How do You Spell Blizzard?

The blizzard has started in earnest. It has been lightly snowing since last night but about an house ago the snow got serious. I can't believe that I still see neighbors going up and down the street. I'm believing that soon everyone will be safely inside their homes and off the road.



Here in the American midwest we are certainly accustomed to large amounts of snow but there are events that combine to make horribly dangerous conditions. One is wind and one is ice. Luckily it seems we will be spared the ice but the wind is already picking up to dangerous levels. What happens is the wind blows the snow across the open fields and dumps it on the roads in incredible amounts. A road can drift shut within 5 minutes of a snowplow passing through. It happened to me a couple of weeks ago in conditions not nearly as severe as today's.

The other problem is that ice and heavy snow can bring down the power lines. I can tell you from experience how cold the house can get just an hour after the power is lost. Very, very cold. That's exactly why we installed a natural gas powered generator a year ago. We can't have a 90 year woman in an unheated house that's dipped to less than 30 degrees. Water pipes freeze, things get ruined and it's not a pretty sight.

The generator is a large unit that sits on the side of house, next to the air conditioner. It's hooked up to the natural gas power line and has it's own large eletrical panel in the basement. When the power cuts off, the generator is signaled, the gas starts flowing, the engine starts and all the electric switches to that panel. It's large enough to run just about everything in the house although, not wanting to tax the system we turn all unessentials off allowing easy operation of the furnace and refrigerator. They aren't cheap but neither is the damage that can be done by loss of power.

Having said that, the Other Mother is the ONLY one in the house that hasn't caught this terrible upper respiratory mess that's going around. It knocks the life outta you. Luckily, our son is on the other side and he can be in charge of trying to keep up with the snowplowing.

We've got plenty of food, some wood for the fireplace and some brandy to keep us warm. For those of you in other parts of the country that are in the path of this storm - BE SAFE!!! An extra gallon of milk is not worth risking your life.

For those of you who won't been affected by this storm (YOU know who you are!!), stayed tuned. I'll be giving you a blow-by-blow account and maybe some video too.

Check back frequently because I've got some interesting storm stories, including my experience through Chicago's worst ever snowstorm in recorded history.....1967 style.

Midwest Meterological Wonderment

How's that for a blog title?

Unlike other parts of the country we've had plenty of snow this year. Enough that the village snowplow took out our mailbox on Christmas!

Yesterday I showed you a case of whiteout. There have been many instances of that this year. We've also had lots of hoarfrost which is unusual because normally we only see one or two a year. It seems to be a daily occurrence here lately.

I'm sure if you search the term on a search engine you'd come up with a scientific explanation of how it's formed. But in the case of hoarfrost, I don't care. Sometimes knowning all the details just spoils the magic. You know what I mean?

And you can be assured that hoarfost is magic.


The view from my sewing room window last winter.

It creates a fairy wonderland in white. There are some benefits to living in a cold climate. Some of you may not believe that but it's true. Last week when I was driving out to visit my mom, the entire countryside appeared as if the sky had opened up and sprinkled powdered sugar over everything. Every surface was covered. Such a thing of beauty could make a person weep.


Grove of trees dusted in hoarfrost.

This morning we were treated to the magic yet again.

I had to drive a mile or so to the town hall where they issued me a temporary mailbox. Here's the long view from our town hall west towards the town.



It's not exactly a town in the traditional sense. There's a cluster of homes and two churches. In the distance you'll see the old country church. There are no shops or gas stations.

Here's a closer look at the scene.



The Farmer and I were raised within spitting distance of the city of Chicago and city life holds no excitement for us. We don't miss the crush of people, the smell of bus fumes, etc. etc. We're happy to live in a peaceful setting.

Like I said, the natural beauty could make a person weep.

The Weather Does Me In

Yesterday afternoon I accompanied the Other Mother to her appointment with her new physician. Thankfully the last one retired. I say thankfully because during an exam at which I was present, he was exhibiting signs of going into a coma. I am serious. He sat through the entire exam, leaning against the table, talking very, very, VERY slowly. The last straw came when I noticed his eyes rolling back in his head.

I bolted for the nurses station and asked, "Is there something I should know about the doctor? You might want to call the paramedics for him!"

