Another hoar frost

Luckily, this latest hoar frost occurred on a Saturday. I dug out the snow shoes and we headed out before breakfast to get some pictures. It really is amazingly beautiful.

Winter's Spectacle: Hoar Frost

Conditions were perfect for hoar frost on Tuesday, and Mike got some good pictures around the house. It isn't snow on the trees, it's ice crystals formed when it's cold and humid, with calm winds. Every once in a while, we really do live in a winter wonderland.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Twelve inches officially, but the blizzard conditions resulted in bare spots and drifts...the bird bath is buried, but you can see grass just a short distance away.

Summer drive

Summer officially arrives tomorrow, but today was a great day for a drive in a convertible. Mike opted for a day in the barn playing with cars, but I took off with the top down on a long, round-about trip to a quilt shop near the river. I sort of had a map and a plan, but when the road became full of potholes, I just kept turning onto better paved roads in the general direction of the river. The sunshine, green fields, farms and small towns rejuvenated me. Lots of other convertibles and motorcycles were out today, and plenty of boats on the river and lake.

A hint of spring - a pile of wood

Friday was a beautiful day, 48 degrees and sunny. So it must be time to move the woodpile (again). When the furnace died, and Mike was still under lifting restrictions from his surgery, I just tossed all the wood from the garage out the door into the snow. Now, with the snow melted and the ground fairly dry, we moved the jumble of wood into a couple of stacks underneath the back deck. We'd like to put at least some of it back into the garage, where it will stay dry, but need to wait for the radon guys. (They were initially delayed until warmer weather so we could move the woodpile, and are now further delayed so we can recover from the shock of paying for the new furnace.)

But the weather was nice, and stacking the wood was oddly satisfying. We then proceeded to cook some steaks on the grill for the first time this year - a good dinner to end the workweek. Of course, good weather is always followed by bad, and there is a winter storm watch tonight. Ah, springtime in the midwest!

Brrrrr - and the Quilt of Valor is finished!

The official low temperature this morning may have been -25F at the airport, but this is what our thermometer said: -37. As I drove in to work, the car thermometer read as low as -40 before creeping up into the -20's in town. I don't know if it really was that much colder out here, but once you're in the -20's, it's all cold.

On the bright side, it's been beautifully sunny, and Mike took some nice pictures of the yard (from inside, of course).
And finally, remember my Quilt of Valor quilt top? Lori has finished quilting it, and will be sending it off to Alycia now.

You know it's been too cold for too long when...

You know it's been too cold for too long when...

...the thermometer reads -6F and you think, "Oh, that's not bad."

Because right now, it's -18F, and we're headed for -25F overnight. With -50F windchill. And again tomorrow night, too.

Yippee. (sarcasm enabled)

Sun Dogs

Growing up in Missouri, I had never seen or even heard of sun dogs. But after moving north, discovered that they are fairly common on sunny winter days. One of the most memorable sightings was on a ski club bus trip, early on a very cold morning. We've never been able to forget the immortal words of Rich, who explained that sun dogs meant that is was "cold. Fricking cold."

Whether he was right of not, today was darn cold (negative teens with enough wind to push the wind chills into the -30 to -40 range). Combined with yesterday's winter storm which dumped many (7) inches of new snow on top of the foot or so already on the ground, we decided to heed MnDOT and IADOT directives of "no travel advised". We'll drive to St. Louis tomorrow instead of today.

It was strange having a "snow day". We haven't had a true no-work snow day, ever. Since yesterday had been spent finishing all the errands, making Christmas presents, doing laundry, etc. in anticipation of today's scheduled travel, it was truly a free day, once the driveway was plowed and the sidewalks were shoveled. I got some quilting done, and Mike spent the day working on his Lotus parts list. Add in a few good movies on TV (Cars, The Incredibles), and we were set.

The outlook for the roads looks better for tomorrow, and the weather has to get warmer as we go south, right?

The Plunge

12:30 pm, thinking about going to town: 41 degrees
1:00 pm, leaving home: 33 degrees
1:30 pm, at the library: 26 degrees
3:30 pm, leaving the grocery store: 12 degrees
7:00 pm, done with dinner: 2 degrees
Forecast overnight low: -5 degrees

And technically, it's not even winter yet.

