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Let's compare weather!
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Weather - What's YOUR weather today? (Part ONE - Started Sat., March 14, 2009) (Let's keep this going.)
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Jim
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Feb 24, 2010 09:48AM
We have snow here today. No accumulation, just ugly. Yuck.
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Yes, we've had some flickers here. I understand that some areas around northern Lake George have lost their power.
A friend in Bolton was out from 2 am to 6 am.
Jackie wrote: "A friend in Bolton was out from 2 am to 6 am."Oi.
Last week, our temperatures turned relatively warm, and much of our snow melted. But it dropped into the 30s again by Sunday and stayed there, and started to snow heavily last night. It's still coming down; so our landscape is again thickly carpeted in white, and they expect several inches by tonight, with more snow storms expected through Sunday. I'd had a feeling that Winter wasn't through with us! My sympathy goes out to all the rest of you who are coping with snow too.
Mid teens again here today with an inch or two of snow. Just enough to cancel school & make ice skating to work interesting. Not as bad as last week, at least the main roads were clear, but it was too cold for the salt to work fast & lots of drifting.Another oddity was the snowplows. One woke me up scraping our road at 4:20am, but the main road hadn't been touched yet. The latter is a state road, so different crews, but last snow we didn't get plowed until mid morning. I guess either the judge or the other couple, who are supervisors for county transportation, made a point... (It's not where you live, but who lives near you...?)
I'm hoping this wet weather with temps above freezing will help the snow melt quickly.Werner, it's interesting to hear that there's snow in VA too!
Jim, the squeaky wheel gets the oil and the influential Big Wheel gets the snow-plowing. :)
Today was so beautiful. I find it hard to believe it's winter in the Adirondacks! A perfect Spring-like day. Sunshine and warm temperatures. Juneau and I were out for a long time. Very enjoyable weather.This has been the mildest winter I've experienced here. Compared to winters of the past, this year is downright balmy in comparison.
I'm sorry for all the snow grief everyone else is getting, though. All the snow is staying south this year. Strange weather patterns.
Jackie wrote: "Today was so beautiful. I find it hard to believe it's winter in the Adirondacks! A perfect Spring-like day. Sunshine and warm temperatures. Juneau and I were out for a long time. Very enjoyabl..."Yes, Jackie, when the sun came out today (Sunday), I felt wonderful! It won't be long now that we'll be seeing more of it with warmer temps. Can't believe that March has finally arrived (a few minutes ago). :) March is the last mile.
And yes, the snow went south this year. Downstate NY had a foot of it a few days ago! I'm so happy to see the snow slowly melting away here. Fingers crossed that we won't see too much more coming down. But you never know!
Someone who I suspect is a poet at heart wrote this about the weather for the paper here in our area, I quote:When there are no signs of spring
and the cold is relentless;
anticipation and depression go hand in hand
But today I heard a bird; not a winter bird,
but a bird searching for an early mate.
Listen to the trees.
Spring is just around the corner.
Garry Leonard
From nina
Nina wrote: "Someone who I suspect is a poet at heart wrote this about the weather for the paper here in our area, I quote:When there are no signs of spring
and the cold is relentless;
anticipation an..."
That's lovely, Nina! Thank you!
Ever since Dec. 1 (which I think of as the first day of winter :-) ) our weather has turned colder, with temperatures mostly in the 30s and sometimes 20s at night. We had light snows in the morning on both Dec. 1 and 2, though they didn't lay long; but it started to snow heavily yesterday morning, continued to all day and into the night (maybe all night) and is still coming down now. It's a thick, beautiful snow, so our neighborhood is transformed into a winter wonderland!
