New Weather Term?

myRepublica-Nagarik Network

This afternoon we’re due for ‘scattered downpours.’ I don’t remember our weather people using this term before. We’ve had scattered showers, heavy rain, and everything up to flying hairballs, but I don’t remember ‘scattered downpours’ – and we only a 40% chance of them. What would a ‘100% chance of scattered downpours’ look like? I think I must be missing something.

My other weather source says absolutely nothing about rain today. I guess that would be ‘REALLY scattered downpours’ in the new weather jargon?”

I’m going to go outside in just a bit to see if I can finish weeding my raised bed square foot garden boxes before whatever rain we’re supposed to get – gets here. I’ll try to get some pictures for you.

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Needpix.com

This is the closest pic I was able to find to give you an idea of the bridge that is on the road between our place and town. Our bridge is on a curve in the road. Yesterday when we went to Lunch Bunch there was a cleared area to one side with a dirt ‘road’ that went from one end of the bridge around to the other end – a kind of ‘bypass.’ There were no ‘road closed’ signs and the bridge was passable. I found on the net where there is some kind of grant that will be used for ‘improvements,’ but no other details as to what will happen or when. A mystery.

I hope that your weekend is free of downpours – either ‘scattered’ or ‘un’ and that you find something really fun to do. :0)

Tuesday 4-25-2023

April 19, 1968 a tornado ripped through the town of Greenwood, Arkansas and pretty much leveled it, killing 13 people and injuring at least 200 others.

My husband and I moved here in 1987, but there is a definite “before the tornado” and “after the tornado” feeling here. There was a piece on the local news about the 55 year anniversary of that tornado yesterday.

It was an F4 tornado and came up in the middle of the afternoon when school was letting out. In 4 minutes, the town was leveled.

“GREENWOOD, Ark. — On April 19, 1968, one of the deadliest tornadoes to strike Arkansas tore through Greenwood, killing 13 people and injuring more than 200. The tornado was rated an F4. Around 3:15 p.m., the tornado touched down in the southern section of Greenwood for four minutes.”

The town was rebuilt and was totally intact when we moved here in 1987. The people here are resilient, hard-working, with a lot of heart. The square in the center of town was pretty much wiped off the map, but once again has a charm that drew me the minute I saw it. It reminds me of Nevada, Missouri, where my mom’s parents lived. I visited in the summers and could walk to the square and ‘shop,’ just like a real person, rather than having to wait on someone to take me somewhere. I could walk to the library, buy a cherry coke from the counter in the local drug store, window shop, and more. I have wonderful memories of that time.

KFSM

Oh, Happy Day!

We were due for severe weather with large hail yesterday afternoon through the evening. I debated how best to try to protect my young plants and decided clothes-pinning sheets above and around the plants was best, though if we did, indeed, get baseball-sized hail as one of the forecasts said, nothing would save them.

I found some plastic deep trays in the shop and put them on top of each of the sprinklers in the planter boxes here. Then I spread the sheet and clothes-pinned them around the legs of the box supports.

The plants came through fine. My husband estimated that the hail we received was about 1/2 inch – 5/8 inch. It was making so much noise during the worst of it that we couldn’t hear each other talk. We were standing together with the back door open, looking out through the screened porch. It was pretty impressive.

Above is one of the best head lettuce plants we have. Isn’t it pretty?

And this is one of the best spinach plants. I need to get out and trim off some broken or dead plant parts, plus do a bit of weeding, but I’m SO happy that they came through what could have been devastation just fine.

The tomato plants made it through, too. I wrapped the sheets around the supports and clothes-pinned the sheets as tightly as possible. This is the smaller, square planter. There are four tomato plants here. They should perk up a bit more now that the sheet is off and they can be in the sunshine.

This is the second tomato planter. There are six plants here. I clothes-pinned one king-sized sheet over the whole support system here and then tightened the edges around the bottom as much as I could.

Here’s a close up of one of the tomato plants. I can’t wait until we have ripe tomatoes to cut up for lunches and dinners!

It’ll take quite a bit of the day to get the 6 sheets washed, dried, and stored in the bag in the shop waiting for next time.

Oh, GREAT!

Health Shots

We have a cold front coming through this afternoon, with accompanying strong wind gusts and large hail.

The colorful blogs on the far left are zeroing in on us, the threat lasting from about 2pm to 8pm tonight.

I’m really delighted because I JUST finished putting in an entire flat of head lettuce, another flat of spinach, and 10 beautiful tomato plants. Even regular hail is deadly to new plants, and LARGE hail will be hard to deal with.

