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....

Stormy weather!

Yet another November windstorm. It blew all night, paused for breath about 7am, then let loose with 80mph gusts and knocked trees down (and power out) all over the county. We spent part of the morning chasing greenhouse parts and trying to keep it from disintegrating. That's one way to get a workout!

These downed trees happen to be on our road, not quite 1/2 mile away. No sign of repair crews, and the power company's update page says Whatcom and Thurston counties won't have power any time soon. So the generator is running and we've switched over to dark-ages-peasant mode.

And here are the little felions, taking a break from their sibling gladiator matches. At least we can watch kittens by candlelight til the power comes back on. They went to the vet today and got a clean bill of health (and we got the none too tiny bill!).

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...

Another "hurricane" coming tonight!

From - http://headlines.accuweather.com/news-top-headline.asp?partner=accuweather

We'll keep you posted and add pictures if it's safe to do so. Looks like we're in for a ride. Hurricane speeds start at 74mph, and we're forecast for 100mph (says the Weather Channel) or so gusts. And we've found usually when they forecast a certain windspeed in town, it's much higher out here. Oh boy.

From http://www.nws.noaa.gov/alerts/wa.html#WAZ503.SEWNPWSEW.11:30:00 NOAA

High Wind Warning
Western Whatcom County (Washington)URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
330 AM PST THU DEC 14 2006
WAZ001-503-506-510-514>517-141930-
/O.UPG.KSEW.HW.A.0009.061214T2100Z-061215T1600Z/
/O.NEW.KSEW.HW.W.0019.061214T2200Z-061215T1800Z/
SAN JUAN COUNTY-WESTERN WHATCOM COUNTY-WESTERN SKAGIT COUNTY-
ADMIRALTY INLET AREA-EASTERN STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-
WESTERN STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-NORTH COAST-CENTRAL COAST-
330 AM PST THU DEC 14 2006

...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 AM PST FRIDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND
WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 AM
PST FRIDAY. THE HIGH WIND WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.
A DEEP LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM AND ITS FRONT WILL PRODUCING DAMAGING
WINDS AS IT MOVES ACROSS THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH FRIDAY
MORNING.
SOUTHEAST WINDS WILL INCREASE AHEAD OF THE SYSTEM TODAY...LOCALLY
RISING TO 40 MPH LATE THIS AFTERNOON WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH. WINDS
WILL RISE FURTHER TONIGHT AS THE SYSTEM MOVES INLAND. WIDESPREAD
WINDS OF 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH ARE EXPECTED. LOCALLY THE WIND
WILL REACH 50 TO 60 MPH TONIGHT WITH GUSTS OF 80 TO 90 MPH
LIKELY...MAINLY ALONG THE COAST...IN THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA
AREA...AND ACROSS WHIDBEY ISLAND. LOCALLY DAMAGING WINDS WILL
CONTINUE EARLY FRIDAY THEN EASE DURING THE DAY.
THE HIGH WINDS WILL CAUSE FALLING TREES...BRING DOWN POWER LINES
AND PRODUCE POWER OUTAGES...AND DAMAGE SOME STRUCTURES. FLYING
DEBRIS WILL ALSO BE A HAZARD.
$$
Issuing Weather Forecast Office Homepage

Stewart graduated from puppy class today!!

Here's the graduate, with D & teacher Diana. He had to do quite a serious test of his puppy powers, but did pretty well for such a wiggly guy. CHeck out his mortarboard and how thrilled he is to wear it!

Here's the graduate, post ceremony. Looks like he had to blow off a little steam.

Here are our front fir trees being blown over the house. The wind was gusting 60mph+ plus then.

Last but not least, here are the laying hens when we checked them last night. All but 2 had crowded into the 3 nest boxes. Stormy weather and all, there was still one fresh egg laid, and 2 more today.

The wind is kicking up again, but thanks to our wonderful neighbor, we have a generator to add a little cheer tonight, and keep our food frozen. He also gave us some fresh hazelnuts from his trees, and some homemade jerky. How cool is that!

Hopefully the power will be on again soon, but there are poles and trees and wires down all over....

Hurricane wind speeds??!!

Power is out at Seven Trees, and close to going out here at work. The winds are averaging 59mph with plenty of gusts over 70!!

Bellingham Bay Wind Chart Wind High 82.0mph on 11/15/06 11:55a

We might get some pics of the weather up, but hands are full making sure the critters and outbuildings stay intact. Right now our little greenhouse (aluminum frame and polycarbonate panels) is at risk for damage.

Meanwhile at work, it's gusting so hard that air is blowing down the plumbing vent pipes and making the sink and toilet bubble!

We'll post updates as we can....