Spring Is In The Air

Spring is in the air!

I'm so excited for spring. Every day something new is popping up around the house. Jonquils are blooming. The pear tree is blossoming. In another day or two my weeping cherry tree will be white with blossoms.



There is so much to do around the yard to prepare for spring. I've considered hiring some of the kids to come over one day soon and help me clean up the corner garden. It was supposed to be a cottage garden with a fish pond in the center, but it has become really over grown and out of control. The pump went out in the pond and the whole thing needs to be cleaned out, the pump replaced and the filter system rebuilt. It's a big job and I'm just too lazy to do it by myself (plus it would take days to do on my own and I don't have that kind of time). It would be worth paying $150 and a nice lunch to get that cleaned up so I can enjoy it.

Happy Spring Everyone!

Happy Snowy, Sick Birthday To Me!

I'm pretty sick today and wasn't sure I was going to post anything, but I haven't had a day without a post in so long, I just couldn't do it.

Here's the most important stuff to me right now.

I've got a cold: coughing, runny/stuffed up nose (not sure how that can happen, but it does) and a sore throat. I actually took some of the night time meds and took a nap sitting up in my chair this afternoon. I managed to get in about 3 hours of sleep!

It's been snowing all day long. We've gotten about 6 inches of snow, but I haven't been out there to formally measure it. I cleaned off the porches (front and back) earlier today and there was around 2 inches; then I went back about an hour later and there was another 3 inches out there. I'd say we've gotten around another inch since then, We don't normally get just snow. Usually we get freezing rain and/or sleet mixed in with our snow, so this is a nice change.

Here's the view out my back porch this afternoon.

Oh, and to top it all off...it's my birthday. Sort of. I'm a leap year baby, so I don't have a birthday this year. I celebrate on the 28th of February. I've always said that I was born the last day of February, so my friends usually celebrate on that day. My family, however, celebrates on March 1st. My mom says that if it hadn't been Leap Year, I would have been born March 1st, but as far as I'm concerned I was born in February, so I'll celebrate in February. It doesn't help that my CG'pa's birthday is also February 29th. They were all used to celebrating on 3/1 with him, so... Anyway, they're all over at the CG'parents' house having a birthday party while I'm home. Don't feel sorry for me though...I always hate having to go to those things...even my own birthday party.

Snowy Sunday Morning

Just thought I'd share with you what I woke up to this morning.

Snowy Sunday Morning

I wasn't expecting snow. Somehow I didn't get the memo; I thought it was only supposed to snow in northern Missouri. Now I have to go out and clean off the car before I leave for church. Luckily, it is only snow and there's a little less than an inch of it.

More Bad Weather?

There's nothing like living in the Ozarks when it comes to weather.

We just finished a major winter storm with ice/sleet/snow. See pictures here. The last of it is finally gone (except the stuff that was piled up in parking lots). We have been experiencing 50-60 degree weather for the last few days and it has been really nice. And that's just like the Ozarks...30 degrees one day, 65 the next. Nothing like sledding on yesterday's sleet in today's 60 degree weather!

Well, we may be in for our next big storm. No, it's not ice, sleet or snow...it's tornadoes!

The latest weather said that the worst of it should be slightly to the north of us, but it is hitting between 9pm and 2am with winds up to 80 miles per hour!

So here's my decision...do I stay at home, or go spend the night at my parents' house. I do not have a basement. There is no adequate shelter for damaging winds. I'll even admit it...I live in one of those horrible tornado magnets...a mobile home! I have spent multiple nights, pacing the house, praying to God that I survived the storm. Even a small storm sounds terrible inside my house.

It probably sounds like a no-brainer...go to the parents', but I HATE having to spend the night anywhere but at my own house. I can't sleep in any other bed than my own. Plus, I won't be able to watch what I want on TV or be on the internet (okay, those might sound a little petty).

I guess I will just hang out here and wait to see where and when the storm is going to hit. I'm watching the news right now, and will keep my eye out for changes. The parents' house only a mile down the road, so I can literally wait until the last minute.

