Blizzard, Kansas Style ~ 2011

I took a snow day today.  A rare day spent enjoying the cozy comforts of home, catching up on everything that seems neglected for the last two months.

I tried to get some outdoor photos, but need I stress how cold a wind chill of 14 below is??!!  Even bundled up with insulating underclothes and double gloves, I just couldn't take it for long.

Paint horse gave me his opinion of our "blizzard" ... or perhaps he was expressing his dislike of the photo session??

The girls love to play when it's cold and snowy...

 ...funny how stop-action photos make them look so ferocious!

 Tori poses while Trixie feints to the right

The sun was beginning to slide down in the western sky... or should I say "haze", as the sun itself was virtually non-existent today?

snow drifts are everywhere...  the wind blows incessantly

Here's a short video clip of Trixie and Tori playing outside... short, because I was freezing!!! You can hear the wind blowing, and trust me, it freezes right to your bones in seconds.  Especially when you walk out onto the front porch in your slippers and no coat.  *grin*

Ringo makes two very brief cameo appearances....

The First Day of Spring Brings... Snow??!!

Yesterday, sunny and 67 degrees. Today, SNOW, and lots of it! So much for the first day of spring... it would appear to be winter's last hurrah, eh?  I think I can't complain too much, as winter seemed to hit other parts of the U.S. this season, and not so much here in Kansas.  I will play blog catch-up with a cup of hazelnut coffee on our belated snow day.

 Paint horse is waiting patiently for his grain and hay

Hard to see unless you click on the photo above to enlarge it, but Stormy was tossing her head around as hubby got closer with the grain.  She gets pretty darn excited at feed time.

Another pic to enlarge... you can just see Barack's eyes as he hides from the snow under a piece of wood.  Both Barack and his mom, Fluff, spent the night on our enclosed back porch.  This has never happened before, but since we had 40 mph winds last night, I think they were quite cozy indoors.  Being the outside cats that they are however, Barack fled to the outdoors this morning, in spite of all the blowing snow!

Ringo reluctantly helps us with morning chores

Quite the snowy day, huh?

Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you may be and whatever your weather might bring you...  it's all good when it's Saturday, isn't it?  I have two apples in the fridge... perhaps I will make some apple dumplings this afternoon!

Perhaps next weekend will finally be the "get-out-and-dig-the-new-garden" day!

A side note:  Thanks for all your votes in the baby name poll.  The poll is closed now, but it looks like Molly was the clear-cut winner!  Yay!!

Freezing Fog, Ariat Boot Giveaway and Haiti Donations

Our tree break, encased in thick snow/frost

Well, if that ain't everything all in one kaboodle ... freezing fog, Ariat boot giveaway and Haiti donations!!

First, a reminder: If you haven't entered Misha's Ariat boot giveaway at her blog, From My Front Porch in the Mountains, you need to get on over there and do so! She extended the giveaway until tonight at 7 p.m. since her comment button was playing wonky yesterday!

Our entire tree break view - see the gate in the middle?

Secondly, another blogger friend of mine, Cindy of Write Up My Alley, is donating $1.00 to the Haiti cause (up to $200) for every comment that's made on this particular blog article. You have until February 5th to head on over there and make a comment. Let's put her $200 to good use ~ skedaddle on over there right now and leave a comment!

The dirt road to nowhere... disappearing into fog

Our weather is playing with us since last week... first, our big snowstorm on Friday, and now MORE freezing fog. We had almost a full week of fog the 3rd week of January, and now it's back, only this time it's freezing! What fun!! Oh well, it made for some nice photos. And it's a good opportunity to get caught up on indoor things, isn't it?

Spring will be here soon enough and the outdoors will call my name... hence I've been trying to plan our gardens this last week ~flowers, vegetables and herbs. I still have a ton of planning to do, and I better get it all figured out soon... it'll be seed starting time in just a few weeks!

