“Ice Accretion” – The process by which a layer of ice (icing) builds up on solid objects that are exposed to freezing precipitation or to supercooled fog or cloud droplets. At the earth’s surface this usually refers to glaze formation, and the amount of ice can be roughly measured by an ice-accretion indicator.
I had never heard this term before. We not only have ‘accretion,’ we have what appears to be snow, but isn’t. It’s about 3 inches of SLEET now hardened on everything. We MAY get more until around noon today and THEN we’re supposed to start getting a bit of thawing. I”ll believe THAT when I see it.
I was amazed this morning that I could HEAR Amber walking around on the ice – another first. In another day or so we’ll be able to walk out in the yard far enough to see the state of our driveway. I admit I’m not looking forward to THAT, either. We moved to Arkansas about 36 years ago because of a new job for my husband. We thought the winters would be mild. Most of the time, they are, with only 3-4 inch snows that are soon gone. Every once in a while, though, Mother Nature laughs at us, dumping a nightmare on us.
We’ve been lucky. We have learned to prepare with backup systems for everything really important, so we’re not totally dependent on public power or water, and we stock up so we can be stranded up here for a good while.
I’m more than ready for spring this year, and winter has really just gotten started. I’ll be very grateful when we thaw and can get out again. I hope you’re staying warm and safe during this.
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….
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.
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.
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.
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)
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!
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.
“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…
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 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.
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.
My computer says it’s 32, but my thermometer in the window upstairs said it was 25 when I was dressing awhile ago. BRRRRR! The high is supposed to be 45 this afternoon, so there is hope to get outside later.
I thought I would yesterday, but my plans got snafued by my husband taking on a couple of big projects. We created a fulcrum to pry up the center of some big shelves in the basement so I could move a 2×4 into place as an added support. Scary, but we did it with three tries. (This was after I was using a can of dried beans to try to pound the 2×4 in place and bashed one of my fingers. I have a black place on my fingernail and a really sore finger today. :0( )
The second project that took up much of the afternoon was that our truck has been making a noise as we put on the brake, like something was dragging. We’ve checked and checked, but haven’t been able to see anything. We backed the truck into the shop and took both back tires off. We checked, but couldn’t see anything. My husband said we could have a stone in between the wheel and the brake disc that might make a sound like that, but we didn’t find anything. We laboriously got the tires back on and drove the truck back to the garage. It DIDN’T make the noise, so maybe something fell out when we took the tires off. No more noise! (The air compressor wasn’t working the way it should, even after my husband put a new hose on it, so that may be one of his next projects.)
Today we’ll get our mail, meet our friends for Lunch Bunch, get an oil change, then hit Walmart and another grocery store on the way back home. Exciting stuff, huh!
My scales didn’t smirk as much this morning. I’ve lost a couple of pounds this week. Since MyFitnessPal.com concluded that I ‘wasn’t eating enough,’ I’m now eating a hard boiled egg as breakfast each morning and am eating 1 oz of cashews as a snack during the day. That brings my calorie count up to where they think it’s healthy and will help me lose the lard. I’m hopeful, since the scales have started to maybe take my efforts more seriously.
QuotesGram
Today is DAY 154 on my efforts to make daily yoga stretching a habit. I’m holding the plank pose now for a count of 30 three times during my practice, so a bit of progress there.
My sister-in-law creates this gorgeous display each year – a beautiful way to show off her collection and get into the Christmas spirit at the same time. She sent me these pictures, and she said it was okay if I shared them with you.
This is a close-up picture showing me that she includes two figurines in her display that I have sent her at various times over the years. It makes me feel that I am with her, and that’s a really nice thing.
I’m trying to get into the spirit at my house, but I haven’t really caught the bug yet. I think the first thing I’ll do to start feeling the season is get two packages ready to send to two special people for the holidays. I’ll also prep to send Christmas cards.
I’m really not ready for this month – or winter – to start. My hair is blowing so hard as the time whizzes past I’m suffering from wind-shock – if that’s a thing. I’m really trying to get the yard ready for winter, but Mother Nature is laughing at me as she plays ‘crack-the-whip.’
Yesterday afternoon I did get out and cut the Rio Samba rose bushes WAAY back. It seems that these bushes last about 3 years and then have to be replaced. I can’t really complain, because they have bloomed their little hearts out, but I hope they’ll do it one more time before we have to start over. I also bagged up leaves and refilled the trio of planters. The leaves had blown out due to the extremely gusty winds we had a couple of days ago.
It’s 31 outside now, but since it’s supposed to be in the mid 50s this afternoon, I’m planning to check to see if I need to weed whack in the front one more time. I’ll also use the leaf blower to attack the piles of leaves particularly around the front porch. My to-do list outside is beginning to shorten.
