Last evening, shortly after I wrote that the wind was howling and it was snowing heavily…it stopped. Bear and I were out for our last outing about 8:45. It was still and clear with starlight to see by. No new snow overnight but it has been snowing all this Wednesday – lightly. I don’t think there is yet an inch of snow on the ground.
So…we’ve been under either a Winter Storm Warning, Winter Storm Watch or Winter Weather Advisory since Saturday. So far a lot of bluster, a few squalls, a few flurries.
I took Bear to Wayfarer’s at lunchtime.
Not really a “picnic by the lake” kind of day…
It was as cold as it looks…not so much the temperature, but the wind.
Even blowing from the south-southwest, it was not a warm wind. But it was strong and from that direction, it certainly riled up the lake at the Wayfarer’s end.
The heavy snow has reportedly started in the Idaho panhandle and western-most Montana. NOAA reports that some areas are getting a foot of snow in a hurry and some areas nothing. Huh. At one point they forecast 4 to 8 to 12 inches in Flathead Valley.
We’ll see.
This evening, as I write this, the wind is howling and it is snowing heavily… :)!
Fire crackling in the woodstove. Bob and Bear and I are cozy inside. It is mid-January – barely a month into Winter. Let it snow!
January 2 in Northwest Montana….really?
Really.
Ugghh…Whitefish Mountain…or as those of use who have been in these environs for a while say…Big Mountain…looking lacking in the snow deparment.
And the road home??? Beautiful, but ditto!
January??? Looks like March to me.
This morning…
A fire is crackling in the woodstove, I’m alternating between working and baking cookies. Bear and Bob are napping. And it looks a bit more like Christmas out the windows.
It did occur to me after writing yesterday’s post that I should maybe be careful what I wished for. As much as I love it to look and feel like Winter, I’m not quite up for all that is involved in clearing a LOT of snow… But this, this is good :)!
The winter banner above…that is a photo from January 3, 2009…nearly 3 years ago.
Unfortunately, it does NOT look like that today!
There was not much snow when I arrived home. What little there was melted. A day of flurries produced a scant inch of snow and most of that is gone…
And not much promising on the horizon… what gives, Mother Nature???
The good news is that with the warm temperatures and given my not quite 100% state of health…I was able to have Kim’s RV Detailing give Wild Thing a good rinse off. Additionally, WT is full of gas and propane, has been unloaded and winterized: clean and buttoned down awaiting need or adventure. For those who were not here or do not remember…the first winter in this house, I had a chimney fire (I neglected to have the chimney swept after I bought the house…a task that has NOT been forgotten since!). Thinking the house was about to go up in flames, I sat with Karl and Bob in a cold motorhome and contemplated whether I had made the correct choices for my homeowner’s insurance … whether I would have enough money for things like dish towells was my worry…seriously!! – as well as why I hadn’t thought to keep my “spare house” full of propane so I could run it’s furnace…. So, WT stays full of propane for heat and gas for the generator :)! AND, my insurance coverage will allow me to obtain an adequate supply of dish towells should the worst happen.
Meanwhile we pray for snow…
But nothing stops Bear! He is mostly always on the move looking for squirrels or deer or other invading varmints.
Bring it Mother Nature – we are ready!
Wednesday, November 16…it looked like this and as I walked the loop, I thought to myself: “This is the absolute perfect amount of snow for the week before Thanksgiving…just enough to have that holiday feeling and not so much as to make it hard to get around”.
Later that afternoon, an email from a friend alerted me to a storm forecast for the weekend. It wasn’t so much for a lot of snow as it was for very cold temperatures and strong wind with blowing snow.
Huh… I decided in about 5 minutes of dithering to winterize the motorhome. It burns through a $60 tank of propane in 4-5 days when it starts staying below 20. While I grumbled a bit, it does not take long and it removed the tasks of monitoring (worrying) and runs for propane refills. I will de-winterize the first night out or maybe even the night before I leave weather permitting.
And although I had to unload all the freezable stuff, I use those recyclable psuedo fabric grocery bags that I have a plethora of, making it easy to unload and reload. Stowing things away, I can do first night out. With the short days and long nights and me not being a night driver, I will have plenty of evening downtime and will take at least 4 1/2 days for the 1260 mile trip to my folks.
In the process of unloading and checking all compartments, I found a quantity of stuff that doesn’t need to be aboard at all – obsolete electronics, Bob supplies (he’s staying home with his new gal-pal, Hailley)…. SO, a little de-cluttering done as well :)!
That done, it was back to work as there is a Tuesday project deadline.
So…Thursday afternoon it looked like this…
And then it changed to freezing rain…pretty, but I was glad that I didn’t have to go anywhere which is one of the reasons I can enjoy Winter so very much.
The forecast nailed it – not a lot of new snow but it got very cold and very windy and very wintry and I was very glad I was not trying to babysit the motorhome through a frigid cold spell. I promised her that I would fire things up shortly and we would be off for adventure soon.
Bear is absolutely loving the cold. His short stint of laying in the yard has regressed to being constantly in motion. There are perimeters to patrol, squirrels to chase, deer to sniff out…maybe the elk herd have passed through in the night or the local raccoon. Bear is on top of it all.
That was our week…that and getting the house and Bob ready to leave in Hailley’s care. A full week, a bit more jam-packed than is my wont, but all is in good shape. Currently the weather looks good for either a Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning departure – Adventure calls!