10-10 = Snow Start

So this was a suprise! I got home late last night to clear and starry weather (was out for a rare night with other moms sans kids; whoo!), and woke up to WHITE! SNOW! EVERYWHERE! Not the normal first snow for the year. A bit early (!!!!) but beautiful nonetheless. It took me a minute to figure out why it looked so strange; green leaves and white ground usually do not mix!

We went out before breakfast for a quick visit; Bean's first snow while walking and more aware!

First tromp through snow; didn't even stop to inspect it first; nothing phases this boy!

Oh, wait! Something's different, mom!

And what are these silly things you managed to sneak onto my hands? I'll take care of that!

Ohhhh... cold! Do not like this!


Oh, well, never mind... I'll just get on with clearing it for you....

The snow is mostly melted by now, but the forecast calls for more this weekend. Yikes. It's been such an odd weather year, but I guess we best embrace the cold. We're pretty well outfitted through fortutitious garages sale, Grandma shopping gifts and wonderful friend hand-me-downs (thanks for the snowsuit, Mary; great timing!). We're ready for more winter now; but maybe some true Fall, first?

Garden Greens

It's about 44 degrees, windy and raining right now, so it's a good day to remember that it IS almost summer. We have a hearty greens bed that has weathered some good cold frosts in the month since I planted it. The peas were doing great until the darn ground squirrel came and mowed them down.That's despite 2 layers of fencing. Grrrrr.

The "weeds" this year are largely edible mustards that planted themselves last year when things went to seed; I wasn't really paying that much attention. But the edible weeds have been handy, because the ground squirrel avoids anything in the brassica family, and I'm trying to use them as cover for the surviving pea plants. We'll see.



But for now, we are almost to the buy-no-more-imported-greens stage, which is great. We'll get more things planted soon. Even Bean (shown here "helping" a few days ago when the weather didn't require winter jackets) is enjoying eating cooked greens. Mmm!

A Day in the North

Things not normally done on the same day:

Scraping frost off the windshield and wearing sandals.

Dressing your baby in a warm sweatshirt AND finding his sun hat for later.

Scraping frost off the windshield in the morning and eating greens grown in your front yard for lunch.

But wait... that's not terribly unusual around here. Gotta love the North! (It IS warming up now, but don't forget your ice scraper, even if it's June!)

Spring IS Here

...Maybe.



What a difference 2 weeks makes, eh? We're cautiously optimistic.

This IS Spring in MN

We're making the best of it. Even Lutsen.

Road Trip

I'm a bit behind on posting. But here's some catch up:

So, the weather's been pretty gray and icky lately. It makes one yearn for a place that serves something warm and spicy, like maybe "Rasta Pasta"... so we joined a couple of friends and hit the road! Nope, not a tropical island, but tiny Gilbert, MN, the home of the Whistling Bird Jamaican restaurant.


Susan and Alexis enjoying the Rasta Pasta.

My "date" kept throwing his spoon on the floor, but overall was a great dinner guest.




He got to come along on the "girl's day out" and did seem to have a good time. It was nice to explore a few places on the Iron Range that I had never visited before. Just a tiny bit of traveling, but still good for the soul.



We made it back before any bad weather. The ice storm hit Monday, but amazingly, we didn't lose and trees and the timing was nearly perfect: the roads thawed enough for safe driving, and the "enchanted tunnel" that was our driveway only kept the car at the end of the driveway overnight. It was impressive! We didn't get many pictures because the camera cards were full and night was coming, and by morning it was all gone, melted by warmer rain.


More blessings! And more posts soon.

Topsy turvy temps

There’s something wrong with this picture;

My (usually accurate) car thermometer read -26 F at the lowest point on the way to work this morning. And now my personal thermometer reads 100.8. Hmmm… thought I had kicked this bug yesterday!

So, where do I apply to have those numbers rearranged a bit? Guess I should go home and try to sleep….

Snow Snow Snow!

We have a rather astounding amount of snow. We're on our second snowstorm of the weekend, the second weekend of snowed-in-ness. Last weekend it was also really cold with driving snow, so we didn't get out that much. This weekend, we had a little window this morning before the next storm came in, so we got OUT a bit. My first snowshoe of the season.

Here is the "snowshoe eye view" of the house... from the crab apple orchard, a side not often viewed. Yep, huge-looking house. Not as huge inside, somehow.


Our neighbors gave us their nice tot-backpack, and we've come across other good used winter stuff with help from family and friends. So, here we are providing a good outdoor napping location for the Bean!





The rest of the weekend should include some cooking, baking, cleaning and catching up with various projects. I've been feeling more than a little overwhelmed by all the little details of life lately, but I'm hoping I'm feeling a little rebound. We can do it! The fresh air and snowshoing today helped. Onward...

6 weeks Season

So, today is 6 weeks since Bean joined us on the "outside". And a rather cold outside it is! June 11th, and only approximately 11 degrees above freezing. Brrrr. This is crazy. Rain, dreariness, blah.

