Monday, Monday

You know that whole theory behind "if I sit down, I'll never get up again"?  Yup, that's me this morning.  Today's my Saturday, and I let myself stay up late last night (but fell asleep watching a taped TV show) and then slept in this morning.  But, I feel totally run over now.  Joints ache, dull headache, heavy body . . . ugh.  I was SO looking forward to what I'd get done these two precious days at home, but now I feel like I just want to crawl under a blanket on the couch upstairs and shut the world out.  Do nothing.  Nap.  Watch movies.  Crochet.  Whatever.  BUT, I know I'll feel better if I get up off my arse and make a productive day of it.  And, it's GORGEOUS out!  I haven't taken a walk in a while (99% due to the summer's excess crop of mosquitoes), so I think I'll try to do that today.

Last night, I had a MUCH overdue visit with My Girl, my adopted daughter.  We hadn't seen each other in at least 3 weeks, I think (due to busy schedules), so there was MUCH to catch up on.  She's such a lovely, beautiful, wonderful person, and being with her always makes me happy.  On occasion, though, hearing of her life and current experiences DOES make me feel o-l-d!  Last night was one of those times, but, fortunately, it was just a passing reality.  And, really, what IS so wrong with that (feeling old)?  After all, I *am* 21 years older than she, old enough to be her (albeit very young) mother.

Ironically enough, the forest fire that was causing so much smoke during Uncle M and Aunt D's visit is a problem for us no longer.  At least, not in these past fews days.  It's leveled out at just under 94,000 acres burned, and they're beginning to be able to get a handle on it.  As of last night, it was 19% contained, and there were 598 personnel (on the ground firefighters and in-air pilots) fighting it.  Fire crews and wildland fire trucks are a common sight around here these days.  And, we got our first rain in an AGE yesterday, and it was a fantastic one:  steady downfall all day long.  INVALUABLE to forest fire prevention and treatment!


Aunt D suffers from asthma and, Murphy's Law, the smoke was TERRIBLE almost the entire 10 days they were here . . . causing her to feel sick for the majority of their vacation.  :( One morning, it was so thick here at home that the sun coming up shone thick shafts of light through the thick blue pall covering everything.

Arrival of the smoke cloud to envelope town.

Above and below:  general appearance of town during family visit.

Last Monday, we had a SEVERE storm blow through that was, interestingly enough, caused BY the fire!  As I was getting ready to leave home, it got so dark that I had to turn lights on in the house just to see.  Then, this hit:

I stopped when I was almost down to the highway and in the full sun.  The contrast of the black sky against the green trees was startling . . . but, of course, didn't show in a photograph nearly as much as I would have liked.

Earlier in the week, the family stopped by my gallery in town to "shop" (family shops for free, natch!).  A good picture of them all, I think, although Uncle M accused me of Super Sizing him via Photoshop.  ;)  L-R:  Aunt D, Uncle M, Papa & Mama Pea.

Okay.  Coupled with other things, this post has taken me all morning, so I'll sign off for now and continue updating another time.  Happy Monday!

Stop the World; I Wanna Get Off!

Gad, WHERE does the time go!  The fireweed has begun blooming and the old wive's tale says that when the top bloom opens (the blossoms open from the bottom up), we'll have our first frost!  Now, don't get my wrong:  right about now, a frost sounds pretty damn good!  BUT, the time can't being going by so quickly!!!  Aaaaagh, I have too much to do!

The lawn mower, which I was expecting to pick up yesterday, needed a part that won't be in until (sob!) next week!!  And, the yard is an absolute abomination.  As B said, rather seriously, when he was here on Saturday, "Oh, I thought you were letting it Go Back To Nature!"  Yup, that's what it looks like!  And, I have a friend coming to stay tomorrow night whom I haven't seen in YEARS and, of course, I'd like the place to look as good as possible for her . . . but I guess that ain't gonna happen.  I've also noticed that, with the hot & wet summer we've been having, the greenery is really starting to encroach on the house, particularly on the south side.  I need to start taking some of that down, cutting it back.  In my spare time.  (See Exhibit A, below.)  Raspberry bushes need to be trimmed around the solar panels, too, as they are beginning to shade the lower section.

Exhibit A:  The view, right now, from my seat at the dining room table.  Can't even tell there's a board walkway between the house and the trees, can you?!

I was awoken in the week hours this morning by a huge *BAM!*, and my first instinct was that a battery had exploded in the battery room of the garage.  But then I realized that we were having another of the extreme summertime storms, and it was a crack of thunder.  Besides, even an exploding battery, cushioned within the battery room inside the garage, would never have made so much noise!  Anyway, I padded downstairs after stepping on two dogs curled up against my side of the bed (Maisy is terrified of storms and she's passed that on to Tucker, although he has no idea WHY he's supposed to be afraid!).  I shut all the doors and windows that the rain was pelting through.  Then I collapsed back into bed.  I remember rolling over and opening my eyes once to see an absolutely YELLOW sky.  I'd never seen that before.  Scary-green, yes, but not yellow.  I made a quick mental scramble that included "if the garage has been struck by lightning and is on fire, would it cause the yellowing in the entire sky?"  Satisfying myself with "nope", I turned over and went back to sleep.  I finally got up when the rain, so strong it was driven through the 2" opening I'd left in the window at the head of the bed, was sprinkling my face even through the mosquito netting canopy.