The nurse informed me that the doctor had diabetes and his blood sugar was probably low. I was appalled. The nurse could feel my ire rising but she did nothing to intervene. Again, I was appalled. When we exited the exam room the nurse had a can of soda on the counter for the doctor. Seriously? His eyes are rolling back in his head and your only response is a can of soda? It's time to retire when you become the patient during an exam.

The Other Mother seems to like her new doctor, who is a female. True to her upbringing and generational world view, the Other Mother asked the question, "What is she?"

Can you guess the nature of her question? Seventy years ago the Other Mother lived in an ethnic enclave near the city. The first order of business when meeting someone was to determine "what tribe" they belonged to. Were they Italian? Polish? Bohemian?

Like I said, it's a generational thing.

"Her name is Patel", I told the Other Mother.

"She's probably Indian or Pakistani. Why do you ask?"

I already know why she asks, but I want her to think about why she is asking. Maybe next time it won't be the first thing she asks. But then again, old dogs don't learn new tricks very easily.

When we left the doctor's office it had started to snow. It had been cloudly all day but in my heart I was hoping beyond hope that it would clear up. Why? Because last night there was a magical occurrence, an event that is at the top of the list of the most wonderful things I've ever seen.

A full lunar eclipse.

The first time you see one, you're hooked. It's unbelievable. If you saw the moon in full eclipse without knowing what it was, you'd think you were in a science fiction movie.



The video cannot convey the raw beauty of this event. Normally the moon is bright, bright white, with all features washed out. But in a full eclipse the moon becomes three dimensional.

The truly upsetting part of missing this eclipse is that it's the first solstice lunar eclipse in 456 years. The next one won't occur until 2096, at which time I'll be cosmic dust.

Here's a link to one of my geeky astronomy sites. Pass your cursor over the photo to learn more.

POSITION OF THE MOON DURING ECLIPSE

Look at this terrific montage of different eclipses. This is from Astronomy Photo of the Day. Bookmark it! Also, be sure to click on the photo to see the large version.

ECLIPSE MOSAIC

Please pardon me whilst I go into my total astronomy geek mode. I could go on all day, so stop me please! But before you stop me look at this time lapse photo of a lunar eclipse over the south pole.

ECLIPSE OVER THE POLE

OK, now it's time to plow the drive!

Whiteout

No, I'm not talking about an office supply, I'm talking about an atmospheric condition called a whiteout.

It just occured to me that we have a wildly diverse set of weather conditions here in the midwest. I can remember when I lived in Texas I'd wake up each morning and declare, "Oh my, ANOTHER sunny day."

That was said with a fair dose of sarcasm because if you're from the midwest, after constant sunshine can get on your nerves. I'd pray for rain simply to break the monotony.

Here in the American midwest, thousands of mile from any ocean, we get fog. Heavy, dangerous fog.

The ground has been covered with a thick layer of snow and cold temperatures. This was followed by a warm-up, melting some of the snow, creating fog. Think about driving along the road and encountering fog in low lying areas near a stream. That's the effect except that all the corn and soybean fields put off the moisture that would have been in the stream.

This was the scene yesterday.

White snow, overcast white sky, white fog. Whiteout.



OK, greyout. It was kind of grey.

Can you find the horizon? Just barely, because there's a tree line barely visible in the distance.

It's does make for lovely vignettes, such as this old barn.



The only time I've ever been scared while driving was during a total whiteout, not even when I was driving inside the edge of a tornado. You lose even your sense of up and down, gravity is the only constant factor.

I've decided to continue the weather posts because it occurred to me that I'm interested in the weather in other parts of the country and the world, and so other's might be also.

Have a great day everyone!

Rain and Lightning

Last week snowstorms rolled through one on top of another. The snow was coming in such quantities that it was becoming a problem of where to put it all. The piles on the side of the driveway grew higher and the snowblower was, in some cases, having difficulty tossing it up and over.

People often think of weather dangers in terms of noisy and violent cataclysms. Last night a dangerous situation was developing. Strong winds were buffeting the house and I awoke for a moment to see flashes of lightning. Lightning in the middle of winter? It's pretty much unheard of and I don't think I can ever recall lightning in winter.

