Gemini's Snow Day

Since we haven't been able to get Gemini out for a cart drive recently, we took advantage of the snowy day to take him for a walk. Here he is getting a mini-lunge session while we wait for a car to go by. Gemini never passes up a chance to eat, so he could use a little exercise....

Pausing to pose with pony near the Pole Rd.

We thought it would be a good idea to take Gem to the pig farm up the road. He doesn't care for them at all, and he needs to be able to take them in stride while pulling a cart.

Look at the face on this boar! We also wanted a closer look to get used to the idea or raising and eating a critter like this.

Gemini thought the wind-spinner was rather spooky as well. He sure gets a lot of attention from traffic when he's out walking. It's fun, and a great way to get him used to different sights & sounds.

At the end of the walk, he was ready to quit hoofing it and catch a ride home. Unfortunately his bus wasn't running today, so he walked home anyway.

Surprise snow storm!

Not that snow isn't to be expected in February, but generally we get a bit more warning than we did with this one. The rain/snow mix that started mid-morning turned into a full-on snow storm by evening. Nothing too terrible, but the north winds brought the temperature down to the low 20's rather quickly, and we spent the evening making sure all our critters were warm & cozy.

Speaking of warm & cozy, Magnus has the newspaper basket staked out for his naps. Somehow he convinced a human to make a privacy screen, since he's constantly hassled by photographers.

The picture below is a preview from this weekend's upcoming blog post about beer as food & medicine. I came across some amazing and hilarious advertisements from Rainier Brewery from the early 1900's. Further research uncovered a lot of information about how important beer has been in terms of health & comfort over the years, and how motivated modern breweries were to find loopholes in the Prohibition laws.

On the gardening front, we just ate the last of our onions, garlic, Reddale potatoes, and buttercup squash from last year's harvest. This year we should be able to grow and store a lot more, though we still have plenty of Island Sunshine potatoes, canned green beans, pickled beets, pears, dill pickles, dried apples & pears and applesauce to tide us over.

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I'm sure most folks have been following the recent economic headlines with all the failing banks, bailouts, TARP plans and so on. With so much information coming at us so fast, it's easy to tune it out, even when we need all the help we can get to make decisions for our households.

One blog has made a world of difference for us at Seven Trees. If not for the explanations and analyses I have read at Calculated Risk over the past few years, we would have never been able to do what we needed in time to finance the new garage (and get a better loan) before lending rules were tightened. Those rules have changed many times since, as have a lot of other economic factors, and I highly recommend giving Calculated Risk some of your time. And don't forget to check out the comments with each post. The people there manage to have a good time while contributing even more worthwhile information about the nitty gritty of what is happening to our money.

Today's Weather

There's no day like a snow day!

23 degrees this morning, and still snowing! If you're not on the freeway, you're on compact snow & ice. Or if you're at Seven Trees, you're taking a break from catching snowflakes.

Stella just wants her breakfast, snow or not.

Snow, wind, rain, and a bad cold

We had about 4" of snow here over the weekend. Luckily the 50-60mph winds brought rain from the south to wash it all away. Now we're on flood watches for most rivers and streams in the area. NOAA has a site called the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service with realtime monitoring of major river levels across the country. Just click on your region and it will pull up a map of water sensors and you can see if they're nearing flood stage.

A local business, Bellingham Cold Storage, runs a weather station and web cam from their rooftop, which is handy for seeing just how strong those wind gusts really are. They have a few different ways of looking at weather data, and it's a really nice service to the community.

One of our neighbors is a bow hunter, and got a lovely 3-point buck the other day, his first one. Since they don't have a digital camera, we loaned them ours for a bit. Which means new pictures will be scarce for another day or so. And I've also managed to pick up another nasty cold, so I'm taking a brief break from writing more juicy posts. I do have one in the works about what pet food is made of - not for the faint of heart. I did manage to can up some oxtail soup for the humans, and some liver & veggie stew for the dogs. Mmm mmm!