Wish us all luck!

Satellite Update

Just an update on my satellite situation.

This morning as I was sitting and reading, all of a sudden the idea came to me that my satellite might have been knocked around when those 4 inches of sleet fell off my roof in giant sheets. Although I only had 2 pages left in my book, I threw it aside and ran outside to check. YES! One of my satellites was sitting askew. I came back inside for a coat and a wrench and set the receiver to the satellite strength test signal (where it screeches at you in increasing decibels until you get the satellite pointed in the right direction). I started fiddling around with angling the satellite in what I thought was the right direction.

Success! I heard the high pitch screech and knew I had locked on to a signal. I went inside and turned to a local channel. Wrong. I had locked onto a signal, but now I was getting ESPN on the channel where I normally pick up CBS. Weird.

I put on another layer (man, it was cold out there) and went back to trying to search for a signal. It took awhile, but I managed to find the right signal (it was a lot further east than I remember). YES!!! I have local networks back and will not have to be without them for 3 weeks. I called DirecTV and canceled the "upgrade" that I had scheduled.

I actually feel a little stupid for not thinking of the ice falling onto the satellite earlier. For some reason, it just didn't occur to me. I had thought that all the ice had already fallen off of that side of the house already, but should have realized it because of how close the satellite is to the house.

A Walk Through The Woods

I went on a walk through the woods this afternoon to take pictures of the ice and snow for my photoblog Views From A Small Town. I about waited too long, and the ice was crashing down all around me as it began melting off the trees. I looped my Nikon around my neck and took off. I made the erroneous decision not to take my wide-angle lens and just use my telephoto. I wish I would have stuck the wide angle in my coat pocket because I could have used it a few times.

Noel followed me throughout the entire walk.

My house is surrounded by acres of woods and fields. I can walk for quite awhile and always be on family land. I took off toward the woods and immediately began to see tracks in the snow, mostly deer, rabbit and birds. I didn’t think there would be much chance of coming up on, or observing, any wildlife because one of my cats decided to follow me everywhere I went. Toward the end of my walk however, I came up on a doe and didn’t even realize it until I startled her. It was my own fault because I said something to Noel. I all the sudden heard a noise, looked up and saw the white tail as she fled up the fence line. I managed to get a few shots, but nothing good. I wish I would have kept my mouth shut; I couldn’t have been more tan ten yards from her when she jumped up.

You can just see the doe as she ran away.

I came across a log with what appeared to be raccoon tracks all over it. I also took a picture of four separate tracks that just happened to be next to each other. Deer, rabbit, bird and cat (surprise, surprise). It was actually when I listed the animals aloud that I started the doe. Oh, well…

You can see all the deer tracks; these are very close to my house.

Next time I think I’ll be sure to also take a bottle of water with me when I go. I got so thirsty walking around in the cold air. Luckily, I had plenty of ice around me and just popped a few icicles off the surrounding trees and sucked on them for awhile.

I really enjoyed my trek through the woods; I just don’t do it often enough. It was good to get out of the house and see all the beauty of the Ozarks. I am very lucky to have been born and raised in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Small Town Blues

I started this Tuesday when the winter storm was in full force…

I’m really frustrated right now. I am typing on Word because my internet is acting up. I have satellite internet, due to living in the middle of nowhere, and it is not working very well due to the winter storm that is still going on. I can get onto pages that have loaded before, but it is not letting me log into, or post onto, Blogger. *gggrrrrrr* I already have one post that I finished last night and couldn’t ever get Blogger to load up and post, so I had to copy and paste it into Word.

My Wild Blue satellite covered in ice. It was much worse before this picture was taken.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m thankful that I still have power; I just wish if I had power, that I had internet access as well.

