Happy Valentine's Day

A wish to all out there for a Happy Valentine Day.

The day started out fairly nice and then proceeded to go down hill very fast.  They were calling for rain and high winds and the winds came first and were very strong for a couple hours.  Then the rain followed up and eventually turned to snow.  It was a wet snow and stuck on the ground for an hour or so and finally melted. 

Gerry was doing her sewing/quilting thing and missed out on the snow a little.  The ladies did notice it and some went outside to take photos of the snow.  A little snow really draws a lot of attention out here in the desert.


It is always neat to see snow in the desert with the cacti covered in snow.  Today was no exception, but it was too cold out there to enjoy it.  I managed to get some photos from the motor home and kept dry doing it.  

Santa Rita Mountains blocked out by snow.

Looking toward the clubhouse & office.

Gerry and I fixed some mimosas and cheese and about that time our daughter Barbara called to wish us a happy valentine day.  Cassie had called earlier to do the same and it was nice hearing from both of them.

Dinner was a t-bone steak and baked potatoes which were excellent.  Now I am sitting here stuffed to the gills and trying to find some openings for it to settle.

Ooh! Ooh! Snow

We have been getting updates from friends on the temperature where they are now.  Florida, Iowa, Arizona and in between their destination and their home.  We feel sorry for them as they are missing some great weather up here on the mountain.  Last night it started snowing lightly and we decided to make a run to pick up some Swiss Miss chocolate mix to have on hand.  It was 38 when we left and dropped 4 degrees in an hour and began to snow harder.

This is what we woke up to this morning.  A regular winter wonderland and beautiful.  Eat your hearts out for those of you in the sun and temps in the 80s.

We have the fire going in the fireplace and it is snug and warm in the cabin.  Now, if only we have enough wood to feed it.  We do have a lot of firewood and covered some of the larger pieces yesterday to help keep them dry.  I may be splitting more firewood in the next couple days if this keeps up.

This is the view from the porch looking across the meadow across the road. I am sure this view will change as the day goes on and the snow continues to fall.  It is a wet and heavy snow and may cause power lines to snap under the weight.  If that happens, then we will move into the motorhome and turn on the generator.  We have enough fuel to last us a couple days, but I don't think it will come to that.  They are calling for snow until late this evening, so only time well tell. 

Gerry and I grew up in South Central Illinois about 45 miles from St. Louis, MO and the Cardinals baseball team was the topic of conversation all the time.  They have some of the greatest fans I have run across in the sporting world and last night the Cardinals rewarded them for their loyalty by winning the "World Series" over the Texas Rangers.  Congratulations to the Cards baseball team from a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball fan.


I will fill you in on any significant change in the weather up here, but I don't think it will be a problem.  The power has been going on and off for a few seconds a lot in the past hour and it is only 1pm.  Still snowing hard and it will cause the power lines to go down with branches hitting them and all.  The MH is looking better and better all the time. 8 inches of snow on ground as of 1pm.  We lost power at 1:40pm and it hasn't come back on.  Hummm!

This Afternoon

Snow. Snow may be heavy at times. Snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. Colder. Near steady temperature in the lower 30s. North winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

It is now 5:30pm, no power and the snow is still falling but at a slower rate.  I don't think there will be any more accumulation of any measurable amount.  Of course, I didn't think we would get the 12+ inches that we have on the ground now.  It is a wet snow and down below it is very liquid and is going to freeze tonight in the expected 23 degree weather.   Cassie & Jack are bringing us some gasoline to make sure we have enough to keep the generator running until the power comes back on.  ** They brought up the gas and had a terrible time getting here.  There were numerous trees down across the road and many power lines also.  Jack had to cut a 20 inch tree into pieces in order to get the last 1/2 mile in here.  The branches hanging down from the trees make it look like a tunnel and scratched up their truck.  I owe them big time.


It is funny when I hear people laugh at having problems in 12 inches of snow, but they don't have to deal with fallen trees and downed power lines.  It probably will be days before they restore power up here.  The town of South Mountain is dark all over the place.  Gerry just read where Eastern PA was the bull's eye for this storm with well over 1 million homes without power.  The utility companies are bringing crews from other states to help with restoring power.  I am sure we will be among the last to get back on line.  We'll see.