But it did provide the perfect weather for wearing a certain small sweater; it would definitely be too small by the next season when it is supposed to be cold!



We're huddled around the fire, drinking tea and staying cozy! Lutsen was even inspired to share Will's warmth; some things are worth staying somewhat close to the baby, in her cat opinion!

'Snow Baby yet

Get it? (S)No(w) baby just yet... Nope. Maybe soon. Hoping soon.



We did get snow, though... maybe baby is waiting for spring, thinking that it's not time quite yet. Actually, the panel picture is from this morning (when the snow reminded me of the icing on cheap storebought oatmeal cookies; remember those?).


The next pic was from this afternoon, which really warmed up with the sun.



The chickens have been enjoying the doorstep garden as a dustbath... not my first choice of location for them to engage in this mite-smothering orgy, but it's the warmest, dryest spot for now, and sometimes I just have to pick my battles.

WF did put up the rhubarb cage, though, to protect the greenest shoots in the yard. Looks like we're maybe a little behind last year in growth? And by May, it was quite springy here... we'll see what this year brings. Or will I be too preoccupied to care about spring milestones? We'll see... let's all think good baby-welcoming thoughts. We'll keep you posted!

Spring? Ha!

We are currently hunkered down. Power, phone and computer are fine here in our off-grid world. Not so sure about the larger town; my work computer and phones seem to be down. Some "real" spring will be nice one of these days... Perhaps more posts later today as we figure out work and play! I'd love to be able to see the Lake waves, but the only webcam that would show that is out right now; blown away?

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

...BLIZZARD CONDITIONS NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR THROUGH TONIGHT...
...DANGEROUS SNOW STORM ELSEWHERE ACROSS THE NORTHLAND...

.A VIGOROUS WINTER STORM EVENT WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT NORTHEAST
MINNESOTA AND NORTHWEST WISCONSIN TODAY AND TONIGHT. INTENSE
WINDS...SNOWFALL RATES OF UP TO 1 INCH AN HOUR...AND NEAR ZERO
VISIBILITIES AT TIMES. A BLIZZARD NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR...WITH WHITE-
OUT CONDITIONS...AT TIMES WELL INLAND. WINDS OF UP TO 60 MPH ARE
EXPECTED NEAR THE LAKE. TRAVELERS ARE URGED TO USE CAUTION.

Brrrr Beautiful

I have some blog catching up to do. But first, I am proud to show that I was finally successful in photographing my car’s thermometer! Wheee! (And excited that the car started; we kept it in the garage, which helped).



This was yesterday. Today, not NEARLY so cold; only about -11 F. Heat wave.

But, at -20 F, Lake Superior show off a very cool phenomenon; sea smoke! It is simple steam, rising from the “warm cup of tea” that is the surface water. Never mind that the water is likely right at 32 or 33 degrees; it’s still warm enough to steam given the air temps. I don’t know more than that; I’m sure the humidity, etc has something to do with it. But it’s quite amazing to behold, especially with the sun rising up through the bank of “smoke.”




I even put a snippet up on Youtube; it was quite windy, with -40 or so windchills. They did cancel school, but WF and I both had to work.



The beauty of the morning (we took these quickly on the way to work) got me through my whine-worthy day. -20F, 6 months pregnant and suffering from another (this time BAD) cold; Urgh. But I got through the meeting-filled day and hope to be fighting off these germs soon. I am grateful to be where I am, especially in light of some sad baby news for a relative. Keep us all in your warm thoughts!

Status: Cold

It’s STILL cold this morning (and yes, freezing other blog topics out of my brain). 11 F Below. Subaru status: rowrrowrrow…rowr…rowr…(ie slowly turning over, not starting). Urgh! Still no thermometer shot possible! We drove the rusty, trusty old Toyota. Sigh...

In other temperature news (thrilled yet?) we came home yesterday to a WARM house...like 70 degrees warm. I seriously thought something was wrong. It felt great, but how bizarre..? Apparently the boiler repair person was there, and after he fixed the zone problem, figured that we only had the house in the 50’s because of the problem. HA.

We keep the house in the 50’s during the day because we are FRUGAL. And possibly insane. Gluttons for punishment? Anyway, it was weird to actually feel warm in the house. WF made sure he remedied that wild use of resources right away, back to the 50’s this morning. Sigh… We really need to figure out some scientific way to really know how much more propane it costs to keep the house that warm (we run off a big tank in the yard, so no monthly bills or easy calculations arrive). I can only imagine a small person will need the house a bit warmer next winter...

Twenty below has us beat

Ok, shouldn't have been so confident yesterday about that car-starting thing. Twenty below zero this morning, two cars sitting outside (why did we do that?!). One is the "new" Subaru, other other an elderly Toyota ('91) that hasn't been driven in a couple days. Guess which one started this morning? Grrr.