My plan is to cover my two planters of tomato plants with sheets. I have support things around the tomato plants, so hopefully those plus the sheets will keep the hail from battering them.

In the square foot garden, I have four of six boxes full of plants. I’m planning to find something to put on top of the sprinkler at the center of each of the boxes and then to put tarps over each box, held down by bungee cords. Not sure of the details of all this.

I’ll go out after lunch and see what I can do. One of the things I read talked about ‘baseball-sized hail.’ If THAT happens, NOTHING will help. I hope whoever said that is wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Fingers crossed.

123RF

Sharing Some Spring

Heavy thunderstorms are on the way, but who can be down looking at blooms like these?

Hooray for March!

Unknown

My spirits have lifted. I don’t care that it’s rainy and cold, knowing that spring isn’t too far off. I’m hoping that we’ve broken the back of winter, but I know that Mother Nature can change her mind and sprinkle (or slam) us with more of the white stuff this month. I’m trying to keep positive thoughts about all of it, seeing lots of blooms around the yard – more each day.

This morning, for example, I noticed that several of our redbud trees are blooming.

A quick walk around the yard – it IS still raining a bit – shows lots of color. Here’s a forsythia.

The tulip tree didn’t lose all of its blooms.

And daffodils are showing their happy faces all around the yard.

My heart is full as I see all these sweet things blooming their little hearts out. I hope that you are seeing signs of promise and hope, too.

Enjoy your Friday.

Wow

Backpackers.com

We seem to have come through the severe weather last night without damage – at least that we have found yet. It was scary for a while, though, with our weather alert going off with a tornado WARNING covering Ft. Smith, but not including Greenwood. We had lots of really gusty winds to the point we were talking about possibly losing some of the siding off the house or losing our deck cover, not to mention more trees and branches down.

103.3 WKFR-Getty Images

It’s sunny and 55 degrees -thankfully, quiet and pretty now. Later we’ll gather our trash and take it down. I don’t know if the trash can will still be there. My husband tethered it to the pole, but he scoffs at what he calls my ‘obsession’ with tying it tightly. Since I have trouble not slipping and sliding over the gravel, he has taken over the dragging it up and down and tethering it to the pole. The trip down the driveway will also tell us if we had any other damage overnight. Fingers crossed.

Gusty winds like that make me wonder what the animals do to protect themselves. We heard a couple of driveway alarms that my husband said were probably deer walking around. The wind was gusting to such an extent I would think they would have trouble not being blown off their feet.

We are still under a ‘wind advisory’ for another hour or so this morning, but I think the worst is past now.

I hope you are somewhere safe.

Flirting with Spring?

Spring is at least a month away, but this is part of what I found when I was walking around in the yard yesterday! The sight made my heart soar. I really needed it.

You can’t feel down when you see things like this.

There were signs all around the yard that good things are still happening, and are yet to happen.

Spring is around the corner!

Sanity

Minions

Day 3 in my husband’s fight to get the shop computer up and running again. He’s trying to get the operating system updates onto the computer. This takes a long time and THEN announces the failure of the attempt. More than frustrating. We’re compromising now, with some time for me on my computer first thing, then my computer and the TV are unusable until late after dinner. Since I’m totally spoiled, I’m having withdrawal symptoms.

I’m reading, doing some cleaning, some cooking, and I spent time in my art room yesterday for the first time in a long time. I’ve started work on an idea up there with some cleaning up and putting away in there, too.

It FINALLY stopped raining! The sun is out today – a hugely welcome sight. I’m planning to take at least one walk in the yard today. We’re supposed to get more rain/wintry mix tomorrow, but we’ll deal with that THEN. It might mess up Lunch Bunch. :0(

Faith

“Keep your faith in beautiful things;
in the sun when it is hidden,
in the Spring when it is gone.” Roy R. Gibson

Earth.com

Quora

I’m thankful today that the precipitation we’re due to get all day today and tomorrow is JUST rain. No snow, sleet, ice, or severe storms – no flying hair balls – JUST rain.

As soon as it’s time for our mail to have been delivered, we’ll check to see if the trash people have made our trash disappear this week. They didn’t last week, I assume because of the weather. I would imagine that if the school buses can’t make it around up here, neither can the trash trucks, mail delivery, etc. Hopefully, they’ll get it today.

