Wow, Who Knew?

To us what seemed like a middling storm last Friday has wrecked havoc on the valley floor. We got about 18 to 20 inches.



The valley got about 6-10 inches and all accompanied by extremely cold temps. Low singles and minus temps up here for over night and not much warmer down there. I never realized how dependent on the typical solar warming trend the Ashland/Medford/Grants Pass area gets. The cold and snow cancelled schools valley wide Friday. To be expected really, but it continued into this week. Ashland schools just reopened yesterday. On my weekly trip to town, I had to go to both places and did it fairly early in the morning. Light freezing fog in Medford was enough to keep the temps down early but they had done a reasonable job with roads and snow. Ashland was still a mess. Sidewalks un-shoveled, the on street parking was filled with what had been unplowed snow but now was rutted ice. I couldn't believe what a poor job Ashland did in the face of a snow storm. What really surprised me was many businesses didn't even bother to shovel in front of their stores along the Main drag, a primarily walker friendly downtown. Gosh, in New England it is almost a given that you have to keep your sidewalk clear in residential areas, let alone businesses or you face a stiff fine. They don't see snow that sticks around often, but they see it enough coupled with cold temps to know better...really!

Some fun observations at the grocery store though. Boxed mac & cheese, tea, dog biscuits and cat food where heavy sellers during the storm. In fact, I was unable to get my brand of dog biscuits and cat food. Chocolate chip chocolate ice cream was another goner as where frozen pizzas. Pets ate well at least....

The goats survived and used their bedded calf hutch. The horses weathered the extreme cold in their curly winter coats just fine. The plow worked. The fox still comes for his/her eggs although the first two snowy bitter cold nights ( -5 and -8 F respectively), he must have stayed holed up where it was warm. We have a couple of rabbits this year. I wonder who will get them first, fox or bobcat? It is not worth trying to start Bob when the weather is below zero. The new Subaru is different in snow than the old one, but still very sure footed.

In fiber news, the frock coat for my Dad is done as is all the other "must do" sewing. The Louet Delta is folded up and will be pushed out of the studio while I work in on getting the AVL together this weekend. Gene downloaded the oldest possible available assembly manual, which isn't quite old enough but at least it will provide some guidance. Today I will get the back room heated up so the wood doesn't go into shock being brought into a warm house, review the manual, get something easy put up for weekend meals, catch up on laundry, cut the Christmas tree and get lights on it for the deck, and scrounge up my Christmas CD's for some easy listening while I start in on Big Sal. Please excuse the lack of pictures. Usually I have a fair amount, but the gift sewing will have to wait until the gifts have been opened. I promise some pics of the items then.

Parting shot: Does someone ALWAYS have to be in motion.....

L to R: Smoochie, Charlotte, Peter, Pogo and Rodger the cat, holding court