Not the fancy Subaru with the entertaining thermometer; I was going to try to document it for you today. Nope, today we got to work just a bit late in the creaky old car, grateful for tough old technology.

It's supposed to warm up SOON (today?) and hopefully this new Subaru will take us through the rest of the winter. Or we need to get smarter and actually clear out the old garage to use it in cold weather. Sheesh.

Sentiments at 17 Below

BRRRRR! Cold. Very cold. Wow, it’s cold. Hmm, my fingers are numb. BRRRRR! Cold! Will the car start? Yes! Thank goodness for small miracles. Brrrrrrr...

Yes, we’re back, sorry for the delay. Been suffering in silence with these cold temperatures. Our “new” car has an outside thermometer, and it’s fascinating to watch it during these cold days. Today started out at 17 below F, then went up to 11 below F by the time we got close to the Lake, which is not frozen over yet. We went out to a friend’s house (at night!) over the weekend, and watched that car thermometer dip to -20 F in the low spots. It’s not been TOO bad, but we did wake up to a 55 F (instead of our usual balmy 58-62 F) house this morning; one of the heating zones is not working. Blah. More repair guys needed.

But these cold temps are partly a product of CLEAR days and nights, which means lots of passive and active solar power for the house. This weekend I managed to wash AND dry some new heavy flannel sheets in one day; quite impressive. They were literally steaming in the sunlight coming through the window onto the drying racks, adding some nice humidity to the dry house.



Sun is also good for chicken egg production! Tough old birds, we’ve gotten up to as many as 3 eggs a day in these cold temps. Recall these are “natural” chickens, with no supplemental heat or light, just a big south facing window. They haven’t taken WF up on his offer of outside time on weekends, but seem to enjoy the sun indoors. We’re all tough northerners, and I do appreciate the sun even if it comes with sub zero complications. At least we have enough snow cover to keep the septic system from freezing, etc. Whoo, the things we get to think about this time of year!

More on the short NE trip in a bit…

Snow wow!

I am very glad that I still have a 4WD vehicle (I think that up here we really DO need them).

This is the scene that greeted me after work today- wow. For some reason, it seems more normal to get such large amounts overnight, not during the day. It sort of snuck up on us, promised as "flurries". I've heard reports of more than a foot! The traffic was stop and go on the interstate, but people were fairly polite and calm. It only took a hour to go as far as I usually go in a half hour.

We were afraid we'd be walking down our driveway once we got home, but we live far enough away from the Lake that we hardly got anything. We'll see what morning holds!

Snowshoes and Shovels

Ah, yes, the first obligatory storm post! We did indeed get socked in by snow last night. It was really blowing by mid-day, and now we have about a foot of fairly fluffy snow. WF has finished snowblowing a path out so I can go to work tomorrow.

It is amazing to see this much so soon after last year's nearly snowless winter. We already got out the snowshoes (baby-to-be's first snowshoe!). I am surprised at how soon I was out of breath during that little adventure. I've pretty much stopped running due to the odd back/hip pain it causes (pregnancy related) but am still trying to walk. Not enough, probably... need to get out more!

The chickens refused to go out in the snow; WF reports that even the enticement of nice hay didn't get them out the door. The first hen to explore the possibility slid down the snow-covered ramp, and promptly turned around to go back in. Wimps!

This evening, we're hanging out around the fire, cooking a rooster and some historic beets on the woodstove and trying to dry this week's laundry nearby. I wish the weekend was a few days longer so I could catch up on everything here. More soon...

First Snow!

I sense the time for deck furniture is coming to an end for this year. This is our first snow, one that lasted all night and stayed on grass. Quite a bit later than last year... wonder what the season will hold for us this year!? Check out the "weather" category on the sidebar for a review of last year's winter craziness.

Driving in to work today, it was actually light out. It truly feels like winter now with the cold and early evening dark, but I appreciate the lighter mornings. SUN!

Brrrrrr

Friday's average temp: 70ish
Today's average temp: 36
Today's weather highlight (lowlight?): waking up to snow on the deck
Time until Summer Solstice: 1 month
Yep, that's Minnesota for you!

Maybe it's the weather, but I'm just not getting into garden stuff yet. We have some brave cress and lettuce in the garden, but nothing blog-worthy yet. I just don't feel like the sun is quite ready to bless us with growing season yet, so why force it? In fact, the sky was looking downright grumpy today! Felt like something was watching us...



But the chickens are brave.



A few of the hens have been outfitted with their new "fashion for passion", ala this entry a while back. The roosters have been getting a little, shall we say, overzealous lately. The young rooster is managing to sneak in a little action more often, much to big rooster's dismay and vocal annoyance. But I suppose the saddles can keep the hens warm in this crazy weather, too!

Wow!

Amazing spring colors last night. The chickens were not impressed; they were just hoping that I'd let them out!