My husband is in a ‘death fight’ with the computer that lives in our shop. I’m not sure WHY it’s a death fight, but he has spent hours and hours putting a new operating system on it, new video card, etc., getting more and more upset because it isn’t working. He plays music on it when he’s working in the shop. Since we haven’t been out there, except to get tools or mailbox decorations, I’m not sure why everything else has taken a back seat to this, but it has made it so that he can’t sleep at night and then sleeps on and off during the day. I’m glad he can get his rest, but I wish he would take a more measured approach to this.

I hope that the weather is not a problem where you are today and that this is a nice Tuesday for you.

Fleezing Dizzle

Giphy

It’s not this bad yet, but we have teeny, tiny sleet pellets falling now. The temperature is 22 degrees F., and the “feels like” temperature is 12. Mostly, it LOOKS like just a really cold rain right now, but the pest control guy just called me to ask how it was here. I suggested he go home and be safe, rather than try to come to us until all this is past and we thaw out again.

We still have public power, but looking at the weather website, we really won’t get above freezing until Wednesday afternoon, and the STUFF doesn’t quit coming, really until Thursday morning. Should be interesting.

The “fleezing dizzle” title comes from a party my parents were having a hundred years or so ago. My dad had his own one-man advertising agency, and a lot of the people at the party were in the media. A topic of conversation came up where someone started to laugh helplessly as he tried to talk about a weatherman who got his tongue tied, saying “Fleezing Dizzle,” rather than freezing drizzle. Everyone started to laugh, with the exception of one man, who said, “Oh, God. That was ME!”

Meanwhile, we’re warm and cozy inside. I’m making spaghetti for dinner, and my husband wanted some hot chocolate earlier. Full comfort mode.

I’m enjoy book #30 of 55 of the In Death series by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, fully into her world of amazing characters in a future world. I love being rich in paperback books – able to snuggle down under my throw, coffee cup beside me on the warmer, escaping to another world, engaged in other concerns. A nice relief.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. On the way back up the driveway this morning, we stopped and I hoisted our ‘flying pig’ into the back of the truck. One of the huge limbs that came down with the last snow storm was the limb from which the sweet pig was flying and he had crashed head first into the driveway. I had forgotten how heavy he is. We took him out to the shop. I plan to refurbish him, since he’s been flying for several years now, and then I’m HOPING to convince my husband that securing him to a boulder at the top of the driveway, wings flying, would look just as good as him flying from a line in a tree….

I hope you are enjoying your day.

Adventurous Trip

We got the trash set up for pickup tomorrow. I really had trouble dragging the can down to where we leave it for emptying, due to the really skid-y gravel. I would do better, I think, if I had CLEATS on my shoes. Anyway, I got it down there and we filled it up. We also got the mailbox Snow-Goon decoration up. It was interesting, in that in the time it took to put the Happy New Year decoration in the truck and put the Snow-Goon on the bolts that attach it to the mailbox, the nuts we put on top of the mailbox FROZE to the top of the mailbox! That’s the first time we’ve had THAT happen. We drove carefully down the road where we could turn the truck around to drive back up the driveway. We didn’t have any trouble with that, happily. There is a thin glaze of ice on everything. The schools are closed today. There were 91 ‘closings’ on the weather website today – I don’t ever remember seeing that many before. We may be in for it.

Truegrid Pavers

This gives you an IDEA of what our driveway is like. We don’t have NEAR as much pretty gravel as this picture. We have LOTS more trees. And you have to add at LEAST the length you see here, if not MORE, to get as long as our driveway is, but the steepness here is comparable. We also have branches down all over, particularly on the left side of the driveway. The other side has woods, but it also has a ditch where water goes down to the street. We don’t want that to get clogged, so I drag whatever we cut down to the other side.

Even if the only rain we get is LIGHT, it doesn’t take much accumulation on the power lines to cause an outage. Again, we think our generator, which runs all except for heat and air conditioning, is worth its weight in gold. The extra money we spent on the electrical stuff for it to come on and go off by itself is worth everything not to have to go outside over and over to fight to get it to come on, or to turn it off.

Our cat, Abby, likes to sleep in the garage most nights. We have a big pile of firewood in there and put her sleeping ‘cube’ on a rectangle of wood on a holder that my husband made years ago attached to the wall . She really likes it, and the fact that she has a cat door so she can come and go as she pleases. (She also lets us know if she wants to stay inside, instead. We cater to her wishes.) She jumps up from the garage steps to the firewood holder pile in order to get up to her food, which we put on top of the firewood pile to keep our dog and other critters from getting it, and her bed. This is the only dry wood we have, though, and we used a bunch of it from the far side of the holder with the snow storm we just finished. If we have to make many fires during this ice storm, we’ll have to try to keep her end of the holder intact as much as possible. She’s getting old and can’t jump the way she used to. I can relate.

