moonhare

The storm has abated! We still have a few flakes falling, but the winds have died down. About 41K electric customers are still without power tonight.


Some snow out front was waist deep in areas. Using the snowblower on the driveway and dog path was a challenge where the snow was higher than the front housing: slow going with much repeating over spots. I had to refill the gasoline twice.

Dog’s yard!


The weather had just gotten pleasant enough to finish sawing up the fallen tree out back. The paths were clear to mud. I did some generator shed cleaning, too.


Ah, well. The pup is a priority and I cleared part of her path before doing the driveway.

Should be sunny tomorrow. Schools are cancelled for storm cleanup and parking bans remain in effect. We have a state of emergency still, and driving is prohibited: the street out front hasn’t been this quiet since I was a kid. I’ll clear the last of the snowfall from the driveway and try to open the whole dog path.

Things are about to get real here tonight, and all day tomorrow.


Earlier forecast- no changes yet.

Checklist done:
- vehicles ready.
- snowblower fuel and oil good, tested.
- generator fuel and oil good, tested*.
- gasoline at the ready.
- flashlights all good.
- heat turned up *pant pant* ‘just in case.’
- regular shopping completed early in the week.
- snow shovels ready.
- devices charged or charging.
- laundry and dishes caught up.

Now we wait.


Here’s a before.

*It dawned on me this afternoon that we haven’t had a ‘bad weather’ power outage since we got our generator. Even though it has a heavy duty storm cover, I can’t imagine running this in the predicted 50-65mph blizzard. Bunny toes crossed!

We haven’t had a January like the current one in a number of years. Our initial snowfall here from Sunday to Monday amounted to 18+ inches (45 cm). A small follow-on deposited 2 to 3 more inches (5 cm) of fluffy stuff.

The snowblower gave me a scare when I started out: the auger stopped under load. I poked around the blades with a broom handle and decided it was most likely belt slippage; I let the machine idle for a few minutes, and then all was well. There may have been ice on the belt or pulley from last week. We had temps go from above freezing to well below, and that may have contributed to this.

Today when I went out to do clean up from the second round the drive began hesitating going uphill on the driveway slope. Belts, again: it was 5°F (-15°C). It evened out, eventually.

It’s unfortunate that this happened, but not totally unexpected. The snowblower is 9 years old and would benefit from a belt change. I had run it, and the generator, in preparation for the storm, but I could not replicate the conditions that caused the belts’ slippage.

I did some tree cutting with my pole saw last Thursday when temps were above freezing. Before the storm, Sunday morning, another 5°F day, I realized I should completely cut back that tree that fell across the dog’s path. I screwed that up pretty fast by forgetting to prime the chainsaw before trying to start it; I succeeded in thoroughly flooding it! Flakes were falling now, and I decided it would be quicker just to use my little pole saw attachment on the Troy Bilt ‘trimmer’ engine again. Heh, I screwed that up as well, but I got it started in spite of myself.


Tree trouble from the last storm.


Trees cut back Sunday and snow removed Monday/Tuesday. Sophie approves!

We may get another storm this coming weekend. Bunny claws crossed all will go smoothly!

We had a great snowfall Sunday into Monday: six damp inches. The trees looked like as if covered in marshmallow fluff, with branches drooping under the weight. We had one tree come down in the backyard, and another lean dangerously close to the ground.


The ‘top’ of the tree luckily missed my sheds by about ten feet. Had it hit I would have spent most of the morning clearing the mess to get the snowblower, and generator, free. I’ll get this cut up when the weather improves…

Clearing the snow went very well. I only just realized my machine is nine years old now, and it really hasn’t had a lot of uses. After doing the driveway I of course did the dog’s path out back (in spite of the tree). The most effort for me was clearing the heavy snow off the vehicles and then shoveling that back off the drive.

We’re due for more snow this weekend, possibly eight inches. Due to the arctic cold coming with it, the snow should at least be fluffy this trip. Historically this is the coldest time of the year here. But even though it was 6°F (-14°C) this morning, tomorrow could reach 45°F (7°C), and then go back to 4°F (-16°C) Friday into Saturday. Joy!


What, no eggs?

My life in tv watching…

I began watching this documentary last night:“Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus”. I’ve gotten about 45 minutes into it, but it’s too heavy for me to complete in one sitting.

I’ve also started Bonkers, Season 2. They’ve changed his ears a bit in this one, and introduced/developed a new partner (Miranda… yep, like the warning). Also, from a Disney fandom wiki: “In the show's second season, he's portrayed as a rather clumsy, somewhat foolish character who ends up being the shows' punching bag. In the first season, he's less of a buffoon and more of an Inspector Clouseau-type…” Still yiffy, though ;o)

Otherwise-

Tax season approaches! I invested in some decent Banker Boxes, hanging folders, and manila folders to organize my piles of papers and such. I was going to buy a two-drawer file cabinet but these are much more portable and more suited to my haphazard filing needs. And I paid a bit more to get the boxes one can hang folders in and still get the covers on. I’ve designated one as Income, to get a handle on my SS and 401 stuff, and another as Health, to contain my plan, visits, and billing info. A third will be used for miscellaneous House paperwork, as necessary… Up until these I just tossed almost all of my important documents into one jumbled box labeled TBS (to be sorted).

