What weird weather we're having #6

Shokami - sounds tough. I think you deserve the hot hands.

lol... thanks guys! just put them in the backs of my gloves while i work? are they water proof too? ive seen them but have never gotten any. i think i will invest in some soon!!

Not water proof, but when I've used them in my gardening gloves they've been o.k. I cleaned out mom's fountain the other day, put on thin gloves with the HH's, then a pair of kitchen gloves. Funny looking, but it worked. I've got Raynaud's disease, and I lose the circulation in my fingers when they get cold. Hurts really bad. That fountain was extremely cold and would have been impossible for me without the HH's.

I have to Laugh, Funny how Alarms can get 2 people at the same time and get mixed up with each other. As soon as I read the post from Sally, that I had high ceilings, I wanted to say right away ' that was Bea not me' many post later some one said it.
Sorry Bea, yours is a Spider, and why a Idiot would place it that high in the first place is beyond me. 'Dummies'
My are where I can reach them, Tried the reset buttons didn't work. Found the problem, which is weird. We had a power surge, which mess up part of the house some things where working some thing not, really strange. Vcr/Dvd would not work and smoke alarms would not stop. and some other odd things. I went out to the main power box on the outside pole a flipped the main breaker and reset it and all is fine now. Funny it did not mess with the puter must be on a diff. circuit

Funny about the Kitties, mine are all in my bed but one, Tilly loves the snow, then comes in when I'm warm and toastie in bed, and wants love and she is so cold and wet, and wants me to dry her off. Or brings me a treat. Ewww
Love the Pic of the moth? to cool.
And all the other Pics, wish I had more time to take em.
Its cold and Icy here and a mild wind that makes it worse, bone chilling to be exact.
Be safe

Thanks folks. It was an interesting day.

Katie, I didn't put it in the insect forum, but I suppose i could. I've just recently been venturing out a little past the two or three threads of my comfort zone (many more is too many for me to keep up with). The insect forum would be a huge step out of my little box! Don't you have to wonder when it comes to cats, who really has who trained?! I do. I'm pretty sure that most of them have us trained.

Shokami, wow... you are diligent! But, you do what you gotta do and get some hot hands to go with it! I swear by them as well. I'm glad that you made the trip there and back all right. It's not supposed to be any better for several days.

Sally, it's nice that you give that kitty a shelter. I feel bad for the outside cat that resides at my place as well. It's name is "Itsa". It's very resourceful, normally I just give it food, water and allow it to live under the deck. I would let it come inside if it didn't have some fairly serious psychological issues. I don't have a heating pad. But, I did build itsa a "nest" of blankets underneath a Kiddie table that sits on the deck and up against the house, then put a blanket that covers both the table and nest. I opened two of my "hot hands" and placed them in the nest as well. It's not quite as much as I would like to do, but it was the only thing that I could think of that would help. I don't think that there is any place is Oakridge that sells heating pads, but I think that I will go down into town tomorrow and look (it's a day off) just the same. Any idea how much a heating pad costs?

I'm glad that your DH got over the lack of play time in town. It really wasn't a great place to be today. I'd go home too!

Tilly, I'm soooooo happy to hear that you got your alarm figured out. Really, i'm surprised that you didn't permanently disable it before you got it fixed. Don't you just love those ice cold paws clinging on to you? :-p

Katie, any idea as of to which thread of forum to put the picture of the moth in? (gee, is it obvious I don't pay much attention to bugs :-p ) I found the insect identification forum and the pests and diseases forum. But, neither of those really fit. Any thoughts, from anyone?

Willow, thank you for liking the print enough to buy it :o) Hope you enjoy it.

Sally, Nero is currently on my lap, tucked in, when he or I gets up next time I’ll try to remember to post the picture I took.

red, Luke & Oliver really do look like the boys. Moose is a little darker yellow than Luke? I'm assuming Oliver is the black one and Luke is yellow. Nice looking dogs. This pic was taken on the 5th.

This message was edited Dec 16, 2008 7:58 AM

Now for a weather pic. This was taken this morning facing south, that's Bilbo with his behind towards the house. Sorry about the glare, I was too close to the glass door. It's -3 out and the boys are outside playing. They've been going stir crazy cooped up in the house so I just let them out to play for about 10 min.

This message was edited Dec 16, 2008 8:14 AM

Now facing east.

And now for my bird tree! LOL!

Redchic - I guess I was just thinking that you could post it in insect identification and then in bugfiles pictures (same as plantfiles pictures, except with bugs). You could probably put it in the wildlife photography forum, too. It's too cool a picture that I'll bet others would love to see!!

