Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A Practice Post

I'm calling this a practice post because it's the first post I've ever created using my Toshiba Netbook. This coming Friday morning, my best blogging friend Lynne and I are heading north.....no, not to Alaska, but to Duluth, Minnesota for the 3rd Annual Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival. I'm taking my netbook along with the hope that I'll have some time to do posts of all the great birds I'm anticipating seeing over the weekend (and also because I can't bear the thought of being "off-line" for 3 whole days!) I'm taking a shuttle bus from Rochester to the Minneapolis airport where Lynne will pick me up. Amazingly enough, the shuttle service offers free Wi-fi, so if I don't feel like pulling some knitting needles and yarn out of my backpack, I can always pull out my netbook and check out what my friends are doing on Facebook or get caught up on some of my blog reading. Should be an interesting trip.....

So anyway back to this practice post.....I was able to plug the USB cable of my little SanDisk CF Card Reader and use the Windows Live Photo Gallery software to edit the photos I took this afternoon. I think they turned out just as good as photos I normally edit in PhotoShop and the software is pretty similar.

If you haven't heard, we had a little snow the past couple days. Of course our almost 8 inches certainly can't compare with what the East Coast has had dumped on them, but it's still enough to close area schools and make our morning commute a bit more thrilling than usual.

Here's another view from the deck. There's still an awful lot of snow around here. We had a couple above freezing days a few weeks ago, but they really didn't do anything towards melting the snow at all. And as I'm writing this, I can hear Mr. Johnson firing up the snowblower and preparing to go out and open my paths to the backyard birdfeeders again.

If you click on this picture to enlarge it, there in the center you can see only the tiniest remainder of the backyard dog statue above the snow. I'm guessing there's probably at least 18" on snow piled up there in the backyard now.

And here's a pretty decent drift that always grows on the garage roof when the wind blows from the northwest. It was a really light and fluffy snow, so it didn't take much wind to create a snow sculpture like this. (It also didn't take much effort with the shovel to remove it either!)

So, it looks like I'm all set to do some blog posts from the northwoods. I've already checked the Duluth forecast for the weekend and it sounds like we should have some pretty decent weather with daytime highs in the 20's and mostly sunny skies. Sounds like perfect birding weather to me! Maybe I'll even get a chance to see that Varied Thrush that Lynne's seen near Hasty Brook. Be sure to check back here this weekend for photos and stories of another excellent birding adventure......


17 comments:

Mama Pea said...

Enjoyed seeing your pictures of the snow. I guess we're getting our winter vicariously through other people's blogs this year!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend in Daloot!

Cindy said...

Ruthie, I hope you and Lynne have a great time! Please post as much as you can. Are you stopping at Deb's? I don't do facebook, so I'm out of the loop a little. Hope you get to see the birds you want!

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Hey-hey Ruthie!
I'm doing laundry today so I can pack tomorrow. I had a flat tire in the parking ramp after work yesterday so we're headed over to Costco to get two new front tires tonight. (I've been needing them).
I'm calling the Hasty neighbors tonight to see if the Varied Thrush is still showing up. I sure hope so. It was still there last week. I'm excited to show you our progress at Hasty too.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

It looks like your new notebook is working just fine. Have a great time. I can't wait to hear all about what you see and do.

KGMom said...

Ruthie--woo hoo Wi Fi in the shuttle! Enjoy.
Your practice post worked just fine. Looking forward to lots of pics.

Meggie said...

Have a great time, Ruthie! A netbook...I'm so jealous!! Can't wait to see photos of your birding exploits.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad your new "book" is working. It will be fun to hear right from Duluth on all your birdy finds. Looking forward to seeing lots of pics and commentary to go with them. Hope you and Lynn have a lot of fun together.

Mom

Gaelyn said...

Congrats on the Netbook, I just bought a Asus. How fun to be online while away from home. I look forward to posts from the field.

That's plenty of snow as far as I'm concerned. Saw just a little today on the way to Prescott.

Have fun!

Jayne said...

Hope you and Lynne have such a wonderful time Ruthie! Looking forward to your updates.

I can't even begin to imagine that much snow. Whew. It's exhausting even to look at, let alone, imagine shoveling!

troutbirder said...

Have fun at Sax. We're heading up there later next week with some friends. I am quite familiar with the area as my brother used to live in Eveleth and we fished all the neighboring lakes.

Pet Guilt said...

My MIL got a netbook last fall, but I don't know if she's ever going to use it. Seems like a fun little device, but I'm too much of a hoarder...I need everything with me all the time, so I have my laptop with CS3 installed when I travel :-)

Have fun at Sax. I really was considering going this year, but I still just can't quite take the time off work. I think you'll be impressed by the snow here in the TC...again, not like the East Coast, but I think we actually rivaled Rochester for once!

Who are you on FB? I couldn't find you when I was attempting to add you as a friend. :-)

RuthieJ said...

Hi Mama Pea,
It's so unusual that we've got more snow than you this year. I would gladly send you at least half of what we've got here!

Hi Cindy,
I sure hope I get to meet you at a birding festival some day.
I'm not sure if we'll have time to visit Deb or not.....Lynne's checking with her neighbor up at Hasty to see if the Varied Thrush is still hanging around and I'm hoping to add that bird to my life list.

Hi Lynne,
I've got laundry going now too. Suitcase is out, but nothing in it yet....tomorrow's the packing day! See you Friday!

Thanks Lisa. It should be a good time and hopefully the birds will cooperate too!

Thanks Donna. I think the netbook is going to make this trip a lot more fun and interesting.

Hi Meggie,
I love the netbook! Lynne let me use hers on a birding adventure last fall and I knew I had to get one for myself!

Thanks Mom. I'm sure we'll have a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing some good birds and lot of laughs with Lynne.

Hi Gaelyn,
Congrats on your netbook too! I hope I get some good pictures and stories to share.

Hi Jayne,
This has turned out to be quite an interesting winter for us.....kind of like winters we used to have years ago. I know spring will be very welcome once it finally arrives!

Thanks Ray. It should be a fun festival. I'll let you know if there are any birdy hot spots you'll want to check out on your visit next week.

Hi Danielle,
I understand work trumping bird festivals. I don't get any paid time off, but was lucky enough to be able to rearrange my schedule to get a Friday and Monday off.
I sent you a Friend request on FB. Are you on Ravelry too?

Dawn Fine said...

Wow weeee..snowy...Have a great trip ..and enjoy your new netbook!
look forward to posts of your trip together!

Deb said...

I hope you and Lynne have a great time at Sax Zim! I'm looking forward to your reports from the field!

Birdsong said...

Have a lovely time festivaling! Your roof sure looks like it has a load of snow.

KaHolly said...

I hope you like your
Toshiba. I bought one after Chrisltmas, but the keyboard didn't type right, so moved on to an HP. Have lots of fun at Sax Zim. I'm envious! ~karen

Anonymous said...

WHAT? They closed the schools? WOW!

We've escaped all the east coast stuff so far, although other parts of the city and much of the state got some. (More hot air in my neighborhood?) Tomorrow looks. . . flaky. We'll see.

Have fun, drive carefully. Enjoy the new notebook!