Through the country gate

Forecast: Sunny and 58, then Snowy and 20

Sunny and 58 ... our Wednesday weather...

Enlarge this one... the meadowlarks are plentiful out here!

... snowy and 20 degrees is our today {Friday} weather!

This is the same photo as above, except with lots of snow!

Ringo and I both kept blinking our eyes against the flying snow!

Don't let Ringo fool ya, he loves the snow!

Kansas Blizzard 09: Another Update

Well, we've been without electric and our DSL connection since early Saturday morning. I love when the radio announcer tells everyone to STAY HOME, don't travel unless you absolutely have to, and then advises you it's a good day to make some popcorn and watch movies on TV. This advice right after his list of areas without power. Um, yeah, right. That would have been our plan too, if we had power....

Let me tell you, there is nothing more boring than being trapped at home with no electric! It's amazing what your brain thinks of.... I can do some laundry, wait a minute, no I can't. I could make some breakfast today, oh wait a minute, no I can't. We can play games... even that's hard to do when there's only 2 of you!

We can watch TV. Well, yes, we did manage to watch some TV as hubby had bought a small generator a few years ago, and of course, this was his first opportunity to use it. He wishes he had bought a larger one, but I will say this little generator has been a lifesaver during this storm. It has kept everything in our refrigerator cold and safe, and it has allowed us to watch the news and at least feel like we have some small connection to the outside world.

We have our DSL connection back, but we're still running off the small generator, so hubby is only allowing me this one quick post, then I must power down the computer. :-( Once we have our electric back, I will be back into my bloggy groove and visit everyone else's blog to see what's happening! Goodness, but what terrible withdrawal pains I'm having.... LOL.

We did venture to the nearest town yesterday afternoon (Blackwell, OK), just to get some much needed supplies, i.e., food that doesn't require a stove or microwave, and we also grabbed a hot lunch while we were there. Here's a few pics around the ole homestead, and from our local travels yesterday.



The above pics show how thick the ice was on our tree branches, and grass, while the last one would be our rain gauge totally encased in ice.


A coyote making a fast getaway (top photo) and a few deer watching the coyote (bottom photo). Click on each photo to see a larger version; the pin dot coyote and the deer will look more like a coyote and deer. I managed about 3 pics of the coyote before he was gone; right before he ran into the woods, he flushed out a rabbit and ignored it as it ran in the opposite direction. Oh how I wish 1) I would have gotten that pic, and 2) that I owned a 400mm lens!!!!

Cotton field in Kansas.
I know, I had no clue that Kansans grew cotton either...

(Above two pics)
Thick ice on some trees along dirt country roads, and a scenic wooden bridge.

This is how snotty some of our country roads were yesterday.

And this is how snotty our truck looked when we got home, although I've seen days where it looked worse!

Sunset on Saturday evening, broken tree limbs and all

Kansas Blizzard '09: Update

Hey y'all, thanks for your comments on my last post. We are safe and sound and warm in the house, all tucked in for the evening. May everyone else who is enduring this nasty weather also stay safe!!

Since I don't have any Bailey's Irish Cream on hand, I searched the internet to find a coffee/alcohol drink I could make and sip this evening. I found a recipe for Cafe Bueno which added kahlua and brandy to the coffee. Good Coffee?! Blech, not good coffee! So I ate the whip cream off the top. Twice. I think I'll just pour a cup of coffee now. It will be more bueno without the alcohol.

We did have to venture outside a lil bit ago to cut off some tree limbs that were so laden with ice they were scraping the roof and side of the house. Fed the horses while we were outside too.

One very happy thing happened while we were outside.... I found Barack! He had been missing for the last 2 days and we were afraid that something had gotten him. We were quite sad about it. Well, I went into this front storage room attached to our crappy garage, and I heard the loudest meowwwwww. My heart leapt, and I opened the door to the crappy garage, and lo and behold, there was Barack! We think he must have snuck into the crappy garage Weds afternoon when hubby got some gas cans out. Hopefully he killed and ate a few mice or rats while he was holed up in there. :-)

Anyway, that is my last time outside today. The rain/sleet is just beginning to change over to snow here, so I am sure that nature will provide a smorgasbord of picture-taking opportunities when I awake tomorrow morning!!!