EP - Glad to see you back here.

It's so nice to see/hear everybody taking such good care of the kitties. It was so cold at my place last night (15) that I put two fleece coats on Nick when I took him out.

The snow is beautiful, but this cold is a little much for those of us not used to it.

Gardner.... Great pictures. I love the bird tree! how cold did it get there last night? Sorry, I didn't think to say who was who of the dogs. Luke is the chocolate lab and Oliver is the yellow. For some reason I had it in my mind that your Brute was a chocolate lab, he definitely is not. He's a black lab through and through! I think that part of it is the way the two dogs get along together, which is farely clear in the pictures. I think that I might have accidentally thrown a picture out, but if I didn't, I will have to post a pic of when it was Luke, Oliver, and Bailey.

Katie.... thanks for the idea! I will try that and see what the folks over in the id department can tell me about it, and then off to bugfiles. I always forget that there is a bugfiles just the same as plant files. Wow, 15 deg. for you. That's the bottom of your 8b zone. Are your plants going to be ok?

This is why I buy plants in zone 4 and up. I usually don't have any problems unless I try something not so hardy.

redc-If you look just right at the two chairs is the first picture, it looks like two tired snowmen slumping in those chairs. You can almost see their little faces. Love the eavesicles and the bug. The two sunsets could be christmas cards. Nice.

I'm so in denial about the plants. We'll just see what we see. I think having the snow layer helps immensely, so I'm grateful we had the snow first.

This is such an unusual year, though, that I wouldn't be surprised if even some natives may end up struggling.

Weather.com says it got to 19 last night in my zip code, officially. But my neighbors and I all agree that the cold air sinks down into my little hollow and makes it at least a couple degrees colder all the time (even in the summer, which is nice).

Tonight we have a 60% chance of snow; 80% chance tomorrow all day. But the temps will go up 10 degrees. I have no idea whether I'll be able to get in tomorrow or not.

Here's are article - looks like lots and lots of snow for everybody. I'm in unincorporated King County, about 5 miles from Snohomish county . . .

http://www.komonews.com/news/36224474.html

evening all... wow katie... i guess i wont complain about our 24* here then! though it is unually cold for us... not quite normal. but was clear and very sunny... so that was nice

it was cold enough that i went to one of my clients (the one whos lawn i just put in) and where i was going to plant the ground was frozen and so were the pots the plants were in!! soooooo.... i just stuck everything by the fence and were suppossed to have rain the rest of the week and into next with higher temps so hopefully that will thaw stuff out so i can plant!

oh and y'all a big WOO HOO FOR HOT HANDS! got some today and put them in the back of my gloves and ahhhhhhhhh.... nice... finger tips were still a bit cold but not to bad. thanks for the suggestion!

Glad you're able to keep your fingers safe, shokami. I know that a lot of people are going to have more snow, so that may include you. At least snow will bring a little bit warmer temperatures, so maybe you can bet your plants unstuck.

I think Zhinu and her mom may be setting the low temperature record. If I recall, their temperatures this week were worse than ours up here.

Oh, and I agree. It certainly is nice that the sun comes with the clear skies - I need it badly.

All the snow photos are so lovely. I think snow makes everything look peaceful.
The dogs are so cute! When I try to take a photo of Koka she turns her head like she's camera shy. She does not like cameras!
We are expecting a lot of weather tomorrow. Snow, icy rain, and then more snow. I have an appointment 12 miles away so maybe I will cancel it and not try to drive. However, my car did very well on the bad roads today. I love 4 wheel drive!
All you folks who are doing gardening and planting are brave indeed. I hope Santa is good to you. :)))

It was 19 when I got up this morning and went all the way up to 25. Now it's down to 18. Gonna be a cold one tonight. Got my tree up today, good thing we bought one in a box after Christmas last year, no way we could have gone out to get one now.

rc..did you go into Eugene today, wondering how bad the roads are. Need to get to the pharmacy (Costco) tomorrow. Thought I had enough of Mom's meds to last, but this thing is dragging out and tomorrow looks like the best day for a week, mainly because the streets are dry. Don't know how it is towards Costco though. We'll go through Springfield if the highway looks bad. First time it every lasted this long (if you include the forecast) that I can remember.

shokami2...glad they worked for you, it had to be way better than before. I feel bad for anyone who has to work outdoors in bad weather.

katie...looks like some of us are going to be replacing plants in the spring. This is really stressing all the plants.

