From: "Barb Beck" <>
>
> Rich, Walt
>
> Rich - Wonderful recording. What a BEAUTIFUL sound. Others around much o=
f
> the US cannot realize what a truly BEAUTIFUL SOUND is!!! That is a sound =
I
> never thought of recording. I always keep a tin of cookies to run out and
> stuff into their cab when I hear it here (and I drive a big 4x4 suburban
> with a winch but still at times have some problems). Think I will go out
> and try to record some if any come by. Our snow plough/road graders have =
the
> big noisy diesel engines not the purr of your machine. To heck with what
> those in the SF bay area types are always recording - a CD full of Show
> Ploughs doing their work would be real art here and would sell like hotca=
kes
> in part of the frozen north. Something to sit on soft cushions in front o=
f a
> blazing fire and listen to. Halifax recently got 96 cm (a little over 3
> feet) of the really heavy wet stuff. Even through the ploughs could not =
get
> through I am sure such a CD would have brought some comfort there just as
> Walts frogs and others bird recordings help us make it through the winter=
. A
> snow plough recording would also be a GREAT way to get Jim out of bed fas=
t
> too - put it on and he would be jumping to move the beasts off the street
> quickly 8-)
I grew up in the Columbia River Gorge country, Washington state. Our
winter snow there did not take huge amounts to be problems, it came with
very strong east winds. Bunch of us pitched in one year to dig out the
garage at the neighboring dairy. It was buried completely in a drift.
And his tractor he used to clear snow was inside...
Watched one of those big trucks one day. Came past our place plowing,
and headed on down the road fast thinking it was just light snow. Where
we knew it went through a cut about 6' deep that was full even to the
top. Threw that big plow truck abruptly sideways into the bank and
ditch. One of our standard winter amusements. That spot took the grader
with it's 10' V plow to break through each time. The county did not use
blowers. The grader was the big gun, if it could not break through we
just waited. And played in the snow.
> Walt, Good to hear yours and realize that spring may eventually get here =
-
> of course you found as many species of frogs already this year as we have=
in
> the entire province. Our frogs are either buried deep in pools of water t=
hey
> hope will not freeze completely or frozen solid under the snow and leaf
> litter - well they sure appear completely solid but apparently keep enoug=
h
> stuff in a liquid state inside the cells so all the ice does not do cell
> damage. The adaptations of the critters living here never ceases to amaze
> me. I am still trying to get a Spotted Frog Recording.
The gray treefrogs actually do freeze solid. Just before freezing they
release some special sugars into the cells to stop crystal formation.
How they manage to do things like restart their heart and so on when
they thaw is interesting. The gray treefrogs are the same all over. I
expect some here freeze too as they often winter in the trees in cracks
in the bark, etc.
Walt
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