How Wrong Was That?

When I signed off yesterday evening, the dreaded 85 mph winds had not arrived, in fact in was eerily quiet, and I went to sleep expecting them to come up in the night.  Woke up this morning, still no wind and I could tell from the nacreous light coming through the curtains that we'd had snow.  NOAA had said we might get one to two inches.  This was the view from my front door at about 8:30 a.m.:

It snowed lightly all morning, not adding much to the total, then quit, but it started again about 4 p.m and is falling steadily and straight down like rain.  NOAA says maybe 3 inches today with another .5 tonight.  I don't know when NOAA's day ends and night begins, but I'd say they are going to be wrong again.

I did determine, when I read the Denver and Boulder papers on line this morning that those high winds were wreaking havoc at lower elevations all day yesterday or at least yesterday afternoon--18,000 Xcel customers without power and trees uprooted by 93 mph winds, according to the Boulder Camera.

The denverpost.com shows Denver receiving 3.6 inches of snow and Nederland 4.5 inches.  I measured 7 inches this morning on my deck railing.  Eldora Mountain Resort is reporting 12 inches of new snow.  I heard them setting off charges this morning.  I think I counted seven or eight to head off avalanches.  On February 17, 2012, denverpost.com said "Colorado avalanche danger worst in 30 years..."  I believe six people, most expert skiers from what I can determine from the news coverage, have been killed in Colorado avalanches this winter.  This is attributed, in this same denverpost.com article, to "...abundant snowfall...piled atop a very weak foundation.  High winds have built slabs on the older layers, which have created an unstable snowpack."

When we got that really big snow back at the beginning of February, the ski area had to turn skiers away because they couldn't accommodate any more cars in the parking lot.  I expect this weekend is going to be crazy in Nederland.  I'll try not to have a reason to go down there.


Big black dog is loving it and his skillet.  I feed him when his owners come home from work and let him out and then wait 'til he's back inside to put out food for the fox.  With this much snow on the ground I'd think most of the voles and other fox food would be hard to come by.

I have to be dug out and on my way to Boulder tomorrow by 11 a.m. Have to stop at the library, drop off one book and pick up two others they are holding for me then on to a hair appointment.  I'll be advising my hair dresser that I'm going to start letting my hair grow with an eye on the budget so we'll see what she comes up with to get me through the awful stages other than a hat.  After the hair cut it's on to do laundry.  What have you got planned for your Friday?  Teddee

Dixie's All-Day Sucker

The dog of another resident in the village likes to visit me while her owner is tending her shop in Nederland.  Dixie is eleven years old and has spent ten of those years with three legs.  Her owner tells me she was caught in a trap when she was one and spent seven days on the mountain to the north of the village worrying her leg out of the trap, which apparently was considered to be a more humane model because it didn't have teeth. There was snow on the ground, which she apparently ate to keep hydrated, and she eventually made her way home, but her right hind leg had to be amputated.  Dixie is an Australian cattle dog and I'm told that when she was young, even with three legs, the snowplow driver clocked her at 27 mph.  But the wear and tear on her remaining limbs has left her more content to sleep in the warmth of my cabin...and although I've been admonished not to feed her, she does enjoy her all-day sucker.  I figure a dog who's still allowed to run loose after she's lost a leg in a trap is being exposed to much more harm than what she might suffer from this practice.

If I have sauteed meat in one of my iron skillets the night before, Dixie gets all those wonderful drippings that I'd love to make gravy with, but never do.  She can spend thirty or forty minutes licking the skillet and only quits, I think, when her tongue gets sore.  Later, after her nap on the bunk, where I've lifted her and turned the electric blanket to low, she'll return, finding continued enjoyment in the corners of what appears to be a perfectly clean skillet.  Yes, yes, I wash it afterward...with anti-bacterial soap...even though I know iron skillet purists would frown on that.

So, if you come to my house and I cook anything in one of my iron skillets for your dining pleasure, you'll be eating from the dog's dish!  I hope you enjoy it as much as Dixie.  What's your favorite all-day sucker?  Teddee