Just came in from spin class and the grocery store......according to the bank it is 27 right now....with the wind....it is COLD!!! Will be interesting to see what the rest of the week brings.....probably won't be bad for us since I have a good stock of everything we might need for bad weather, isn't that how it works? Doen't look real good for a lot of plants does it?

Wow, wish it was that easy for me to get out. After getting stuck on the highway yesterday, I'm really leary. They said on the news last night that there were 25 accidents on the highway yesterday.

Here's how our other indoor kitty deal with the cold weather. This is right in line with the pellet stove.

That was Gretchen. Pookie meanwhile was busy elsewhere. Look down below.

Sally your tree looks beautiful! Pookie seems to like it as well! I ventured out yesterday to get a tree and it is standing there in my living room naked.
What are you all having for Christmas dinner?

Thank you.

I honestly haven't even thought about it. I've been doing lamb the last couple of years,(DH likes that Australian Lamb from Costco) but haven't decided yet. I've been down with a cold, I hate trying to cook when I don't have an appetite. It's just DH, mom and I, so no really big dinner. Guess I should start thinking about it. LOL

This message was edited Dec 16, 2008 10:12 PM

I'd like a seat up there next to Gretchen, looks warm and comfy. Sally your tree looks wonderful - I'll admire from afar as my cats would tear ours down if it were indoors so we'll not have one inside this year.

It was 13 here this morning when the dogs went out, cold enough that school was delayed 2 hours. Kids love it as it means more time to play in the snow before school. It was 19 when I let the dogs out tonight - but we have cloud cover so maybe we'll stay a bit warmer.

I like the idea of Australian Lamb - might add that with walnut pesto to the peroggi and cabbage rolls that kids have requested. This is the first time we've been home for Christmas so we don't have any real plans yet - we'll see what develops.

Hope everyone stays safe and warm.

Walnut pesto to the peroggi? Now that sounds right up my alley. And everyone likes cabbage rolls.

ladybuggfan....just googled walnut pesto..too many recipes to choose from. Do you have a favorite recipe?

Should have tried DG first, found several recipes on the food forum. That's a dangerous place to go. LOL

Cabbage Rolls sounds so good.

We are starting to get a few snow flakes here and there.

It's down to 11 deg on my deck. I hate it when it's this cold, worry about pipes. Not so much ours, but mom's place is older and wasn't kept up as well as ours. I did all the things you're supposed to do, so hope it's enough.

Sally, I wasn't in Eugene today. But, I heard from folks who were that it wasn't too bad. If you do go tomorrow, I would do it first thing in the morning, even if it is snowing. From what I heard on all the news stations this evening is that tomorrow will go about as follows: a good chance of snow in the morning, warming up to freezing rain in the early afternoon, followed by snow again by late afternoon. They were saying that the combination of freezing rain followed by snow would make things very slippery. So, that's what I heard. I'm hoping that it wont happen. Your cats are both so cute!

Portland, does your flash always go off when taking a picture of Koka? that might be the problem. You may have to try taking pictures without the flash until she gets it figured out that there won't always be this bright light. Our "office cat" is that way. He knows that sound that older cameras make when the flash is 'warming up' and he bolts every time. Good luck with the appointment tomorrow. Good thing that you have 4WD. I sure wish that I did.

Katie, good luck with those plants! Hopefully they had a lot of mulch or something around them. I know that you live sort of out of the way of things. Do you by any chance have any neighbors that are a nursery or orchard? If so, they might let you borrow a smudgepot if they have any extra. They are rather elemental in their nature, but the do heat a pretty wide area. I know someone who has a plant nursery and on occasion they have lent out a smudgepot or two.

Willow, wow you do get some hardy plants!! I thought that I was doing good by having pretty much a mix of zone 5 and 6 stuff. I have maybe 7 or 8 perennials that are zone 7. I have just one perennial that is zone 8, and I love it anyhow and will always try to make it work. That's my Salvia "black and blue." I don't care if I have to replace it every other year, I love it. I might loose my dahlias, but i've always had luck with them if the ground is dry, even if it is cold. They've seen at least 12 deg. before on plenty of occasions, although never for this long. The ground at my place is really dry under the icy snow, so I'm hopeful. I forgot to mention earlier that I really liked your pictures. That must be interesting having a golf course for a neighbor. Do you ever find golf balls in your yard?