“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.” Victor Hugo
I’m feeling pampered and spoiled right now. I’m just home from a particularly wonderful massage. I told Lynn about the area of my back that was hurting since I added some new poses to my yoga practice. She really zeroed in on a big area, it turned out, and it feels much better now. I’ll drink lots of water this afternoon and then do my yoga practice for the day.
It’s almost time for lunch. We’ve been enjoying a wonderful bunch of grapes lately, plus we share an apple, called Cosmic Bulk, as a part of our healthy lunch.
My husband was doing some weed whacking in the front when I drove up. It’s too hot, so I got him to stop as soon as he had finished the section that was offending him the most. I reminded him that I’m planning to do the rest of the weed whacking on Saturday morning.
Gfycat
I wish today looked at least a bit like this here.
Happy Fall! Mother Nature hasn’t gotten the memo yet, as far as weather in Arkansas is concerned, but we’re hopeful she’ll comply once she does. It’s only supposed to get to 92 today.
We’ve been trying to encourage it, putting our scarecrow on the mailbox, but the pleas have been falling on deaf ears so far.
Float Euphoria
I’ll leave in a minute to get my monthly massage. My body is already saying, “ahhhhhh!” :0)
Bamboo Garden Yoga
Today is DAY 69 of my daily yoga practice. I have a sore spot in my back that MAY be due to the new poses I’m doing lately. I’m hopeful that Lynn, my miracle-worker/massage-therapist, will be able to ease the discomfort.
Happy new month! May this month bring nice, calm weather to all of us so we can spend as much time as we would like outside. Things outside here look pretty ragged. I gave up trying to get things under control since Mother Nature was trying to fry me like a piece of bacon or steam me like veggies in a steamer each time I went out. I would love to be able to enjoy being outside again, to get my veggie garden under control, and my flower planters. It’s super-humid here right now, so it’s another ‘steamer’ day – but we MIGHT finally get some rain this afternoon and evening. All appendages are crossed.
IndiaMART
I’m finally seeing some progress again. I’m being a good girl with my snacks now, unless I’m up in the middle of the night. Then I can eat the entire fridge in one sitting. I don’t know why my motivation/determination/common sense flee the scene in the middle of the night. I’m just trying everything I can to NOT have to be up, and therefore NOT having to control myself when my defenses are down. So far, the smirk on my scales is fading. :0) DAY 48 today on my daily yoga practice!
Pexels
PROJECTS UPDATE –
I should be able to finish my project to reorganize the books in my bedroom bookshelves today. I moved more books into the guest room shelves yesterday (my Robert B. Parker collection), so my shelves in the bedroom are now ready to clean and reorganize.
My husband remarks every time he gets another drink from our main fridge how good it looks. (his highest compliment in that regard comes from the fact that he’s a Marine (‘once a Marine, always a Marine’) – he says it’s ‘shining like a diamond in a goat’s ass.’ Iffy as a compliment at best, but quite colorful and heartfelt, nonetheless…
I’m taking pictures today and will try to get some more products listed on my Etsy site today.
A heat index today of around 115 is TOO hot for this old lady. I just took some water out to pour into the elephant ear planter. Our plumber hasn’t been able to make time to put in our 2nd watering line for the planters in the front yard, so things are just drying up. The thing I care about the most in the front is the elephant ears, so I’ll concentrate on those. – UPDATE – Our plumber just drove up, ready to work on the 2nd line we need! HOORAY!!!!
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing Final Fantasy XIV Promotional Site
We will go to Lunch Bunch soon to catch up with our friends. I don’t know if one of them will be back from her visit in Tennessee, but I’ll be happy to see whoever is there.
Caters News Agency – Cristina is Painting
I’m making steady progress on the Christmas gifts. I’m spending some wonderful time up in my art room each day, taking my time, listening to music while I’m painting, enjoying time to myself and the joy of trying to make something my friends will like. :0)
I got some new things added to my Etsy shop yesterday. I’ll add some more today. It’s fun to give my shop a bit of a new look.
Yesterday I wrote to Dr. Singer at our veterinarian’s office via email to tell him how impressed I was with Emma and the rest of his staff on handling the possibility of a fire and handling customers in the middle of it. I’m hoping they will get something special, including raises. :0)
I’m resting from my first session of weed whacking. By noon today, until 8pm tonight, our heat index is going to be 106, so I’m out NOW, trying to get the weed whacking done while it’s ONLY 85.