As I’m typing this, an icon popped up, saying, “Snow coming.” It says the “temp is 31 (feels like 21 – I can confirm THAT). “Scattered rain and snow showers expected. High will be 34”. The graphic of what to expect when shows rain/sleet/snow from 3pm until 9pm. :0(

I love to look at snow. I love snow globes. I even love to build a snowman or make snow angels. But then it’s supposed to go AWAY. NOT cause trees to break or hang down in the driveway, blocking our path. NOT cause power outages. I’m ready for spring and winter has hardly begun. Whine – gripe – moan – and generally be annoying. Sorry.

Winter Redux

Bored Panda

Last Tuesday the snow started here. We had no public power for two and a half days, VERY grateful for our generator and our wood-burning fireplace. We chain-sawed our driveway clear starting on Friday. It took us 6 hours over 2 days, but the driveway is mostly clear now. We replenished supplies yesterday and got 5 days worth of mail from our mailbox at the bottom of the driveway.

Today we’ll try to get our robot (200+ pounds) standing straight again, instead of leaning. (We now have a chain around his neck that is tethered to a tree in front of him and a pole behind him, so he only LEANS instead of plunging head first down the slope to the side of the driveway.) Retrieving him ONCE from the slope was enough for us. :0)

We’re also planning to replace our mailbox decoration this morning. This is one of the Snow-Goons from Calvin & Hobbes.

The winter redux is a forecast of rain/sleet/snow, but mainly ICE this time, starting this afternoon and going through Thursday. The ice accumulations they said would likely cause power outages, etc.

It’s hard to believe that we might be out chain-sawing AGAIN after this, but we have an endless supply of trees on both sides of our driveway – a 650+ foot STEEP driveway from the house down to the road.

We resupplied yesterday, cheering as we went down our driveway and then again when we were able to simply drive up again like real people. :0)

In a minute we’ll gather our trash, drive it down, and drag the big tethered trashcan down to the bottom of the driveway for pickup tomorrow, We’ll get our mail and hopefully get the mailbox decoration changed.

Then we’ll hole in up here and see what Mother Nature brings us next.

Stay warm and safe.

Covered

mocha.org

I wish our place looked as pretty as this, but we ARE as snow-covered.

We will be this way until further notice, although the melting has started just a bit. There is a good 8 inches on the deck cover, for example.

The public power was restored overnight. We were on the generator all of yesterday, with only a couple of short periods of public power before it would go off again. The poor power guys have been at work steadily now for three days trying to get power back to everyone. We went to bed around 1:30 this morning and still had no power. It was really nice to see we have some this morning.

Our generator has done a fantastic job during the past three days, but it deserves a good long rest now. It is propane powered and it’s really a luxury not to have to worry that we’ll run out of fuel for it right in the middle of a rough patch of weather. We’ve gone through a LOT of firewood, our only source of heat the past three days. When we built the house about 36 years ago, we insisted that we get a real wood-burning fireplace that was efficient, with doors on the front and a blower built in, so that we could use it as a source of heat when needed. It’s gotten a workout, too. It’s really nice to be able to start the day without having to build a fire, though.

Soon my husband will decide to walk around outside, and then he’ll see that we’ll have to chain-saw our way to the bottom of the driveway and the street before we can go anywhere, even after all the snow is gone. We are both to the point where we’re a bit long in the tooth for heavy work, particularly when the weather is really cold or hot. My husband uses the chain saw and I’m the ‘tugger/hauler’ of the stuff he cuts, moving the pieces off to the side of the driveway. A little bit of work like this goes a LONG way.

The problem is that no one can get UP the driveway, either, so we can’t really hire anyone to come help us. I’m hoping that we can do it a little at a time. We have supplies enough to last quite awhile and that if it takes us a week to get it done, it won’t make a bit of difference. My husband is like the Energizer Bunny, though, not wanting to stop until he almost collapses. We may have to have a ‘discussion’ about how much we do at each session….

It would be nice if the power stays on today, and we can simply enjoy it for awhile.

Wow.

Pinterest

The snow has stopped. We have 6-8 inches on the ground, the most I’ve seen in the 36 years we’ve lived here. It’s 36 degrees F. now. We had no public power from 4pm until midnight yesterday. I was downstairs reading when it went out again around 2am. We are still without public power. Thank goodness we have a generator and a wood-burning fireplace.

