January 6, 2015

A Meadhouse mystery.

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Why is the snow-covered front yard texturized this way?

IN THE COMMENTS: David Wharton said:
Christmas trees. I think that Meade is collecting them from neighbors for mulch. 
Meade has dragged 7 Christmas trees onto our lot. He says:
I'll lop the branches and use them as mulch over plants I want to protect from frost heaving in early spring. So the idea is to keep the cold in when the warm spring sun and thaw hit.

The tree stems will make good kindling for starting fires out on Picnic Point. Meanwhile, the dozen or so trees will make great cover for the intrepid birds who stay with us all winter long.
What is this strange charity of Meade's? Building campfires for neighbors and strangers... taking in their abandoned Christmas trees...

65 comments:

dhagood said...

i see two possibilities:

1) meade is dragging zeus around the yard.
2) zeus is dragging meade around the yard.

Anonymous said...

Dragging the Christmas tree around?

Anonymous said...

Wind.

Anonymous said...

The top left photo seems to reveal that someone tried to carve a vagi...I mean vulva in your yard.

AustinRoth said...

Alpine skiers are using your yard for training.

lemondog said...

Alien crop/snow circles....

or what dhagood said.

John_D said...

It's the ghost of Georgia O'Keeffe

lgv said...

Occam's Razor says it must be aliens leaving a cryptic message.

Couldn't be the wind. Way too farfetched.

MathMom said...

Cross-country skiers leaving the house for the trail.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Swamp gas, obviously.

richard mcenroe said...

Hot-blooded moles tunneling through...

m stone said...

Anonymous got it. You can see the tree branch remnants in the blow up.

tim maguire said...

Damn kids!

Rick M said...

Fracking

Big Mike said...

My lawn has looked like that when taking out a desiccated Christmas tree. I wonder ...

Anonymous said...

Snow Snakes?

David Wharton said...

Christmas trees. I think that Meade is collecting them from neighbors for mulch.

damikesc said...

I usually blame ninjas.

Peter said...

Sastrugi?

Rusty said...

Anonymous said...
Dragging the Christmas tree around?

That's the one Im going with.

madAsHell said...

Painted by Edvard Munch?

alan markus said...

Meade is collecting them from neighbors for mulch.

That, or he is developing hoarding tendencies. Next comes the "hard stuff" - all the neighbors garbage piled up in the yard.

dbp said...

I vote for Christmas tree dragging. I won't even venture a guess why.

Rockport Conservative said...

Sasquatch has been riding a bicycle in your yard.

Mark said...

Japanese sand gardening gnomes, confused and a long way from home.

CStanley said...

Meade is learning how to draw like Paul Klee in the landscape.

tim in vermont said...

Edger Allan Poe wrote about snow phenomena like this, "striped snow" was one of them, IIRC, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym about a journey to the South Pole.

Anonymous said...

Cross country skies and a christmas tree, twice.

Ann Althouse said...

David Wharton said...

"Christmas trees. I think that Meade is collecting them from neighbors for mulch."

Winner!

tim in vermont said...

How many Christmas trees did you have, anyway?

irishguard said...

Shoot....I just saw this and was going to suggest that Meade was dragging Ann around the yard.

Jane the Actuary said...

"dragging Christmas trees"? Can't be! Where are the footprints! Gotta be an alien visitor!

Big Mike said...

@Meade, how do you mulch them? Do you have a machine?

Paco Wové said...

"how do you mulch them? Do you have a machine?"

My question also... must be nice to have the neighborhood wood chipper. Never know when they'll come in handy.

David said...

A herd of arctic octopi came by.

JRoberts said...

Scott Walker's secret routers?

Sorry, I was channeling Garage for a moment...

Left Bank of the Charles said...

It's a snow job!

MikeR said...

Greenpeace came to your yard and was careful to leave no trace.

Curious George said...

"Ann Althouse said...
David Wharton said...

"Christmas trees. I think that Meade is collecting them from neighbors for mulch."

Winner!"

Did he get a wood chipper for Christmas?

Meade said...

Let's not job Big Mike who was actually the first to say Christmas trees. So congrats to David Warton and Big Mike (along with all you other jokers).