Let me complain about living in a small town just a little bit. As I’ve said before, I love living in a small town, but I hate the lack of technological access out here in the sticks. It is impossible for me to get high speed internet any other way than through satellite internet. The satellite is so much better than dial up, there’s no question about that, but it costs more than most people pay for Cable or DSL, it’s slower and I don’t get to use as much bandwidth as I want. Currently, I am paying $56 a month for the honor of having satellite internet and I’m going to have to upgrade to a higher package because I am using the internet too much. Seriously. I will then be paying over $70 a month for my internet. This is ridiculous. I have to do it though because it will double my speed (from 512kb to 1mb) and I will go from 7,000mb of download to 12,000mb of download. Maybe I’ll be able to watch videos over the internet!

So I guess the price I pay for getting to live in the country is $70 a month in internet fees, higher gas bill because of drive time to everywhere (although I realize a lot of people that live in the burbs and work in the city also have long commutes), and having to drive 100 miles to get to the nearest mall.

Yep…100 miles to the nearest mall. I mean real mall, not a strip mall with four stores in it. That’s because the nearest city is 100 miles away. I went the day after Christmas, but before that it had been June! When I go, I make sure I hit Barnes and Noble and enjoy their Starbucks while skimming through a book or two.

I live in the country 8 miles from my hometown (pop around 2,500) and 10 miles from the town I work in (pop is about the same). For any real grocery shopping, I have to go to the nearest “big” town that’s around 20 miles away (pop 10,000); it has a super center (Wal-Mart with groceries). The town I work in has quite a bit of stuff considering the population is so small, that is because a major highway runs right through it, and they have quite a few travelers stop by because it had been so long since the travelers have gone through a town with any amenities. We have a couple of Pizza places, Blimpie, Subway, McDonalds, Sonic, and the new Taco Bell/KFC. There is a Wal-Mart there, but it is so small that it is practically useless unless you want toothpaste or toilet paper. Oh, and they recently acquired a theater with Three (count them…three) different movies playing at a time!

You should realize that small town populations are not very indicative of how many people actually consider that town their hometown. There are usually more people that live in the rural areas around a small town than actually live within the “city” limits. Only those living within the town’s limits are actually counted in the population.

These are a few of my small town blues, however, I love living in a small town, so stay tuned for a post on all the great things about living in a small town!

Not Quite Cabin Fever...Yet

I started this event list shortly after posting the last one, so around 8pm. Event may be a little bit of a descriptional stretch, but…

• My dad came by with the blade on the tractor and bladed the county road up to mine and my uncle’s houses. He also bladed our driveways. I took pictures. He had the forks on the front of the tractor and kept getting close to my car…it was a little nerve-racking.


• Still can’t manage to get on Gmail in order to retrieve my Twitter updates. I guess I’ll put them all on one post once I can get to them.

• How long does it take to freeze small cream cheese balls? I know it’s cold enough out there, but they just won’t freeze. It’s got to be as cold as the freezer out there. I don’t want to leave them out there over night because it’s supposed to snow a few inches and I don’t want the cookie sheet to get stuck to the porch (actually they’re sitting on the grill which is on the porch).

• Okay, so I decided to give up on getting the cream cheese to freeze and just rolled them in cocoa powder while they were all sticky. I put them in a tub and in the freezer (they fit now) and am going to leave them over night before dipping them in almond bark. They should be awesome.

Wednesday
• It is beautiful this morning. There is a layer of snow on everything and the sun is out. I am going to go outside and take some pictures at some point. I already took a few from my front porch.

• The backdoor is stuck again, which means I’m going to have to walk around the house and dig it out. I cleaned it of right before I went to bed, but… Unfortunately, when the back deck was built, it was built right up to the back door. There is only a drop of about two inches. To make matters worse, it is on the north-east side of the house and will have frozen precipitation on it for days, sometimes weeks after everything else has thawed out. The only sun it gets is early morning sun, which just doesn’t burn off ice/sleet/snow very fast.