We got snow all day yesterday, too. We got about 4" but the temperature was right at freezing, so it only stuck on the porches & cars. Only about an inch was still on the ground when I went to bed last night. Then the temp dropped to the mid-twenties & we got another inch. It's snowing lightly now - still. I kind of like it. It's pretty, but not too deep where it really counts. I didn't have any trouble with the gates when I got a load of hay this morning, but did have fun driving crazily around the field in 4WD. Whee! The porches were easy to clear again & I got a few other chores done like putting out the heated dog dish so the birds can get water. Now I'm a little chilled, pleasantly tired & hungry. Brunch time!
I'm glad to finally be over that bug I had. Apparently I was so sick the last time I did hay that Marg had to rehang the pipe gate in the barn. I forgot it completely. I remember it took everything I had to get back into the house before passing out for several hours. Sheesh! I hate being sick like that. A couple of dozen bales of hay shouldn't kill a person like that.
Werner and Jim: I can only say that I'm glad we haven't had snow here yet in Glens Falls. I know how pretty snow can be but it brings with it many things to worry about, not to mention the work of clearing it away. Years ago I enjoyed snow more. I never thought to worry about it. :) I still love the song "Winter Wonderland". :)Jim, it's good to hear you're feeling better!
Was it the chicken soup that did it or reading a good book. One of my friends had a bad cold last week and couldn't come to my luncheon as she feared she would give her germs away so instead she went outside and planted 40 bulbs in her garden and said she felt better for it. It wasn't that warm here. I have not heard of planting bulbs to cure a cold but never to old to learn something. nina
I think it was just time, Nina. I haven't had much time to read & haven't had any soup since last weekend. I never stopped trying to get stuff done while sick - Marg said that made me sicker for a while. Today was the first day I wasn't exhausted after doing a few simple chores in almost 3 weeks. I took the dogs & goats for a walk in the woods both yesterday & today. The goats were disappointed today since they couldn't find acorns under the snow. I still had some in my pocket, so they weren't totally bereft. They're so funny. They bounce along just like the dogs, but instead of stopping to sniff, they stop to nibble. Yesterday they followed me out to the big barn & helped me get some stuff. They ran right out with the dogs when I called, too.
I think it's about time for poor old Speedy. He's miserable in the paddock by himself (although the goats jump in & out to help him with his hay) or stuck in a stall. He can't have any of the horses' alfalfa hay though. He gets a strict ration of grass hay & even so has been having bouts of diarrhea. He's really gone down hill these past few months. He is 31 or so now, so I guess time is just catching up to him.
Jim, give Speedy a pat for me... or whatever one does to show a horse affection. Poor old guy. Guess he's not so speedy anymore. How do horse years compare with human years?
Speedy prefers apple treats. We have a small trash can with a big (25lb?) bag of them. I always keep a dozen in my coat pocket & all the horses know it. He got two yesterday. I'll tell him one was from you, Joy. ;-)
Speedy is a pony. Horses live mid 20's to early 30's at the outside, generally. I've known a few horses in their early 30's & that's like 100 in people years. Ponies are a different matter. I've known a couple that lived in to their 40's, but generally they're anywhere from mid-20's into their 30's. It varies widely with the breed & specific pony, but no one is surprised when they live a decade longer than a horse.
Speedy is still pretty speedy, when he wants to be - for a short time. Marg was out riding Cutter the other day, so I hopped on Speedy bareback & caught up with her. We were riding around the woods & he got a wild hair. He went from a slow shuffle to a gallop in an instant. He even put in a couple of small bucks to show me he was feeling good & trying to take advantage of me because I was sick. Then he turned around & tried to bite my leg because I was laughing at him. He didn't try real hard & coughed a few times, so I let him get away with it. He should know by now that he can't dump me, but occasionally he tries just because he's a nasty, crusty old coot.
It was 15 degrees at my house this morning. Ugh! I live in the SOUTH, Momma Nature! South = warm, remember?!!! Sheesh! We're not supposed to go above freezing until Thursday. Yuck.
