Heart Day

Every year I create a heart, within which are the letters L & D, in the snow atop Caesar Pond. This year, the heart design didn't go too well as it was very slushy and slippery. Usually, I am in snowshoes, but this year I had my boots and yaktrax on. But, the sentiment is still the same! We are coming up on 29 years of marriage and still going strong! The heart was short-lived as it rained the next day...I am hoping to track out a better one soon!

School Snow Day # 7

We got 10" of snow today. And, again it is very slippery underneath the snow as it has not adhered to the pre-existing ice. Aughhh....watch out and don't fall! Even YakTrax are not useful as the snow will cake up and freeze on the bottom of your boots!

Snow Total thus far: We are now up to 54". Geez...up in Caribou, there is 115" of snow (before this storm!)

SNOW DAY # 6

We got 4" of snow from this storm.

Snow Total for the season thus far: 44" Snow

Interesting note: This year's snow total thus far is almost exactly what we had at this time of year last year. And, last year was our second snowiest year since I began recording snowfall totals during the 2000-2001 winter season.

Our largest snow total season was the 2007-2008 year with 127" of fluffy white stuff! That was a brutal shoveling/snow throwing year with lots of awesome snowshoeing!

On hiking and staying on the trail

When you go hiking...have a plan. Make it a good plan! Remember to carefully mark your trail so as not to get lost. And, if I'm hiking with you, keep me close because I get hungry!

Frigid overnight temps and howling wind

Wowee! It was one cold day! The temp. did not rise above 6F and the "high" windchill was -10F. Watch out for tonight. When I went to bed, the temp. was 1.2F with a windchill of -20F! Overnight temps. here, will probably dip down to a windchill of -25F. It is dangerous outside.

No lunar eclipse for us

Here is the storm at noon. We are going to get several hours of freezing rain for the rest of the afternoon. UGHABUGGAH! The temperature is currently 6F with a windchill of -11F. It is nasty outside!

And, here is our snow table. At noon, we have 8.5" of snow. The snow is dry, granular and heavy to push around.

Total Lunar Eclipse Jan 20-21, 2019

***Jan. 20/21, 2019 - Total - Begins at 9:36 PM / Maximum at 12:12 AM / Ends at 2:48 AM (Perfect timing as the 21st is Martin Luther King Day and I'll be able to sleep in after a long night;-)

Check out the Eclipse Map on Time and Date.com.
Note to Self - Photographing the Eclipse:
• Top Dial on Camera to "M" - Manual Exposure Settings mode
• Force exposure compensation down to -2. )This brings out the darker areas of the full moon.)
• Multiple point focus (to get a lock on any part of the moon)
• Take the first few shots with auto focus.
• Switch to manual focus.

• As time goes by, dial down from 1/500 sec. to a longer shutter speed, down to at least 0.25 sec. or more, until seeing the red moon in playback mode. Will this give me less noise as well as increased brightness? I hope so...
• As time goes by, dial up the ISO from 200 to 1600 or more if necessary. (Although, I saw lots of photos with ISO 400-using a slower shutter speed.)

Walk in the woods across Caesar Pond

Today, the outdoor temp. got up to a toasty 20F with a windchill temp. of 11F! We took fabulous walk across Caesar Pond and up the snowmobile trail with our hounds, and Neighbor Shannon and her two hounds. All in all we walked a total of around 2 miles. The pups are getting older, as am I, so we had to turn around when my yaktrax broke off one of my shoes. Luckily, there is snow atop the ice with good traction. I am still so incredibly happy for that walk. Best of all, my knees survived due to the evenness of the trail.

Storm update-starting at 2am on Sunday Jan 20th

We won't get as much snow as originally expected because we are going to get many hours of freezing rain (at 14F)! So, we are now in the 8-14" range. We have yucky weather with global warming. No longer do we get a good dump of snow to play in, it is generally followed by rain or freezing rain. And, the upshot of this is that we won't even begin to clear snow until Monday morning. This way, the base snow will keep surfaces from getting icy, and we'll have less slipping.

Potential Snowfall for Sunday's storm

Yowzer! Bring it on! We are right on the border of 10-18" and 18-24". So, I think we'll get at least a foot of snow. We just have to cross our fingers that we are far enough inland so that we don't get the sleet as well.