Snow Harvest

We had snow yesterday and it started about ten minutes before NOAA's prediction of  1 p.m.  Those folks are pretty amazing.  Thankfully, they got the wind speeds wrong for last night, so we had sub-zero temps, but little wind.  It was about 0 degrees F on my thermometer at 8 a.m. this morning and about 38 degrees F inside the cabin with two space heaters running all night.  It took me about five hours to get the cabin comfortably warm with the help of the wood stove and solar power (the sun is really bright today and anything left in the sunshine coming through the south window is toasty warm to the touch).  Here's what's coming: 

Today: Sunny, with a high near 20. Wind chill values as low as -17. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 21 and 24 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph.

Tonight: Areas of blowing snow and a slight chance of snow after 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 5. Wind chill values as low as -16. Windy, with a west wind 30 to 33 mph increasing to between 43 and 46 mph. Winds could gust as high as 75 mph. Chance of precipitation is 10%.

Wednesday: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow. Mostly sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values as low as -15. Windy, with a west wind between 50 and 60 mph, with gusts as high as 95 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Wednesday Night: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. Wind chill values as low as -5. Windy, with a west wind between 45 and 50 mph, with gusts as high as 80 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Thursday: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow. Partly sunny, with a high near 35. Windy, with a west wind 31 to 34 mph decreasing to between 16 and 19 mph. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Hope we don't lose our electricity tomorrow night if those 95 mph winds actually come to pass.  I need my electric blanket.

I needed to go to the spring today for water, but opted instead to harvest snow for washing dishes, shampooing and general clean-up.

This made about enough to do dishes so I need to collect some more.  

Well, I started this post this morning and here it is evening.  In the meantime I unloaded an old steamer trunk I had purchased summer before last of junky dishes and pots and pans that had served the family during summer vacations but which, honestly, I wouldn't even donate and had replaced.  Everything has been boxed up so my sister can decide whether it has sentimental value or can go to the dump.  I replaced that junk with my "junque," so cleared the decks in this one room a little to accommodate an electrician coming tomorrow to check out one plug-in that's not working and determine why my multi-breaker keeps flipping off out of a clear blue without my changing anything that's pulling power.  No doubt I'm taxing the system, but I already know I can't use the microwave and have either of the space heaters on and this will often happen after everything that's on has been on for several hours and happily working away.  I hope it's not something expensive.  It seems to me this has gotten worse since some really high winds we had before Thanksgiving and with those 95 mph winds being predicted for tomorrow night, I decided it was time to take action.  Is there something you've been putting off that you're addressing in the first month of the new year?