We tried to plan ahead when we built, having some backups for cases like these. We have a gas stove rather than an all-electric home. We have a well. We have a propane-powered generator wired so it turns on automatically when it senses there is no public power. Because of this, we have power and a fire in the fireplace because the generator does not cover heat and air conditioning. So we are good, even though we’re snowed in until further notice.

I just went outside to take a couple of pics. We have BIG branches lying across the driveway. I HOPE we don’t have any TREES there, but I couldn’t see well. So even when the snow melts, we’ll have to chain-saw a bunch of stuff before we can drive down our driveway. In this pic, you can see snow-covered power lines across the pic.

The snow almost covers the brick planters.

If you look carefully, this is the top of the driveway. You can see some BIG branches that have broken off and are hanging down across the driveway. I got depressed looking at it, so just came back in without investigating further. I’m purposely not mentioning it to my husband. He FELL bringing the firewood in last night, landing on his back. He’s okay, but I want him to rest, instead of trying to tackle this problem.

The snow is pretty, but now that we’ve had a chance to look at it and say that, hopefully we can get power and heat back with safety for the good men working right now to make that happen, and that the snow will melt away, becoming only a fond memory.

Snow Globe

Pinterest

I went out again to see if I could capture the feeling of being inside a snow globe this afternoon. I have to admit it’s a really PRETTY snow. It didn’t surprise me that soon after I wrote the last post, the pest spray guy’s company called to tell me they would need to reschedule. :0)

Oh, GOOD?

mitgirl-stock.adobe.com

Big, sloppy, wet snowflakes are raining down on us now.

It just changed to snow about half an hour ago. Since it’s supposed to snow until 6am or so tomorrow, we may get an impressive amount for Arkansas.

I’m always frustrated trying to get pics of the snow. I can never catch the ‘feeling’ of the big sloppy flakes.

Our driveway should still be fine right now, but probably won’t be as evening approaches. The pest control spray man is due any minute now, but I would be super surprised if he comes. I’m expecting a call from his office asking to reschedule.

The local schools are closing early – right about now – and the buses should be able to get everyone home safely, and then home themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if school is remote tomorrow.

I’m going to see if I can find some creative snow creatures on the net. I love seeing what people come up with. I hope you’re enjoying your day!

Christmas “Pre-Eve” 12-23-2022

Grandin Road

It was -4 with a wind chill of -26 here when I woke up, according to thermometers and my computer. I’m sending a note of diplomatic protest to Mother Nature, as this is totally ‘uncivilized’ for Arkansas. Thankfully, no pipes burst overnight. Our garage door is frozen shut, however. I discovered that when I tried to let the dog out. I made sure it wasn’t still trying to open – burning out the motor – shut off the light and let the dog out the people door at the front of the house instead. We kept our cat in overnight, thinking that she would probably wake us up in the middle of the night meowing to get out. She didn’t! It is now a balmy 3 degrees F. with a wind chill of -14. It’s supposed to finally get above freezing Monday afternoon. I’m trying not to even think about our water bill, since we’re having to drip water in two sinks in order to try to keep our pipes from freezing. I hope that you are safe, dry, and well this bitterly cold morning on this ‘night-before’ the ‘night-before-Christmas.’

We’ll have a comfort food dinner of chicken, onions and mushrooms in cream of chicken and mushroom soup over rice tonight.

Have a snuggly day.

And the Forecasters Were Right

Routinely Nomadic

“Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they do when they stick together.” ~ Verna M. Kelly

It misted, then changed to rain, then changed to sleet, then changed to snow. And all is white now, but not much actual snow. The temperature is 11 degrees now with a wind chill of -9.

Since we are prepared to stay up on top of our ridge line until the world is more civilized, and my husband got a text that the part he ordered to try to fix our air compressor had been delivered, he jumped in the truck to go down to get it, and the mail at the bottom of the driveway. (Our driveway is 650+ feet and STEEP, so this is not a small decision.) Since I couldn’t change his mind, I insisted he at least take his phone so he could tell me he was stuck in a snow drift. He grumbled, but did it.

He got back up the hill with no problem. I had quickly swept the garage of leaves while he was gone. We have now left the garage door half way open, so the animals can go in and out, but a lot of the cold stays out. I also went ahead and started dripping water in my husband’s sink upstairs and our utility room sink downstairs. Hopefully, that will be enough so they won’t freeze.

All of that and UPS had NOT left a package for us…. At least we know we’re not stuck yet.

