Wednesday, December 05, 2007, 14:35
The Internet, Weather Forecasts, Snowshoes and Babies. . .
Our Internet access was either down and not working at all or was very, very slow Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. When the Internet was slow, it would take 15 minutes just to open an e-mail or to open a new window at a website. On Monday evening, Randy finally figured out that our router was bad. My old iMac (1997 model) is acting strangely, too, and I have started converting all my work to the laptop. It's a somewhat slow process, but now I think I'm back in business again.
The snowstorm that swept across the United States this past weekend left us with 7 inches of snow on Saturday. Yes! Seven inches!
Randy and I are still in a mild state of shock over the snowstorm, too. For once, the weather forecasters were right. They were right on the money. . .
This has got to be some kind of a red-letter day -- that the forecasters were absolutely right. Friday evening, we were under Arctic high pressure with not a cloud in the sky, cold temperatures right around 0 degrees Fahrenheit and not a breath of wind.
And yet, the forecasters on television were saying that it was going to start snowing Saturday morning and would snow all day.
"We're under arctic high pressure. It's not going to snow," Randy said to me Friday evening.
"I know. And there isn't a hint of wind. Usually before a snowstorm, the wind blows out of the east for at least a half a day if not a lot longer," I said to Randy.
So you can imagine my surprise when I looked out the window Saturday morning and saw that it had started to snow. The snow continued all day Saturday.
For the first time this year, Randy got out the tractor Sunday morning after we got home from church to move snow. And I got out the snowblower to finish where the tractor can't reach and to clear my paths. I also cleared a "potty path" for Pixie. Her legs are so short that when we get more than five or six inches, it is difficult for little Pixie to walk around in the yard.
Right again
The really mind-boggling thing, however, is that the weather forecasters were right *again* on Tuesday when they said an Alberta Clipper would blow through and would bring more snow with it.
The snow started early Tuesday morning and continued all day. By evening, we had gotten another 5 inches on top of the 7 inches from Saturday.
Last year when the Alberta Clippers would blow through, we would get nothing but a few snow flurries whirling through the air. I'm glad to finally see an Alberta Clipper with moisture in it.
Snowshoes
For the first time this year, late Tuesday afternoon, I got the snowshoes out of the basement and took Pixie and Charlie for a walk around the neighbor's pine trees.
It has been years since there has been enough snow to snowshoe in early December. In fact, we haven't gotten enough snow the last few winters to warrant going out more than a time or two with snowshoes all winter long.
It has been so long since I showshoed around the neighbor's that I had a bit of difficulty finding the snowshoe trails through the trees. Mostly I followed Charlie. He remembered where the trails used to be. I walked a loop around so that I could go over the trail twice to help pack it down more. I have my work cut out for me to clear more snowshoe trails. Charlie gets such a kick out of running through the snow and snooping around. Pixie follows behind me in the snowshoe path. Otherwise she wouldn't hardly be able to make her way through the snow.
To date, we have received a little more than 12 inches of snow. (Earlier in November it snowed an inch a couple of time.) This is almost half of the snow we received last year for the entire winter (29 inches).
Guinevere
I don't know how, but my beloved Guinevere is still hanging on. She is not in very good shape and looks terrible. But she is hanging on. I have started squirting kitten formula into her mouth with a syringe several times a day. It is helping her to feel a bit stronger. Tuesday morning she felt strong enough to climb into the rocking chair and sleep there most of the day. Her sister, Winifred, and brother, Duke, laid in the chair with her for a long time. At one point I looked in the living room, and Duke was lovingly grooming the top of Guinevere's head. At other times of the day, she lays on the heating pad by the heat vent under the kitchen table. I know she doesn't have much time left here with us. But I am glad she is feeling more comfortable for the time being.
Henry, Katerina and Dora the Explorer
The three kittens are really starting to explore the basement. Every time I go downstairs, I can see that they have been up on the table and have been pulling more "spiders" off my spider plants! Tuesday evening, I had to sweep up a pile of potting soil from the floor. "Someone" had apparently been playing around in one of my flower pots. I have several geraniums in the basement that go outside in the summer. And I've got the flower pot from the cemetery. The kittens are so *very* busy exploring the basement, playing here and there and chasing each other and chewing on each other's ears. Bless their little kitten hearts.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, November 30, 2007, 07:56
Jack Frost
The windows on the north side of the house are frosted up. They usually do not frost over until January. It is only November.
Well, all right, it is the *end* of November. But still.
The high temperature Thursday was 15 degrees. The high temperature has been in the teens for the last few days. And there has been a strong west or north or northwest wind making the temperature feel like zero degrees Fahrenheit or below zero at times.
For the first time this fall on Thursday, I decided I had better wear long-johns. Years ago, I discovered that stirrup pants under my jeans or dressier pants works just fine. The wind was too cold to go without something extra on my legs. I wore a wind breaker underneath my fleece jacket, too, to cut the wind.
And I now have to bring the horse buckets into the basement to thaw them out. I can't just add hot water to keep the ice off them overnight and during the day. I actually have to bring the buckets inside to let them thaw enough so I can dump the ice out. That's a January thing, too.
And unfortunately, we don't have any snow on the ground. If the cold continues with no snow, once again, the frost will go down four to six feet so that when (or if) we get snow later on and then it melts in the spring, it will run off and not soak in.
I thought that with the rain earlier in the fall perhaps the drought had ended. But now I do not think that the drought has ended. Cold and no snow and frost going down many feet is a drought condition.
Henry
I could not find Henry Thursday night when I went downstairs to feed the kittens and to let Charlie out. I looked all over the basement for him. He and Katerina and Dora the Explorer had all slurped some formula from the syringe, and then they wanted to play. They are eating quite a bit on their own. But they still want some formula from the syringe.
Dora and Katerina were playing in the chair. Henry was nowhere to be seen. I looked and looked for Henry. There are a thousand places in the basement where a tiny kitten could be that I would not see him. After a while, I decided to let Charlie out -- and there was Henry, in Charlie's kennel.
He was not afraid like Katerina is afraid of Charlie. He was cautious about the big brown and white thing. But he was not afraid. It's funny how they can have such different personalities.
Guinevere
My sweet Guinevere is still hanging on. I don't know how. But she is. She is very weak. And she doesn't want to eat. But she knows Randy and I are with her, and she still turns her head to enjoy pets and scratches under the chin. She is spending most of her time on the heating pad by the heat vent under the kitchen table. She can still walk around some, though. And she still goes to the water dish for a drink. That surprises me. I know it could all change in a moment, and by morning, she could be gone. Each extra day, every extra hour, even another minute with Guinevere is a blessing.
LeAnn R. Ralph