The wind brought with it warm air. When this warmer air hit the open fields of snow, heavy fog developed and blanketed the countryside.



Not only does it mean dangerous driving conditions it means that the mountains of snow that fell last week will soon be torrents of water. Flash flood warning are already being issued.

One thing I know about water is that it will always have it's way. Human engineers can build barriers but the water will have it's way in the end.

Here's a tattered remnants of a little snow fort my son made for the Chihuahua's on Christmas eve.



And behind it you'll see a small stream of water flowing in the swail behind the house.

Stay safe out there.

Winter Past

We've been innundated with a lot of snow but nothing like the winter of 1967 here in northern Illinois.

I remember this well.



It shut down the city of Chicago for days.

This afternoon it took me 1-1/2 hours to plow the drive. I'll have to do it again before 10 p.m. when our son gets off work. The Farmer is snowed in up at the farm and the White Farm House. He'll hopefully make it home tomorrow.

Stay warm everyone.

The Frost is on the Pumpkin

The frost is on the pumpkin and that's as good a reason as any to sleep late. Someone recently mentioned the habit of talking about the weather. It's an artform in these parts. The farmers would gather at a local cafe early in the morning for eggs and bacon, coffee and conversation. The weather is always a top subject because their livelihood depends upon the weather.



Every square inch, every nook and cranny in a field is planted in the spring. The weather determines the outcome. A hailstorm can decimate the fields and a drought can do likewise.

Discussing the weather cannot affect the outcome but that never stops the chatter.

This area is undergoing an influx of development. The farmer's meeting places have disappeared. Many of the older farmers are refugees from the development push back in the 1970's. They sold their farmland in Schaumburg and moved out here. The concrete and asphalt steadily pushed west and has caught up with them again. They're older and a second migration west is out of the question. Many are so connected to their land that they refuse to leave, leasing out the acreage to younger farmers. They sit in their farmhouses and watch the sunrise over the fields as they have done their entire lives.

One of the fourth generation farmers lost his father several years ago. It was his father's wish to be cremated and have his ashes spread across his beloved fields. His children could not bring themselves to honor his wish. They knew that 20 years down the road his fields will be covered with tract homes.



Large homes! Less money! That's the chant that pelts you from roadside signs. The real estate and mortgage mess will slow the development for awhile and then it will begin rolling over the countryside once again.

Someone said to me that I shouldn't be so negative about the advance of urban sprawl. That person has never stood at the edge of a field of Illinois topsoil and watched as a farmer plowed under the field at the end of the growing season. The warm moist soil hidden just underneath the surface releases steam as it hits the cold air. The scene is magical and you realize the life giving powers the earth contains. Once scraped away and replaced with strip malls, it can never be recaptured.

I would declare Illinois topsoil a national treasure......no, a world treasure, and protect every stinking clod of earth!

T.G.I.F.

Omigosh I'm glad it's Friday. This is what rolled in yesterday morning.



It's what's called a bell echo cloud and the rain was just behind it. I'd never heard of this until 6 months ago and now everytime I turn around there's a bell echo rolling in. Pretty dramatic looking though.

The flu also rolled into the house. The Farmer's Son got hit yesterday. It's a wierd one. You're slammed with a splitting headache followed by a terrific sore throat and fever. Shortly after the cloud rolled in it was my turn to get the flu. It's a good thing the Farmer is in South Carolina because I was in no shape to fix dinner!

It was warm on Wednesday which allowed me to complete one more task on my never-ending list. Thanks to all the suggestions from my Hen House Full O'Chicks I was able to finally decide on a color for the front door. It's called Merlot something-or-other. (Gosh, I've always wanted the job of thinking up names for paint colors.) I taped about 50 paint chips on the door and this seemed to resonate. I'm not sure that the camera accurately captured the shade. It's a darkish berry color.



So, what do you think?

Again, many thanks for you help.

In my flu delirium my mind is churning out strange paint names.....