In the mean time, yet another kitten pic, doing what they do best when they aren't sleeping - beating the crap out of each other....

Peeping Tom Cat Redux...

Again with the peeping Tom-Cat!! Time to let the cat in. He's far too important to use the cat door... (Actually Crichton's a neutered cat. Always fix your pets!!)

More gorgeous spring weather here. Perfect for gardening and other outdoor fun.

Essentially, Coq au Vin, our home raised chickens stewed in wine, onion, mushrooms, garlic and herbs. Mmm-mm!

Can you say Dog-Demons? Here's Stewart at 8 months old now, but still experiencing his teenage madness. He's tipping the scales just over 90 pounds now.

Otherwise Seventrees denizens have been under the weather. Some bug making the rounds has layed us all low for a few days. I guess the weather hasn't helped. Look for some real projects soon, or so we hope... weather permitting.

No warmer here...

Guess we should have stored the rain barrel. Here it is frozen solid as is water from the down spout. It's been 25 degrees most of today with a howling north wind that I am sure dropped temps into the teens. Fortunately the sun has been out, which has warmed things up to 31 or so. The wind isn't quite so wicked now either. Be a treacherous night for driving...

Snowy day at Seven Trees

Still freezing...

Looking west down Central Rd from Mission Rd, Everson, WA

There's no real way to convey scale without me hiking back out there with a yardstick (which I'm not about to do in 10F temps), but Central is a two-lane road, and those drifts on the right are over 2 feet deep. The left side of the road is wearing a 2 inch layer of ice.

Much of Whatcom county is in similar condition, and looks to remain so through tomorrow. Then we get another round of rough weather. Warmer, just enough to melt some ice, but still cold enough that 4 more inches of snow are forecast before it turns to rain.

You'd think an all-wheel drive Outback with studded tires would pretty much guarantee a smooth commute, but my Seattle roots go deep, and the slip-slidey feel of iced pavement, combined with drop off on either side of most roads makes for a gut-twisting drive.

None of which is helped by the auto graveyard that passes for scenery now. I constantly creep past SUV's, trucks, minivans, sedans, in various states of uprightness. From crushed and spun all the way to fully embedded in snow, roof down. I'd have posted more pictures, but accidents get a bit depressing. Mt. Baker was out today and absolutely stunning. But the only good vantage points for a picture also required two hands on the wheel. I figured home safe, without postcard mountain, was better than sitting in a ditch, peering at my prize pic in the tiny digital camera window, while waiting 4 hours for a tow truck....

Ahhh....country life. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about the fun and hijinx involved with keeping 2 cats, 2 dogs, 1 parrot, 2 goats, 1 cow, and 29 chickens warm, fed, and passably content, in record low temperatures. (Yes, it involves getting up at 2:45am and multiple buckets of hot water!)

Whatcom County nor'easter '06

Here's a pretty fir tree getting drifted up with snow, along with the bricks we bought for flower bed edging.

Choppy water on Wiser Lake, looking east from Guide-Meridian.

Eastbound on E. Pole Rd.

Caught in one of many snow-devils on E. Pole.

Drift-covered car in ditch, E. Pole & Noon Rd.

SUV, taking a break from winter driving, also on E. Pole Rd.

Corgi, high-centered in snow last night.

Nor'easter not-so-lite - random pix.

Current snow level on the front step. Snow is still falling steadily, with some nice blizzardy gusts of wind.

From the barnyard, looking west, still daylight.

Here's a dog water bowl right off the back porch at 2:30pm. The bowl is about 4 inches tall.

The same water bowl at 5:15pm.

Off the back porch, still daylight.

From the barnyard, when we went out to put everyone to bed.

Nor'easter-lite!

We're having a bit of weather today. A strong north wind, and 30 degrees out, plus steady snow. Ick!

Lassie & Berry in the manger, watching the snow and eating leftover hay.