• Went outside and dug out the back door. Also scraped off the car windshield. I had to use the shovel, but since the sun is sort of out, I wanted to get the windshield as clean as possible so it can start melting. Not sure that will happen since it is still spitting snow outside. I also took pictures while I was outside. I love to take winter weather pictures. I am hoping the sun will be out this afternoon. The best time to take outdoor pictures is in the afternoon/evening when the sun is at an angle.

• I’m a little concerned about what will happen when all the sleet and snow on the roof of the house comes crashing down. I don’t have awnings over the doors and when it comes crashing down, there’s always the chance of getting stuck in the house. It’s not happened yet, but it could. I’ve always been lucky in the past because only one door at a time would be blocked. Let’s hope that happens this time.

Winter Weather Pictures

I went out and took some pictures early this morning right after the sun came up over the trees. You can see the morning sun glinting off of the ice on the trees.

This is the view to the West of my house. I truly live in the middle of nowhere with acres of land all around me. It is so beautiful when it is covered in white.

Bella decided to go outside and chase birds. I'm pretty sure that she didn't catch one. The birds were hiding under my car and she headed strait for them, but they all flew out from under the car before she could get to them.

This is the view of my road. This hill is quite steep and there is a another hill that you have to go up once you hit the bottom of this one. You can see the tracks my father made when he came up to my uncle's house this morning.

This is not the best picture. I took it from inside the house, looking through the window. I just didn't feel like sitting outside for 30 minutes waiting on the birds to come back so I could take a picture of them.

No Cabin Fever Here

Like I’ve already said, I love being alone in my house with virtually nothing to do. Since I cannot get on the internet at this time to blog about what’s going on, I have decided to keep tabs of what I am doing and post it when I can…hopefully tomorrow.

• All I have had to eat today is leftover pizza, but I have a stew simmering on the stove for suppertime. I’m looking forward to it, and I love making casseroles and stews without a recipe. This one is basically sausage and potatoes. It’ll be good I’m sure. Nice and hearty.

• I spent a good part of the morning trying to blog. This did not go over well considering I have satellite internet and it was going in and out due to the storm. I’m not sure if it is the atmosphere or the ice building up on the satellite dish itself. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

• Early today I had to go out and shovel sleet off the back porch so I could open the door. The door wouldn’t even budge. I bundled all up: boots, scarf, gloves and big coat and went out and did a little scraping. Since we had a lot of sleet/freezing rain mix earlier on in the storm, I could only get the top inch or so off the porch, but it was enough to get the door open. I have had to go back a few times and re-shovel right in front of the door, but I’ve done that from the inside of the house. I also had to spend some time scraping ice and sleet off of the cat door so the cats could get in and out of the house. All’s well for now, but it is still sleeting and they are calling for 2 to 4 inches of snow on top once the sleeting stops.

• At some point in time today, I decided to get out the Roswell DVDs and re-watch the series over the next few days. There wasn’t anything good on TV and I didn’t really feel like a movie. It’s been so long since I watched Roswell that once I thought about it, I was excited to get them out and experience the series all over again. Of course this is where Katherine Heigl got her start, although I really didn’t like her character on Roswell. I had forgotten how much I loved the series (I haven’t watched it since it went off the air, even though I own the DVDs), and I forgot how hott Jason Behr was/is.

• I am currently working on some frozen cream cheese balls. Right now they are sitting outside because there’s not enough room in the freezer for them. I put them on a cookie sheet and wrapped it up in foil. It’s 25 degrees out there, so they should freeze just fine.

• I have been putting out sunflower seeds for the birds and they are loving it. Of course everything else in their world is totally frozen over, so every bird in the area is in my front lawn. This is driving Cullen crazy. He is currently sitting on the chair next to me staring out the window just itching to catch him a bird. He keeps moving around and just can’t keep still. Earlier today he fell of the arm of the chair trying to lunge for them. The birds are fun to watch. At one point I had a whole flock of black birds out there. I don’t like them because there are so many of them and they eat all the food. I also have a couple of blue jays lurking around. They are such bullies. There are quite a few cardinals and a few other birds out there. They look so cold and most have ice frozen to their tail feathers. Poor things.