Petrified Pink
Minted Lamb Chop
Cold Lake
Bronzed Butterballs

Oh, enough already. I must grab my corn bag and go to bed. Corn bag? Am I that delirious you ask? NO....my corn bag arrived yesterday in a box of goodies that I won in Lori - The Mountain Woman at Heart's giveaway. There were so many cool things in the box. I'll tell you about them later, but honestly the corn bag is the bomb!! I'm addicted...in one day. It's like a form of rural crack cocaine, I swear. It's a nice sized bag filled with corn. It's not popcorn so no fears when you pop it into the microwave for a minute or two. The corn kernels get heated up and stay hot for almost two hours. Oh my aching neck loves this thing. Seriously, you need to ask Santa Claus for a corn bag for Christmas.

OK, now I'm leaving. Bye. I'm off to bed and setting the Blogger timer for 2 a.m. so you'll have something to read in the morning.

Oklahoma

Nope, I'm not in Oklahoma and I haven't been there for years, but yesterday's weather had me singing the lyrics from "Oklahoma". You know the part where they let loose with....."where the wind comes whippin' cross the plains." That was exactly the situation yesterday afternoon.

I've found that if I set myself goals and make lists I am better able to get things accomplished. I've promised myself to make a list of all the major tasks that need to be accomplished around here and to tackle one everyday. The item on my list yesterday was to paint the trim around the garage doors and the front door. The paint had started to peel and so I scraped and prepared the wood and around noon I got started with the task.

It was a bit chilly and quite windy, even by Illinois standards. I finished the trim around the first door and by the time I was halfway around the second door the temperature had dropped at least twenty degrees and the wind had escalated to tropical storm speeds. I'm not kidding! It was becoming quite scary.

I finished my work quickly and went inside to check the weather.

Possible snow showers late in the evening.

And so it begins.

Storm Clean Up

My neighbor Betty was at home alone when Monday evening's storm rolled in. Her husband Ed was on his way home at the time the first gusts hit. Their home sits at a lower elevation than mine and is in a forested area. Many of their trees are 100 years old. Because of the location they do not have a direct line of sight to the horizon and as a result Betty couldn't see the scope of what was approaching from the west.

She did know that the sky was beginning to darken and the wind was picking up. After closing the windows she sat down in her late mother's bedroom and was stunned at the speed and fury of the storm.

Yesterday as Betty recounted her feelings when sitting in her mother's chair I was reminded of a quote I recently came across. It went something like this, "Sometimes the Lord calms the stormy seas, and sometimes the Lord calms the person riding the stormy seas."

The storm was going to play out it's hand and Betty found herself suddenly calm. She remembers saying, "Lord, this is your storm. I'm fine with what you choose to do, but just keep my family safe."

The storm raged and Betty calmly sat and waited. The following morning would reveal an unbelievable scene of destruction. But, it would also reveal a miracle. Every large tree circling the house was damaged, except for two huge oaks that stand within feet of the front porch and back deck. Damage to those trees would have demolished the house. The damage occurred in a concentric circle with the force of the wind twisting the trees out and AWAY from the house.

Here's the effect of the 125 mph wind gust on a large tree.



Here's the scene directly in front of the house.



It's a 2 acre property and the entire property was covered with this debris.



As I mentioned yesterday, I could hear the sound of chain saws first thing in the morning. Word traveled through our neighborhood and people started arriving. Here was the line up:

6 chain saws
2 lawn tractors with pull-behind carts
1 Kubota tractor with front-loader
1 vintage Ford farm tractor with flat bed trailer

The workforce:

Betty & Ed, their two children, their son-in-law and his mother.
Eight neighbors
Neighborhood teens to babysit the younger kids while the adults worked.

In addition to the huge trunks and tree limbs



the entire property was strewn with an enormous amount of twigs, brannches and leaves.



The men worked on cutting the trunks and limbs into manageable pieces, which were then lifted into the Kubota front loader and driven to the back of their property.



The small limbs and branches were loaded into the lawn tractor carts and delivered to the growing brush pile. Two of the women followed up and raked up the smaller debris.



Here's Ed, Chuck and Pat taking a break and discussing their next move.



Work continued on through the day, moving from one area to the next. In the back yard a large limb was hung up in the canopy. This involved some climbing and ropes for safety.

I had to leave when my garden cart suffered a flat tire. The Farmer and I walked up in the evening when he returned home from work and there was not as much as a twig left on the ground. You would have never guessed what it looked like earlier in the day.

