Sleet, snow, wind, care packages - PIX

02-05-08

Just before daybreak, we were awakened by the sound of sleet falling on the roof, when I went to bed (at about 3:30 am, yeah I know...), the temp was 42 and steady, the wind was blowing, as usual, I could see the stars out the window so the sky was clear, what a difference a few hours can make! Bob got up and started the fire going in the wood stove, I laid in bed until it got light outside, Bob was making biscuits on the wood stove, he makes a pretty mean biscuit :) I finally rolled out of bed to see the snow, the sleet had stopped and had been replaced by fluffy snow flakes. Everywhere I looked, the snow was swirling, the ground was becoming white, the mountains were looking very scenic. I grabbed my camera (cell phone) and started snapping pix. I put on my thick, quilted coveralls (one of the best things we got before we left Irving!), I leashed up a very reluctant dog and went outside. Once we were out, Pekoe became less reluctant and more interested in doing her business, the clouds were breaking up and the sun was starting to shine, it had just came over the east ridge of the mountains and illuminated the patchy snow on the ground, I snapped quite a few good pix, it's amazing how a little snow can make the most mundane objects look special.

I came back inside when I ran out of memory in my cell phone for pix, the dog had completed her business and my fingers were frozen. I carried 2 logs up from the street side of our property, that's a bit of a walk, all up hill, but I managed, we needed the wood, and besides, I didn't want to have to explain why I didn't bring at least one piece of wood when I was right next to it.

An interesting observation, I noticed that when frozen precipitation falls, it doesn't melt, it evaporates, the air is so dry here, the humidity is nearly always low, when I picked up the snow today, it just evaporated in my hand, very interesting indeed...

Now I am sitting in front of a warm fire, wearing my warm, fuzzy pink PJs, sent to me by my MIL, enjoying part 2 of the weather event that was NOT predicted by the NOAH weather people on line, the clouds came back and it started snowing again.

Care Packages

In the last week, we have received 2 sets of care packages, the first came from Bob's mom, it came via UPS, delivered to our neighbor's house (thanks again to our wonderful neighbor!), it came in 3 boxes, one box was for our neighbor, he has been inducted into the family so he gets care packages too. About half of the stuff was Christmas gifts, a few items were for Bob's birthday, and the rest were things like toilet paper, food items, medicine, paper plates and such. I got a set of pink, fuzzy pajamas, I haven't had PJs like these since I was a kid, they are great, we also got thermal underwear, goodies from the kitchen, homemade prailines, cookies, and bags and bags of dehydrated fruit & nuts.

The other item we received was a weather station (this came from Bob's brother, thanks Jeff!), it has three parts, one part measures the temp and humidity, the next part measures the wind speed and direction, and the base unit that stays inside the cabin, that measures the inside temp & humidity and lets us know what is going on outside. It also had an atomic clock & calendar, it keeps records of everything including the barometric pressure. It's been great knowing all of this information, especially the outside temps. There was one last thing in the package that will come in very handy, we put it away for a "rainy day", thanks so much!!!!!

Yesterday, when I went to our neighbor's house to get water, there was another box sitting there, he said it was for Bob and I, I hadn't been expecting anything, I looked at the return address and I knew it was from Bob's other brother, Chris and his family (thanks Chris!!!), completely unexpected, it was another care package, I could barely carry this (and the water containers and the flashlight) back to our cabin, when I got within 10 yards of the cabin, I hollered for Bob to come help. Upon opening this care package, it was filled with dental supplies (thanks Christy!), cookies for Bob, a package of toilet paper, cleaning wipes and a warm blanket, there were a few other items too that will come in very handy, thanks Chris, Christy and Aubri, these named and unnamed items will be put to very good use. :)

I would also like to take this time to thank my dad, thanks so much for everything! I love and miss you very much, and look forward to seeing you this spring, I can't wait to show you everything we have accomplished.