Snow-bliz-magedon?

These photos were from yesterday. It is snowing and blowing right now and I've been out to check my animals and they are all doing fine. I still have electricity so I think we are good!

 

This is where you can hear the sleet pounding our house while the windblown snow obliterates the view of the shed. I live in a hollow, so imagine what it was like on the ridge in the open!

Sunday was wild. I woke up when I heard thunder, saw lightening, and heard what sounded like glass hitting the house.

It wasn't glass. It was sleet. I've heard of Thundersnow so I posted that we had Thundersleet on the NOAA local site and a lot of folks replied they had the same...at 4:30am.

Here the mule gals choose to rest while eating with their butts to the wind. By afternoon they'd taken snow baths and rolled off the snow blankets they had. Yes, they were warm and dry under that snow. I know because I go out and put my hands on them.

I am pleased to say that Hannah had no qualms about going out with Charlie yesterday to do dog stuff. Eventually the sleet turned to snow, then to rain, then to snow, and then we had a lull in the weather.

During the lull I took the two 'kids' out for a walk. They actually did great in the crystalized snow/sleet that covered everything. 

They ran, they chased and they played. 

They wore themselves out. We headed back home for supper and some quiet time.

With the dogs asleep, I was able to take out stuff from my 'creative' boxes and do some toy photography indoors. 

I was in the mood for dinosaurs. I did use a spray bottle to imitate rain but it just made the T Rex angry, so I used an overlay of rain to keep things from getting out of hand.

Maybe that's how I felt about the weather and why I chose and angry looking T Rex.

😂

This morning our gravel road is impassable even after the town grader came through. The drifts on the roads and around buildings are at least 3 feet or so.

I wonder what the day will bring.

So...

Mother Nature is really having a hissy fit.

Thursday, the pups and I risked using some precious gasoline to go on an adventure to Goose Island in Lacrosse County. The weather was supposed to turn very ugly Thursday night with a major whup-a$$ storm coming in on Saturday through Monday.

We took this lollipop loop that goes around what seems to be backwater ponds of the Mississippi River and other spots where we could stand on the banks of the river and gaze across the wide expanse of water.

Hannah got her first lesson in 'leash walking'. She sure didn't like it at first. However, by the time we got back to the car, she was mostly walking alongside Charlie.

With both hands occupied, I had a hard time taking any shots at all.

I did tie Hannah up to a sapling to I could try a couple of photos and only really got one with my regular camera. Moments later, she lunged forward and her cat breakaway collar came off.

Well, we both learned from that! 

After chores and more outside play time, the two of them called a truce and fell asleep on the couch. In the old days pets were never allowed on the furniture. Hannah can't get there on her own, but she does ask to get up there and she does settle down quickly.

She was looking at me with her tongue sticking out! Charlie was guarding the squeaky ball and all was calm.

Around midnight, as predicted, the winds arrived. And they howled and howled. I live in a hollow of sorts and it sounded as if a C-130 was revving its engines above the house. I woke up around 2AM because of noises I heard. It literally sounded as if the large metal shed had been hit by a tree. 

I looked out into the living room and noticed that the heater light was off. I knew I wasn't getting back to bed so I put long johns on under my sweats and added an extra warm layer over my t-shirt. Of course Hannah woke up while I was hunting up my electric candle lights and headlamp.

We went outside in the dark [with my headlamp to light the way]. The dogs did their thing and we bundled up on the couch while I sat down with them to worry. Seriously, what else was there to do? The two little dogs snuggled in close and we kept each other warm.

The temps dropped to 48 degrees in the house by 7:30 when the power came back on. I'd done chores and checked our buildings. Everything was still standing. The mules were out of the winds and standing quietly. The fences were still up and despite the roar above, things were rather peaceful.

We survived! No damage. I was relieved.

At 9:30 my 'date' arrived. Not really a date, but a young man who is the son of one of my good friends. I've know Briar since he was born.

Briar was off school and had asked if he could come over to learn about photography.

He is a Lego Fan and so I told him that we would work on some Toy Photography and some Macro photography. He wanted to learn more about digital cameras. I showed him how to use his cell phone to to practice with. He doesn't have a digital camera. His older sister has a Nikon that I gave to the family a few years ago.

We set up a scene together and talked about composing photos to tell a story. The time flew by and we had a blast. He enjoyed composing scenes with some of my pieces of cardboard and 'junk'.

It was quite fun imagining a scene together and hunting around for parts to build it and analyzing it from different angles. The first scene was one he totally built. The rose shot was a quick lesson in how 'easy' it is to set up a macro shot even with a dried up old flower.

We had fun with the storm troopers and worked on the set up for that together. Briar learned some very basic lessons about depth of field and operation of my digital camera.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to stock up on water and get some food that I don't have to cook to make a meals if the power goes out again.

We may or may not be in for a doozy starting Saturday evening.

 

Any day is a good day...

....to try fishing....

 

It was hot and humid but the guys hung out for a long time on the dock they were at. Finally we decided to go get something eat where we could sit down ... and get a wheelchair into. Oddly enough, one doesn't realize how hard a wheelchair is get in and out of places.

I thought I knew it...but until we experienced the difficulties, it wasn't obvious.

I spotted his stuffed fish and purchased it when I paid for the meal. I couldn't resist giving it to Rich to tell him that he could NOW say he caught a keeper.

The ol' coots just howled with laughter...

...and then hubby decided to wear it in his pocket for the rest of the day.

Steve took us the scenic route back home and I enjoyed just sitting in the back seat and watching out the window at the scenery and the clouds.

Storms were developing by the time we got home and Steve took off.

I hurried around the place and got the chores done and rearranged the porch so that nothing would blow around in the predicted winds.

Then I set up the cell phone on a tripod and thought I'd try a time lapse of the incoming storm.

I knew it was going to be bad storm by the way the mules reacted [which you can't see in the video]. They ran bucking to a corner of the pasture and huddled with their butts to the winds.

And that was the end of our very warm, muggy, and eventful day.

Looking back through my files and years of photos, I have more photos of my husband fishing than I have of him doing anything else.