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Good Morning from the 45th. Cold here this morning. Arctic front came through, but tomorrow and Friday back into 20’s, followed by a big blast of cold air. Will definitely be hunkering in the house. But I have plenty to keep me busy as I work on things want to accomplish before spring arrives.

Queen, hope you made it through your procedure yesterday. Glad to hear you are starting to fell better and hopefully that will help more. Alice, also glad to hear you are settled in your new “home”. At least that’s one major worry off your mind as we know you have been fretting about where to go for awhile. Barbie, Happy you made it to Q safely, now let the fun begin. And sounds like it has.

I’m planning some fun with the paint brush this morning. The next to last part of my workshop project that has been ongoing for a month now. Has been a fun project and now it’s almost done. Have some other things I would like to do in basement, but like those of you into the “deep cleaning” mode, I too want to do that. Spring cleaning time and I think a bedroom painting too.

The pups and I took a long walk through the woods on the snowmobile trails yesterday. That’s a rarity for this time of year. They had a blast running and chasing each other, wrestling, snooping and sniffing and then starting it all over again They we’re definitely slower on the last stretch home

Time to get busy. Have a nice day everyone no matter where you are or what you are doing. There is a bright spot in every day.

Colliemom wrote:Cold here this morning. Arctic front came through, but tomorrow and Friday back into 20’s, followed by a big blast of cold air.

Good grief! ". . . tomorrow and Friday back into the 20's, followed by a big blast of cold air". I'm gathering that it warmed up into the 20's? Man, how cold was it!!

Northern California is girding up for a blast of winter (at least what passes for winter in northern California), due to arrive later this afternoon, and overnight. Five to seven inches of rain (highest rainfall in the foothills), flood warnings (this never makes me happy), high winds and temps probably in the high 40's.

So long as my roof doesn't blow off, I think I will count myself lucky!!

Anne

Brrrrr! Anne, Sue lives in one of the coldest places in Michigan because it is in the middle of the northern part of the state, away from any of the big lakes, and also kind of on a hill. In other words, it is one of the highest parts of Michigan. I remember 40 years ago snowmobiling up near there at night. I had no thermometer with me, but we got cold, which was unusual as we were well-bundled up, and headed to our rented cabin about 10 pm. Early the next morning, we noticed that it was -33 degrees F. Notice the minus sign there? It was so cold that we could not start our van for several hours until it warmed up to 0 or so. And the river that usually flowed briskly past our cabin, flowed like it was clear maple syrup--very thick and slow. Too fast a current to gather ice in the middle, but very strange looking. That was the coldest I have ever been, and I don't plan to repeat it.

So, Sue is not only extremely ambitious in all her projects, but she is a lot more hardy than the rest of us--certainly more hardy than I am!!!

Cold here this morning (38 degrees right now at 10 am) , but I am headed up to Portland just to get out of this place for a while. Got a rental car and want to get some Einstein bagels and will stop in Washington for some sudafed. If time, will stop at a museum up there for an hour or so.

Hi Sue, Anne & Judy,

Sue, I never tire of reading about the work you're doing in the house. It's nice there are folks that love the weather you have! The pictures you post are beautiful .

Anne, hunker down! Sounds like you are in for winter weather, too.

Judy, glad you're able to get out and about to do some exploring.

It's chilly here in Ocala and the furnace is cutting on and off. It will get warmer tomorrow and Friday and then it will be winter again. I'm having some health issues again, but extremely minor. Will be seeing an orthopedic surgeon Tuesday to hopefully get rid of the arm/shoulder pain I've been dealing with for the past couple months. I know I'll be able to play in church this Sunday but not sure what the future holds, but hopefully whatever will have to be done will put me back on the organ bench real soon. That's my main goal.

I'm just glad there are people that like snow, like Sue and my brother, or there would be more people down here in the South with me. I use to build things all the time but haven't had a project in a long time. I built a rabbit cage for a "free" rabbit the neighbors gave my son years ago. Harold told me that it would hold a gorilla. There are a couple of toy boxes I built that survived the flood.

It finally got up to 61 today. It doesn't look like the sun is going to come out. Today they are saying it will only get down to 31 Sunday night instead of 25.

I bought some meatballs at a place in Lafayette that sells food they make frozen. I cooked a couple of meatballs in tomato sauce and some green noodles I have hanging around. I'm not really a fan of anything in tomato sauce but it was ok.

Martha

Brrrrr chilly outside right now ( okay so chilly is relative ) it would be okay if the wind wasnt blowing but dang it cuts right thru ya. I had to take some stuff out to the storage shed behind my house and it was really cold. We are supposedly expecting a big ole windy storm but we shall see. I am really starting to doubt these weather people. I want a job where I can be wrong most of the time and still keep my job LOL

So I got the bread machine out this morning and after working a bit on the cleaning of the kitchen decided to go ahead and throw a loaf in. Since I have never made bread before I am starting with the basic white version, small loaf 1lb. Went to the store the other day and got bread flour and bread machine yeast so I was all set. Going to make some veggie soup in the instant pot so hopefully will have a nice slice of bread to go with it I am hoping anyway.