I would much rather see a beautiful PHOTO of the snow, rather than actually be IN it…

Thursday Thoughts 12-22-2022

Pexels

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The first part of the weather forecast for Greenwood is happening now – heavy mist turning to rain, then sleet, and later snow. It’s quite gray outside. Thankfully, we’re warm and dry with Amber, our 95 lb yellow lab and Abby, our cat, taking full advantage of the warm and dry. Even with the rain and snow today, at least the temperature will be above freezing. Starting tomorrow, we won’t get above freezing until Monday afternoon. Cabinet doors are open and we’ll be dripping water at night. Update – the rain has now turned to sleet.

Amber woke us early this morning, barking. We think we might have another raccoon coming through the cat door to eat our cat’s food and what bird seed it can find. :0( I’m trying a new thing of bringing whatever cat food is still in the cat’s bowl inside when she is in with us, putting it out with her again when she is out. I have no idea if this will have results, but it’s worth a try.

We stocked up on supplies Tuesday, and I spent about an hour repacking meat and chicken this morning to be in dinner-cooking packages in the freezer. I finished that, got it all stored, the packaging washed and thrown away and the kitchen cleaned up. My husband looked at me like I was crazy, watching me wash the packaging, but I told him it was part of the NOT giving critters enticement to come into the garage.

I had a really nice day yesterday – with Lunch Bunch in the morning and a massage in the afternoon. I came home feeling relaxed and happy. My husband was taking a nap when I got home, so I joined him. Nice, lazy, happy day.

I’m enjoying a calm, slow start to our day. I’ll try to get my act together and get something accomplished. Have a happy, safe day.

1st Day of Winter 2022

http://www.ssww.com

This snowman is happy, but I’m not. Arkansas is a place of mild winters – one of the reasons we decided to settle here. I’ve even had lettuce still growing in December before! And yet, today, we’re having our Christmas Lunch Bunch to avoid the coming bad weather. Tomorrow the forecast is for rain/sleet/ice/snow and flying hairballs – with a wind chill. Friday morning is supposed to be -4 with a windchill of -25. This is NOT civilized for Arkansas!

Enough griping. I’m happy that we’re meeting with our friends in about an hour to laugh, hug, enjoy a good meal and exchange presents. I’ll head out again for a massage and gift exchange at 2. When I get home I’ll try to handle any details with getting ready for the coming weather and prepare to snuggle in until further notice. I have a reminder prominently displayed so we’ll remember to drip water from one faucet downstairs and another upstairs that have been problem areas in the past.

I feel lucky we have a warm, dry house. The heat and air techs just came a couple of days ago to check out our system and we’re good. We have a generator if we lose power. It runs everything except heat or air. We have a wood burning fireplace with a blower on it if we need it.

I wish you a happy 1st day of winter. Make it a really nice day.

The Monday Before Christmas 12-19-2022

pexels-eftodii-aurelia

The coming weather has me a bit concerned, so I’m trying to arrange that we do everything needed before the rain/sleet/snow/flying hairballs event comes on Thursday. I’m trying to change Lunch Bunch from Friday to Wednesday – with our gift exchange. I’m hoping to hear today on that. If we’re a go, I’ll call and alert the restaurant, since they open early for us on Lunch Bunch days, and our much-loved waitress participates in our gift exchange.

If everyone agrees to do this, then we will go to Walmart and our local grocery afterwards to do a bit of stocking up, in case we’re stuck up on top of our ridge line for several days.

I have a massage at 2pm – with another gift exchange. If we haven’t managed to change Lunch Bunch, I’ll shop on the way home from my massage. Either way, we should be able to tuck ourselves in to being house-bound if the weather gets as bad as they say. It’s VERY unusual for us to get below 0 in Arkansas, but it is forecast we’ll be -4 on Friday morning with a wind chill of -25. We’re concentrating on making sure our faucets are all protected outside and that heaters are working in the well house, and that we leave cabinet doors open in one bathroom and under my husband’s sink upstairs.That’s all we can do, and we’ll just hope it’s enough.

We have some ceramic planters on the deck that I’m planning to cover with trash bags this afternoon. I’ll put something in the top of each so as much water as possible runs off and turn over saucers so they won’t catch water.

