delivered milk via horse and cart in Oslo, Norway in the old days. Rain, shine and snow, the two of them would be out there doing their job(s). The horse knew the route by heart. My grandfather would climb on, give the horse a go ahead and it would stop at every stop. When a shop would close and a delivery was not needed, the horse would stop and look back at my grandfather, and would not budge until my grandfather rattled the milk bottles, pretended to deliver the bottles. It took weeks to train the horse not to stop at closed shops. Even so, the horse would look back as if to say "are your sure". It did not add miles but time. Time is precious.

Well...we went to the Gienow factory in Calgary the other day and got a bunch of windows from the clearance center (10 windows total...enough to replace all the old windows in the house (four are already done). They're all vinyl clad dual pane windows, all have parts that open, some slider and one crank. (And because we got them from the clearance area the total came to under 2 grand. (Most of which was covered by the glass insurance payout :-). The windows in the sunroom had been single pane, with several cracked, and two missing the glass completely, we've been meaning to fix/replace them ever since we moved in, but $$... So we've covered all the windows in the sun room with sheets of foam insulation for the past two winters. This year I'm actually going to get to keep the light!! Yeah!! And *of course* I'm bringing plants in for in front of the windows!! ;-) Oh...a new development today. DH and I went to home depot (for other things) and I saw light tan ceramic tile on for $0.99/sq ft...not my first choice, but the price was right. We were going to get two cases...but there was a bunch of mixed on the same pallet and a bunch of *really nice* natural slate tile (dark, with lots of greens and rusts...really nice...). So we asked an associate to show us which was the ceramic tile on sale...and when he looked he made an unhappy comment about the people who stocked the pallet, and said we could have anything we wanted on the pallet for $0.99/sq ft (because the sale items weren't there)....so we got 8 cases of the natural slate, and we're going to tile the two sides behind the wood stove, as well as under it. It should look very sharp!! So excited!! I will definately take some pics now and after. Probably post them together...since I don't have a digital and I'm just starting a new roll of film. (Hmmm....wonder how many years it'll take before kids don't know what film is...and I'll sound like this crazy old lady saying "You young 'uns don't know how easy you got it. Back in my day we took our pictures on a camera, big bulky things compared to what you got nowadays, that needed rolls of film to take your pictures..." ;-) Verena

Again, wonderful pics. What is it about the eyes of a bird of prey that just stun you for a moment? I have always liked looking into the eyes of barred owls because of their all-dark appearance, but the contrast of that deep golden yellow against the white plumage....it's so striking. For the record, Vonyon, I have seldom been able to walk up on an owl in the woods. I usually don't even know they are around until they are already swooping away to put some distance between us. THe times I have been close to them are the ones where I sat very very still and called them in. The first time this happened to me it was a big shock.I was bent over at the waist walking through knee deep water and shuffling my feet slowly to see what was living in the leaf litter. I had on a camo jacket and my face was not turned up and I guess the owl did not recognize me as a human. I was still bent over, staring at the water when I saw its reflection swoop in low and glide to a branch about 15 feet over my head. It was all I could do not to snap erect in surprise. Sometimes when I am alone in the woods, I mumble to myself, other times I might whistle or hum a song. Sometimes I am totally silent, but my favorite thing is to try and mimic animal noises and that day I had been hooting like a barred owl off and on for a few minutes. Kinda like singing in your car or talking to yourself in the bread aisle--things you do when no one else is around. Only I wasn't alone there in the creek and it was a shock when the owl showed up. And there I was stuck like a bent hairpin. I knew I had to eventually stand up but I knew the owl would see and probably hear any twitch. Luckily, by watching its reflection I noticed that every once it a while it would swivel its head around to the east to look at other things, and I would wait for that one moment and then raise my upper body bit by bit back to an upright position. I think now they call this Pilates.....it took a while of start and stop but I finally made it, but I was still looking down at the water. I have heard that even if you are well hidden from an animal, if they see your eyes it's all over. I waited again for the right moment, and then finally lifted my head to look directly at the bird while it was again turned east. When it spun back around and down to check on this strange lumpy hooting thing in the creek we were finally looking directly at each other. I could not believe those huge dark eyes, not at all like GHO eyes. Look right through you. Its head shifted a bit, and I don't know if it was my eyes or maybe a subtle twitch on my part but it had had enough of me. It flapped maybe three times and then dropped to a low glide off through the birches. I have only been this close to owls in a normal setting maybe three other times, and all three were responding to calls. But ahead of my experience in the creek I never knew it could work like that.

Minimum design "Ground Snow Load" is contained in charts by cities & towns in the 7th edition of the MA State Building Code. The single family portion is published separately and taken primarily from the 2003 IRC but there are sections unique to MA. The code comes in a 3.5" thick loose-leaf binder and can be purchased at the state bookstore at the statehouse in Boston for $35. It can also be seen online at the link below. Your location probably has the highest snow live load of 65 psf. For comparison Boston is 45 psf. If the dead load is 10 psf the total design load would be 75 psf. This number would be modified by roof slope, potential for drifted snow, etc. This is not a big issue for a typical house design because the building code rafter design tables take into consideration the ground snow load. As I mentioned before, in terms of waterproofing, the important issue is not the amount of snow but the extent of freeze-thaw cycles. Unless you have lived in snow country near the east coast you might not understand how destructive ice can be on a roof. You should use full coverage Ice & Water Shield roofing underlayment and put any gutters an inch below the projected plane of the roof surface. Personally, I would consider the Prairie Style the least practical house design for northeastern MA. I've designed ski resorts in the Rockies and the Alps and built houses in VT, NH, and ME. Snow is never the problem; it's ice and poor detailing that destroys houses. Wright might have been ahead of his time artistically speaking, but his stubborn, arrogant disdain for the practical aspects of building and the comfort of his clients is legendary. His houses were not only non-owner-friendly but were difficult to keep dry and warm and he didn't care. Personally, I think his net influence on the architecture of single family houses was negative. Check out the Westhope house in Oklahoma for a good example of how not to design a house. This is the house where he told the owner to move his desk when informed by phone that the roof was leaking on it. The man's wife when moving pots and pans around the living room to catch roof leaks in the newly completed house is quoted as saying that "This is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain". Here is a link that might be useful: MA State Building Code