Polar Vortex Montana style
I moved to this part of Montana in February 1994 … nearly 30 years ago … HOLY COW!
I grew up in Northwest Ohio, moved to California in 1979 … first years in East Bay/San Francisco area and then in Los Angeles area until leaving California in late 1993 to find a spot to call home … small town in the west. The criteria were skiing, sailing and mountains.
And here I am!
The first Winters in Montana always had two weeks: one early December and one in January of super cold. Super cold being -teens/20’s (F) overnight and below 10F daytime. Then things moderated to not have those weeks of super cold, less snow and some hotter summer weeks. THEN, the last 2 years … all “normal/semi-normal” kind of out the window.
Enter this year’s Polar Vortex with record setting lows and wind chills. At my house, the lowest low was -27F and no wind although when the front whooshed through on Thursday afternoon, there was a LOT of wind as well as white out … at my home! Kind of funny as in an earlier work Zoom when discussing weather with the gang, I said: “there is a wind chill warning but I don’t usually get much wind at my house because of the trees.” The lesson: never taunt Mother Nature!
As of this writing, Monday (1/15/2024) afternoon, power has not been out. The internet was sporadic in and out on Friday and Saturday … I am guessing some towers were down and up and repeat. So, it is mostly business as usual except that Emmett and my outings have been very short. He has done very well with that.
From our super cold days:
On Saturday, the morning that started at -27F … when the forecast said the high would be -9F, I said on my Instagram, that if it did get to -9, I would snowshoe to my east property boundary to see the mountains … it was so pretty that it was agonizing not to be able to go outside very much. It was -11F at 3:45 and I knew it would not get warmer AND would soon start getting colder again.
I bundled up, put wax on Emmett’s feet and out we went!
The actual distance was maybe 1000 feet round trip. The above photo is from the video I shot and I did not get the camera out until the last 100 feet. I wasn’t sure how long the camera would operate as it was below “operating temperature”!
But I got a bit of video with my Insta360 OneRS One Inch … I am very huffy and puffy: 68 years old, first snowshoe, 2.5 weeks post some sort of respiratory thing that prohibited much cardio and -11F!!! Anyway, here it is:
Today, Monday … after looking at the weather forecast … wind and snow (4-11 inches) due Wednesday … I made a quick trip to the grocery store … mainly for Vaseline for Emmett’s feet. The wax I have is years old and has not seemed very effective. The internet has some votes for Vaseline (petroleum jelly) so we’ll give that a try. Also got a few fresh fruits and veg, chocolate milk for my mochas (!!!). Pantry, frig and freezer are full of food for all of us.
In addition to keeping the firewood stocked up close to and in the house, the pets entertained, the last bits of my programming, baking bread and rolls, making soups and stews … I am LOVING my daily art sessions: watercolor painting, sketching, line and wash, colored pencil … so much fun and I see bits of improvement and then oops, but it is all enjoyable to me. This past week, I started an illustrated journal: think blog on paper with ordinary drawings, paintings of ordinary things.
Below is my Instagram post with how and why I was motivated to start an illustrated journal.
To my fellow U.S. followers …. stay warm and safe! I don’t think there is much of the U.S. that will be spared unusual cold and conditions.
2 Responses to “Polar Vortex Montana style”
I love the sound of the snow crunching under your snowshoes. It has certainly been cold there! Here it has been down to -5°C but no snow down here in the valley, quite a lot on the mountains, and a lot of damp fog and rain.
I see Oscar is doing quality control on your Journal…I think a journal is a good way of being more observant and mindful of the everyday as well as good practice for drawing.
Oscar is definitely my art buddy. He loves rolling the pencils and brushes … thankfully he does not mess with either when they are upright in “storage”, only when on the table. And sometimes he sits and watches intently … it is like having a vulture looking over what I am doing! Emmett lies next to me so all is very companionable :)
I will not be sad to see the end of the super cold. The snow is beautiful but we cannot be outside for very long to play in it.
When I first looked at illustrated journaling I thought, but what am I going to illustrate? Once I watched the “Journal the ordinary” and viewed other journals … they call them “flip through’s” in the YouTube videos … I got the idea. I have a journal that I write in, my blog and now the illustrated. I have been doing whichever seems “right” when it seems right, i.e. not forcing one or the other every day. I enjoy all of them.
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