Winter

[jal_ut]

Fun. It doesn't help that the resort is higher with thinner air so the gutless car is even more gutless.

Well it has quit snowing. About another 6 inches with drifting. Now it can get cold. They are saying -2 before morning.

[shadowsmom]

Its 83 here today. break out the shorts and get ready of thanksgiving on the beach.

I am so jealous!

I will be retiring to a warm climate, eventually. I really miss summer and being able to go outside in flip-flops.

Be prepared to pay through the roof for A/C. I just forked over $9000+ for 2 new AC units, and that includes the rebates. Without rebates, the price would be around $16,000.

I just had a new furnace and air conditioning put in. I already pay a lot for air and heat, I might as well pay and wear flip-flops!

[digitS']

I can get in here again with a Ski Report!

I think all ski areas will be open this weekend! Lookout Pass on the ID/MT border and 49° North in eastern Washington opened last weekend. Mt. Spokane and Silver Mountain open Friday. Everywhere, there was over 30" of snow at the summits before this most recent storm.

Schweitzer will officially open this Friday and has 58" of snow right now at the top.

At 6am, it is -5°F here at home. There's a good chance that people hereabouts will be able to have dinner tomorrow and get back home before the snow again begins to fall. Happy Thanksgiving!

Steve

[tomf]

digitS the area my wife and I have our passes at is now open. I go to Mt. Hood Meadows as it has the best terrain; most steep and off trail runs.
Apple star I grew up in the Boston area, yes the mountains out west much bigger. I have skied a number of areas in Utah and skied Snowbird a number of times. There are a few spots where you have to go through a narrow and steep shoot between rocks to get to the slope you want: no room to turn much so you come out the bottom moving a warp speed.
If you guys ever come to Oregon post me and we will go skiing.
It is cold for Oregon 24 deg.f at my home. Burning lots of wood.

I posted the photos before, this is not the most difficult or longest way down but it represents most of the skiing in Heather Canyon. If you have some thing fun to do in the winter it is not so bad. The photo of the top of the mountain is looking over a distance of miles. So the slopes you see are big. There are people on them but they are to small to show up.

[garden5]

Just got my first snow the other night. It doesn't look like it will stick, though.

I, too, have some sunflowers and bolted lettuce in the garage to get the seed from, but haven't had much of a chance to do that.

[mansgirl]

Its been really warm in Michigan too. I have a planter of Petunias sitting by my front door that have out lasted my mums and some of my pumpkins. I should really get rid of it because it looks silly this late in the year, and its kind of stunted, but its still blooming and I just don't have the heart to throw it out. Plus I want to see if I can have petunias in December!

[applestar]

Tomf, that is not a "slope" -- it's not even a "trail". That most definitely looks like a CLIFF that you're about to jump off of!

[jal_ut]

I am living in a world of white these days. Down in the valley in this picture is the small rural town where I live. At present the temperature is
7° F. Nothing much is going to be growing here for a few months.

Yep! The ski resorts are open.

[tomf]

Applestar your right it is a bit steep in that area when you start on a slope like that you know your going to the bottom so you want to do it on your feet. The whole of the Heather area at Meadows is double black dimond with some places even more difficult and as you said it is different out West. There are plenty of easy trails to ski. I would never take any one down some place they were not ready for, I do not find it funny to put people in danger.

Ja-ut your town looks like a village, I bet every one knows everbody there. It looks nice in the snow.

[cherishedtiger]

Oh the snow looks lovely! We have just gotten frost and freeze... car was so frozen yesterday the windows wouldnt roll down. But thats about as dramatic as Sacramento CA gets...
May have to go up to the snow here soon and get in a good snowman and snowball fight...
We are expecting rain by Thursday, nothing to interesting... but its cold, well as cold as it gets here! Lived up in northern Minnesota for while so I cant really call it cold here...
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Oh TomF - all I can say to that one picture is NOPE -no way... not going to happen, that is a cliff, how do you ski off a cliff... well people like me don't ski, I would wind up in traction for a year... You are quite brave...

[garden5]

It's about time, Jal.....I was waiting for a pick of your snow-covered landscape . It looks just as good snow-covered as it does with grass .

Tom, I'm with CT on the ski pic: beautiful, but I'll enjoy it standing still. I can just see myself getting to the bottom of that slope with a mouth full of pine needles .

[jal_ut]

Utah Sunset

[digitS']

Jal, not far from where I am there is a "Hidden Valley Road." I can remember when the sign went up on the highway several decades ago.

I didn't have any good reason to drive up the road and couldn't really figure out how there would be any real "valley" up there in a swale between the hills. I knew that there was a developer doing his level best to build and sell off houses but -- the name was intriguing.

Probably because the idea of a hidden valley captured my imagination, I didn't drive up that road for a good 30 years after the sign went up. I always thought that it might look something like your little Utah town . Of course, when I did drive thru - it didn't look anything at all like the picture in my imagination or your pretty little town.

I will go back to imagining it the way I always did and forget the reality. Now, on the other side of the mountain, there's another valley . . . .

Steve
who has just experienced the snowiest November on record here - with over 24 inches of snowfall. This morning, the thermometer has crept up to melting temperature.

[bwhite829]

all my gloating has resulted in a soft freeze I haven't been able to get out there and put some of my stuff up, so I'm sure it hurt alot of my plants. I'm going over to the garden first thing in the morning to put up as much as I can because I think we are having a really hard freeze next week, and i don't want to lose everything

[jal_ut]

For the last ten days the temperatures got a bit warmer, up into the 40s. That first snow we had all melted. When I saw my garden was bare again, I went out and planted some shallots I found sitting in the garage in a bucket.

Last night it started snowing some more. This morning it looks like we may have 5 or 6 inches. I haven't ventured out yet. Its still dark. I will go out after sunup and start the tractor and start moving snow. I have several driveways I clear for neighbors, beside my own.

Hope you are having a wonderful winter? Merry Christmas.