January

January has brought us some better weather. After a blizzard, it has begun to warm up and melting the snow everywhere. I missed 3 days of church in December and the first Sunday of January due to weather. New Year's Eve was spent eating, playing games and boy was it cold. We had below zero temps and wind chills for weeks but now it is starting to warm and melt the snow. We still have February and March ahead of us. The Almanac said we would have a bitter cold winter and they were 100% right. We had a miserable November and then December was pretty good but January brought us more snow. There is still alot of winter left so who knows what that will bring.

Christmas

Had a wonderful Christmas.  Lots of family and food.  Neat gifts too and got to hold newest great granddaughter.  She is a month old and so cute.  Took 4 generation picture and many others.  Kids had a hey day opening their gifts. Adults had a great time too.  We had some rough weather in the morning but the sky turned blue and sunshine and it was really nice the rest of the day.

Sister

I had an opportunity to go to my home town for a high school class get together.  So I went and visited my sister too.  I helped her with her computer.  I love her dog and her dog was so happy to see me.  We had tea after the luncheon.  It was a good day all around.  The weather has been wonderful this Fall.

Much Rain

We are really getting the rain now. Almost every day it rains but we need it. There is a half inch in the rain gauge right not. It is supposed to shower off and on all afternoon. Also more rain expected tonight. However, we are very fortunate that we aren't in the southern states as Oklahoma and Missouri really got it again. We need rain but not storms.

Rain at Last

We are getting some much needed rain. It was mostly like a mist most of the day but then it began to rain. Just a good soaking rain. We really need it bad. It always seems to go around us. South of us they were getting all kinds of rain and they said our air was so dry here, it just wasn't hitting the ground. The Mums are just beginning to bloom good. Guess we are to get some 70's this week instead of 50's and 60's.

Nice Weather

We are finally getting a break in the very extremely hot weather. It was in the 70's yesterday with a brisk wind. Today it is 74 and the wind has let up. Therefore, it is quite a bit warmer feeling but still nice. It is great to have the windows open and let fresh air. It is the first time in weeks that we have been able to do that. It has its good points and bad points because if you have allergies, the allergy ratings are high. So opening the window lets in more pollen. However, it sure is nice sleeping at night in the 50's with the windows open and cool enough for a light blanket.

Mexican Night

It has been terrible weather here. We have snow all the tie it seems. The roads are icy or snowy most of the time but today things are melted off. We still have plenty of snow but we can finally get out on the road and go somewhere safely. Tonight we are going out for a Mexican supper. I sure will enjoy not having to cook for a change. It has been a long winter and we haven't been able to go out to eat much at all. I can hardly wait.

Mexican Meal

We went out tonight for a Mexican Meal. My husband had been home for quite a few days and we stayed home due to RAGBRAI going through out town. They had blocked off all the streets we needed to go on to get uptown. So we took off with a few sprinkles coming down and when we came out of the restaurant it was still just lightly sprinkling. We had some great tacos and enchilada. They have a special Tex Mex Night and we really enjoy it.

Weather Changes

My husband mowed the lawn even though it was quite wet. If he waited till this afternoon it would be too hot for him to mow. I took the clippers and clipped where ever he couldn't get with the mower. We have a bank behind the house where weeds grow quite tall and clipped them all off too. We used to have a cottonwood tree and there are gobs of little cottonwood trees growing in the flower bed. I pulled as many as I could but it gets to you in the heat standing on your head pulling little trees and weeds. It is supposed to get very hot and then thunderstorm overnight into tomorrow. We have to travel about 25 miles from home tomorrow so hope we do not get any hail with the rain.

Waterproofing the Deck

It is that time of year again. Time to get out the waterproofing stuff and spray the deck. This will help preserve the wood from the weather. My husband does this every year. Our deck is getting pretty old so we need to take good care of it. I had to sweep all the little seeds off it first that came from the big tree nearby. The sun dries it quickly and the wood absorbs it quite fast. You can tell it does the job because when it rains, the water bubbles on top of the wood.

Stormy Weather

We have really had the bad weather all around us. They had straight line winds right down Highway 3 and they said they didn't think that there was one farm that didn't have some sort of damage for many miles. Clarion was flooded as never before with 4" of rain all at once and all 4" in their basements. Coulter was nearly destroyed by straight line winds. Practically all the trees down and homes wrecked. Hampton had 6" of rain all at once and basements flooded and roads. Many country roads were just plain washed out. Tonight they are predicting more severe storms overnight into tomorrow.