• The mail lady showed up and she wasn’t even late. I was impressed. I’m thinking of putting out some of the cheesecake treats for her if they turn out well. She deserves something for having to be out there in that weather just to get me my Netflix movies (all three came in today).

• Besides the mail lady, there’s only been one guy on a tractor that drove by and then drove back about an hour later. Not sure who he was or where he was going.


The internet seems to be working now. I’m going to go ahead and post this and maybe start a new one to post tomorrow.

Ice Pictures

Poor car may be stuck in that position until the weekend.

This is the bird feeder right outside my front door. I put food out right after I took the picture. There is actually bird food under all the sleet, but I won't see that for about a week!

Since I'm finally able to post, I thought I would try to post some pictures of the ice/sleet so far. It is very overcast and so the pictures don't have much contrast, but thought some of my readers from other, more sunny, areas of the country might like to see what it is we are getting hit with in the central states.

It is still really coming down and we are under a Winter Weather Warning until noon. Every time I woke up in the middle of the night I could hear the sleet hitting the house. Luckily, it was mostly sleet (some freezing rain mixed in) and so we still have power. My internet access is sketchy at this time and I am currently having trouble getting the pictures to load. It has to do with having satellite internet, but I am working on a post where I gripe about that.

I am sure that school will be out the rest of the week. It is not supposed to warm up until Friday and over 50% of our students (and staff like me) live on county roads (county roads are in the country, but it's not a typo...they're all gravel) that are not treated with salt or anything. This means that it is impossible to have school even if the main highways are drivable.

I live on the top of a hill a mile down a county road. There will be no way that anyone will be able to get up here for awhile. Of course that means that there is no way I can get out either. I'm waiting to see if the mail lady makes it up the hill in her Toyota pickup. If she can make it, then Dad'll be able to make it up here for any possible emergencies. It's a little disconcerting to feel like you are cut of from the rest of the world.

I actually love this though...as long as the power stays on of course. Although I appear to be an extrovert on many levels (I can talk to anybody), I get my energy from being by myself. I love just being able to hang out in my house and do nothing but read, watch TV and be on the internet.

As an FYI: It has taken almost an hour to get those two pictures loaded. *gggrrrrr* My internet connection went down again. I finally decided to load a small picture of the car so it wouldn't take so long to load.

Ice Update

It was looking pretty bad at 5 0'clock. The local news was calling for 1-2 inches of ice in our area. For those of you in warmer areas, ice is a BAD thing. Ice is basically rain that freezes when it hits any and all surfaces. It does not get any worse than ice. Trust me. I used to work for the Highway Dept and would be out there in those plows, salting the roads, and ice is the worst of all frozen precipitation.

Anyway, we started out with freezing rain and had a good (this really means bad) glazing of ice on everything. Then, God answered prayers and it turned to sleet. We've been getting sleet for most of the night and I pray that it will hold out. There is quite a bit of sleet out there, but we are such better shape if we continue to get sleet.

Here's my semi-professional (5 years of Hwy Dept experience) opinion on frozen precipitations...

Not Too Bad - Dry Snow. What is dry snow you might ask? Well, first of all it is not a technical term, just a way to describe snow that blows around and doesn't really stick to anything. Dry snow usually just blows right over the road and doesn't cause many problems at all. Now a lot of dry snow will cause high snow drifts which can be bad. I've seen it drift up to a foot and there be almost nothing else around that drift. Keep in mind, we don't live in a high snowfall area.

Can Get Bad - Wet Snow. Once again, not a technical term. Wet snow is what most people think of when they think of snow. This is the stuff that makes good snowmen and snowballs. You can make snow angels and snow ice cream out of this stuff. It's fun, it's beautiful, it's often dangerous on the roadways. If people would just stay off the roads while it is snowing, the plows could scrap this off with little to no problem. However, everyone thinks they need to be somewhere during a snowfall and they pack the snow down onto the road. Wet snow can pack down to the point of almost becoming ice. Plus, when the snow starts to melt, it can re-freeze overnight and become glazed with ice. None of these are good. Melting slush on the road can pull a vehicle right into the ditch. It's dangerous until it is completely gone.

