This super cold weather is For The Birds!

Greetings from Boston,where it's -5 F right now.  I'm sure it's cold where you all are, as well.  TalksWithBeagles, I do hope your well water is fully working by now!  We have the town water piped in here, but I do leave our meter-closet open at this time of year so I don't have freezup on the main water line.  It's never been a problem, I'm just being prudent.  I wanted to write, "water-closet" but of course that has a different meaning to some Brits.  We got a lot of snow this time, around 20 inches and two of my neighbors' snowblowers wouldn't stay running so I loaned them mine. That ethenol in the gas sure clogs up the carb mains if not maintained!
Long time no visit the Institute here, sorry... but it's good to be reading you old dogs again.  I'm playing catch-up, I can toss a few stories in here and there to contribute.
Ken, I'll find a keepsake or two and maybe a future story.
Our latest toy here though, you older dogs may remember these, has been a grandfather-clock. They are so beautiful and also are kind of fun to keep tuned and in-time, it's a rather shame the younger pups don't want them any more, and you can find on Marketplace what sold as $3000 clocks now for just one or two c-notes, fully working or just needing minor restoration.  Ours chimes beautifully each quarter-hour and keeps perfect time.  It was cheap, door was taped shut with masking-tape with no key for the door lock, and was missing it's finial. It didn't have many scratches though so I was happy to remove the masking-tape glue with Goo Gone, found a cheap finial on eBay, and Amazon-ed a key. It's a beautiful piece of furniture and we're enjoying it.  I'm not fooled that any heir may want it, it may go to landfill on that eventual day when I pass on, but at least until then we can enjoy it. 
This week we decided to help the cold birds by putting out some bird seed, which we've never done. So we tossed some loose mixed seed onto our back porch, and soon four or five small wrens came and this was super entertaining for our two indoor cats, glued to the window and flicking their tales.  My wife soon got us a bird-feeder, and I just hung that up yesterday in a temporary way and I'll redeploy it with a pole later. It's a medium cost one, so that if squirrels get onto it their body weight closes access to the seeds.  Our idea being that we'll dangle it off the porch over the grass a little, so that we don't get quite so much poop on the porch deck.  Rocky (dog) has been tracking that into the house when he comes in from doing his Business, so we have to wipe his feet, not fun.  
Interestingly, the birds have not discovered the bird-feeder at all yet. They keep coming to the porch floor and looking for seed. I want to tell them, "it's right there above you!" but of course that would scare them off.  It has the fatty sunflower seeds loaded in, I hope it helps them during this cold snap.
I hope you're keeping warm and safe where you are!