Beautiful Sunset

Cold and clear today. Most of the snow is melted from the yard, but the water from the roof melt formed a sheet of ice outside the kitchen door last night. Slippery going!

I noticed the eastern sky was colored at sunset time, and knowing that meant the western sky would have brilliant color, I grabbed my camera and went out to check it out and caught this view of the sunset and the pond below our house.

From Fog to Blue Skies

The day started out overcast and foggy. The photo is looking south down our street.


By mid morning the fog was gone and for the first time in a while, I could see blue sky! Not just a bit of blue peeking through the clouds, but big beautiful patches of blue! Lots of melting going on today, the yard is almost bare of snow! This photo was taken on the way to the library
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More Snow

It snowed again during the night, we got about 3 inches. I enjoyed watching the horses play this morning, they love to run and frolic in the snow. Or maybe they're just freezing and that's the only way they have to warm up.

I had to laugh when I saw this. It looks like a giant ice cream cone!

And here's our yard all covered in powdered sugar again.

Gorgeous Sunrise

The sunrise this morning was spectacular! The photo doesn't do it justice, but here it is.

It was sunny today and we had a lot of snow melt going on. The north side of our house by the fence has been a frozen mess since it snowed before Christmas and we scraped and shoveled 3 wheelbarrows full and cleared it out.

The clouds rolled in this afternoon and it's looking like another storm is on the way.

The Becker Building

I saw Tawny this afternoon and she helped my back pain and headache a bunch! Took this photo of the old Becker building and garage on my way home. The building is empty now, the last business that was in it, closed down. The building was sold, but so far, no one has opened up a new business. I just love old buildings!

After accompanying me to the Dentist yesterday, and having to sit and breathe the strong candle smell, John decided he wasn't going back there, so I got him an appointment with the new dentist in town today. He liked him, and they don't burn candles in their office, so I think I'm going to switch, too. I'm tired of the strong smell and the headaches it gives me! Another case of strong smells giving me weird reactions!

Drip, Drip, Drip

The sun is out, the skies are blue and we're hearing the sound of water dripping off the roof. Still lots of snow around and I saw some cute snowmen on the way to the dentist's office this morning. It was so strange seeing all the huge piles of snow that were bladed up while clearing parking lots, that's not a common sight here!

This cute couple looks ready for some fun in the sun! And the fellow below is ready to serve up some nice cold drinks!

Bright and Cold

The sky was clear today and we had lots of sun. It seemed colder than yesterday and we didn't get much melting. The eves are covered in icicles, some of them are getting really long!

Overcast, But Not Much More Snow

We were supposed to get snow until midday today, but we didn't get much. I feel sorry for MIsty and Santana, the two horses that live across the street from us, they look cold and miserable today.

Snow and More Snow!

The big storm has hit us! We measured 6 inches at 6 am and it was still snowing! It was a good day to stay home, sorry exercise, we didn't want to venture out this morning. There are lots of roads in the area shut down, no mail because the highway is closed and schools are having a snow day, the roof on the Pinetop Fire Station collapsed, the snow is wet and heavy! Flagstaff got about 54 inches, Pinetop about 51 inches and we measured 7 1/2 inches at our house, but there was probably more because some melting was taking place while it was snowing.

2", 4", 6" or 4 feet, What Will We Get?

We've been checking the weather predictions for our area and we get a different amount of snow coming in the next storm depending on which site we check. We went shopping, filled the cars with gas, and a can for the generator, just in case. So, I guess we're as ready as one can be. The Rainbow Lake area is already without power, ice brought down lines and they haven't been able to restore power to the area yet. If we get another big storm I wonder if they will be able to in the near future? Some of the houses have electric heat, so they are without any heat! They have closed roads in the Flagstaff area, they already have over 3 feet of snow from the last storm! Global Warming, where are you when we need you!!!

One of John's rock and metal snakes slithering through the snow, burr, he looks cold!

What A Day!

After a night of terrible winds, we woke up to a white world. We got about 2 or 3 inches of snow during the night. Beautiful, but cold!

I've had a not so fun couple of days! Yesterday, after the new elements were installed in our ETS heater, I noticed a strong smell coming from them. A couple hours later my vision started being weird, I was seeing a black zigzag and things were blurry. I took a nap and felt better, then that evening it happened again, and this time I had a headache along with it. We made a trip to the ER, where they examined me and had a CT scan done and didn't find any sign of a stroke, tumor or bleeding in the brain. They released me and told me to go see Dr. Miles, an ophthalmologist in the near future. After another episode this morning, I called and got in to see him this afternoon. He didn't find any problems with my eyes, but said my symptoms are classic migraine symptoms and he thinks that's what I'm having. Not fun! I am hoping that the cause is a chemical given off by the heater elements and once we get that out of the air, I won't have any more problems! The roads had mostly cleared up by the time we left, just a few spots where blowing snow had covered the road. We enjoyed the view along the highway of a winter wonderland, so pretty! Wow, looking at this picture, it doesn't look like we're on a paved highway, but we were!

