What a difference a week makes!

In the previous blog post, I mentioned the beauty of the fall. Well this past weekend the leaves were falling like snow. And then now we had 20 degrees this morning, and a forecast of another hard freeze this coming weekend will likely take all the leaves from the trees.

November 18 was Jolene's 3rd birthday. I got a cheap piece of meat, and cooked it. It was large enough for both of us, and she got fed each piece by hand, and she had to sit, stay and wait for each one.

This morning I was awake as the sun was coming up and tuned in to WKDK, and Jimmy said it was 21, and was 20 JUST as the sun came up. That is generally when the low occurs. I ran and checked mine and had 21 degrees out here. The high struggled to 49, but it wasn't so blustery as Tuesday when we had winds to 25 miles per hour, and that made the 47 degrees seem much colder. Of course Mount Mitchell, NC had a 4 degree low this morning and yesterday struggled to get into the teens. BRRRR!

Into mid fall

I had thought the leaves on the trees would be a repeat of last year. PFFFT went the leaves on the Winged Elms last year. This year, with a bit more rain, they have turned a bright yellow. The couple of below freezing mornings aided to the color change, but some large Oak trees were still green and these trees are just going to drop brown leaves. Now those trees, luckily are in the minority. I have 2 Sugar Maple trees. My brother and I cleaned out around them. Well the one in the back is beatiful, however it's NOW in the open. I may cut down the 2 pine trees nearby. They both have rather damaged trunks, and will clean out that space even better. In the front yard, that Sugar Maple is crowded by a couple of Winged Elms. And it needed to be watered, and really didn't get a lot of it, so it's not as pretty. The one in back is a vivid yellow, while the one in front wants to be orange. As I walk down Alpha Martha with Jolene, the colors are maximum. Sweet Gum trees have vivid colors ranging from bright yellow to a deep purple. Some of these Sweet Gum trees have the entire range of spectrum. As we turn down Sandy Run Creek road on the way down the hill to Mechanics Creek, the Red Maples are blazing red. Some of the other Oak trees also are a deep red. The granddaddy Sugar Maple in the basin of Mechanics Creek is a blazing orange. I would love to have that tree on my land. It has to be 60 feet tall. I bet you could get a lot of sap to make Maple Syrup. Down in the basin there are quite a few smaller Sugar Maples. I may get down there and get me a small one to transplant
Now, the trees actually, once we get a rain and another freeze will start dropping leaves and we shall head toward winter. But for now, it's a blaze of color. And the smell of fallen leaves is in the air. Walking the mile down and back to Mechanics Creek with Jolene is great. It's the most beautiful time of the year. The fall flowers are blooming also. Jolene is getting her winter coat in. Yes, the summer coat keeps showing up on the living room carpet. That's what the vacuum is for. Jolene, is my rescue, and is a German Shepherd / Sheltie mix. She's currently curled up on "her sofa" .
Speaking of her, I may get my friend who has the Husky rescue to make me a cart. He makes racing (sled dog) equipment. I think she would do well. I found out she can drag me if she really wants to, and she loves to RUN RUN RUN !!!! She does get to go to the radio station with me when I have to work evenings for ball games and I get to leave a bit early to come home and pick her up. She curls up in the control room with me.

Catching up

Summer was hot, and dry, but not record setting like last year. We had some more severe weather but nothing to write about. Some late summer and early fall rains helped a lot but this year we are around 6 to 10 inches of rain below normal unlike last year when here on Alpha Martha it was closer to 30. We had no record breaking temperatures. Just a boring summer.

March was a BLAST

The Storm Prediction Center first put us in a "Moderate Risk for severe weather then gave us a VERY rare High Risk category. Were they ever right. SC had 17 tornadoes and 40++ million dollars damage. These storms were very fast moving and had multiple tornadoes in the long lived supercell thunderstorms. It went from lightly overcast to dark enough to turn on the security lamps, and then there was golf ball sized hail and 75 MPH wind. The sky was this dark purple green. I was not amused. being a storm chaser, being THE CHASED! The sky was smeared over and there was no storm structure visible in these storms.

We had a minor repeat of this stuff on Friday night April4, while I was at the radio station. The worst here went through Jalapa, SC and did some damage.
Powell

In to the new year we go

Well the new year has come. 2007 ended on a wet note, but we need well above normal precipitation for some time to work on this drought. Had some more rain, and the coldest temperatures of the winter season. Here on Alpha Martha the low one morning was 13. We are now in another warm spell. The middle part of the country has had this warm weather, but with a large tornado outbreak. Tornadoes in January in Illinois is execptionally unusual. The system that is spawning this outbreak is tempering and that is a good thing.


I am going to be a cooperative weather observer for the National Weather Service. They will be installing stuff on Friday. I have always been a weather watcher. I took and passed the NWS Advanced Skywarn class. Steve Naglic at the NWS office said I could teach the course.


I took Snoppy the so called Chihuahua mix back. There is more Terrier in him than anything. I figured he's mostly Rat Terrier. I saw an article on them in Dog Fancy. Yep, one of the dogs in the picture is his spitting image. Jolene was not unhappy that he went back. IF he had been housetrained, and IF Jolene would have played with him inside, I might have considered him. Rat Terriers can be difficult to housebreak. Also I have to leave Jolene's food out at night for her. Snoopy would eat on her food also, and then left me little "presents".
I am now also writing letters. In the Yahoo FPC (Fountain Pen Collecting) there is also a writing list. I hope my writing gets better as time goes on. IF I have fountain pens, I need to actually use them. I hope it will make my writing better. It's too easy on a computer. The hard choice is what pen and ink when you put ink to paper.


Sunday I got my brother to assist me in getting rid of some of the small trees that clog up parts of my yard. I especially wanted to get the jumble out of and around my 2 Sugar Maples. Note: raw Sugar Maple sap tastes like very watered down sugar water.


Powell