Posts from the ‘Montana’ category

The agony of defeat

That is the snowthrower in that trailer. It is going off to Big John’s.

The auger stopped augering on Thanksgiving Eve. I had a spare auger belt. The directions didn’t look bad and I have tools, can read, have done plenty of repairing/servicing of stuff. But, in recent years, Big John’s has been my go to place for home equipment as they pick up, service and deliver for a price so low it is hard to understand how they are making any money. But…it was Thanksgiving and snowing and forecast to snow more and I had all I needed so I began.

My first hurdle was getting the new belt on. I finally realized that at 15F, a rubber belt was going to have less give than normal and maybe warming it up would help. Also, it was getting dark. The belt spent the night in the house.

Friday, I got the belt on. I fired up the thrower. It started marching out of the garage on its own. I didn’t try the auger.

I have a work deadline to meet. I already had a couple of hours in the thrower. Discretion…valor, etc. – I made the call to Big John’s. Adding to the agony, I had to include a note about working on it. The good news is that it may be the source of amusement to whoever draws my thrower to work on. Laughter is good for the soul!

Meantime, the temperature rose above freezing. Three – four more inches of heavy wet snow has fallen. The snow and needles have come down off the trees in shuddering avalanches – sometimes on the roof of the house sounding a bit like the entire tree came with. It is a mess. It does this every year!…a VERY cold spell, a foot of snow and then a warm up.

Now, it is forecast to get cold again and more snow on top of slush that will freeze. Somehow it works out and looks beautiful again but at the moment not so much.

Although some long days this week on this project push, it has been a very good week. Hope yours has been as well – Happy Friday!

Snowy walk

It finally stopped snowing this morning. The temperature has been in the mid-20’s (F) – the perfect range for a lot of snow. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-18 inches fell, leaving slightly over a foot compressed on the ground at my house. The mountain tops and sky to the east stayed gray.

But to the west and south were patches of blue and some sunshine.

Snowy walk.

The Ice House – Somers, MT

The Ice House may become another series like “The Road Home” and our loop walk…a spot that is photogenic, story-telling in a unique way and so different in all the seasons and varied light. (See The Ice House for more info)

Today, there was a bleakness to the landscape and this particular capture. But…Karl and I were there because the super-cold has broken…it was 25F. And with no wind, it felt nearly balmy in comparison to the past week.

The Ice House, Somers, MT.

What Karl and I did on our lunch time walk

“Aren’t you ready yet????”

Karl’s impatience is usually justified as it often takes me 3 or 4 back in the house trips to be satisfied that I am attired appropriately for the conditions. Today, however, I only went back once to exchange gloves for mittens – that hardly counts ;)!

The temperature had risen to 14 by 10:30 a.m. but dropped back to 11 by the time we departed – me on snowshoes, Karl on 4 feet – at noon-thirty.

A good time was had by all, even if I was seriously out of breath at this point. Part of that is due to the photo taking. I enlisted a handy stump for a quick try at an action shot. We are a little fuzzy but some of that is snow being blown off tree branches. We ARE both looking in the general direction of the camera – hurrah!

The house …smoke from the chimney…hot coffee and back to work.

They nailed the forecast

Four inches of fine, powdery snow fell overnight. I shovelled the walk when Karl and I walked down the driveway in the dark. It is still snowing, but it is only 10F. The snow is so fine and light, it is hard to shovel as it wants to fall off the shovel before I’m ready.

Bob stood on the front porch and looked like he might be having second thoughts about going further, but after some thought he proceeded on his morning rounds as usual.

It is cold enough for the bear dog to use his pillow-bed but not yet cold enough to require the nose be covered with the tail.

It appears NOAA nailed the forecast. It is calm here in the mountain wind shadow but the town weather shows winds from the northeast at 20 mph, gusting to 38 and a wind chill of -10F.

Snowshoes are ready for our lunchtime walk. Maybe it will warm up to 15 by then.