Bogieblog

Weird Snow Season

This year the weather pattern has not been quite what one usually expects. It seems as if every time we get snow, either right behind it, or shortly after we get a massive rain and a day of mid 40 to mid 50 temps. That works great for keeping the snow drifts down but that water has nowhere to go. And then right after the rains, we get single digits that freezes everything in place. So, as it was most of last summer, the house is surrounded by water - or frozen streams and ponds in this case.

It is hard to tell, but the pipe on the other side of the fence is still frozen so the melt water doesn't make it to the drain by the street. There is a small catch basin back there that has overflowed. So the water has spread all the way up to the raised beds. and pallets

Although it doesn't look it in this picture, the area by the swamp is an ice arena. It goes all the way from the new maple tree on the left (trunk is wrapped in a blue label), up the slope to the stalks from day lilies and all the way to the corner of the fence. The ice has to be a good 6-8" thick (or more).

The garage has flooded a couple of times, but no worse than spring time. However, I do have to remember to install the diversion pipe for the sump pump before the rain hits, but remove it before it gets frozen into place.

Each year the challenge is different and at least we haven't been getting some of the nastier weather that has hit the Midwest, so I'll survive.

Survived Snowmaggedon

Forecast was for up to 2', got about 10". Just got in from snow blowing. However, it has started dropping sleet. Hopefully the 1/2" of snow left from the "shoes" on the snowblower (for blowing on dirt) will soak it up. If not, I got 3 buckets of sand from the dump yesterday. Those, along with the bucket I already have should take care of slick areas.

On another note, one of the kittens managed to do irreparable damage first thing this morning (I don't know which one since all I saw was a flash of gray streaking by the office door right after the crash) . She knocked one of the door/mirrors off the repurposed medicine cabinet I have been using for essential oils. That cabinet is sitting on a counter in the craft room but that particular door lost its hinges so was just leaned up against it. Guess it doesn't matter that I couldn't find replacement hinges anymore.

So, at 6 am I was picking up pieces of broken mirror, then vacuuming the daylights out of that rug. I also taped up the rest of the glass so it wouldn't drop any more shards between now and when I can take it to the dump next weekend.

Hopefully I got all the glass since I am always barefoot in the house, and I would really prefer that a cat paw not get "bitten".

Low Mileage

I bought the car on 12/22/18 with 27 miles on it - and I have yet to put any gas in it. Although it is averaging 30 MPG so far (still the break in period, so expect it to go up), there are other reasons it hasn't needed gas yet.

I didn't really go anywhere during plant shut down so it was just short trips thru town in which I actually intentionally took the long way around (the Hillsboro bypass), just to give it time to get warmed up. I drove it 2 out of the 3 days that I worked at my old job the first week of January, so there was another 120 miles. But last week, starting my new job with the 100 mile days, I drove the truck every day because it snowed/iced every day.

The 20 day plates expired this past Thursday so I got the plates transferred and the new car registered on Friday. It is now good to go until 2020 - except it still needs to get inspected in April this year.

When I got in the car this morning to go to the Winter Storage Party, it had about 209 miles. Even after driving to Concord, then going to W*lm*rt after the Storage Party, it still has less than 300 miles on it. According to the forecasts, it looks like I should get 2-4 days of driving the car to work next week. If the same holds true for the week after, there is the potential that I could hit the 1,000 mile mark in two more weeks.

Winter Storage Party 2019

Spent today at the Winter Storage Party that the dealer holds every year for those that (duh) store their bikes there for the winter. My bike was on the ground near the entrance between the service shop and bike storage because it is getting new brakes while it is in there.

A shot of her with a dozen or so of her closest friends - LOL

This was one of the rare years I didn't win any of the door prizes. But there was free food and about 10 HOG Chapter members there to socialize with, so I had a great time. Managed to leave without spending any extra money (over storage and brake job charges) too.

First Pictures of Kittens 2019

On the first day of the new year I was on my desktop computer, sitting Indian style on my chair, when Spot came up an laid right behind my butt. As my legs started going to sleep, I unfolded them and scooted up a bit on the chair. Which Spot took full advantage of. I leaned forward to get something at the front of the desk and actually slid off the chair. When I tried to scoot back up there, there was a cat in my way. As I turned around to pick up Spot and put her in my lap, I understood why the chair had seemed so crowded.

Yeah, Spot was still curled up next to where I had been sitting, but Rainey had slid in behind :).