92' with a 74' dewpoint

Fluff & Spin, a photo by fiberbrarian on Flickr.

and we lost two minutes today. How's that for an Independence Day?! We're paying for it. Temps will be paid for by a huge storm that's already around us. And the lost minutes will be paid for by winter that's just a few months away.

The fiber stuff is from this year's Tour de Fleece. I washed some fleece yesterday and managed to get a bobbin spun today between errands and dissertating.

There are garden pictures, too, but I'll add them another day. My cucumbers are blooming! Tomatoes are stout and hearty. Sweet basil, grown from seed, is prolific. (Very tiny seeds that I didn't measure out well.) Cilantro, chives, onions, and assorted flowers and plants: all well. Except for the pansies and the poppies and the larkspur that got eaten by a mouse or slugs, the garden is going well.

Hail in the upcoming storm. We'll see how we look tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day, USA!

Good News & Bad News

SoaringEagleGarden_april152011, a photo by fiberbrarian on Flickr.

The Good News: If you missed that winter wonderland picture this winter, you've got another chance.

The Bad News: It's SNOWING on April 15. Not unheard of but I've heard the words demoralizing and disheartening used to describe the event.

I feel the need to start knitting more mittens.

8:00am March 23, 2011

8:00am March 23, 2011 a photo by fiberbrarian on Flickr.

IT MISSED US!

.5 inches of snow officially. Started out with a bit of sleet but temps were so warm that nothing stuck. We were at the very northern edge of the storm. Manville, just 15 miles north of us, got nothing. Mayville, a half hour south of Grand Forks got 19.5".

Kind of disappointed since I was all ready for a big (BIG) storm, but since that didn't happen, I hope this is the end of winter. Let's move on to the flooding season and then summer. I want some sun and heat!

Road Conditions - 10:30pm

Road Conditions - 10:30pm a photo by fiberbrarian on Flickr.

Tonight's road conditions around the state. Not much going on around here. The storm has tried to get up here but hasn't really succeeded. We stayed warm enough to get more rain than snow, which means we'll have plenty of ice when the temps drop. Oh, well. Another weather story to add to our queue!

Calm before (another) storm...

8:00am March 22, 2011 a photo by fiberbrarian on Flickr.

Last week was so nice. As you can see from this picture, much of the snow has melted. There are (hardy) plants coming up on the south side of buildings. So nice. And now there's another big storm to come. Still south of us (Hillsboro) at this time - but the western part of the state is getting hammered. Anyway. This is my benchmark photo. 8:00 am this morning at the front corner of the Soaring Eagle Garden. I'll take another photo tomorrow (if I can get in) or Thursday to show you if the storm materialized or not. Wait and see.

Blizzard!

March 11 - around noon a photo by fiberbrarian on Flickr.

Couldn't tell it by this picture taken around noon today. The morning dawned bright and sunny. A little overcast at noon. And tonight - at 8:30 - I decided I'd better take the garbage out while I could, and WHAM! The blizzard had started. (I heard it inside but thought it was the train going past. Should have figured out that the train eventually moves past.)

This further emphasizes to me that I'd never have made it as a pioneer. First - if I'd landed on the east coast, I would never have crossed the Appalachians. When I saw a soddy (house built of sod) at DeSmet, SD, and remembered the blizzard/winter scenes from Giants in the Earth, I knew I would've gone insane, too. And then today comes around. Beautiful sunny morning - great day to go out exploring. WHAP! Caught in a blizzard.

I'm so fortunate that strong people came before me.

However, the lights are flickering, so it's time to grab the blankets/sleeping bags and the wind-up flash light. Charge the cell phone. Get out the chocolate.

I'm a Pioneer in my own right.

Definitely January!

weak winter sun - Jan. 16, 2011
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian

January is a cold month up here. Very cold. January is also a month of incredibly bright - almost glaring - sun. There are days, though, when it's cold and although the sun tries, sometimes it only appears - not bright, glowing, glaring - but it does show up. I have those days, too.

This shows my extension cord/engine plug-in system. I used a shepherd's hook last year to hold my plug-in out of the snow and it was great...until we got the record 24" snow fall. At that point, the 6' hook started getting covered in snow from the sidewalk and parking lot. This year I bought a 7' hook and it's working so far. We haven't had any big snow dumps, which is a help.