I love the LOOK of snow, but I don’t like to be out IN it much. I remember sledding down our driveway one winter with our son when he was about 7, I guess. He was sitting in front of me and my legs were straight on each side of him. About half way down the driveway, the snow started coming up the legs of my jeans. By the time we got to the bottom (we didn’t shoot straight out into the road and across into the field across from us, thank goodness), my jeans were so full of packed snow I looked like the Pillsbury Dough “woman.” Our son thought that was hilarious, laughed like a loon and wanted to do it again. That was the last time I sledded. His opinion was that snow angels were ‘lame,’ though kind of pretty. I left the snow fights to our son and my husband.

Be careful in the coming days. Stay safe, warm, and dry. Great snuggling weather.

Possible Change in Plans

Paulo Amorim – Getty Images

Today it’s a balmy 38 degrees F. with a high of 51 this afternoon, so that isn’t bad. When I looked at the forecast for the rest of the week, though, I got more serious. The forecast is for snow Thursday and a HIGH of 16 Friday, so whatever we get – rain/sleet/ice/snow/flying hairballs – will stay for awhile. Since we live on top of a ridge line up a steep driveway, we try to plan ahead and modify our plans if it looks like we’re in for bad weather.

I’ve contacted the Lunch Bunch group to see if they are willing to have Lunch Bunch and our gift exchange on Wednesday, instead of Friday. That way we can all stay home safely watching the weather and not having to get out in it. So far, I have one “whatever everyone wants to do,” and I’m waiting to hear from the others.

I have my December massage Wednesday afternoon, so it MAY be Lunch Bunch, a trip to Walmart and the other local grocery for supplies, and then my massage. However, the Lunch Bunch plans go, I’ll plan to stock up for the bad weather.

Stay safe, warm, and dry.

Sunny, Cold Wednesday 11-30-2022

vk.com

We’re back on the roller coaster Mother Nature has set up. Yesterday it was windy and 75. Today is 36 with a high expected of 49, and sunny. No wind. I’m hoping to get outside this afternoon. We’ll see. I’m very thankful the wild weather last night bypassed us. I hope the front goes on past the east coast and dies without causing further havoc.

Lifestyle.livemint.com

Yesterday during my yoga practice (DAY 137) I could only hold the plank pose for 20 seconds without a lot of discomfort. I decided that I would do the pose multiple times, so repeated it 3 more times for a total count of 80. (I have no real idea of how long I’m holding the pose, other than counting while I hold it, so I would imagine that I’m being generous with myself, counting pretty fast.)

I wondered if holding the plank for multiple short amounts of time would be the equivalent of one longer hold. I researched the question, finding opinions vary all over the place. Some people say your goal should be to hold the pose 5 MINUTES. Since this is an impossible goal for me, I continued to research. I found –

_______________

“Search for: Are planks good for 70 year olds?

How long should a senior hold a plank?

Most experts suggest anywhere from 10 up to 30 seconds is plenty. “Focus on doing multiple sets of smaller amounts of time,” says L’Italien.Nov 13, 2019″

________________

Since I am 75, and there is no way in the world I’ll ever get to 5 MINUTES, I’ll go for this advice. If I do MULTIPLE repetitions of however long I can hold before I get really uncomfortable, I ought to be able to attain my goal of strengthening my core.

Bright Horizons

Our yard is finally starting to look as if someone cares. There is ALWAYS something more than we should or could do, but if I get the yard looking pretty civilized and the plants as protected as possible, I feel good.

Two days ago I finally got the planters on the deck cleaned out. There is still some stuff to do to prepare the deck for the winter, but the project is started.

I’m trying to tackle things of higher priority first. I’m going to put a set of loppers in the truck so that each time we come back from errands, we can stop on the way up the driveway and cut off some evergreen branches that are hanging out into the driveway. We don’t want these to be stretched across the driveway, blocking our way up and down after ice or snow storms.

I want to prune our rose bushes WAAAAAY down for the winter. I have two bushes left. Then there is one more planter that is totally overgrown, leaves to be blown from the front yard, weed trees to be cut down to open up our view in the back again …

My goals always exceed my time and energy….

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

“Well, Blow Me Down!”

Popeye.com

When we went for errands this morning, the wind was blowing strongly and pretty steadily. (We could even hear the wind blowing last night after we went up to bed and usually we don’t even hear STORMS.) It has continued to be gusty,winds blowing so strongly I felt I might blow away – and THAT’S a strong wind! – so I haven’t tried to work outside.

It looks like it MAY have calmed down, so I may get out there to cut our remaining rose bushes way down for the winter..

By the way, here’s OUR mailbox decoration of Popeye, one of our favorite cartoon characters. :0)

I hope you’re having a fun day.

