Day after snow storm

This was a fast moving storm. I awoke this morning to sunshine. Not a cloud was in the sky. The sky was blue and the ground was white. The amount of snow that fell depended on where in the valley you are. Some areas got 6 inches of snow. I estimate I got around 2 inches here at the ranch.

The wind that brought the snow storm ensured we had snow everywhere. Roofs over open structures did not keep the snow out, unlike the usual here. As this was the first snow of the season, and the ground was still warm, some the snow turned crusty and/or icy. There was enough snow that I used a broom to sweep paths to the various buildings.

We got down to 13 F last night, colder than predicted. We never reached our predicted high of freezing, instead we only reached 26 F. With the sun some slight melting occurred in sunny areas south of the buildings.

I had forgotten my pumpkins were in the garage ripening. My first order of business this morning was to bring them inside the house before they froze completely solid.

After I made paths through the snow this morning I spent the rest of the day indoors. I put the cabinet and sink back in place now that the water heater is installed. Other than re-doing one connection because of a small leak, the work went smoothly.

Otherwise, my day was spent tossing an occasional log in the wood stove and going about straightening up (somewhat) the mess that has accumulated the past weeks as I concentrated on outside work. I made a dent but have more to do.

Here are a few photos of the first snow of the season.

Another photo of the backyard bush as compared to over a week ago. Notice the number of leaves is less than in yesterday's (previous post) photo. That is what happens when the wind gusts to 46 mph.



Yesterday afternoon and this morning.



Through the gap in the mountains in the first photo is the way to Glacier National Park.



The snow shows the ski runs on Big Mountain.

A white Christmas seems a distinct possibility.

First snow

Winter has arrived... with a vengeance. Rain was predicted with maybe a chance of snow. Boy, were the weather forecasters wrong! Even as snow fell and blanketed everything in the Flathead Valley, the 5:30 pm weather forecaster (from Missoula) was still saying only a little snow may fall. By the 10 pm the forecaster had gotten the word, and it was "winter storm".

The day started out great. The sky was clear and sunny and I wondered if the weather forecast was correct. Still I got busy before the predicted weather change. I picked up the wood I had cut and split the past few days and stacked it under cover. I even cut up a few more old posts.

I dug up four more hills of potatoes. I checked my pocket gopher traps. I only got one pocket gopher. I think this colder weather is slowing them down.

Yesterday I spent most of the day building a fence across the "thumb" of property I own on the river. Hopefully this will stop my cattle from following deer trails through the brush and trees when they get the crazy notion to cross the river.

My goal was to put all the posts in the ground before the weather changed and the ground froze. Success, as I got all the posts in the ground. I even strung one strand of barb ware before dark. Fall is the nice time and right time to do this. This mostly treed area by the river gets very hot and humid to work in much of the year. Even though the temperature only reached the low 60s F it was perfect fence building weather.

I had hoped to work more on the fence today but the weather started to change by the time I had dug my potatoes.

Here are "before and after" photos of my backyard shrub, it having turned more red the past few days.


Mid afternoon when the front came with the snow, it hit hard. The wind blew at 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph. The snow came down sideways and soon covered the ground. My view faded. The mountains disappeared, then the neighbor's trees until I couldn't see across the road anymore. Tomorrow's predicted high temperature is around freezing so the snow may stick around a few days before melting.

Welcome to winter!





When the snow and cold hit I fired up my wood stove and sat inside my toasty house as I watched the snow blow by and listened to the wind howl outside with my cattle chimes clinging and clanging as the cattle danced in circles.

Mouse, etc.

Tonight I finally caught that little mouse eating my peanut butter. Since earlier this week when I tossed the mouse outside with the garbage sack I have been playing "cat and mouse" with a mouse. Every morning I baited the mouse trap with peanut butter and every night the mouse would lick it clean without triggering the trap. The mouse would leave the peanut in the trigger's curl alone. Every morning I would try to make the trigger more of a 'hair trigger'. Well, success tonight.

I went hiking in Glacier today. Apparently the group has gone on a few other hikes the past few weeks but not on Fridays as the Friday weather has been poor. They were unable to reach me to let me know about the other hikes, but that was alright as I was pre-occupied by replacing my hot water heater.

Before writing about today's hike I need to finish my write-up about my "Dragon's Tail" hike. The writing is done but the photo upload has been going slow as I have dialup and I have lots of photos from that hike.

I learned today that Arnie, who is 81, gets a free season pass to the Big Mountain ski resort. People 80 and up can ski free. At 81 he still skis, though he claims not as much as he use to do.

My new, replacement, camera started acting up just like the other one. I've had it - what - a few weeks now? The lens often doesn't open all the way on its own. I like the rest of the camera, just not this problem. This is the same problem as too why I took the same model camera back to OfficeMax to be replaced. I see I am not alone as a few other people online have written their Cannon Power Shot A540 camera has lens opening problems. *sigh*

Other than that, I have split more firewood and stopped to talk with my neighbor, Daryl, who is replacing his trailer with a modular home. Even though he is not building a regular house, just like with a regular house, the process has not gone smoothly. The home was finally delivered Thursday and two cranes hoisted the two parts onto his new foundation.

I better get to bed so I can get up at a decent time. The weather forecast is for a day and a half of decent weather before rain and cold weather arrive. Highs temperatures in the mid 30s is below normal and with rain predicted we may get snow in the valley. There is definitely snow in the mountains already as we hiked up above the snow line today.

Cattle wood sculpture

I got this at an auction last year. I think I paid $7.50 for it. I just love it. I haven't given it a name, but I am leaning towards "Barney".