Weather

No kidding when they say if you don't like the weather here, just wait a day. It went from boiling hot to almost chilly. I wore a jacket to the garage this morning to get the car serviced. Had to pick up some groceries but by then it had warmed enough to leave the jacket in the car. Why is it we are always on the verge of being out of milk? We ought to have a cow for as much milk as we drink. It goes fast though if you use it in pudding or cappiccino but it is soooo good. Well better get busy and start lining up supper. Picked up a couple ears of sweet corn but doubt it is very good yet as it has to be flown in from across the country

Basketball Tournaments and Snow

It seems every time the basketball tournaments come around in March, so does the snow. The weather gal is predicting rain mixed with snow and the weather man said it might be measurable. He said not to put away the shovel just yet. We just got rid of tons of snow with some light rain and sunshine and it is so nice to see green grass and just plain grass instead of huge snow banks. It is cloudy today with some showers but we are to get a little more sunshine before we get more snow. We saw a Robin Sunday and there is a saying that it has to snow on the back of the Robin 7 times before it is over. I sure hope they are very wrong about that but it seems to happen every year.

Snow Blower

It is that time again. My husband got out the snow blower. He had been wanting to get it started and it snowed overnight so this was his chance. He blew out the snow out of the drive, even though the landlord always does it for us. I think he just enjoyed being outside as it was really rather mild weather. Soon the snow stopped and the sun came out and melted it all off all the driveways. But now it is snowing and blowing too. Looks like it might just be a heavy flurry though.

Is Summer Almost Over?

We have had the strangest weather all year so far. June was fairly hot whereas it is cool most of the time. July has been both hot and cool but mostly cool and rainy, whereas it is usually very hot and dry. We are wondering what August is going to bring as we really haven't had a normal summer as yet.

Tonight it is to get down to 49 degrees and that is not growing weather for the corn and beans. They need lots of sunshine and heat. If you stand in the sun, you get hot and sunburned but if you are in a breeze and in the shade, you nearly need a jacket and often do need a jacket. We have taken jackets at night whenever we go out. I wonder if we will have a cold, wet fall too. Time will tell.

Weather Report

It is perfect weather here today. We have beautiful blue skies with little white clouds floating by. The wind is blowing from the northwest which makes it cooler and no humidity. We have all the windows open for the first time in weeks and airing out the house. Getting the humidity out of the house too.

Weather or Not

We have three weather men and women with degrees on our local station and they are quite proud of the job they do. However, they really missed it this weekend. They said we would get anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snow and I don't think we even got an inch. Not that we are complaining, mind you. We are very happy it missed us. We got just enough on the ground to cover it for a few hours and then it all melted away. That is one happy thing about snow in April and Spring.

Snowfall

First we had pouring rain this morning and there are big lakes in the fields already. The ground is frozen so it can't soak in. Now we have snow flakes the size of nickels and the ground is getting white in no time already. At least at this time of the year it will melt away much faster at the first sign of sunshine. It is a very gray day today.

We got to church and had a special service and sure glad it held off till we got home. We drive about 10 miles and if the rain had frozen, the roads would have been treacherous. Only about 13 more days till the first day of Spring.

Time for a New Battery

Our car battery is 8 years old and is 2 years past it's guarantee and it still starts great in this below zero weather. But with the new batteries, like this one, they can just die on you at any moment. So tomorrow we will be going in to get a new 6 year guaranteed battery to be sure we are safe for the winter. It has a 2 year free replacement too if anything goes wrong the first two years. I think that is a good warranty.

We will have it done here in our home town where we know the people who work on our cars and we can trust them to advise us on what is best for us to buy. We have had an account with them for 38 years now and bought a new set of tires last winter from them and they are very good tires. Everything on our car has really lasted so we know it is a good quality car and we are glad we bought it when we did.

What a Beautiful Day Today

It was just a beautiful day today after a day of cold temperatures, clouds and high winds yesterday. It didn't take long to freeze your fingers yesterday and they were telling parents to bundle up the kids in case of frostbite. But today the wind stopped. The sun came out all day and it warmed up some even though we are below normal. Nights are very cold. This morning I think it was 4 degrees. We were able to get out and pick up my husband's new lens for his glasses, gas up the car for $1.72 a gallon, do some shopping at Wal-Mart and pick up dog food at Petco for Holly. I left my gloves in the car most of the time and it was really nice not to have to keep track of them while shopping. We need more days like this before the real winter weather sets in with snow.