March 28, 2014 Our Own Weather Station

Wild Rose attaching the weather station
to the pole outside.

Our weather station!

Wednesday 3/26. We finally installed our weather station outside that our son had given us for Christmas.  JB wanted to put it on a really tall pole, so we attached one to the northeast corner of the woodshed pen.  I'm sure he wanted it that high because he knew the smallest and lightest of the two of us would have to climb the ladder to install it.  And I did (see photo above.)  I didn't even breathe, let alone move, while JB was taking that picture and not holding the ladder for me.  It will take two weeks for the forecasting part of it to work correctly, but everything else seems to be doing great.

By the time we were done, it was too late to bake cookies, but I did bake corn bread to go with our chili dinner.  So nice to have an oven again!  And it feels so good to have fixed it ourselves.

JB is going Down There tomorrow to fill our gas cans and run a couple errands, including mailing a birthday card to our Granddaughter who turns seven next week.

After dinner we watched a couple episodes of season four of True Blood.  I think when we finish this season and the one of Vampire Diaries, I'll be done with vampires.  However, I doubt that I will ever tire of zombies and The Walking Dead.

And speaking of eerie, with so much of our snow having melted, the nights are much darker now, especially the moonless ones.

Thursday 3/27. The morning began partly cloudy and 33 (26 on the porch).  I figured the weather station would record warmer temperatures than the gauge on the porch.  The sun doesn't hit the porch much and I'm sure the cold reflects off the metal side of the house.  But what I really like is to be able measure the wind.  Larry says we will probably scare ourselves knowing how strong it is.  We set an alarm for when it hits 70 mph.  If that alarm ever goes off, I am heading straight for the trap door and sliding underneath the house!

JB got about a half and hour later start than he wanted as Jesse was on a long after-breakfast jaunt.  We have to have both dogs in the house or they will follow him.

The sun disappeared behind clouds around noon while I was baking cookies.  Lots of cookies.  JB arrived back home at about 1:30 pm, and as soon as we unloaded everything and JB got into the house, the wind blew in a half-hour snow "storm."  Then it blew the clouds away and we had a sunny rest of the afternoon.

Our weather station can tell us just about everything that is going on outside and keep a history of it.  Our strongest wind gust for the day was 16 mph, and we received .01" of precipitation.  The high temperature for the day was 49 (42 on the porch).

I want to go Down There next Tuesday for some groceries.  JB was surprised that I want to go down so early in the year, but I'm ready.  The road is ready.  And Miss Kitty is ready and able.

Friday 3/28. It was 33 and snowing when we got up.  Small, wet flakes.  And it looks like it's been at it for a while as the ground is already turning white.  NOAA is has a winter storm warning through tomorrow morning for elevations over 3000'.  That would be us. . .

Thought for the day: Almost half of the people over 40 believe they look younger than they are.  This says something important about older Americans: We have terrible eyesight! Dave Barry