I'll lop the branches and use them as mulch over plants I want to protect from frost heaving in early spring. So the idea is to keep the cold in when the warm spring sun and thaw hit.

The tree stems will make good kindling for starting fires out on Picnic Point. Meanwhile, the dozen or so trees will make great cover for the intrepid birds who stay with us all winter long.

rhhardin said...

My 2w LED garage light seems to have trouble in the cold. Another mystery.

They're supposed to work down to absolute zero.

Known Unknown said...

My 2w LED garage light seems to have trouble in the cold. Another mystery.

They're supposed to work down to absolute zero.


You've been sold a bill of goods, my friend. In the name of progress.

RecChief said...

wind

cold pizza said...

Flying Spaghetti Monster. But it's too cold to fly so the FSM has to drag it's benevolent self around by it's noodley appendages, the tracks of which you see in the yard. Blessed art thou among gender-neutral pronouns! -CP

tim in vermont said...

Around here, people sometimes tie a cinderblock or something to them and leave them on the ice, and come back in the summer to the spot to fish for crappies.

Bob Ellison said...

Mulch bad.

James Pawlak said...

Hot air from lawyers?

Curious George said...

"Meade said...
Let's not job Big Mike who was actually the first to say Christmas trees. So congrats to David Warton and Big Mike (along with all you other jokers).

I'll lop the branches and use them as mulch over plants I want to protect from frost heaving in early spring. So the idea is to keep the cold in when the warm spring sun and thaw hit.

The tree stems will make good kindling for starting fires out on Picnic Point. Meanwhile, the dozen or so trees will make great cover for the intrepid birds who stay with us all winter long."

Not mulch.

rehajm said...

Around here, people sometimes tie a cinderblock or something to them and leave them on the ice, and come back in the summer to the spot to fish for crappies.

Tie a stopwatch to that block then take wagers on when it falls thru the ice and you have yourself an entrepreneurial venture.

Big Mike said...

@Meade, thanks.

Laslo Spatula said...

"texturized": with condoms this is always for her pleasure.

I am Laslo.

David said...

Jane the Actuary said...
"dragging Christmas trees"? Can't be! Where are the footprints! Gotta be an alien visitor!


Jane, you drag the tree behind you. In the Midwest in winter, that is what is meant by "in drag."

Unknown said...

Nice to get a mention by both Ann and Meade! Happy Epiphany, and good gardening.

chickelit said...

"Draggin' The Line" by Tommy James (1970).

Drago said...

CO2.

The AGW crowd finally locates the missing positive feedback mechanism!!!

Not a moment too soon.

gadfly said...

Has to be black helicopter traffic.

Ann Althouse said...

"Let's not job Big Mike who was actually the first to say Christmas trees. So congrats to David Warton and Big Mike (along with all you other jokers)."

You just jobbed anonymous. Look at the second comment.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The mystery is why Meadhouse not Meadehouse? Is the internet running out of "e"'s again? I remember the great e shortage of 2003 and will stock up if need be. Better late than never.

rhhardin said...

e's are created by the Fed in press reseases and recycled when your browser deletes temporary internet files.

The real danger is overproduction of e's. Soon buying a vowel would be hardly worth the trouble it takes. We'd wind up like Japan.

Meade said...

There is no e in anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Watch for crop circles this summer.

mikee said...

I used to steal bags of leaves my neighbors had raked from their yards. I composted them across an entire hillside behind my house, to eliminate the erosion there. 50 or more bags of leaves a year for 5 years produced a deep, rich humus where growth of trees from acorn to mighty oak was visible while watched.

Only one neighbor ever asked me if I'd like to eliminate the middleman by raking his yard. I gently refused his offer, saying that I appreciated his contribution to beautifying the neighborhood.

Ann Althouse said...

It's like judgment.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Now I find out what the Judge meant by "judgment."

Guildofcannonballs said...

"Like judgment" could be a thing. I know some persons on faceblook, and I like the idea of creating anxiety for them by asking themselves to consider how they might be considered judgmental, or Judged mental as it were, and why that might be reason enough to sit out the culture wars lest one becomes conservative, where all the fun resides.