17 up here, Jim. Not really shorts weather with a 2 degree wind chill.

 

Good morning guys.

Can't tell yet, if it will actually be sunny today. It was sunny yesterday till about an hour before dark and some clouds rolled in. Not bad in front of the house or the shed. Sat on the shed porch bench for awhile visiting with the boys. The weather mentions rain/snow mix most of the day tomorrow and then cold sunny days next week. Cold being low 30's to mid .40's near the end of the week.

George, I don't mind not having to go outside when the chill factor is 2 degrees.

Went to the basketball games yesterday. The JV team won but it was a tough game for them. The varsity team won by a few more points but it was a much tougher game. Another game where the opposing team was just taller/bigger. I'm sure they were pretty frustrated though. Far too many times they'd take 4 or 5 shots and quite often lose that last rebound to our team who'd take it down the court and score. Looks like both the JV and Varsity teams will be going to the state finals/tournaments.

Only a couple things on the calendar for next week. Duke's vet appt. to get that growth and part of his tail removed and I've got an appt. for another echo cardiogram followed by an appt. with the heart doctor afterwards. Just a monitoring follow up. I don't think I've had any issues since the last time, or the double ablation last summer.

Have a great day. Heck, have a great weekend.

 

Sensational Saturday Virginia, Jim, George, Evan and all the crew. Turning out to be a decent day in my woods at 39° and nothing white in sight.
I hope everyone didn't Party too late last night. I was in bed at 2230 alone and unconscious shortly thereafter.

Jim, have a great day, I have little to do after doing the couple of Honey Do this weekend. I have been home with my Honey Thursday and until this afternoon and then back to Mom's. It will most likely be 2 months before I get to spend another weekend with Wifey!

George, yes I was a good boy this weekend at home!

 

Good morning guys.

Raining right now. Temps in the high 30's. Still predicted to get a dusting to 1' of accumulation here by this afternoon. One to two inches north east of here. Then clear up and warm up a little each day towards the end of the week.

Got part of the family together yesterday for dinner. Our youngest son, his wife and her son came over and my mother and sister in law contributed and attended. Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and fresh made biscuits made a pretty darned good meal. Then we had banana pudding for the dessert. Good meal and nice to have family here to enjoy it.

Rod, I'd find it tough to be away from home that long. Hope you get to make some visits.

Have a great day.

 

Good morning guys.

Dark and cold here. Twenty one degrees I see on my laptop app. Supposed to be sunny and up to the low 40's today. A warm up and back to the low 20's in the mornings by the end of the week. Forecast. A longer way to spell/say "guess." Snowed pretty hard here yesterday afternoon as the temps kept dropping and turned the rain into the frozen stuff. Last night, before going to bed I looked out the front door (with the front porch light on) and there was no snow on the porch, the sidewalk or driveway. They did put out a black ice warning for the roads this morning. Heard there was a pile up/accident on I64 in Henrico County (snuggles up to Richmond on the east, north and west sides.)

Found out, yesterday, the left overs from Saturday's dinner were given away already. No problem getting someone to take mawmaw's green beans, mashed potatoes and meat loaf. I did see three left over biscuits in the fridge. We had a turkey club sandwiches and chips for dinner yesterday.

Have a great day. Hope the cold/snow where you are doesn't get too bad.

 

About 17 up here, Jim. At best there isn't any snow. Glad we got some outside work done Saturday when it was warm.

 

Good morning guys.

Looks like it's going to be sunny this morning. Some of the forecasts are saying we could get 12 to 16 inches of snow, or more Saturday and Sunday. This place will be shut down for a few days following something like that. Local news says 60% chance of snow both days. Cold temps for both days and those that follow. I keep waiting on my wife to say she needs to go grocery shopping. I can weather the snow just fine. I sure hope we don't lose power. I don't think the F250 will worry one bit about 18 to 20" of snow. Between the weight, the 4WD and the tires it should go pretty good as long as someone else isn't blocking the road. It hasn't seen more than 3 or 4" of snow a couple times on weekend trips home. We'll find out if the weather people know their stuff or they're just building up the fear. Down here, if they holler snow, the grocery stores get mobbed and all the bread, milk, etc. is gone off the shelves. I'd say a lot of it ends up in the trash a week later. Like generators. The power goes out, the Lowes, Home Depot and everywhere else sell out of generators. In 3 or 4 months used generators are for sale big time on all the local bulletin boards and people trying to sell stuff formats. Then it repeats in a year or two when the power goes out again.

Got the wiper put on the rear window of my sister in law's Santa Fe yesterday. The easiest simplest thing I've done on it. Took almost as much time to get it out of the box and unwrapped as it did to get the old one off and the new one on.

George, I agree about the shorts weather being a ways off. Reminded me of a couple guys who used to work at the plant. Both wore t shirts, shorts and sandals into the plant from the parking lot every day/night they walked in/out. Didn't matter if there was ice/snow on the sidewalks/road, they didn't seem to notice. One was a former Marine. One was from WV a few miles from home.

Have a great day.

 

10 degrees and sunny to start the day up here. Snow maybe later. Want to do some more moving stuff to the shed. But, probably not.

 

Tasty Taco Tuesday Virginia, Jim, Evan, George and all the crew.
9° to start the morning and nor 21° and bright sun. The sun isn't warm enough to offset the Cold wind we are having. They have my woods under a NWS Wind Chill advisory!
I am hoping more people will eat more Tacos and increase the Putaine production which will increase the "Green House Gas" and promote global warming. the winter will be far milder if at all. I don't see a down side to global warming at this point!

