The calm before the storm

Clouds came in overnight but not the forecast rain. It was merely an overcast day Friday. With the clouds the temperature struggled from the mid teens to reach the upper 20s, short of the promised 35 F. Thick white frost coated everything but there was no wind.

The forecast this morning still was for Winter to arrive this weekend with a vengeance. If you noticed in my earlier leaves/raked leaves photos I have a pile of small branches in part of my patio. (The pile is smaller now than when I took the photo).

I spent time today putting the rest of the sticks and branches into bags, boxes and other containers. That way I don't have to brush the snow off the material before using it as kindling in my wood stove.

I also took time to cut up for firewood the rotted boards I had removed from the barn floor this summer. I also sawed a thick log into two pieces to be split next year.

I brought a number of split logs and stacked them on my porch for easy access the next day or so.

Afterward I checked my five remaining pocket gopher traps and found I had caught two more gophers. I saw signs of dirt in the remaining three traps and after clearing them of dirt I left the traps in the hayfield. The ground is even harder than yesterday so I brought the other two traps back with me.

I took two five-gallon plastic pails and picked up pine cones from under the trees in the NE part of the NE pasture. I could have easily filled more pails but this was enough fun for today. The pine cones will go into my wood stove.

At 4 pm it began to snow lightly. The forecasters may have gotten the rain part of the forecast wrong but the snow part was correct. The wind is forecast to blow starting around 11 pm and unfortunately they were right about that also. We now have a blizzard warning and no travel advised for Saturday.

THE BLIZZARD WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 PM MST SATURDAY.

BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH VISIBILITIES LOWERING TO 1/4 MILE ARE EXPECTED MAINLY NORTH OF FLATHEAD LAKE AND ALONG HIGHWAY 2 THROUGH BAD ROCK CANYON LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY.

SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BE MODERATE TO HEAVY AT TIMES OVERNIGHT. IN ADDITION TO ACCUMULATING SNOW...COLD AIR WILL SURGE ACROSS THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE CREATING NORTHEAST WINDS AT 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH POSSIBLE.

STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE BETWEEN 15 AND 20 INCHES IN HIGHER ELEVATIONS WHILE VALLEY LOCATIONS WILL RECEIVE 6 TO 8 INCHES THROUGH SUNDAY.

Since it appears I won't be riding my bicycle for quite a few days due to the weather (the overnight low is forecast Monday night as -24 F) I went for a 9 mile ride today after 4 pm. The snow was falling lightly and was hard enough to occasionally sting my eyes as I rode. With no wind the snow lay as it fell. The passage of vehicles acted as a broom upon the road.

It was dusk when I returned so I spent a little time splitting more logs. Even after dark the white of the snow illuminated things so I continued to split more logs. The snow coated everything reducing the colors. In the night the main colors were the black sky, white snow and dark shapes of the trees and buildings. Beautiful in its own way.

I quit splitting logs when I could no longer reach the top of the pile to stack firewood. Then it was time to go inside to light a fire in my wood stove and warm up the house. Even though it was only 49 F in the house, all the insulating I had done a few years ago paid off as it didn't take too long to warm the house up into the 60s F. It is 71 F inside now but hearing the wind outside makes me feel colder.