Okay. I have to admit. I have never seen this before.
The -37 is the coldest I can remember, but -54????
I’d put off the monthly shop to tomorrow, but it’s supposed to be just as cold.
Not looking forward to going out there. :-(
The Re-Farmer
Update: we decided not to go into the city today. The girls were willing, but we only have one vehicle, and I can’t justify risking it in this cold. We rely on it too much.
This is an odd time of the month.
It’s one of the things about having an income that comes in once a month. It may make budgeting easier, but by the end of the month, things start running out. Then we’re left with the question of, is it worth driving to town to pick up a day or two’s worth of stuff, or do we wait the few days until we can do the big monthly shop? It’s more of a thing in January, too, as December gets all mixed up because of Christmas, and we end up not doing the big monthly shop, since the days we normally would do it fall on New Year’s. Instead of a Costco trip, we buy locally, and the prices are so much higher, we end up not as well stocked for the month.
Which is a long way of saying that, despite the cold, one of my daughters and I ended up going into town to pick up a few things.
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Brrr.
As I write this, we are at -29C, with a wind chill of -39C. Nasty!
Last night, we made sure to top of the outside cats’ water bowls with warm water before heading to bed. This picture is how I found the sun room water bowl, this morning. The cats were able to keep that opening in the ice licked open, to get at the liquid water below. I could even see some layers of ice, as the water level dropped and froze, dropped and froze. By the time I got this photo, though, there was no liquid water left. The bottom of the pan was dry, and there was no ice touching any part of the metal that would have been warm enough to melt it.
They were very happy for more warm water this morning!
While doing my rounds this morning, I had an extra task on my list.
Measuring.
Continue readingOkay, I’m being only slightly sarcastic with that title… ;-)
The cold snap continues, and is supposed to continue for about a week.
The above picture was taken a few days ago, on the last milder day, just before we headed into town to get to the pharmacy before the weather got worse. The camera automatically cleans up the image, so the visibility was actually poorer than it appears in the picture.
Right now, we have a cloudless sky. It’s bright and clear and…
Continue readingYou know, I’m really looking forward to being able to just pop outside at a whim. Although temperatures have become relatively mild lately (we’re at -7C right now, with a wind chill of -12C), when you have to spend several minutes just to bundle up in layers and heave on the snow boots, going in tends to involve more planning for efficiency. ;-D
Yesterday was not particularly efficient.
Continue readingSo we went from a deep freeze to above freezing, and now the snow is back. We started getting weather alerts yesterday for snowfall. Locally, the snow started in the late afternoon, but to the south and east of us, I’m hearing there was a lot more. We have a bright, sunny day right now, but we’re still getting weather alerts, this time for blowing snow. Interestingly, it’s supposed to start snowing about mid-afternoon – when we’re also supposed to be reaching temperatures of 0C!
Continue readingWelcome to a new year! May 2019 be a wonderful year for you, and I hope everyone stayed nice and warm while celebrating last night.
Or, if you’re old an boring, like me, sleeping. ;-)
It was certainly a bitter one last night, as some cities in Canada had their fireworks several hours early, so people could go home, out of the cold. At the time of this writing, we are at -26C, with a windchill of -37C.
The last few days, when going out in the morning to give the cats fresh food and warm water, I have been finding the water bowl in the sun room empty (except for a cat sitting in it, usually). Last night, the girls went out an extra time to make sure there was water for them.
This is what I found this morning.
Continue readingHappy 6th day of Christmas!
Things have not gone as planned, thanks to some rather unfortunate weather. We were supposed to go into the city for a family gathering yesterday. We drove maybe 5 minutes on the highway, before turning around and coming home. Blowing snow, icy roads, poor visibility… and knowing it would be worse when we were driving home in the dark. Too risky. Maybe if we had a 4 wheel drive and winter tires, but not with our van.
We didn’t have a lot of snow, but it did get to the point that we needed to clear the driveway. Which meant time to break out the snow blower for the first time! :-D
Except, of course, it wouldn’t start…
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As I write this, we are starting to wind down from several busy days. Christmas Day itself, we try to keep more of a quiet affair. The fifth candle of our advent wreath has been lit, we have had our dinner, and it is time to get some rest before we continue with our holiday activities.
While putting up a few more Christmas decorations, I took the time to change out the batteries for some lights in our nativity scene.
It is the teeniest of nativity scenes. The tallest figures are maybe three inches high.
I used to put the trees on the dash of our old van for Christmas. I spent a lot of time in that van, so I decorated the dash with all sorts of bling and tiny creatures. Sometimes, while stopped at a red light, I would look over and see people in the vehicle next to us, taking pictures of it. :-D I figured, if I was going to be in the van so much, I may as well make it my happy place! :-D One year, I got a mini Christmas tree with a tiny string of lights for the dash. I couldn’t find it the next year, so I got a different tree, this one with its own decorations, and another set of tiny lights. The year after that, I found both sets, and had two trees on my dash! While parked, waiting for whomever I was picking up at the time, I would turn the lights on for a little ambiance. :-D
I started decorating the dash of the van we have now, but the surface is different, and the temporary adhesives don’t stick as well. I only managed a bit of bling, my Happy Face (a rockfish), a toad, some turtles, tortoises, frogs and lady bugs.
Also, the toad is holding a tiny Groot.
I don’t spend anywhere near as much time in the van anymore, so I don’t plan to add too much more. And no Christmas trees this year, so they get to join the nativity scene. :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 