I talk a lot about midwesterners and their can-do, true grit attitude. This is an example of that spirit in action. I am amazed at what was accomplished in one day by a committed group of people who pitch in to help their neighbors. At one point during the day we talked about not waiting for the cavalry to arrive. There are brush piles out on the main road waiting for the county to pick them up. Those brush piles have been there for over 6 weeks, so no, we don't wait for someone to "rescue" us.

I'm not good at the math and I can't figure the cubic yards of debris, but the pile was about 10 feet high, 30-40 feet long and 12 feet deep. That's a lot of destruction to deal with in ONE DAY!!

Thanks for your good thoughts and concerned comments. No one was injured, either in the event or the clean-up and for that we are grateful. The most amazing thing? Not ONE WINDOW was broken during all of this.

Something Evil This Way Comes.....

On Monday evening I was working on some aprons up in my sewing room. I decided to take a break and check out my e-mails. It was about 7 p.m. when I logged on to the computer. Our in-home office is the only room in the house that faces west, and west is the direction from which all of our weather comes. Storms were rolling in from the Mississippi and one look out the window told me that something really evil was heading our way......FAST!

The dark black clouds were throwing deep rumbling thunder ahead of it and it was the deepest, darkest sound I've ever heard. It seemed to still be a distance away, but in the three minutes it took me to get upstairs it was upon us. That fast!!! The large tree at the corner of our house was literally bending in half and I was sure that the family room was in danger of being crushed.

Then the sky turned from dark blue/black to sickly greenish color. I think we all know that nothing good can come from that. Rain hit hard, but the wind was the major player in this storm.

The electricity went out the moment the storm hit. The Farmer somehow drove the gauntlet and made it home just in time to attempt to fire up the generator. Unfortunately, since we haven't started it for awhile, it simply would not fire up. Let's just say he was spewing a few choice words as he heard all the neighbors starting up their generators one at a time.

After the worst of the storm passed, neighbors walked up and down the road with flashlights making sure everybody was OK.

Out here, being without power means you're without everything, most importantly water. The water is pumped from our individual wells with electric well pumps and without electricity there are no showers, no toilets. Yep....no toilets.

The tag line on my blog reads, "Nine Miles from Anything" and yesterday morning I was 9 miles from any type of electrical power. I drove that nine miles to the nearest McDonald's (with power) and brushed my teeth, used the bathroom and grabbed breakfast and a cup of coffee.

The extent of the damage only became apparent at first light on Tuesday morning. Just before I left the house I could hear the chain saws firing up. When I returned I donned my work clothes and headed up to Betty and Ed's house where the worst damage occurred. It would be a long day.

Please come back tomorrow because you will not believe their damage and the clean up. (I'm resizing the photos).

Here's one photo. This is the first thing I saw when I arrived and the least of the damage.



This whole incident has to be witnessed to be believed.

The Rest of the Story

Are you a procrastinator, or one of those super organized people who makes sure that things don't pile up on them?

My name is Suzanne, and I'm a procrastinator! Honestly, I try very hard not to be. You think by now I'd learn my lesson but NO...........

So I had promised the second installment of the Make-Do Apron. I knew it was due. But I waited and put it off till the last minute. No problem I told myself. You've made tons of these aprons, it's a no brainer. HA!

When humans are feeling all confident that they're in control, the Master of the Universe steps in and says, "Whoa. Get off your high horse."

It was a slightly overcast day on Thursday and the light was perfect for photographing my work as I went along. Just beautiful. Perfect. But the universe had other ideas. My little in-home studio faces south. While I was gathering my materials together the universe cooked this up on the north side of the house. That is a VERY LARGE house that is dwarfed by those clouds.



It suddenly seemed a little dark in the studio as I turned my sewing machine and iron on. Hmmmm, what could it be, this dark pall that was threatening to ruin my sewing and photo session? Ahhhhhh, it's Armageddon a comin'.



Not only is the tutorial threatened, I'm now possibly facing the task of herding two chihuahua's, one cat and one 87-year-old mother-in-law into the basement. Living in the midwest you become a very good judge of weather conditions. And wait, if you don't like the weather wait ten minutes, it will change.

I went outside and found this roaring overhead at 50 miles per hour!!