There’s about half an hour towards the end of the day, when the sun is starting to go down when it’s fabulous outside here. I try to arrange things so I can walk around then, soaking up the glory of it. I take pictures, make mental notes of the next thing I need to tackle, wish I had more flowers (there are never enough), play with Amber and Abby, who follow me around, and maybe sit for a bit on the front porch steps or on the back deck before going in. The world is perfect then, ‘free’ from problems, strife, and stupidity, when I feel filled with the joy of being alive.
If our weather here were like that for more of the day, I might spend all day outside. Since I’m older than dirt, it’s probably a good thing that our Arkansas weather in the summer is totally UN-civilized, hitting you in the face with the heat the minute you step outside, moving from one place of a/c to the next as fast as you can.
I have one more weed whacking session in me before I will have to stop for the day, clean up outside, then come in and shower, getting ready for the rest of my day.
It seems a bit anti-climactic for this to be the 1st day of summer, since our temperatures with heat indices have been in the ‘excessive heat warning’ and ‘heat advisory’ brackets for at least a couple of weeks now. I don’t see that it can get much hotter now that it’s ‘official,’ but – bring it on!
My husband just mowed recently, but was moaning that our grass needs to be cut again. Hopefully, he will choose to do it in the late afternoon, when the worst of the heat is over for the day. We’re still waiting for our good plumber to find time to help us with the 2nd irrigation line, but I can water manually to try to keep things alive.
Now that I finished a couple of projects inside the house, I’ll try to switch my focus to working in the yard in the mornings and then right before dark, hosing down with Back Woods OFF! before going out there.
I’m delighted to welcome the month of May this year. I’m hoping that by mid month, our weather will have calmed down. Today our weather here in Arkansas is stellar. Sunshine-y with a high of 82 and lower humidity today. Wheeeeeeee! I have a lot I’d like to do outside. I’m not sure what I’ll tackle first. Maybe, since the Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be stormy, I’ll check the veggie garden first, weeding and harvesting, and then try to get started with my new “pruning-the-tomato-plants experiment.”
Thanks to my friend, Susy, we can all enjoy the beautiful artwork of Matt Dixon from the U.K. I just love his drawings. The fact that a robot can draw such strong emotions from me still amazes me. Thanks, Susy.
My official ‘monthly report’ on my efforts to lose the lard and get stronger and healthier is –
Weight – Down 30.8 pounds since my heaviest.
Measurements – there is 29.5 inches less of me than at my heaviest.
Exercise – I’m into my regimen of various online videos for seniors in the mornings and yoga and yard work in the afternoons. Videos are from Mike at MoreLifeHealth.com/seniors. The ones I’m doing now are a “warm-up,” “stretches,” one of two exercises with weights videos (alternating)’ and “Workout 1B” every other day. The day I don’t do the ‘workout,’ I spend time on my elliptical trainer. I’ve increased from 10 minutes to 15 minutes per session so far. My daily yoga stretches session is 30 minutes.
Dennis, an aviation rescue fire fighter, also encourages us to embrace May. This is from the Australian Firefighters fund-raising calendar. This is a donation that keeps on giving. :0)
I hope that May will be a wonderful month for us all.
We have been very happy this month that we live on top of a ridge line in Arkansas. Being up a bit has its own dangers – lightning and gusty winds and tornadoes being some – but we DON’T have to worry personally about flooding, though we HAVE discussed tying a rowboat at the bottom of our driveway in case we need to get to town at times. We’ve had a LOT of rain this month. May might bring dryer weather, but it won’t bring calmer weather. We’re under a tornado ‘watch’ much of the summer. We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t really pay attention unless the weather alert says, “A tornado is on the ground in Greenwood, headed for the Lewis’ house.” I’ll be happy to wave goodbye to April tomorrow.
Good/Bad – GOOD: We saw our second hummingbird of the season this morning! We’re not sure if it’s the same hummingbird we saw yesterday or a different one, but he/she took a good, long drink before flitting away. BAD: It looks like we might have another raccoon. The feeders were all absolutely empty this morning after my husband filled them up yesterday. The suet holder on one end of one of the feeders was pulled out on one side. We have yet to see a bird who pulls out the side of the suet holder to get at the suet. We had a suet holder down on the ground below the deck… We’ll have to set the humane trap and see if we can catch the critter for relocation.
CLEANING: I was planning to tackle cleaning up our porch as my next project, but I think I’ll postpone that, since the weather forecast for the next few days is really gusty winds and chances of rain and severe storms.
Instead, I think I’ll work on our pantry. It’s gotten out of hand over the past couple of months, since there wasn’t a good place to put extra supplies and things tended to get ‘stuffed’ wherever it was out of the way a bit. This will be a several day project, but it’s overdue and I don’t have to get the cooperation of Mother Nature to do it.