Jim, it sounds as if Speedy has quite a personality. :) Hope he lives a while longer. Does he take the whole apple at once? I can't imagine that. Oh... I guess not... you wouldn't be able to keep twelve whole apples in your pocket. :) So you must cut them up. Or do you buy them like that?Hope your temperatures warm up soon there. Our temps here in Glens Falls have been in the mid twenties overnight lately. It goes up into the thirties during the day. But they say that our temps are currently 10 degrees below average lately. So it's a bit of a cold spell.
They're apple treats, not real apples, Joy. They're pressed cakes about 3/4" thick, 1.5" wide & broken off in various lengths up to about 2". The horses eat them in one bite & love them. I don't think they taste much like apple, though. I'm not really sure what's in them. Marg buys a 25 lb bag once a year or so & we keep it in a small, metal trash can in the feed room.Speedy is quite a character. He's tutored many a young Pony Clubber through various phases of the program. We got him about 10 years ago & Erin used him for Games. She used to run around with him in the pony cart until he pulled something when he slipped once. Now he's retired. One of us will hop in him to give the dogs a run around the place usually. Marg is giving a boy down the road lessons on him occasionally. I think Gregory is more interested in playing in my shop, but he'll take what he can get when he can. Nice, bright kid, but his family is a mess.
I wish it would warm up here! It's not supposed to get above freezing again until Thursday. Twenties during the day, teens at night. Ugh! Momma Nature is confused.
;-)
What would animal trainers do without "treats"? Our dog comes a-running when I offer him his best-loved treat, Chicken Nibbles. They're small so that the dog doesn't gain weight due to his treats.http://www.petguys.com/-727348881010....
Sounds as if Speedy has earned his keep and his apple treats over the years. He's had a good life too.
Keep warm, Jim. When I feel chilly, I snuggle under a small electric throw-blanket. Feels so good!
Temp here is 28.8 F, mid-afternoon. The Nat'l Weather Service says that the current temp in Frankfort, KY, is 19 °F.
Being one of our animals is probably not the worst thing that could happen to one.;-)
It's 18 here, but we're 800 feet above Frankfort, so it's not unusual for us to be colder. Ugh. 10 degrees colder than Upstate NY is just wrong! At least it quit snowing. We only got another 1/2", but still...
They're talking about an ugly storm coming through on Saturday night now. We were planning on going out to a friend's house for dinner & dominoes. They're in Louisville, 45 minutes away, so we won't if it is supposed to get bad out.
Good luck with that storm, Jim.
Hope Speedy is comfortable in the stable with the snow outside of it. My daughter's horses gulp a whole small apple or carrot with glee when I am out there. Our weather here is chilly at night but not too bad in the daytime; thirties or forties and sometimes up to fifty. you just can't tell; a drought though as no moisture for twenty one days and counting. A quote for Joy: "The man who does not read Good Books has no advantage over the man who can't read them," Mark Twain nina
It's supposed to go into the single digits tonight, so he is in the stable tonight. Generally when it is dry, he stays out in his paddock. Too cold tonight, even for Mr. Fuzzy, another of his nicknames. He's a Welsh, so he gets almost as fuzzy as a Shetland.It gets messy when they eat a whole apple, doesn't it Nina? Ours drool all over. Old ones, like Speedy, often have trouble since they're often missing teeth or have worn them away.
Good quote, Nina.Jim, I've always wondered how animals can endure the cold weather, even in an unheated stable. I feel sorry for them. But I guess they survive. Maybe they get used to it.
My daughter boarded her horses for twenty years without a stable for cover in the winter and I worried but they did survive. How I don't know. I am sending you and Jim a picture my daughter took of a bird nest recently made from the tail hairs of one of her horses. I think it is a work of art. nina
Nina, yes, the bird nest is lovely. Those birds are hard workers! :)
That is neat, Nina. I have a similar one on the shelf above my bed. It amazes me how they can do that.Cold usually isn't a problem for animals that live outside. They grow the fur for it. Of course, the way we move animals around, that's less true than it once was, but it still basically holds true. Unseasonable cold will get to them, but what really will do them in is getting wet & then cold.