It's called a bow echo cloud. I only know that because Ginger Zee, the really cute and perky weather person on the local news told me so. The cloud didn't alarm me though because it's not something that breeds tornadoes. If you see something like this.......



you run for cover because the hammer's coming down and you're the nail. I can't even recreate in Photoshop the sick green that the sky turns before a tornado strikes.

But I digress. The storm produced it's quick and furious rain, the electricity was off for awhile, the wonderful light was dashed and I was putting the apron together in all types of weird ways. Translation: I did some ripping out and re-sewing.

You think I'd learn a lesson, but I found myself once again dancing at the Procrastinator's Ball.

Anybody else want to join me?

French Toast Weather

The Southerner's have their fruitcake weather, forever immortalized in Truman Capote's story, A Christmas Memory. It involved tromping through the woods, or in my case across Uncle Jackie's open field to the vast pecan grove. Baskets were filled to the brim with the brown jewels. Hard work followed as we hunched over large bowls of pecans, cracking and picking out the nut meats, every morsel to be baked into holiday treats.

Northerner's have a much more dramatic version called french toast weather. Any grocery clerk in the north can tell you what french toast weather is. It's when the local weathermen forecast dire snowstorm conditions. Everyone runs to the grocery store and buys....you guessed it, bread, eggs and milk. I often wonder if people think they could possibly live on french toast for more than three days, but actually it's just a natural instinct to have all the basics on hand during an emergency.



The current habit of weather forecasting 24/7 is quite annoying to me. I like the old fashioned "rock" method. If the rock is grey, it's dry and sunny. If the rock is wet it's raining. If the rock is white it's snowing. We've never planned our lives around what the weather might do, because this is Illinois and if you wait 10 minutes the weather will change anyway!

When my children were little we lived in a nice suburban community. I literally survived on a monthly diet of Country Living magazine, dreaming of the day when we could move to the country and live the good life. Well, it is a good life, but I would warn against moving to the country without understanding what's really involved. Pay very close attention to the Chevy Chase movie, Funny Farm.

Those lovely magazine spreads featuring beautiful photographs of luncheons under the trees don't tell the whole story. What they don't show is the hoards of mosquitos descending from the nearby woods. Oh, and the deer ticks, and the black ants marching up the table leg to snack on your pots de creme.

It's a local tradition around here to corner newcomers at a summer barbecue and pose the question, "Do you have your blade yet?" Everyone chuckles as they see the wheels turning and the newcomer attempts to figure out 3 things:

1. What's a blade?
2. Why do I need one?
3. Where can I get one?

The answer is simple. The blade is an attachment to your pick-up truck, farm tractor, lawn tractor or 4-wheeler. Without it you're not going anywhere in the wintertime.

Which brings me to some personality traits that you need to survive in the country. You need to be made of the right stuff, preferably some type of pioneer stock. You're going to need to be self-sufficient, a great problem solver and know how to pull start a generator. Yes, you will probably need a generator and if you don't have one there will be times you wish you did.

Having made the comment about being self-sufficient I need to make it perfectly clear that neighbors will be very helpful, you can count on them in a pinch. They will give you lots of eggs and vegetables, they'll help you mend fences or scare off coyotes, and pull your car out of a ditch, but you'll need to be able to cope if the neighbors are busy with their own disaster. Many times after plowing my driveway I'd also plow the neighbor's drive. She never asked and I never offered, I just did it. I knew she was home with a newborn and her husband was out of town. Did I mention I love plowing?

It's really funny that yesterday's post was about fashion because fashion is an afterthought in my life, especially on days like today. Here I am after an hour of plowing. Quite a fashion statement, isn't it?



Here was the scene outside last night. I finished plowing and turned around to find that it's piling up again. The forecaster has said it will continue to snow till tomorrow night. No matter, I've lived long enough to see some REAL weather and this doesn't rank anywhere near the top.



Soon it was time to head back inside and have a Klondike bar and sit by the fire.



This morning I made French toast and served it with some of the fresh butter we made the other day.If we want to enjoy the meal on the deck, we're going to need to clean the chairs off.



Although I've got plenty of recipes for fancy versions, I opted for the simple version made with bread, eggs, milk and nutmeg.



Why? Because we need to plow, again!

Tomorrow we'll announce the winner of the ugly pound cake contest and talk about produce bargains.