FRIENDS: Today is Lunch Bunch. In fact, we leave in about 45 minutes to meet our friends. I think that Kay’s daughter will be here, visiting from Albuquerque. She’s a wonderful person and I really enjoy it when she comes home to her parents. :0) Catching up on Fridays rounds the week off nicely.
We’re supposed to get another 1-3 inches today and this evening. Oh, good.
Yesterday, I started weeding one of our planters. The wind was blowing SO hard, it picked up the plastic bucket I was using for the dead stuff I was removing from the planter, threw all the dead stuff into the yard as it whipped the bucket around, and was trying to blow the bucket to the next state. I managed to jump up and catch it between gusts of wind. :0)
This is part of the planter before I started working on it. It was FULL of packed dead stuff. I spent about an hour cleaning it up. It’ll take another pass, plus the iris are so thick I want to thin them out so I can replant a bunch in a place in the back yard. Since it’s raining today, that’ll have to wait until another day.
These are the ‘after’ pics after the hour I spent. It looks a bit better now, I think, but I’ll spend probably another hour or so thinning out the iris in it when the weather cooperates.
This is the other side of that same planter. The poor iris is choking itself. It gave us a nice display of the deep-purple, twice-blooming iris we love, but they’re finished now for the spring. Hopefully, I can tackle the planter again tomorrow, at least getting out the iris I’ll replant another day.
Today is definitely an inside day. I’m happy that we have a warm, dry home on days like this. The temperature is nice, so we have the door open to the porch.
It seems that winter is having trouble saying goodbye this year. The coasts of the U.S. are both braving snow this week, while the mid-section is suffering through waves of severe spring storms. It’s really a challenge.
mountainbreaths.com
Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they do when they stick together. ~ Verna M. Kelly
Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. – Victor Hugo
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. Albert Camus
Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. Victor Hugo
When there’s snow on the ground, I like to pretend I’m walking on clouds. Takayuki Ikkaku
Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it. ~ Richard Adams
Deep purple is my favorite color. Whenever I see it, my soul reacts, with happiness welling up inside and spilling over. Spring is one time of the year where our yard reflects my love of the color.
These are to one side of the top of our driveway.These are to the other side.back yard planter
They are blooming almost all the way down one side of the driveway now. When they are finished, yellow ones take over.
I hope our wisteria hasn’t been beaten down by the hail.
You can see my heart is really full this time of year. There is much to do in the yard, and little time right now to do it between severe weather. Soon things will tame down (hopefully) and I can get our planters weeded and cleared out, tomato plants in, and buy some purple petunias for the deck. :0)
I checked the weather website yesterday evening right before dark to find that, not only were we supposed to get rain after sunset, but HAIL. I went out and clothes-pinned sheets over my veggie planter boxes to protect my sweet, young veggies as much as I could.
It DID storm overnight and we’re still under a ‘thunderstorm and hail’ forecast this morning. It’s raining and very dark outside now, though the thunder and lightning are so noticeable. It looks like the sheets won’t come off until at least lunch time. I hope the plants don’t get squashed by the weight of the wet sheets!
Here was what 3 of the 6 garden boxes looked like last night –
Any minute a guy, or guys, from a solar panel company will be here to talk with us about a ‘government solar panel program’ for our home. My husband signed us up for this. I researched it, and though it isn’t really a ‘scam,’ it’s quite misleading.
The solar panels are installed at no cost to the homeowner, but the homeowner doesn’t OWN the panels. You LEASE the panels. If you sell your house, the new owner has to agree to continue the lease. If they don’t, you have to pay to remove the panels and try to get someone else to take the lease, or you break the lease, costing you up to $20,000. You get no tax incentive break for installing the panels – that goes to the solar panel company. To maintain the warranty on the panels, you must have them inspected each year and cleaned twice a year – a cost of $450 a year. For many reasons, this is not a good thing for us.
I read this to my husband. He agrees it’s not for us, but still wants to talk to them. I will sit in just to make sure he doesn’t sign up for anything…
Tenor
It’s quite rainy today. Really gusty winds went all night and into this morning. Now the sky is getting quite dark. We have possibly severe weather. Fingers crossed we get through this day with no damage.
I hope that your Wednesday is safe, calm, and dry.
We’re going to have a nice display of twice-blooming deep purple iris soon. As you can see, I need to clean up this planter a lot. I’ll try to thin these out, moving them elsewhere around the yard.The wisteria is looking better each day. There is a small redbud tree behind the wisteria, plus a forsythia blooming behind it, too. A display like this really brings up my spirits!
creativeartworksblog 