The ETS Heater is Back Up and Running!

The guys came to fix our ETS heater today. They discovered that only one of the elements was working! When they started taking out the bricks we could see why, some of the elements were in tiny pieces, they'd melted apart! Hope the new ones will last longer than the 2 years these have! They've gone through the afternoon heating cycle now and I didn't hear them vibrating like the old ones did, so maybe these will last longer. I hope so!

We got a bit of snow this morning. John went out to start the cars and he said there wasn't any snow on the ground, but by the time I left for exercise, just a few minutes later, the ground was lightly covered, just like yesterday. We never did get much snow, just a light skiff. I did see a snowplow coming back into town, so there must have been some up Alpine way. I took this photo about 7:30 this morning. The snow had stopped and this is all we got.

Gifts

Last Sunday, when we were visiting, Jessie filled a bag with gifts for us to take home. She is one of the most generous people I have ever known and is always giving us something. Here's a picture of our gifts, a little tree that opens, like the egg she gave me last year, a pine cone tree, a candle and 4 stuffed animals, two for me and two for John. Such a sweet girl!

The weather forecasters keep saying we are going to get snow, well they got the 100% part right, but we didn't get much and it melted right away. Glad they were wrong on the amount we were going to get! Still more predicted for this week, so we'll see what we end up with!

My Little Breath of Spring

Just before Christmas I planted several bulbs. They are blooming now and have brightened up the cold winter! Red, white and pink, they are gorgeous!

I finished up the photo project for John. I put them all together and made a poster. It turned out pretty good.

Deer and Antelope Oh My!

We saw two groups of deer grazing close to the road on our way out of town this morning and a big herd of antelope close to the spot we saw some last week. Kind of scary driving around here at night, you never know when one is going to jump out in front of you! Stopped to take pictures of the antelope, but we didn't see the deer soon enough to get any pictures.

As we got close to Vernon we went through an area of heavy smoke; prescribed burning, whew, the smell was strong!

There is still lots of snow on the ground in the Show Low area and as we went up the road to Pinetop, it got heavier. So good for our forests, hope the trees are soaking up the moisture!

Quiet Day

I didn't make it to the gym this morning, I woke up early this morning with a horrible muscle cramp in my leg. It hurt so bad, I thought I was going to pass out! It's been sore and painful all day. I spent most of the day on the computer, sorting and organizing my layouts and working on John's project. I'm almost finished with it.

We found the Bob's Biscuit and gravy mix at Bashas that we haven't been able to find up here! We asked them to order it and they finally got it. We've had it at Charles' and love it. Yea, Bashas! We had biscuits and gravy and eggs for supper, yumm.

New Project

John brought home some pictures from work he wants me to scan so he can have a big poster printed out. They are a series of photos pasted together to make panoramas showing the progress of the construction of the power plant from 1981 to 2002. The originals have been hanging on a wall at the plant and are getting faded and worn and soon they will be too faded to see. I spent the day scanning them in and cleaning up and erasing the joints where the photos join. Lots of work!

Old Trucks

Our neighbors have a cool old truck on their property and I braved the freezing temperatures to walk over and snap a few pictures of it this afternoon. The sky is overcast and it looks like a storm is coming in, wish it would warm up a bit! The guys still haven't come to fix the ETS heater and it's getting cold in here!

The Annual Saddle Exchange

Every other year we have custody of a saddle that belonged to John's grandpa. We figure it must be over 100 years old. Tonight we had our annual get-together with the cousins that have the saddle during the time we don't to exchange it. It's always fun to get together with them and catch up on what they've been doing. We took them to the new restaurant in town, where we all tried the enchiladas. They were okay, but not as good as Booga Reds.

Bye Bye Rat Poison!

Yea, John has been released by the doctor. Doc says he is doing great, the last x-ray showed that the infarcted area of his lung is healing and clearing up and all signs of the blood clots are gone! So, he doesn't need to take Coumadin anymore! (Coumadin is basically the same thing that's in rat poison, it stops the blood from clotting) He had to stop taking it a week ago so he could have his dental crown replaced, and we were hoping the doc would tell him he didn't need to start up again.

Sunday

Jessie and I had fun today. We went shopping for some earbuds for my MP3, the ones that came with it were hurting my ears. Then we got pizza at Safeway and made a pie and had a yummy lunch. We played with our cameras and took some goofy pictures of us. Here's one Jessie took.

She had so much fun taking pictures of her napping Pa, she says he's so cute when he's asleep.

LOL, bet you thought it was going to be a photo of his face! (She was playing ring toss with the pillows, throwing them at his legs.)

On the way to take her home, she took this mug shot of her elephant, she said he'd been bad, so she had to get some police shots of him.