This would be a great snow fall to make a snowman since it is so wet, but this old man doesn't have the energy to make one.  If anyone is interested in coming up here and making a snowman or having a snowball fight, come on up.

Well, that was our day up here on the mountain, how was your day?

6 more days to departure!







  

Snow is in the air

We got a call on our computer last night from Gloria & Doug via google. They have a feature that allows you to chat ( type ) or use your webcam. All of a sudden Gloria popped up on my screen looking at me. I hope I didn't scare her when she saw how I looked. Don't worry, I was fully dressed. She had a decent wifi at their campground in Montgomery, AL and thought she'd give us a call. My Verizon aircard can't really keep up with the video very well since we are at the outer limits of a signal up here. We did video conference for 10-15 minutes and it was great seeing them.

The weatherman was right on his call for cold weather arriving overnight. It was up in the mid 60s and raining most of yesterday and as the sun set on the horizon, the temps fell along with it. It was 33 degrees in the motorhome this morning around 10am and that was cold. I had set the thermostat down on the heaters in the cabin and it was down to 57 degrees. Time for the dreaded fireplace to start assuming some of the load and I built a nice fire. In the matter of an hour or so it raised the temps to a warm and toasty 63 degrees. Gerry doesn't think 63 is all that warm, but it is better than 57.

Later in the afternoon we decided to bring in some more firewood and cut some scrap hemlock branches into the proper length. Hemlock burns fast like pine but doesn't create creasote like pine does. All of the hemlock trees in the area died as a result of a borer or something like that. We've had to have three 90 ft hemlock near the cabin cut down this summer. It was a shame to lose these trees since they were so beautiful. We still have about 10-15 more hemlocks that are dead and need to be cut down. They are far enough away from the cabin that cutting them down won't be a problem or require a tree cutter to drop them.

So far today I have heard 4 different forecasts for the expected snow this evening and night. It ranges from: None, 3-5 inches, 6-8 inches and 12+ inches. I am hoping for the first forecast or at least one of the lesser amounts.. If we should get 12 inches, it could take a few days to clear the roads. God forbid we get another significant snow amount on top of what we do get. It is 10pm now and 34 degrees with a light snow falling.

In any case, we are about as well prepared for the event as we can be. We will leave the furnace on in the motor home and the cabin has two big electric heaters and a great fireplace. The only problem would be if we lose power and then the water pump will not work. We do have water on board the motor home and that would last us 3-4 days. So, in any case, let it rip.

We stopped by the library yesterday on the way home and picked up 8 movies from their selection of over 500 movies. Many are from 2010 & 2011 and recent movies. I was surprised to see so many movies there for checkout. They have a three day limit on keeping the movies and since the third day is Sunday and they are closed, we have until Monday to return the movies. They should keep us entertained for the weekend. Plus, we have a number of movies on loan to us from Cassie & Jack. Get out the popcorn and Pepsi.

7 more days.

Sunday at the Park

We will be taking the MH to La Mesa RV to have the brake caliphers replaced on Monday so we are storing all the "stuff" we have in the living area.  We usually only have to do this when we prepare to make the trip back to Maryland, but this time we get to do the job twice.  They say they can do all the work in one day and we will be back here i the afternoon.  I sure hope so as we don't want to spend the night there or in a motel.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.

The weather did another u-turn last night and the temps dropped but not like before.  It rained during the night and we woke to see all the surrounding mountains covered with snow.  It sure is pretty to look at when they are snow covered and I took a picture with my telephoto lens of the Santa Rita Mountains to the south of us.  They are about 10 miles away to give you an idea of how big they are.

The Rincon Mountains are east of us and I took a photo of them over the roof of our neighbors 5th wheel.  I should have went down to the back of the park and taken a better shot of the Rincons, but was too lazy to do so.

It's 3:30pm and the sun is shining brightly and the forecast for the upcoming week is temps in the high 70s.  Now that is more like it.