Snow snow snow

It's been gloomy and gray and snowing an inch or two every few days lately. Now we're getting our first big snow, with 6 or 8 or 10 inches expected overnight. The plow is mounted and has received its annual check-up, so we're ready. But unfortunately, I'm getting tired of snow and winter already. Or at least the gloomy grey clouds. And it gets dark so early, long before I get out of work. At least there are only two weeks until the days start getting longer.

Sunshine, please!

HeartStrings Sew-In

Yesterday was another inspiring HeartStrings group sewing day. The quilt above was one of seven assembled, this one from Betty's blocks. It's always fun to see people from on-line groups, including Lori in SD, who took my Quilt of Valor top, backing, and binding home with her. She will be quilting it, and then sending it to Alycia for her 400 quilts challenge. Thanks again, Lori!

Yesterday while we sewed, it was beautiful outside, sunny and 60 degrees. Today, we have 40 mile an hour winds and snow flurries. Time to start thinking about winter.

Wedding, and Flooding, and Baseball, oh my!

We're back home after a trip to the St. Louis area for my nephew Tom's wedding. We detoured through and around flooded areas of Minnesota and Iowa on the way down, but still managed to arrive in time for the rehearsal dinner. We had a beautiful (but warm) day for the outdoor wedding, even if things got a late start when the photographer got lost on the way to the park. The hi-lite of this Cardinals-themed event, however, was the special appearance by Fredbird (the Cardinals mascot) at the reception. We were proud to be the strange relatives in the Cardinals T-shirts when he showed up. It was also wonderful to have all of my siblings together for the first time in a long time, plus seven of the nine nieces and nephews from the younger generation. And one grand-nephew (boy does that make me sound old!).

Mike's family also lives in the area, so we watched nephew Zachary's baseball game, and took a trip to nearby wineries for a relaxing afternoon with the in-laws before once again turning northward. The homebound trip took us through flooded areas in Missouri, where the water was still rising, and in Iowa, where the water had now receded. We arrived home safely to find one fallen tree in the back yard, but last year's waterproofing and the new sump pump have proven their worth in this wet, stormy, spring.

Tornado devastation in Hugo

On Sunday, May 25, a strong tornado ripped through Hugo, MN. Our friend Dave was driving from our house back to his home in Hugo. His wife Ari was home with their 3 dogs and 3 cats. The picture above is what's left of Dave & Ari's house. Amazingly, Ari made it to the basement and was OK. The dogs were in the basement with her, and the cats were found within the rubble on Monday, all OK physically. The house has been red-tagged by the building inspectors, meaning it is structurally unsafe, and the expectation is that the insurance company will treat it as a total loss.

Mike and I spent Tuesday in Hugo, helping to retrieve and pack up for storage whatever we could - primarily the contents of the kitchen and garage (including his Lotus Europa restoration project). Otherwise, what wasn't blown away or broken by flying debris was pounded by hail and soaked by rain.

The devastation in the neighborhood was unbelievable, even after one day of clean-up to make the roads passable. Dave & Ari, and many of their neighbors, have a tough time ahead of them, but it was very evident that they will get a lot of support from family, friends, the community, and even total strangers.

When the weather service says to take cover, please do. The basement, away from the sliding glass doors, really was the only "safe" place to be in this, and many other houses.

Rites and signs of spring

Rites and signs of spring (finally!):

• Crocus!
• All the snow piles have finally melted away
• Pick-up-sticks (all the fallen tree branches in the yard get tossed into the ditches or woods)
• Remove the hard top, get rid of the snow tires, and go for a ride to Dairy Queen in a convertible
• Remove all the dead foliage from the asparagus bed - and find way too many already-green weeds growing - they're already winning
• Bring out the deck furniture
• Make iced tea (I don't know why, but we never make iced tea in the winter)

So long, Ice

Some of the last ice of the year on the lake. The motion of the water against the crystalline ice made a very subtle swishing sound.