Next I’ll get the most important info transcribed or saved to disc and put it in the safe.

More random web finds, mostly Imgur:


Apropos

This was an appropriate joke that I came across just before Xmas. I had been out in the yard with the pup a couple of nights after posting the coyote video, and she ran to the back fence, hackles up, barking. I had a flashlight with me and I shined it toward the area she was staring at, and there were at least two sets of eyes glittering in the dark woods about 150’ from us. These were fixed on us, and I turned the beam a bit away from them so as not to hurt them (LED, very bright). They watched us for a bit and I convinced the pup to come away with me. We all went our separate ways :o)

Random humor :D


Hero!
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Cats doing cat things.
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He got the cold shoulder.
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That name!
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Less seasonal-


Yeet!

As it had been a month from the last time, I decided to ‘exercise’ the generator again this week; the manufacturer recommends doing this every thirty days: run the generator for about thirty minutes, under load (a box fan was suggested). I do run it once or twice a year, but decided that after getting the generator six years ago maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do this more often.

The machine has an electric start, but after charging the battery for several hours and it only causing the starter to ‘click’ when pressing the switch, I knew it was new battery time. I have no problem with the recoil starter (usually two pulls are enough), but why walk when you can ride ;o)

I also did some research on how many watts are actually available when the generator is hooked up to the house. This came about after a good friend here picked up a generator of their own, and I started looking deeper into my own machine’s specs. I don’t do electricity, as a rule, so most of what I read just made things more confusing. The machine produces 8000 watts, but the 30 amp cord carries a maximum 7200 watts (240 volts x 30 amps). For 120 volts it is 3600 watts. Yeah, not my bailiwick. Anyway, I read some discussions on Reddit where others asked about this, and they talked about the house electrical panel, alternating 120 breakers, legs, and blah-blah-blah, and I’m comfortable that I’m getting at least that 7200 number… really!

Today it was ‘run the snowblower’ time. I had done a small run with this a few weeks ago, but decided to let it idle away (full throttle, actually) for about fifteen minutes: it’s still got last year’s stabilized gasoline in it, so this used a bit up. After running I also sprayed silicone inside the housing and chute, and straightened a corner where a skid is attached.

Temps here got into the 40s F this afternoon, so I took advantage of that and put up some Xmas lights! Tomorrow I will finish the decorations by adding deer and a tree :o)

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Some animal humor…

I had my urologist follow-up appointment this afternoon: things went well. Next checkup is in May.

Spotify has been slow loading on the iPad: annoyingly slow! It loads quickly on my phone and the Roku app. So, I’m playing music into the Bluetooth headphones hooked through the tv.

The Northern Lights and a meteor shower are supposed to be visible here tonight… yes, it’s cloudy.

I’ve been watching the “Welcome to Derry” series on HBO. I’ve read the ‘based on’ book a couple of times and seen both movie adaptations and am having trouble getting into this. I’m looking at this as a wholly separate take on events (like all those different “Star Trek” series). *blush* One thing I’m finding myself doing is nitpicking historical errors. The series starts in 1961, and progresses quickly to 1962, when I would have been seven. The supermarket has some fantastic reproductions of groceries from the era, except that they show Spaghetti-Os, which were introduced in 1965. And then there’s the Kodak Instamatic camera… 1963. And it had a flash cube, four pics per cube: they took many more pics than that and I don’t recall the cube being changed! I had an Instamatic when they first came out.

I tried the “House of Dragons” sequel to “Game of Thrones.” One episode. Meh.

This little update is getting too long.

Quick pic-


Goodbye Horses

I tried a new pressure canning recipe from the Ball Guide to Preserving book today: clam chowder base (Also found on this .edu site*- https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/sp-50-931-canning-soup). I had been looking for six packs of Snow’s Clam Chowder when I thought that maybe there was a canning recipe available, and yes, there was ;o)

The actual instructions are for a 20 half-pint batch, but I reduced this to 10 for a first run. I had the jars, and the basic ingredients were on hand (onion and potato); I had to pick up salt pork, and the 51 oz clams/juice can came from Amazon.


Wooohoo!

All went well! The lids all pinged (sealed) and will be checked tomorrow.


The rings come off in the morning and the jars will be washed before going to the pantry. To prepare for a meal: in a saucepan, add a tablespoon of butter and a cup of milk per half-pint, season to taste, and heat.

*Only use recipes that have been tested/approved by USDA, Ball, or .edu sites. I do see a discrepancy between my Ball book and the website I linked: the website says you add two tablespoons of butter and two cups of milk per half-pint when serving. I’ll go with my book!

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A couple of more comics (pups!)