It is 34 degrees outside,and everything is starting to melt. The birds are singing like crazy –I even heard a raven crowing. They’re mobbing my suet feeder,and it looks like they’re having a much easier time of it. (Yesterday I saw a few holdouts,pecking away at the frozen block of fat [...]

So I’m standing aimlessly in the middle of the living room,admiring my latest scarf,and half-watching “Bones,”when from the kitchen comes a racketa-racketa-racketa-BANG!-SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH and outside the window I see gouts of steam rising from beneath the cabin.

Yesterday morning when the temperature dropped to 20,I started running the taps to keep the [...]