Saturday, February 19, 2011

Sneaker Storm

I took this picture yesterday afternoon, partly to show you the sun catcher that I've hung in the window to cut down on bird suicide and partly to show our amusing bevy of quail. I'm very entertained by our little community of birds.

I took the same shot this morning to show you what 4" of overnight snow looks like. There was a whole lot of snow shoveling going on - again.
How do I know how much snow fell last night? Because I measured it when clearing off the back deck. It's supposed to get down to 13 degrees tonight and would be a sheet of ice in the morning - plus, I need a little exercise.
Look at this little ice sculpture. The barberry is right below the end of the gutter. It was a bad place to plant but it's been through this before and I'm sure it will make it again.

I'm back to enjoying my Lendrum again. A wonderful fiber nut from Maryland named Melodye left a comment that Gordon Lendrum has a reputation for answering the phone and not email, so I called yesterday. Sure enough. He picked the phone up on the third ring and chatted with me for about ten minutes. When I worried that I had worn out my wheel, he chuckled and said that all things wear out, ourselves included, however, he was sure my wheel has many miles left. I told him that my old fast flyer has a very deep groove it, which is why I had ordered the new one. He chuckled again, saying that yarn is like water, following the path of least resistance. He told me the first thing I should do is adjust the guides with two pliers. I'm still going to get the replacement mother-of-all as he says new flyers don't fit the old M-O-As. What a nice man - no wonder he makes such a wonderful wheel.
Lots of shoveling here - that is the path to the power box and needs to be clear in the event of a power outage, as we have to wheel the generator to it from the garage. The power was out last night but we read with our book lights and pretty soon it came back on. It's the protracted outages that are troublesome as we can't get any water from the well and can quickly go through what's in the pressure tank, i.e., can't flush the toilets.
That's our firewood. We didn't get enough dry wood into the garage and now we're faced with a whole lotta wet wood. They missed the prediction on this storm. It ended up coming through in several waves, leaving us with about a foot and a half, maybe more - I've lost tract. Anyway, it's over and gone.





Already the blue sky is beginning to open up. Our kids are coming up from San Francisco tomorrow so grandson Noah can have a snow day. If you were reading my blog a year ago, you might recall that we got a sneaker storm when they came last February and they ended up snowed in here an extra day. Noah loved it! The pass will be open with no controls by tomorrow. A new dawn, a new day~

7 comments:

Valerie said...

That last shot is so pretty....almost looks like marshmallow fluff. We have a 24 hour storm warning starting tomorrow at noon. The forecast for snow accumulation isn't much, but they are predicting up to 3/4" of ice. We are in the same predicament as you with no power=no water.

Sounds like Noah is going to get another dose of playing in the snow!!

vlb5757 said...

Wow you really did get some snow! I had to laugh about the bird suicide. We have a sunroom and every spring when the baby birds go out for a test flight we always get one who has not cleared their flight plan with momma bird. It's heart breaking every spring. Now we have put shades on all the windows and that has really cut down on premature flight deaths.

Anonymous said...

Wow! that storm really left a lot of snow for you! Not much snow here which can be a problem if one considers the snow pack and summer water conditions. It has been an "interesting" winter all over N.A.

re'New said...

I wonder if the system that gave you snow is the one coming my way? We are supposed to get between 8 and 18 inches of snow starting tonite. My neighbor with a tractor came over this afternoon and put more haybales out for me. He's a snowplow driver. Didn't know when he'd be free again. First time all winter that we haven't had to push snow to get to the bales - another reason to do it today!

Melodye said...

Glad I could help!

Theresa said...

Noah might get a second snow in, looks like a bumpy week here, maybe we won't be sending all the storms your way, just a few!

They make clear shaped things you put on the windows to keep the birds away. Your sun catcher may just attract them thinking it's another feeder. I've had good luck with these on our big back room windows.
http://www.amazon.com/Maple-Leaf-Window-Decal-Save-Birds/dp/B001OE3JMW/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1298205157&sr=8-8

robinsnest@kerrlake.com said...

I LOVE YOUR SNOW! I rather liked it when everything here was white.