Posts from the ‘Weather’ category

Snow end to the week!

Less than a week ago I was sort of complaining about our slow start to winter.

The next day we had just short of four inches of snow and cold temperatures and away we go with Winter in Northwest Montana!

This morning:

We woke to a new four inches of snow and it was still snowing.

It has been cold.

Not SUPER cold, but below freezing and nights near zero with daytime temps in the teens.

This is round 1 in what NOAA advertises as a “Prolonged Snow Event”.

Hee.

The snow stopped about 10:00 a.m.

I cleared about 3/4 of the drive and turn around.

Temps warmed to a balmy 19F!!!

There is enough snow to break out the short ‘shoes and start making tracks on the game trails.

HOO RAH!

Trying to get our Winter on

Wintry weather has been mostly a tease of light flurries and not very cold temperatures. Although, it has been colder on the valley floor, at my house we’ve had maybe 3 nights in the 20’s but otherwise no hard freezing. The ground is not frozen so when it does flurry, it melts right away.

But…

Yes.

Winter weather in the forecast.

Snow and cold. Very cold.

I am hope, hope hoping to soon have enough snow to snowshoe in the woods.

The snow started.

But at the moment, it is still above freezing at 35F.

And then it stopped snowing so we all went out to see what we could see.

Auggie found a critter hole on Beardog hill.

After some time peering into the hole, he retreated to a perch to keep an eye on the front door.

Then some “help” from Bear…

Oh, well.

The frost is NOT on the pumpkin

We’ve had a few nights where the temperature dropped below freezing, but not really a hard, killing frost.

We DID break a 102 year record for the rainiest October and October 2016 is now the rainiest October on record. The exact record amount is yet to be determined as we have 1 more day and it has been and is forecast to be rainy all the way to November 1.

The good news is that since the ground is not frozen, all of this rain is seeping in and giving the trees and ground a very good drink of water – badly needed!

The bad news is that it would be nice to have some very cold temperatures as in “freeze the ground” temperatures, before it snows. Otherwise, too many bugs/wasps, etc. live and potentially make outdoor Summer life miserable. However, much as Auggie believes that the weather is my responsibility, it is not and it will be what it will be.

It has been beautiful between showers with the typical cloudy- small sun-break skies and vibrant Fall colors. Leaves and the gold Larch Pine needles are dropping and likely by next week the trees that lose leaves and needles will be bare.

Meanwhile.

The frost may not be ON the pumpkins, but they are being harvested and I continue to cook them every few days. Some I use and some goes in the freezer for the off-pumpkin season.

After cooking and de-seed/de-pulping, it almost looks like “that’s all???”.

But a three pound pie pumpkin, yields about 4 cups of pumpkin puree.

I use my Vita-mix blender to puree the pumpkin.

Now, one of Vita-mix (and Blendtec) selling points is that you use the blender to clean itself by putting hot water and some dish soap in it and running at top speed: it is its own dishwasher! While that is true, in some cases I clean it another way…

To “clean” the pumpkin, I prefer to use warm milk with some pumpkin spice…

Cleanish blender (just needs a rinse :)), add some coffee to the foamy pumpkin-spice-milk and oh boy!!! – you have a pumpkin spice latte which actually has pumpkin in it! (***and fiber in your coffee … :) !! )

And then !!! …

You dip your King Arthur Flour’s Pumpkin Biscotti in your pumpkin spice latte and you are one happy person!

Or you could have your pumpkin latte with one of Mel’s Kitchen Café: Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls.

That makes for a happy person as well.

All of that sweetness.

All of that pumpkin.

BUT!

… My most favorite pumpkin recipe (prepare to be surprised!):

Dishing Out Health’s Pumpkin Kale Turkey Sausage Spaghetti Pie!

Yes, a pasta dish. I’m more of a savory than sweet kind of person and although the biscotti, the cinnamon rolls and the latte are wonderful, this dish is the pumpkin dish that really makes my day!

Although it is written with kale and turkey sausage, I’ve made it with spinach, with arugula, with chard. And with turkey sausage, ground beef and even with white beans and no meat.

I make 1/2 the recipe in one of my 5 1/2 inch pie dishes and that feeds me two meals plus a large spoonful to be added to a broth and make a lunch soup.

Cheers!

Bath time

I know that it looks like Auggie is somehow being punished, but he sits in the kitchen sink of his own accord.

This is while I’m making coffee. I think the sink is warm from me running hot water to warm up my Chemex pot as well as my carafe. But ??? – the mind of the cat ???

At any rate, he gets in the sink, moves the stopper and proceeds with his morning ablutions.

Better the kitchen sink than my pillow!

Also this morning…

Yep, we woke to a dusting of snow and temperature of 31F: harbinger of what is to come!

We will likely have some balmy, sunny days before real Winter, but today was a reminder that it is on its way.

Smoke

Yesterday, Sunday, was forecast to be 91 and advertised to be the last Summer day of above normal temperature. We had two morning walks in the cool and then Bear and I decamped to the living room by the air conditioner. Auggie was in shortly after noon.

Mid-afternoon, I looked outside and was surprised to see it looking smoky. I stepped outside and it smelled of smoke as well. Bear and I took a ride down the road to find the valley filled with smoke.

Rats!

I really thought we were going to squeak by this summer without fire or smoke.

Per the news, a smallish fire in Thompson Falls area, about 80 miles as the crow flies, blew up in the heat and accompanying strong wind. The wind was from the exact direction of the fire so the smoke blew into the valley and up against the mountains of the Missions and the Swan Range.

It stayed smoky all night and this morning the sunrise was the dramatic red that happens when there is smoke.

Red ball of fire in a smoky sky.

From the road home the mountains barely visible through the smoke.

Bear was with me – the above photo is looking west. I had a morning appointment in Kalispell and that part of the valley was much clearer with the smoke still stuck against the valley’s eastern mountain ranges.

The “Oh no” barn – the barn looks like it has an expression of “Oh no!” and it is fitting for this smoky morning.

I thought we would be smoked in until Tuesday night when the wind was forecast to move around to the north, but there was a shift to a west wind and at my house, the air was suddenly clear again. Wind and smoke are fickle things so we might not be done with the smoke, but we ended this Monday in better air than morning.

We are all happier…

Much happier!

When the going gets tough, the tough get grumpy

When the temp is hot (90!), we get tired and grumpy!

And we follow a Julia Child-ism: “Never apologize”. She’s talking about food, but I’m adding on … no apologies for being grumpy in the heat!

Fortunately, the current heat is to end dramatically on Wednesday night-Thursday morning. Until then, we enjoy mornings and endure … with much complaining … hot afternoons!