A blustery Date Night

This week is Spring Break for our kids. They all go to the same school right now so they all get to get off at the same time. Today they went down to Salt Lake City to visit family and get to see a concert. They were going to spend the night afterwards so tonight got to be an unplanned date night for A~ and I. We got some dinner at a local Mexican place where we haven't been in ages and then went and caught the movie "Clash of the Titans" courtesy of some free passes that we've had, literally, for nearly a year. I remembered this movie from when I was a kid and was really looking forward to watching a new version of it when they could really make it seem the way I think they wanted to back in the 80's but just couldn't. It was good, pretty much what I had expected. It wasn't spectacular, but it was certainly entertaining!

The real Titan tonight turned out to be the weather though! We went in and it was raining a little and dropping the occasional snow flake. It was forecast to snow a little but hey, we've heard that before this year. I expected a little snow over night, nothing to stress over. WRONG! An hour and forty-five minutes later we left the theater and walked smack into a whole new and very white world! There was already close to four inches on the ground and more on our car. ???Where the heck did this come from?

We drove home slowly and I went about the farmers duties. Its funny isn't it, that in our modern era of automated everything that when we make the decision to slow down a little and produce more of our own food it comes with a lot of responsibilities. I went out to make sure the chickens tarp was pulled down to keep snow from blowing into their run, ensured the portable greenhouse cover was pulled tight over the kohlrabi starts (that have already had a tough time thanks to some serious wind storms I might add) and added my recycled window frame cold covers over my cabbage starts and their cloche covers to keep the bulk of the future snow from burying it. They were already essentially covered by snow like miniature little snowmen in my garden bed. It will be a really good test of the covers effectiveness to see how they perform through this storm. Particularly since it's supposed to snow most of tomorrow too.

Well, I guess we'll see how it turns out... Wish me luck. How's the weather been this spring in your neck of the woods?
Stay tuned!
P~

Where are all the plows?

As far as I can tell, my communities latest victim of the tight economy has been our local snow removal budgets. This afternoon graced us with a few new inches of the white stuff and this is what we have to show for it.
Ok, ok...so it's not a blizzard or anything, but it caused plenty of problems this afternoon. Before leaving work I got an email giving notice not to take the freeway either north OR south as there was a 16 car accident one way, and a 9 car mix up the other. Lucky for me, neither was required. A~ had called me before I left as well, to tell me that the roads were a mess and that there had been no plowing done in the 6 hours of snowing that we got, she was right. I crept home safely and was thankful for 4wd.

The thing is this, the snow wasn't really all that bad. Oh sure, it was like 6 inches all told, but for us that's really not all that much. The problem happens when people, who have become used to regularly cleared and salted roads are now thrust into the world of our fathers. I always wondered why my dad always packed chains when we would come to Utah in the winter to go skiing. I'm guessing that the roads weren't as consistently plowed as they have been in the recent past. If we just drive slowly there's no problem, but factor in too much speed, cellphones and texting and well, you get the drift.

I'm guessing that we may yet see more of this kind of cutting back in the future, particularly in the areas of public services. I mean when it comes to things like removing snow, funding schools or keeping the trash disposed of will probably take precedence as it should.

Just an observation of how the times are a changin'. Noticed anything like this in your neck of the woods?
All the best till tomorrow.
P~

This and That

I was thinking about what I wanted to post today, and as things are a bit slow, I thought I would give you a little bit of "This and That".

When I introduced you to our new house hens the other day I was going to show and tell about the setup I'm using for my brooder for those out there who might be wondering or are looking into getting some birds of their own but didn't have time or the room for it. Basically what you have here is your standard re-purposed Dell computer box from the office. I took a piece of scrap PVC and made it into a cross beam to hang a 150 watt heat lamp from. The Chicks need to have an approximately 95°F temperature. I hung the lamp about 18inches above the floor of the brooder and the chicks love it. So much so in fact, that when we turn the light off for more than about ten minutes (Which we were instructed to do by my new book 'Living with Chickens' that my wife got for me and I love!) they gradually start to chirp and squeal louder and louder until they are down right vociferous. So what happens when the light goes back on? Well, then it's lights out for the girls. They suddenly quiet down, take a couple gulps of food and water, and then crash, they're out cold for a nap; obviously exhausted from all the commotion.

In other developments, I can finally see my yard. Well, at least part of it. Somewhere around the end of November or the first week of December '07 I lost my yard. Literally! And I didn't see it again until last week when the current melt off began.

Now I can see at least a third of my garden beds, and a good 3/4 of the back yard. So, Pro's and Con's? First of all, it's great to see a little ground in the back, and Lord knows A~ and I are both tired of shoveling snow! Those are Pro's for sure. But now I'm starting to smell spring in the air. It's not here yet, but it's around the corner. This means I'll get hit with spring fever any time now, and yet not be able to get out and work the ground. That and the fact that we'll soon be in the season here where we could potentially have to shovel our driveway, and mow our lawn in the same week. Definitely a Con!

Also, I've updated my to-do list with some Spring items that I need to take on. This weekend, I hope to finish getting the bookcases into the basement, perhaps not stocked with stuff yet, but down there nonetheless.

Till next time!

P~

I'm dreamin, of a ....

White Christmas of course! But this year we don't have to dream, only to look out the window. It's just started to snow in the last hour, and is projected to keep going all night. So tomorrow we'll open presents, put together puzzles, and watch "A Christmas Story" all with a view worthy of a Norman Rockwell cover right out the window. I just managed to finish the Christmas presents for the boys. I wasn't sure I'd make it, I was a bit ambitious and started late so I consider myself lucky. I'll post some pics of the final product, and a little jig I came up with to use for them, probably this weekend.

I hope all of you are having a great weekend and just enjoying the heck out of each others families. To my family who is scattered far and wide. I want to let you all know how much I miss you, and love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas. To my new friends around the world, Happy Christmas, Feliz Navidad, God Jul, Joyeux Noel; there are too many ways to say all of them, but I wish you all peace and happiness tonight.

I took a little video from my front porch at the same time as this picture... Thought it would be night too share.
Merry Christmas.
P~

First Snow and Flooring update.

So I was out in the garage making a cut on a piece of board for the flooring; the garage door was open half way and I remember thinking "Hmm, if I didn't know better, I'd say it feels like snow's coming." Then I went inside and started putting the boards down. I told A~ what I thought and she said she didn't think so, but the news said they may get some on the benches (that's what they call the area at the base of the mountains.) It wasn't five minutes later that I looked out the back door and saw this. It doesn't look like much, but if you click on it you'll see it was definitely snow. Big fluffy, wet, snow. I was right.. Ha Ha! Anyway, I went out again during a break in the storm and covered the garden. I love this time of year. Growing up in California I didn't really get to experience the whole season changing thing and I love it. The weather cools, the leaves start to change and the world starts to slow down after a long fast summer. You know I never really got the whole lazy days of summer saying, it always seems that there's so many things to do.
Which brings me to the second half of this post; the floor. I'm almost there, this weekend we got the biggest room of the project finished, YESSS! Just three small steps, and on to the finishing. Speaking of which, I'm sad to say that I think we're going to go ahead and use the polyurethane after all. With our family, and our budget, it just seems to be the right product. I hope you've all had a great weekend, and I'll talk to you all again soon!

P~