Having slept through most of it, I didn't think we'd gotten much rain (unfortunately, the battery is dead in the weather station / rain gauge, and I need some brave soul to climb to the tippy-top of the house to replace it).  But, once I'd gotten my computer up and running, I found this on Facebook of town, taken this morning:

Yes, that *IS* a kayaker in the street.  Image taken by D. Simula.

 And this:

More of the streets and a parking lot.  Image taken by S.H. Photography.

And then postings began coming through the community eBulletin Board of road closures due to wash-outs!  I went outside to peek into a wheelbarrow I'd left in the front yard, and there was about 4" in it!  (Cumulative in its angled bottom, to be sure.)  Then I looked at the readings from the closest weather station (just 7 1/2 miles southeast of me), and they recorded 1.88".  Yup, another fast and furious storm, it was!  Now it's lovely and breezy and blue-skied out, but there's another system headed our way.  Bundle of Joy's mommy has her family visiting from Kansas, and they're hoping to have a beach cook-out tonight, but the weather will be the deciding factor.  We might all just be visiting in their tiny home.  :)

Okay, that's it for now.  Gotta get somethin' done around this dump!

Storm Photos

No time for a commentary tonight, so you'll just have to assign descriptions / comments to each photo on your own.  C'mon, it might be fun!  ;)  I'll try to fill in the blanks tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Blizzard 2009

"Remember the Christmas blizzard of '09?"

That's how this Christmas will go down in the history books for MUCH of the United States.

Here, in the northeastern tippy-top of Minnesota, up over the hill & away from the tempering big lake, we got about 24" in about 48 hours. The measuring stick Tom stuck into the snow reads just 21", but so much of the falling snow compacted because the temperatures were so high - hovering right around 30°. Matter of fact, down near Lake Superior, mostly RAIN fell! Yuck! But, here at Swamp River Ridge, we are cocooned in a winter wonderland. Happily, the temperature has dropped (it's 5° as I write), and so the snow had dried out some . . . a HUGE relief compared to the cement-like stuff we were trying to move during the storm.

If we hadn't gotten out to plow our 4-mile long winter driveway during the storm, we would be stuck like we were last April. I plowed on Christmas Eve, and then Tom plowed twice on Christmas Day and then a final time Saturday morning.

I have more storm pictures as well as Christmas pictures to share with you, but some desk work and then more post-Christmas clean-up is going to get my attention right now.

But, until then, take a peek at this pictorial essay of the storm's progression.
(Hint: watch the snow levels on the bushes planted in the front yard.)


The storm began on Thursday morning, Christmas Eve.
This photo (above) was taken out our front door at 11:00 AM that day.

3:45 PM that afternoon, Christmas Eve.

9:00 AM Christmas / Friday morning.

8:15 AM Saturday Morning.

11:30 AM Yesterday / Sunday.
Notice how the dark, heavy skies didn't change no matter the time of day?!

I got the following idea from another blogger:

Last year at this time . . . I was summing up Christmas and the lousy weather we were experiencing THEN, too!

Two years ago, we had just returned from Tom's work Christmas party in Canada.

And, wow: three years ago, Tom had just installed the lights in the kitchen! So, even though I don't remember (have I purposefully blocked it out?!), I must have been using just oil lamps in there . . . ?

And then, finally, in the first December of this blog's history, 2005 found us enjoying our final Christmas at Hastings-on-the-Lake and dreaming of giving homemade honey as Christmas gifts the following year. (Ha!)

The Gales of . . . September?!

Gordon Lightfoot's "gales of November" came EARLY this year!

I said that Sunday's gusty winds brought the change in weather (and we haven't climbed higher than 37° this morning yet to prove it!), but those gusty winds turned into a howling gale with wind speeds in excess of 50 mph yesterday!


Here's what the lake looked like on my way down to the post office yesterday afternoon. No one but locals and frequent visitors will be able to tell, but that is one FUNKY lookin' Great Lake!

On the up side, we, here at Swamp River Ridge, missed the worst of it. Our highest wind speed was just 34 mph . . . but had it not been for that work day we had with friends a couple of weekends ago to fell all the standing dead around this place, we WOULD have had a lot of damage!

Reports are that the power might be out for another day or two. "Be prepared to have no electrical power until tomorrow," the local power company advises. (Happily for us, when you're already off-grid, you are blissfully unaware when or if the rest of the county is experiencing . . . technical difficulties!)

Tom's work had an employee appreciation party scheduled for yesterday afternoon at 3:00, but they had to cancel it. It was too dangerous to stand outside, and, besides, there was no way the steaks would have stayed on the grill with the insanely strong winds!

(12:09 PM: I've been trying to upload photos for hours, but the satellite Internet reception is sketch, at best. I'll try posting this much now and upload photos as soon as I can.)

Wednesday Update: I'm still having uploading issues . . . which explains the lack of new photos up, but this one FINALLY posted. The shot is taken on the road we used to live on, down by the lake.

For "the locals", this is the parking lot of the old general store / bar.
Highway on your left, I'm looking north.
The old buildings are being ripped down . . .
hence the construction equipment.
The final end of an era!


Again, "for the locals", do you remember the old DNR building that was bought by an architect and remodeled? Well, he now has a new roof adornment!