The light snow we had - an inch over the entire night - tends to melt in their fur & just make them damp & more susceptible to the cold. If we get the same inch in an hour, the first bit will melt & the rest will insulate them. Cold rain turning to ice is the worst. For any of it, having a place to get out of the weather is best.
Our barn, designed by Marg, has an opening 22' wide by 12' tall in the south east side that we can't close up, but with the horses in there, the windows on the northwest & the two 6' doors on the southwest & northeast both closed, the temperature can be 20 degrees warmer in the center than it is outside. The horses are 1000 lbs each & Speedy is about 600. He's in the stall next to the heated tack room & most protected, so he's warm as toast.
We also have blankets for the horses. The good Rambo blankets are insulated & cost about $250 each. Marg sprays them with waterproofing spray, too. Even thin skinned, Florida raised Cutter is fine on the coldest, wettest nights in the barn with a blanket on. Marg didn't put one on him tonight, even though it will go into the single digits & he won't be cold. Marg NEVER lets any of her animals get cold or hungry - even me. (Trust me, I rate below the horses & dogs on the I'll-take-care-of-you list. She figures I can, they can't.)
Jim, glad to hear that the animals can deal with the cold. How do you know if they feel cold or not?
Joy, you can tell. Don't you know when your dog, husband or kid gets cold? Way before they shiver, you can see it in their body language. We've lived with them all our lives & theirs. I don't know how to describe it, but we can glance out & tell. We're always looking out to make sure they're OK, anyway. Their fields surround our house on 3 sides & the barn is directly behind the house so we can see it easily out the big 6' sliding glass door from the living/dining room & kitchen, not to mention a big window in Marg's bedroom.I should have mentioned wind & sun, too. Both are huge factors in keeping warm. Wind chill is a real factor with the animals, just like people. All the horses have sheets, thinner blankets, as well as their thick ones. They'll cut the wind, keep off flies or rain, as well.
The horse barn is 36' on a side, so the run-in area is 24' deep. The stalls are along the northwest - 2 stalls & then the tack room, all 12'x12'. Down the northeast side is the grooming area & feed room, actually an open space with a concrete floor (like the tack room) 12' wide & 24' long. The barn is angled with the opening to the southeast because that way it gets morning sun, but not the super hot afternoon sun of the summer. Any storms typically come from the west, sometimes north or south, but never from the east or southeast.
All in all, it's worked out really well. The way it is situated, the doors & windows, all allow it to be well ventilated in the summer or cozy enough in the winter. Marg did a great job situating it. The only problem is it cuts off the view of the sunsets from our back porch, but I guess that's the price we had to pay. Most of the time, we'd rather see the horses & goats.
Jim, actually I can only tell when I myself feel cold. Most of the time when I think someone may feel cold, they tell me they're OK. I feel the cold more than they do.One cold winter night I forgot that our dog, jorji, was outside and I fell asleep. Eddie found him outside an hour or two later. I still feel bad about that, thinking about him being out there in the cold. But he survived.
I'm sure you are in tune with your animals and it sounds as if you have a great setting for them.
Thanks for all the info on your particular barn. My daughter's barn's opening faces south. I don't know the other particulars but I think the blankets are interesting and I intend to ask my daughter if they have them. She got her first horse for Christmas when she was fourteen and hasn't been without one or two since. Plus, now there is a Jack Russell and a taby cat. Once there was a mule. As a baby he was a Christmas present for her husband. It's fun to hear about your animals. I usually pass it on to Megan. nina
Well, it didn't get as cold last night as they said. It was 14 degrees this morning. We got another 1/2" of snow though. The bloody weather men didn't mention that.I'm surprised you can't tell, Joy. I thought that was a parent thing.
Nina, our barn isn't typical. I've built a dozen or more horse barns over the years & worked on dozens more, but never seen one like it. Usually they have more stalls with a run-in shed attached to the outside of the main structure rather than incorporated into it or as completely separate structures. Most of the folks I did that for had no worries about money, though.