Bad, Bad, Bad - Sleet. Sleet is small pellets of ice. Once again, if people would stay off the road, it could be scraped off fairly easily, but when packed down becomes ice. The real problem with sleet is it usually comes as part of a mixture with freezing rain. It's not that often that you get just sleet. The mixture does not scrape off the roads easy. Sleet is not fun. No sleetmen or sleet angels. It's dangerous to walk on, and you might fall on your rear end.

Don't Go Outside!! - Freezing Rain. It is what it is. Rain when the temperature outside is below freezing. Let me repeat...Don't Go Outside!!! Unless it is an emergency, there is no reason to be out in this stuff. Going to the coffee shop is not an emergency, getting your mail is not an emergency, cutting off a finger is not an...well, maybe that last one is an emergency. Freezing rain means that ice collects on everything. Yes it is beautiful, but it is not something you want. Ice forms on trees and power lines. Tree limbs falls on power line, power line breaks, no more power. This happens a lot out in the country where there are miles and miles of power lines running through the woods. A quarter inch of freezing rain is more crippling to a small town (or city) than is a foot of snow...trust me. I hear people from northern parts of America making fun of people in our area (S. MO, N. AR, sometimes TX) because everything stops for a little frozen fog. Frozen fog is a glazing of ice on everything. You just cannot have control over a vehicle on that. You can drive through a foot of snow with some chains, a little extra weight and a four-wheel drive vehicle, it's just not the same with ice.

Okay, I guess I'm through dispensing my wisdom...supreme knowledge...somewhat helpful advice. Just be careful out there...no matter what frozen precipitation you may be blessed with.

Preparing For The Coming Ice Storm

I'm now hunkered down and ready for the upcoming ice storm...and it is coming. Here are some of my plans for both preparation and enjoying the time off.

1. Finish laundry while I still have power. Currently I am washing two blankets. These are the important blankets that I need for snuggling up on the chair. One is the "good" blanket. (This is what we in my family call our quilts that have flannel backs on them.) Very snuggly. The other is my everyday blanket that is cozy, but not overly warm.

2. Wash dishes. Actually, I'm going to let the dishwasher do this, but I will have to unload them at some point.

3. Keep MacBook plugged into an outlet at all times, just in case the power does go out. That way it is fully charged and I'll be able to get at least 3 hours of laptop time in.

4. Make sure to plug in my Kindle at night. The battery can last a week, but better to be safe than sorry.

5. Find and check batteries on all flashlights and lamps. Put them within easy reach, one in every room.

6. Fill some pitchers with water in case of major power outages. If I lose power, I still have water, but we could have problems if something happens at the county water supply station. I'm sure they have generators, but...Just in case.

7. Keep Blackberry charged. Must have connection with outside world!

8. Be sure to shower when possible so as to be clean for as long as possible if power goes out. I will probably shower tonight instead of waiting for the morning. Just in case.

9. Spend the next few days curled up in my chair with either my MacBook or my Kindle. This will require one of the blankets from step 1. Please note that I will be living in my Adidas pants and comfy shirts and hoodies.

10. Food: pizza that I picked up before I came home today (should last awhile), baked potatoes, possibly make some sort of stew or potato soup, plenty of sandwich stuff in case of power outage.

11. If power does go out: Put perishables in a plastic tub and stick it on the back porch, turn water faucets on to a slow drip to keep them from freezing, go across the road to aunt and uncle's house where there is a fireplace and possibly a generator when it finally gets too cold to stay in the house any longer.

Must go now. The 5 o'clock weather is on and I want to see the updates! Send up a prayer for all of us in South Missouri and Northern Arkansas!