today being jan. 7. it is the end of the week and a Saturday. gee i finally get to take a shower. well i have been sneaking them daily , just dont tell the pit police they might be wondering why i am not stinking yet. well tonight's theme is , might just let you guess what the common thread is to all this . although this might be something i want to do for next day, and just post pics for tomorrows story then you would have a chance to guess. who knows you might win  something like a carving or something like that.
       so tonight's theme is water , and not ice.  1sr pic is me redneck sledding with dogs. the flat bottom jon boats make excellent sleds a little lean and you steer. weight is spread out over surface. a wax job would have helped immensely. had a great time with my older dogs who passed and babe. me ,bud ,zoey ,and babe,  in boat.
      second pic is a fascinating lesson in how structurally strong the crystalline structure of ice is. all told i would estimate 4 gallons of water is holding up a 400 lb. log 6 inches off the ground. i placed the log there after it snowed and then it packed the snow underneath and then the meltdown happened .you can see in bottom pic how high the log is off the ground. so 32 lbs.of water (8 lbs/gal) is holding up 400 lbs of log. sand this is due the strength of the snow as it crystallizes and creates lenses meshing together with air space. and the wood also insulates the snow from exterior heat sources prolonging the melting process.
       and you ask what that has to do with tonight's discussion of water. not a darn thing but it was interesting to me. snow turns to water and it becomes runoff. that is the tie that binds . in ohio we receive approximately 40 inches of rain per year / sq. foot . will get some conversion figures to show exactly how much water that is but later on in discussion.
        we need to go back to louis bromfield and his ultimate claim and what it meant to agriculture. he said he could retain and store 90 per cent of the rain water to fall on his land. this would be a boom to soil conservation as rarely do you naturally achieve those results. he also claimed that by incorporating organics in to the soil he increased yields , reduced tillage , and in creased the healthy bacteria in soil. this was back in the 1940"s . he also claimed the springs on his property increased water flow by up to 300 percent.this was used for irrigation then. he allowed little water to leave his property . anyhow i would like to incorporate his ideas in our discussion from time to time.