Actually, barns are quite often cobbled together from an existing structure. I've converted dairy barns for sheep, steers & horses. Changed cow, pig, tractor & all sorts of odd sheds to house animals or equipment. I even converted an old, three hole outhouse into a very nice chicken coop once.
In this case, we got to build it from scratch, but were constrained by money. It cost us $20,000 or a bit more anyway. Still, Marg got pretty much what she wanted. We've both worked in many over the years & between us, we designed the best we could afford. It is working out very well, although we would have liked another stall, a toilet, & to have a hay loft, instead of keeping just a few dozen bales in the feed area, but a loft would have cost too much - almost 50% more. The big tobacco barn holds all the hay we need easily, so I just have to ferry a couple of dozen bales over every week or two. The house is close enough for the bathroom & she does have hot & cold water along with a heated tack room. Not perfect, but a workable compromise that we could afford.
We were building my shop at the same time. I just have a hydrant outside of it & I dearly wanted a utility sink, but decided it was just too expensive. I probably should have just gone for it, looking back. Well, we did so much in such a short time, we were bound to make a few mistakes.
Jim, it sounds as if you've done OK!
We have, Joy. We've done real well. There's always something more I'd like to do, though.;-)
Ugh, 6 degrees at home this morning, although it is a balmy 13 here at work. YUCK! It is supposed to warm up some tomorrow. We're supposed to just get above freezing during the day & then be warmer on Friday. Looks like either lots of snow or freezing rain on Saturday night, though. Double yuck.
Wow, Jim, that really COLD! We currently have 19.4 F in Glens Falls (at around 7 PM).
Jim,I forwarded your message about the horse blankets etc to my "horsey" daughter and she send back a message, "Very interesting." I thought she would think so. They only have two horses and their barn is modest in comparison to what you are describing but they are thrilled to have it as they have had to pay to board their horses all these past many years. nina
Nina, some of our ponies used a converted chicken coop as a shed for years. We've just been fortunate enough to get the place of our dreams.
6 bloody degrees again this morning. Ugh. What is it with 6 degrees? That seems to be the coldest it ever gets. Maybe the thermometers just toss up their little hands. 6 = too damn cold, we quit!;-)
Jim, right now our outside temperature is 2 degrees below zero. So under six degrees is possible!
Br-r-r! Jim and Werner, you have my sympathies on the weather there.Last night it went down to 11 degrees here in Glens Falls.
Right now it's 17.4 degrees at 9:24 AM.
Werner, we need to figure out what Joy is doing right. We both live south of her & are colder. Mother Nature is confused.;-)
Jim wrote: "...Mother Nature is confused. ;-)"You said it, Jim. It's 39°F in Myrtle Beach, SC. :) (as of Noon there.)
Thanks, Joy, we'll take all the sympathy we can get! Yes, Jim, I've been saying for years (ever since the climate change --which isn't a consistent "global warming"-- became noticeable) that it's as if nature is confused and doesn't know what to do. Usually our winters are milder than they used to be; but they hang on a lot longer, and the springs and summers are much damper and colder than normal. (Though so far, this winter is more like the pre-1990s ones!) Barb said the Weather Channel reported temperatures in the 30s in Florida, too --which is actually quite cold for Florida.
Weather here is up and down.Today was in upper forties and tomorrow is to be 55 degrees and then comes the cold so Sunday starts at twelve degrees and works up to twenty nine. Then it starts to warm up again to almost fifty by middle of next week. We have had no moisture since first of Oct. I guess it is all in upper NY and Ky. Right, Jim. nina
I don't know if the weather really changed, Werner. I remember that we used to be able to skate on the creek down to the dam most winters in the 70's, but couldn't in the 80's & early 90's, then could again a few times at the end of the 90's. It seems to cycle in lengths too long for us humans to really remember well unless we have something important to hang it on - like ice skating.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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