Sue, I am doing my deep cleaning so I can be ready for Spring and able to get out in the yard and longer walks with the dogs. I am a "weather wuss" I dont like it too hot nor too cold LOL I actually like perfect weather.
Irmi I sure hope you get fixed up pretty soon, I know how much you love playing the organ for your church.
Judy I loved going to Saturday Market downtown when I lived near Portland. We parked and took Max in and it dropped us off right in front of the market. Fun way to spend the day.
Pretty sure Anne is getting more of this storm than I am. We sure do need the rain but hey, I want it to come slow and steady for a few days not dump on us.

Well going to check on the Instant Pot soup and the Bread.....wish me luck.

More practice. Peggy with glasses

Judy is right Anne. We are the highest point in northern lower Michigan at 1,346 feet above sea level. That’s foothill by mountain standards But it is high enough to get dumped with snow in winter and we do get cold. The type of cold Judy experienced though is rare. We did have some of that back a few years ago in a severe winter that was affecting a lot of the country. It was a year the Great Lakes including Superior totally froze over and Superior didn’t totally thaw till May. I do remember one year back in the 70’s when we hit -30 one night but on average, our nights stay above zero and temps in 20’s this time of year with swings above or below that. The Pigeon River Country State Forest, about 25 miles NE of here, owns the record for the coldest temperature recorded in Michigan at -45.

The Arctic air. that came through last night, dropped us from low 30’s into the teens and today we are holding at 16. But the air to come this weekend is predicted to be much colder with highs in single digits, wind chills much below zero and lows below zero. Hence my remark about warming into the 20’s for couple days. If tbere’s No or very light wind and you are dressed for outdoors, 20’s are comfortable unless you are just going to stand still.

We are experiencing a very mild winter this season. 23 of the 31 days of December saw temps in the low to upper 30’s and more rain, freezing rain and thaws than normal. We are currently 27.3 inches below normal in snowfall, but one good storm could make that up yet. Needless to say, not good for winter related sports and businesses.

Peggy, you snuck in ahead of me. Love those glasses. They are very becoming on you

Sue, that snowmobile night would have been in the late 70s! It was the only time I remember being worried about our kids being with us, even though we were dressed in very warm, windproof clothing.

And for the rest of you, the thing about the lakes freezing is very important--not for shipping because that shuts down anyway because the ports are all frozen in. But open Great Lakes, even if they are nearly freezing temps, keep the Michigan weather more temperate than it would otherwise be. Winds mostly come from the northwest, and it you look at a map of Michigan, nearly all of it is southeast of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Some of it gets a little benefit from Lake Huron. Basically, that means our summers are not as hot as they might be otherwise and our winters are not as cold as they might be otherwise.

Frozen lakes mean nothing to moderate the wind and the cold, so when the lakes freeze, it gets colder in Michigan. And just northwest of Sue is Traverse City, which is very far north, but lucky to not only be next to Lake Michigan, but also has the benefit of two long fingers of water north of the city that are the East Bay and the West Bay. These are really big bodies of water and also keep Traverse City 's climate a bit more moderate. In fact, most of the tart cherries in the U.S. are grown near Traverse City, plus it is a great wine grape growing area. Cannot imagine any wine grapes growing near Sue's "mountain."

The older I get, the less I appreciate snow and cold weather. It being 40 today was way too cold for me. I also think it is a lot more humid here than in Michigan which makes a difference to me. Can't wait for spring.

It was a gorgeous day here in Q today!

I met up with Lyn, Beth, Sheila, Peggy, and Tina for a free pancake breakfast this morning. Then I headed to the giant flea market for a few hours. Isn't too crowded around here yet because the big RV Show doesn't start until this weekend. So it was easy to get around the flea market. I bought some kitchen gadgets, tops, jewelry, a small leaf blower, and misc cute things . I also checked out a place called Celia's Rainbow Gardens which is a memorial area for anyone who want to set up a little memorial area for loved ones who have passed. It is really cool. I will post some pics when I get home.

Later, I met up with the gals again for dinner in town. Then we went back to "Camp Sheila" and crowded into Kerry's rig for birthday cupcakes and ice cream for Peggy, Sheila, Kerry and my birthday celebration. (photos on the Q GTG thread.)

Was a fun day! Tomorrow I will head over and say goodbye to the gals and then head out to Palm Springs for one night before heading home on Friday.

When I was little, we had very long, snowy, and very cold winters. Late December thru February rarely got above zero and many nights near -30 degrees below. We had a white farm fence in front of the house that was always completely covered over with snow most of the winters. The winters have gradually been getting milder since then, and the snow has been much less (much to the major disappointment of snowmobilers), and the temps have been very mild, mostly above zero all winter with just occasional temps colder than -10 below. When I was growing up, we went ice skating on our lake on Thanksgiving every year, and now the lake is rarely even froze over by then. Several years ago, it wasn't even completely froze over by Christmas. So there is definitely changes happening in the climate all over.

And pictures have been posted in the gtg thread... One of our breakfast group and another of the birthday gals.

Minnesota is really colder than Michigan. The auto companies have always used northern Minnesota to test how cars operate in cold weather.

And, I have a chunk of ham, so I have decided that tomorrow I will make pea soup with big chunks of ham! Maybe that will warm me up. Right now, big drafts blowing in from under slides. Can't close them this late because I would have to start my vehicle. And tomorrow I will also have to go out and get a propane refill. My 11 gallon tank is lasting barely two weeks here. Maybe the photos of Quartzite will warm me up.

Here is an article on Minnesota's cold winter temps.
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather- ... cities.php

The three coldest towns in Minnesota are Embarrass, Tower, and International Falls which are all up by the Canadian border.