Spooky tree by my house

I took this photo Thursday night of my "ent" tree and the moon.

The moon is a small crescent moon above the fence and near the trunk of the tree. I don't know what the large ball of light is as I only saw it in the photo. I took several photos but this, the first photo, was the only photo that had the tree holding the ball of light. Spooky.

I call this my "ent" tree after the trees in the "Lord of the Rings" books and movies. The tree looks like it has a body and arms.

Raspberry bush

The first photo was taken the end of September. The second photo was taken a few days ago, almost a month later.

Pumpkins

After I returned from my Washington vacation I had to pick my pumpkins as Jack Frost had killed their vines. In the wheelbarrow it looks like there are more pumpkins than what was in the garden. Also you can see that over the past few weeks they are turning more orange.

Domestic day

After all my efforts the past few days to replace my hot water heater, today was a low key day, a day to do some cleaning around the house. A shave and hot shower this morning felt soooo nice. I also was able to wash the large pile of dishes that had been stacking up. I washed some of the kitchen and other areas of the house. I baked an apple pie and rode my bicycle 14 miles. A domestic day.

That's about it. Not an exciting day, but one that was a welcome return to some sort of normalcy.

Arm signals

As I am a bicyclist...
Most people don't understand hand signals. It is best to simply point in the direction of your turn. Putting your arm down doesn't mean a stop to some people but that your arm is tired.

One's arm up is confusing to people who watch western movies... I think John Wayne would put his arm up when he wanted the wagon train to stop, or was that for the wagon train to start? No, I think his arm up and then a forward motion and a hearty "Wagon Ho!" meant the wagon train was to start. I think his arm up while pulling on the horses's reins with the other arm meant stop behind me and don't get in front to block my camera angle.

Sunset photos

Tonight's sunset

Sun on the mountains

Today's weather and view. Not sure if I am boring you with these photos. Common view here, but I try to think back to when I first came here, and seem to remember the view is pretty nice. *shrug* I'm going to make this my blog's header photo for a while.

Today's clouds

Happy Dance

I am so happy I have hot water I can jump for joy!


Snoopy and the gang are helping me celebrate!




One of my favorite scenes from my favorite cartoon... that's me dancing in the back. The kid in the blue shirt. (Though sometimes I can dance like the kid in the yellow shirt in front.)



More friends helping me celebrate!

We might even have a party to celebrate!



Time to dance off to bed. 'night!

In hot water

Success!!!

Finally!

Apparently I just had to leave yesterday - that annoying day - behind.

I have hot water!!!

Excuse me a minute....

[[[Happy dance!!!]]]]

Okay, I am back. I just have to do a happy dance whenever I say "I have hot water!"


This morning I checked the circuit breakers using my new multimeter. Only the water heater circuit breaker did not register any current. Darn, a bad circuit breaker. I turned the power off to the entire house then removed the bad circuit breaker.

Another visit to Home Depot and I spoke with yet another electrician. Gary, this time. He was very helpful. My circuit breaker is a Federal Pacific Electric Stab-lok circuit breaker. The company no longer exists, though some replacement breakers for this brand of circuit breakers are still made. Home Depot didn't have my model.

A Google search of this company turned up some interesting info. Apparently many, many older homes across the U.S. have these types of circuit breakers. In 1979 another company bought the bankrupt Federal Pacific Electric company (FPE) in 1979. Around July 1980 the new company stopped shipping the Federal Pacific Electric Stab-lok circuit breakers. Apparently the Federal Pacific Electric company previously obtained UL Listings by fraudulent means and that at "some point thereafter, lost their UL listing." No recall or field repair was ever offered for these circuit breakers. Some people claim these type of FPE circuit breakers have a higher failure rate than other breakers.

There is a lot of good information at the FPE Stab-Lok Website, created by DJ Friedman as a consumer information and failure research project. Another web site downplays the FPE problems.

Oh, the joys of owning an older home!

Back to Home Depot... Gary came up with the idea of using a multimeter to double check my circuit breaker by using another method. We tried it and this method showed that my circuit breaker worked. Huh? Also, I noticed that after removing my breaker from the service panel there was no longer any "play" when the breaker was set on. It was good that my breaker works as I noticed similar circuit breakers cost $60. But "bad" in that I don't know why my new water heater doesn't work.

Gary told me how to use my multimeter to test the wiring from the circuit breaker panel to the hot water heater.

You know, I initially was disappointed by Home Depot when they first opened in Kalispell. I tended to avoid shopping there. But they have sure changed things since them. The employees are very knowledgeable and helpful; particularly in the electrical and plumbing departments. Home Depot is now on my list of places to shop.

Back at home I found my wiring tested fine. Hmm... that may mean that my circuit breaker fails "under load". I decided to re-install my breaker again to see if it again failed with the power turned on. No. It didn't. I could quietly hear the hot water heat hum. It wasn't my imagination yesterday when I thought I had heard it hum before turning the circuit breaker off to fix the water leak.

I don't know why the water heater didn't work yesterday. I don't know if the circuit breaker is "touchy" about being set, or if it was just that yesterday nothing went smoothly, so why should powering my water heater.

Later I had hot water. [[[Happy dance!!!]]]]

I am so happy I have hot water again. What a change it made in my day. The sun seemed to shine a little brighter and I had a spring in my step (even if I hadn't taken a shower yet!)

To celebrate I went and split some firewood. Huh? I know, it doesn't make sense; but I felt like doing that. I guess I wanted to do something physical after days of fooling with the water heater replacement.

[[[Happy dance!!!]]]]

Final photos of my old and new hot water heaters. Doesn't the new one look cute?