So here are my last few ice photos of the day...

Kansas Blizzard '09

So, by 10:30 this morning they've already shutdown Rt. 54 from Pratt to Liberal, a major east-west route for trucks. According to the authorities, visibility is zero due to the snow.

Hubby and I decided to get up very early today, as we needed to make a Wichita run before the storm hit. He had already taken today off as a vacation day; the plan a few weeks ago was to work on our pasture fencing. Obviously that isn't happening! But I am glad he isn't driving to or from work today. No telling how bad this will get by midnight and I'm glad I won't have to worry about him driving an hour (or two or three) to get home.

Sooooo, our early Wichita run was preempted by an early arrival of the storm. Most forecasters were saying late morning/early afternoon. We came out of Atwood's about 10:30 a.m. and were greeted by a cold, sleeting rain. Since it's an hour's drive home, we decided to hit the road immediately.

This is how the highway looked as we began our trip home.
You can see the sleet blowing across the road.

Fifteen minutes later: you can see the road is starting to accumulate more ice/slush.

But it appears safe, right? Perhaps just wet. This is what's dangerous about this kind of weather. It can change in a New York minute. And it did.

Ahhh, the road appears even more treacherous now.

Note the pickup truck with the small trailer in the left lane. There is a rest area in the center of the highway, and he has just returned to the highway from said rest area. Now it would appear that he's in a bit of a hurry.

There he goes, speeding away in the left lane, passing everyone else! Now, don't we all wish (secretly of course) that we would see these people in a ditch further down the road, since they have no regard for bad weather?! Welllllll..... that is exactly what happened to this guy!

I have about 10-15 photos, where you can see him in the distance ahead of us. Then all of a sudden, brake lights on all the cars in front of us. Hubby saw something flipping through the air. It was this guy's trailer! Bet he had to change his underwear when he got home.

It's also fun to see all the other FAST people now slow down to a crawl. "Golly gee, honey, do you think it might be a lil slick out there?!"

You can see he's already out of his truck, and he's just opened the passenger door. As we drove by, his significant other was getting out. I'm guessing she might have asked told him to slow down several times already, and she probably wasn't a happy camper at this end result.

Hubby did call 911 for them; we did not stop as the road conditions were way too treacherous and we didn't want to be the good samaritans that got slammed by the sliding semi truck.... or something like that.

After that, we passed three other cars who slid off the highway. This one was in a rather bad spot.

Truck still running, lights on, and person just sitting in there. I mean, what are ya supposed to do? Wait for help, I guess. And this was only about 30 minutes into this storm, which is supposed to last all afternoon and into tomorrow morning! Can you imagine how backed up emergency vehicles and tow trucks are going to get?

We are getting closer to home now. Still about another 15 miles to go. Still a few more accidents to see... there were two more cars off the road, one being picked up by a flatbed tow truck.

A pick-up truck with a small trailer jack-knifed behind it, right in the middle of the highway on the northbound side. I'm guessing these smallish trailers don't do well in icy weather. About two miles down the highway, a fire truck was making its way to this guy, we think. Problem was, there was another car in the ditch on the northbound side, so the fire truck was stopping there, although he appeared hesitant. No one had jumped out of the fire truck as we went by, so I think they probably stopped at the wrong accident.

Finally, a pretty photo as we turned the corner to our house. I jumped out of the truck to grab a few fence and tree shots.

I think I should bundle up and go outside, try to get some more photos. But with the wind howling like a banshee (up to 40 mph gusts) and the rain/sleet coming down on me, I rather like the toastiness of the house right now.

Besides, I think it's time for a pot of hazelnut coffee. :-)