 

Rod, do you mean that I should stop poking the beans with a toothpick, to let the gas out?

 

Good morning guys.

Appears to be starting off clear/sunny this morning. The weather lady agrees and predicts a high of around 44 to 45 degrees this afternoon. I'm hearing freezing rain/sleet at the end of the snow storm Sunday evening. Hmm. Gonna have to warm up to do that.

Looked out back this morning at daylight. Eighteen degrees. Lucky's laying in the grass on guard duty, Duke is sound asleep on the doghouse porch and Bear must be in a doghouse. Every time I feel a little bit of worry about the boys and temps they show off by flopping down out in the cold and sleeping. They don't even snuggle up together.

No plans for today. My wife went to the grocery store twice yesterday. Not sure if she'll "need" to go to the grocery story again today or tomorrow or Friday. Tomorrow will be "tight" due to Duke's drop off and pick up for the tail surgery and my two appts. just after lunch. The snow isn't supposed to start till about 6 PM Saturday but the stores will be a mad house for a couple days prior to the storm.

Have a great day.

 

Morning, Jim. I'm glad my wife is not the only one that seems to be doing constant shopping.
A new coffee machine is to be delivered today.

 

Good morning guys.

Warmer this morning. Forty one degrees by the info on the heat pump display and the internet weather (local). Supposed to be sunny and up to around 55 degrees this afternoon. Who knows how much we can get from the storm. MSN weather says almost 19". Weather Underground says 9 inches. I'm sure it'll change more as the storm gets closer. Local TV weather says snow Saturday night followed by rain/freezing rain Sunday. Not sure of the accumulation of either but mentioning how bad the freezing rain/ice could be on the power lines/roads, trees, etc.

Got my wife up a little early this morning. Need to be coffee'd up and awake so we can get Duke to the vet. around 730 this morning. He's not going to be happy. It took some time/effort to get him into the new pen by himself yesterday. He did not want to leave his buddies. Not much trouble getting them into the old pen but I had to sort of catch Duke and grab him by the collar and pull him through the gate into the new pen. He didn't even want his biscuit. He paced for awhile and barked for a bit. This morning he's curled up on the porch rug right in front of the shed door. We'll be able to pick him up later this afternoon and he's got a couple of days/nights to stay in the new pen by himself so there's no chasing/wrestling fun that ends up with his bandages behind torn loose.

After the drop off I need to pull the generator out and fire it up for 15 or 20 minutes and then get it over to the house and get the little cover assembled around it to protect it from the snow/freezing rain. I've got 5 or 6 five gallon gas cans in the shed and one more at the garage. That should be a couple/three days of gas.

Had (still having) problems with the gas fireplace. Lights up fine, runs for a bit and shuts off with no relight (pilot light goes out when it shuts off). You tube vids. mostly say it's a dirty thermocouple/pilot light orifice issue. Cleaned them up yesterday morning when this started and that didn't fix it. Seems to be worse. Went from a sometimes thing to an every time you light it up thing. Got a new "module" on order and should be here today. This one has a set up were the pilot light, igniter and thermocouple (safety thermocouple) are all mounted in the same bracket. So all that will be new (hopefully sometime later today once I get it and install it.) Two mounting bolts, one wire, the pilot light threads to the pilot light line and the thermocouple plug/cap that screws into the valve. Looks like a 10MM socket/ratchet and a couple small wrenches. We'll see. We've got three small electric heaters we can run when the generator is running (hopefully the power won't go out and we won't need to even plug them in.) No plans to run the electric heaters off the battery back up as they'll eat up the batteries darn quick and then we won't have lights, microwave, refrigerators and TV. Figured out how to run the internet off the cell phones a couple months back. As long as we've got cellphone service we'll have internet. If not we've got an old entertainment center full of DVDs.

Have a great day. Get ready for the storm as needed.

 

Stay safe Jim. Have to check with our daughter in NC and grand daughter in Roanoke later to see how they are doing.

 

Good morning guys.

Cloudy this morning. Still supposed to get up to around 50 today, the man says. The snow prediction has dropped drastically. Channel 12 is saying it could be as low as 3" around there but with 5 or 6 possible. The amount of freezing rain/ice accumulation has increased. Up to around 1" of ice is possible they say. We'll see.

Duke is home and still not happy. He refused to sleep on the porch of the shed last night. He curled up out in the grass about half way between the shed and the fence between the new and old sides of the pen. He's on a couple kinds of pain meds. I'm going to have to let him back into the old pen so he can get in a doghouse over the next week and especially this weekend (snow/ice/cold). He really was glad to see us when we got there around 330 PM. I tried that collar thing on him. He about lost it. He kept banging his head on stuff, he tried to pull it off but couldn't, then he finally stopped out in the pen, dropped his head down and started shaking/quivering and breathing real fast. He wouldn't even look at me when I called his name and I got up and took it off him. He was okay after that. He looked at his stub, licked it a time or two and then came back to the bench for more chin rubs/ear rubs. I need to head outside and give him his next dosage of pain meds buried in vienna sausages. Funny event - After I put the big collar on Duke he headed towards the fence at the old dog pen. Bear looked at him and then turned to run to the doghouse. He went inside, came out half way and just watched Duke. Something about that cone thing on Duke's head scared him.

Got some preps to do today/tomorrow. Got that new assembly in for the gas fireplace. I need to install that today and see if the fireplace will run like it should.

Have a great day guys.