It’s Monday 11-14-2022

WJLA

This is the forecast for Greenwood, Arkansas this afternoon. Since I’m trying to work in the yard, I’m frustrated.

Trio Planters

Yesterday I went out to survey the damage of the freezes and found my sweet elephant ear leaves hanging dolefully down around the bricks of the planter. I spent a long time cutting each of the leaves down with a sharp knife either at the surface, or below, if I could. When I finished that, I raked up some leaves and put them in the planter. I’ll continue to do that, putting as many leaves as I can cram into it, trying to protect the elephant ear roots as much as possible for the winter. (I tried digging up the bulbs and storing them in peat moss in the garage as suggested one winter and ended up having to pitch the yucky, slime-covered bulbs in the spring. Ever since, I just cut them off and leave them in the planter, hoping to see spears shooting up in the spring.)

Elephant Ear Planter

It’s too cold right now to work outside. If it warms up between now and mid afternoon when the rain is supposed to start, maybe I can get more done outside.

I don’t think we’ll get ‘snowed in’ as such, but I really don’t want to be trying to horse the humongous trash container out of the back of the truck and getting it into place at the bottom of the driveway in the rain/freezing rain/sleet/snow this afternoon and evening, so we’ll gather our stuff early, leave it for pick up and get our mail mid morning, and then ‘hole in’ to see what the weather does. I’m especially thankful we have a warm, dry home on days like this.

I hope you’re safe and warm today.

F-f-f-f-Freezes!

The elephant ears are still alive, but they probably won’t be by the end of next week, with freezes predicted every day now. :0( I wanted to share a last look before Mother Nature closes the book on this year’s plants.

We love wave petunias, and try to have them on the deck every year now.

We’ve had a good – though weird – year with our veggie square foot garden, tomatoes, and plants. It’s hard to have them here today and gone tomorrow.

Wet Monday 10-24-2022

CBC

We’re due for a rainy couple of days now, with a cold front moving through. We gathered our trash this morning, as usual. My husband shocked me by asking if I thought we should put the trash can at the bottom of the driveway NOW, rather than waiting until this evening! I told him I thought that was a GREAT idea, and we did that. :0) We seem to have truly turned the corner on this former ‘weighty problem.”

NO trees down in the driveway today!

Lewis “welcome” robot

We had to yank our huge robot up onto the side of the driveway, since wind gusts yesterday apparently blew him off his stand at the same time the tree went down in the driveway. He weighs about 200 lbs, and it’s a real problem when he blows over down the slope, so a couple of years ago we ran a heavy chain from around one tree behind the robot – to the robot and around his neck – and then around a second tree in front of him so that he can’t fall completely down anymore. He LEANS against the chain when a heavy gust of wind hits him just right.

So now we’re ready for the rain, hoping we don’t have any more problems from the gusty winds. We shut the front door and the garage door in preparation for the storms which are supposed to start in a couple of hours, continuing all day tomorrow, as well. Good thing we live on a hill!

I hope you’re safe and dry today.

Windy Surprise

The Dragon

This is very similar to what we found when we decided to go to Walmart to get a replacement cable for my husband’s computer. We were able to drive under it on one side to get down the driveway. Walmart online lied about having the cable and didn’t have the fritos we’ve been trying to buy for three weeks now, but we got gas and mailed a movie while we were there, and then stopped to get a milkshake on the way home.

The tree had fallen completely down when we came back, so we parked on the driveway. I was able to open the garage door and my husband went to our shop to get a chain saw with a long (100 feet+) extension cord. We spent the next hour cutting up the tree. My husband chain sawed and I hauled the branches and pieces of truck to one side or the other of the driveway and either threw the pieces or just dragged them out of the way as much as possible. Finally it was done and I took the chain saw back to the shop while my husband gathered and wound the cord up again. I drove the truck into the garage and we celebrated by finishing our now melted shakes. Delicious.

Freeze Frustration

Integrated Children’s Therapy

You would THINK that, with as old as I am, and as many years as I have lived in Arkansas, that I would handle the sudden, one-time freeze event that happens every year with more grace.

It’s happening tonight. If it happens as predicted, the one-time event will kill everything still alive in our planters. THEN, instead of staying cold, it will warm up again for up to THREE MONTHS before freezing again.

I’ll show you ONE reason I get so hostile about this –

My elephant ears are happy and thriving, even though I do need to clean them up a bit. These will be devastated by a truly hard freeze.

I hope the weather forecasters are wrong…

Speaking of the Beauty of our World

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