A Sign of Spring

You know it's finally spring when...

...the sunlight comes through the dining room window during dinner, right in your eyes, and you have to lower the shade a bit.

We're still waiting for the weather to catch on, though. Snow, sleet and rain yesterday.

A plethora of choices

Spring is in the air today, finally, with temps in the 40's and snow melting. It's been a long cold winter, but the weather guys keep telling us it just seems bad because of so many recent years of very mild winters. In reality, this year was just "normal". It didn't take us very long to become winter wimps.

Car show update: Boy, are there a lot of trucks and SUVs out there! Even with gas so expensive, they were front and center. When we first went into the convention center, that was really all we could see. The cars were there, just way in the back and sides.

I'm looking for a nice, comfortable everyday car. We've already got a truck and plenty of sporty cars, but I've gotten used to nice seats and power everything. Yes, I'm spoiled. The inexpensive cars just weren't very appealing. We sat in a lot of cars, and quickly eliminated a lot of cars. I've got a list of about ten that need a further look, but I'll probably cross off several because there is no dealer locally. If I go for brand new, I want a dealer nearby. On the other hand, if I find something older and out of warranty, access to a dealer isn't a factor. I've got a stack of brochures and a list of desired options, so now I'll try to figure out what fits the wish list.

Back in Boise

I got a call on my cell phone last week, while we were at Laguna Seca, from my boss. He apologized for calling during vacation, but just wanted to warn me that I would need to go to Boise again this week. So after unpacking, I repacked last night for a quick one night trip, for a two-hour meeting with the customer tomorrow; we fly home in the afternoon. It may seem like a poor use of money and time, but it should actually be worth-while.

Boise has surprisingly warm winters (to me at least). There's only a little bit of old snow on the ground here in town, and temps are in the 40's today. The mountains are very picturesque with their snow-covered peaks. We've had good luck with the downtown restaurants so far, but still haven't figured out what Idaho cuisine should be (other than potatoes, of course).

Reflections on the Driveway

We share a driveway with the K's - they live right by the county road, we live back in the corn field about half a mile. Since we get up every morning and go to work, while they are semi-retired, we generally plow the entire driveway in the winter. Our theory of driveway plowing is to push the snow back as far into the yard as possible early in the season, so that you don't run out of room for all that snow by spring. The K's have a different theory - don't tear up the grass. Thus, the shared section by their house gets lined with reflectors around the first snow. Some years, the reflectors fall down on their own, or lean over so far into the driveway that we pull them out and toss them aside. Occasionally, the plow accidentally knocks them over, or the force of the plowed snow will knock them over or bury them. It's a pretty minor pet peeve in the life of a shared road, and we would never actually complain to the K's about them, but we're not sorry to see the bent reflector in the photo above.
More annoying than the reflectors, however, is the way this portion of the driveway has become a real ice skating rink. We had 40 degrees and melting, followed by rain, then snow, then 40 mph winds and 20 below temps. A large section of the driveway is now solid ice. Fortunately, the gravel and grass at the edges is not iced over, so you can keep two wheels off for traction. But if you forget, it makes for quite a slippery ride.

Yep, now it's really cold

A brisk day today. Blizzard warnings, wind chill warnings - the weather forecasters got it right today. Start with rain yesterday to get the melting started; lower the temperature from 40 to -10; add a few inches of new snow; stir it all up with 30-40 mile an hour winds. The result is wind chills of -30 to -40, and a total white-out as I drove home from work early this afternoon. Once I topped the hill about a mile from our turn-off, about all I could see was the stripe in the road a few feet in front of the hood. It's quite dis-orienting to drive in a white-out...worse than thick fog, because the blowing snow is moving so fast. I just had to hope that there were no cars coming when I made the left turn onto our county road. Luckily, Mike had plowed the driveway just before I got home, so I didn't have to deal with drifts there, but the ice formed by yesterday's melting was quite slippery, and I was grateful for the bits of gravel poking through. Inside the house tonight, you can hear the wind gusts pounding against the windows. It's a nasty night to be out, and a good night to have a working furnace..