It was a fun weekend! All pictures here were taken by Jessie, I haven't downloaded mine from the camera yet.

Here's a poem Jessie wrote this weekend. She learned about acrostic poems in in school recently and wanted to share with us. We would write the word for her and she came up with the poem. She even talked me into writing a few, it was fun!

How I love horses, they're always
Of beauty. Horses aren't
Rare. They can be
Skittish because they are scared. They
Eat hay and horse treats. I
Still love horses even if they are expensive.

She does love horses and was so happy that she got to help Sue feed Misty and Santana this weekend.

We saw these antelope (pronghorns) on the way to Vernon and stopped on the way home to take their picture.

Visitors

Andy and Jessie came over today, Andy to help John work on the camper and Jessie to spend the night with us.

While the guys were busy Jessie and I had fun taking photos. At least two of my granddaughters take after me, they love to take pictures, what fun for me when they come to visit!

Here's one of Jessie's pictures, she arranged the vegetables and fruit and decided on the photo angle herself, I love it!

Wishes

For a long time now, all winter long and every spring when the winds start howling, I've wished for a dome to cover our property to keep us nice and snug. Just before Christmas I checked out a book by Stephen King from the library that has made me rethink this! The name of the book is Under The Dome and it's the story of a town that had this happen. Of course, they can't get out and my dome was going to have doors, but still, things I'd never thought of, pollution, no fresh air coming in, no moisture, all kinds of things that hadn't entered my rosy dome thoughts. So . . . maybe I'll stop wishing for a dome! Or, maybe I'll just make mine a magic dome that takes care of all that stuff! I finished the book last night, it's over 1,000 pages, whew!

New glasses and Gas Prices

I finally got my new glasses! It's so hard to get the prescription right for me, RK surgery years ago has made my eyes fluctuate and so my prescription and vision aren't stable. Every year, I get the new glasses and have to go back and have the prescription redone. This year, when the prescription didn't work, the doctor went about it more scientifically. He had me come back several times, in the afternoon as well as the morning. He discovered that my eyes are worst in the mornings and if I get my eyes checked then, the prescription isn't going to work the rest of the day. And of course I usually make my appointments early in the morning! He told the receptionist not to let me do that anymore, LOL, so hopefully next year we won't have to go through this!

Here's what gas is costing us now, I wonder how high it will be a year from now?

Go Elks!

When I got up this morning, I was still sore from working out a bit to hard yesterday, so I took today off. It's hard to get up and go to the gym so early in the morning, (between 5 and 5:30) but I think it's doing me some good, I'm getting stronger! I lift weights and do at least a mile on the Elliptical most days, they are closed on the weekends so we take them off. John goes with me on his days off, it's much easier to go when he goes with me! (He warms the car up and turns on the seat heaters, such a sweet guy!)

We had to get the radiator replaced in the Acura, it's been leaking for a while now and making the car run rough, I never would have thought that being low on antifreeze would make a car idle rough, but it did this one! We picked up the car this afternoon and on the way home, I stopped and took this picture of Snoopy and the gang cheering on our Elks. I've been driving past this window for a couple of years now, thinking every time I did that I should stop and take a picture, it makes me smile every time I see it!

Evergeen

I love my evergreen trees! In the summer, I can stand under them and hear the special sound they make as the breeze blows through their needles and smell their wonderful smell and feel I am in the forest. In the winter, their green needles cheer me, a touch of life in a cold dead garden and a reminder that not everything sleeps in the cold winter outdoor world.

Orange Slices

Can't have Christmas without having some Orange Slices around. Yumm! I put the leftover slices in baggies and put them in the freezer today. They'll be waiting until one of us has an Orange Slice attack later on. John had bad luck with them, he was chewing one the other day and it pulled out one of his caps! Luckily the tooth has had a root canal, so there has been no pain. We're still waiting on the dentist to get back from his holiday vacation so I can make an appointment for him. He stopped taking Coumadin today, anticipating that the dentist will have to do some cutting on his gums to put it back in.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! Carleen Sandy and I helped her celebrate by eating out at China Garden. We were a bit disappointed in the food, it didn't have much flavor. But they did give her a musical birthday card, that was sweet of them!

Andy's family took the quilt we made to her after she got home and she told me that was the perfect end to a great day, she loved it and loved that Andy thought of her and instigated the project.

Holiday Gifts

Jessie gave John and I these cute little animals for Christmas. Santa Bear is John's and Rudolph is mine.

Happy New Year!

It's 2010! I wonder how long it is going to take me to learn to write 2010 and not 2009? I always have a hard time changing.

I have decided to try and complete project 365 this year. Project 365 is taking a photo each and every day of the year! I started last year, but I was late starting and forgot some days, this year I'm going to try and remember!

I took the tree down today, good to have that done, now to get the rest of the Christmas stuff put away!

I saw this beautiful moon shining through my window tonight and had to go out and take a photo. Wow, it was so bright!