March 18, 2012



Off to clean the solar panels early
Saturday morning




Mountains nestled in the clouds

















Friday morning at 9:00, just after JB left for Down There, a blizzard moved in.  It only lasted about 40 minutes and then we had sunshine the rest of the day.  It is fascinating to watch all the different forms of precipitation Up Here and how quickly they change back and forth.  I never really had or took the opportunity to sit and watch the weather before retiring.  Of course we never lived up in the mountains before either.  Big flakes, little flakes, teeny-tiny flakes.  Sleet, hail.  Floating, pouring, pounding.  And the light flakes start floating upward when they come close to the house.  They bounce around in front of the windows as if looking for a way in.  I am amazed that anyone can accurately forecast the weather (and they usually can't).  Or even come close, with all the little nuances present.  It's like "they" say, "If a butterfly flaps its wings in China, it can change the weather in North America."

We could hear the avalanche control "cannons" going off most of Friday morning and again yesterday afternoon.  Jesse does NOT like the sound, even though it is so far off.  He stays inside the house when they are doing that.  Anything that even remotely sounds like a gun freaks him out.

We woke up to another 3-/12" of snow yesterday morning, but it was sunny most of the afternoon.  Which is a good thing because we were working with our new water pump outside.  We read the directions several times and tried to get it to pump several times, but to no avail.  Of course when we finally decided to call the company for help, it was 2:00 pm our time and they close at 2:00 pm eastern time.  At that point I just wanted to scream!!  Now we have to wait til Monday morning and we still have 1"-2" standing water under most of our house. 

Fortunately JB and I had made our first gluten free angel food cake yesterday morning.  Actually our first angel food cake of any kind.  And, except for a few air holes, it turned out perfectly and was all cooled down and ready to eat when we were done dealing with the pump.  Angel food is always a good thing to help change your attitude. . .  We got the recipe from the King Arthur's Flour catalogue, as they now have gluten free flour also.  All their products are a bit pricey though, so for the 3/4 cup flour called for we just filled the measuring cup with 1/2 Bob's Red Mill All Purpose flour and 1/2 white rice flour.  It was the perfect recipe for all our extra eggs.

I still don't have a bucket in which to make the laundry soap, but I am using white vinegar in the rinse cycle instead of softener.  It's wonderful and it gets rid of any scent from the soap.  It just smells fresh, even when hung inside to dry.

After posting the photo of the coyote, my Aunt Nene told me that my Grandpa used to trap coyotes for the $5 bounty.  Once he even brought a live one home!  But when Nene went out to feed it once, it had somehow hung itself.  Don't know if I mentioned it before, but he had also brought home a bear cub he found one time.  They had that "pet" for quite a while until it scratched Nene's sister, my Aunt Ginny, when she went to feed it one day.  After that Grandma insisted that Grandpa get rid of it.  Nene now wonders how she ever made it to 86!

And speaking of Aunt Nene and bears, we received a package from her on Friday.  Remember the Chicken Poop she gave to Elsie and me?  (Actually jelly beans.)  Well, she sent JB and me some Bear Poop (chocolate covered peanuts)!  Again, she found them at Walgreens.  JB said we should be sending her bear poop, with all that we have around here in the Spring and Summer!

Thought for the day:  The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.  William James  (Doubt that his was the first generation to discover that, but certainly is true.)