So, I was able to find a heating pad in town to put in the "nest" that I made for the outside cat - "itsa." Itsa was a little hesitant at first, but then curled up and wouldn't come out. Within an hour I caught a raccoon with it's head in there. I was sooo peeved. I detest those things. I chased it off. I stood out there for about 10 min. having a standoff with it. I finally threw rocks at it. Then I had to leave to come up to the place that I'm staying out. about a half an hour later, they called me to tell me that they had to shew the raccoons off a couple more times. Arrrgggg.... Anyone have any ideas about what I can do to keep the raccoons out of there? no, the cats food is not in that area either. I'm not in city limits, but it would still really rile the neighbors if they heard a gun go off at night.

Oh.... is it safe to leave a heating pad on all the time? I've never used one for something like this before.

rc....Thanks, I'm going to check mom's pills in the a.m. and see exactly where we stand. Of course DH wants to go in anyway, I cut his shopping short yesterday. Cancelled our orchid meeting for Wednesday, I wasn't going anyway, not after dark and they cancelled the men's breakfast here for tomorrow(DH is bummed). Saw on the news, no trash pickup...didn't catch when. Whole town is grinding down to a halt. But people still have dr. appointments, schools are still open in a lot of places, and of course they're advertising the sales at all the stores. Don't quite understand how the city can declare a severe weather ermergency and the schools are still open. Don't go anywhere unless you have to but send your kids out on the roads in a bus.

I've been leaving mine on low for the last three years. It's in the garage, but I keep it away from the walls or anything else that would burn if anything did happen. I started after a neighbor told me they had done it for years in Montana. I think as long as it's on low you're o.k. I've got mine set on three right now, usually it's on two. It must be warmer than anywhere else she found, when the temps get low that's where you'll find her. There is a thread for making a feral cat enclosure on the pet forum. Double cardboard boxes with insulation between. I might think about doing that for next year. Don't know about the raccoons, can you put it up where the cat can get to it but not the raccoon?

I like that idea about the boxes. I agree, it would be good for next spring. Good to know about the heat pad. I will have to do that. There's not really anyplace outside the house that the raccoons can't get to. I don't have any shelves outside. there's a picnic table that is moved up onto the porch during the winter. They climb up onto it to actually see what's going on inside. One will actually play the watchperson while the others are below. they climb the supports for the rail and then crawl all over the railing scratching the paint off. They've even crawled out on the branches of the fir trees that are by the roof and jump over to the roof. They don't do that often, but I guess they were curious about something. Sorry i'm ranting here. Is it obvious that i'm just seething about those creatures? If i weren't worried about Itsa (outdoor cat) getting into a trap I would try that. I've also heard the neighbors say that for every one that they catch and move, another joins the pack. I'm also worried that if i were to put something that would attract the raccoons into a trap, that it might also bring the bears or the Really big cats around more than they already are.

So any ideas???? please!!!!

Mine pretty much disappeared after a neighbor started feeding them. Little buggers just seem to know where to go for food. I get one every once in a while, but I can always tell when the neighbor is out of town. I agree about not wanting the bears or big cats coming in, you don't need that for sure. I've been lucky that they don't tear up anything around here. Since I started putting the cat food and water in the garage and put in the kitty door, we haven't had a problem. I won't let DH feed them, no matter how cute they are. He has this natural urge to nurture, it's really hard for him not to. I just go run them off, so they can't look at him.

On that thread, someone said something about a raccoon sharing the box. Most unpleasant for the cat I'm sure.

Maybe you should bring the dogs over and let them do their thing all around the deck?

That's a good plan Sally! Maybe I can take food over to a neighbors house down the road. It's a neighbor that's only there one or two weekends a month. They might not ever notice!! I'm surprised the your DH wants to feed them! But, it also nice that you're married to a really nice guy. I guess that's a more than fair trade. :-p

Ohhhhh that poor cat. I bet that it was just about terrified to move. If it wasn't.... it wasn't that bright of a cat. I will have to read that thread thoroughly.

I'm seriously considering a sling shot, but i'm not sure that it will be all that effective since they come when I'm asleep as well.

haha.... that actually has a lot of potential. At least it would work for a while. This dog hates cats, it would do everything it could to kill Itsa. However, if I put him in the kennel (really large kennel with lots of room to run) that might be good enough. The two trees that the pack spends most of their time in are right next to the kennel, at least half of the branches are over the kennel. It would certainly scare the 'coons out of those trees. I don't think that I've posted a picture of Shadow yet. I will now. But, I could easily barrow Luke and Oliver for several days... they love cats and chase anything else that moves. That's an excellent plan Sally. I think that I will talk to Luke and Olivers' people and see about bringing them over to my place once I'm done house sitting here!!! I like it.

This is Shadow playing "fetch" today. He's actually a very good dog. He'd be a great dog if he didn't dislike cats, imho anyhow.