Friday, November 19, 2010

BRING ON THE WINTER!

Living where Big Winter a fact of life means being prepared before the drifts hit the top of the fence.

DH has tuned up the snow thrower. He has also put his ice fishing gear in order.  This includes several month’s supply of live bait; also known as mealworms.

 "Common mealworms" (Tenebrio molitor) are probably the most widely raised feeder insect available. Mealworms are extremely easy to keep. Just store them in your refrigerator at 45-50 degrees F. and they go into a dormant state and will last for months.”

“Gross maggots,” is what I call them. I drew the line at them living in our fridge when they escaped their container and were chowing down on the lettuce. 

Now DH and his buddies keep their mealworm stash in a refrigerator in a garage far, far from our house.  That doesn’t mean they don’t show up in the pockets of jackets; therefore, adding another adventure to doing laundry.  One year some of the little beauties survived in a pocket long enough to hatch out and fly about the house as huge insects.

Beavis is looking forward to snow.  He brought home a new snowboard from the ski swap.

My investment in winter…
 New snow shoes for Baby Blue Subaroo.  She should be able to get me to my favorite cross-country ski spot without a blowout on the hill of terror this year.

Now my bank account is empty. I’ll have to wait until next paycheck to buy a new all-in-one snow brush--ice scraper.

Update on weather, Saturday morning.  Snow's coming down wet and fast.
It's not my fault!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey! I'm the first to comment and can I just day EEEWWWWW!! I hate those little buggers! They creep me out! Dad always said he kept them warm while fishing in the freezing weather by holding them in his mouth (I never saw him do it) The worst is when you open a box that says "chocolate" on it and find those nasties crawling around inside!
Nice lookin shoes for your blue baby! They look like they should really work well! Oh, and I would let you borrow my scraper, but it looks just like yours! (lol)
See you soon
-Mom of the cutest babe in the family!

Sarah said...

Those tyres are so impressive. My front offside tyre is so bad-not that I intend to drive if we do get snow, but I might get a fine! Not so keen on the meal worms-what were they like as an insect? I am imagining a crane fly type creature.

Linda Sue said...

Oh Yummy- toss some marinara sauce on those babies and call it dinner! Thanks for the reminder- window scraper- I always wait until it is a problem- Then I have to waste gas heating the windows until I can scoop the slush off with my shoe.
And, yes, the snow man is SATAN!!! Just had too much of that hot stuff down yonder and decided to try snow for a change...

Carla said...

Ha, I knew they were mealworms from the tiny picture in my sidebar.
Why you needed that many made me think of when we had a Bearded Dragon for a pet.

Don't they stop moving all together once they get dipped in icy cold lake water? Maybe the fish don't care.

TALON said...

Oh, the joys of winter! But I'm glad you're all geared up. I bought one of those industrial-sized scrapers (sans brush) that I can attack the hard ice without fear of it cracking under the pressure. What's one more piece of equipment to an already loaded down vehicle? lol!

Seeing the mealworms brought back some fine memories of fishing with my dad. Thank you for that. See? There can be beauty in maggots ;)

Jill said...

Tasty!!
A friend accidently tipped his box of maggots over in his dad's car when he borrowed it on a fishing trip.
A couple of weeks later his Dad could not work out why his car always had half a dozen blow flies in it every time he opened the door.

Anonymous said...

My son took up fishing for a while when he was about 10 ...... but guess who had to put the maggots on the hook - yes it was Mum!!
My new car (a Ford Fiesta) has a heated windscreen, so I only have to do a basic scrape, then it all just melts away ..... a brilliant invention!! In very bright sunlight you can just make out the very fine wires which run through the glass (unlike the rear window, which still has the conventional lines across it of the heater)

Kilauea Poetry said...

Wow..I'm shivering just looking at the ice! I remember getting into S.F. back in 2000 one night and the snow was falling. We were driving to Reno and needed to stop and get snow chains on!
Well, I have a couple of pretty coffee cup photos full of worms I collected in my archive..I haven't used them yet? When I took my dog for a walk in the early morning there was a period of time they were all over the road- so great for compost. I can still imagine it all! But crawling out and getting into the lettuce is too funny!! Anyway, have a great weekend Leenie!

Anairam said...

Wow! You live a dangerous life. On all fronts.

Pearl said...

Oh, do you know how much I want to open your fridge door to the meal worms and yell, "Hey, Leenie, you gonna eat these?"

:-)

Funny stuff, girl. I'll be back!

Pearl

Linda Sue said...

I see by your header- you've got balls!

Flea said...

EW EW EW!!!!! NOT IN MY FRIDGE EITHER!!!

Gross.

So what on earth kind of tires are those?

Janie said...

We're still waiting on the snow. I'm very glad I don't have Meal worms in my fridge...
We got new tires before winter, too. It's a nice, secure feeling to have good rubber on the ice.

susan m hinckley said...

Well, I read the fish post first . . . glad to see you draw the line at worms in the fridge!

Actually, that picture reminds me of what our back lawn looked like in Seattle in the winter. It basically turned into a bog covered with cranefly larvae, which looked amazingly like that bait. Ugh - bad flashback!

DayPhoto said...

AHHHHHHHHH the winter prep stuff. You might add in windshield wipers...I always need new each winter.

Linda

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