03-06 Saturday

[franksolich]

Mud.

The temperatures out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska have been in the 40s (day time), although we're expected to have rain the next four days, starting this very afternoon.

There's still mountains of unmelted snow all over the place, some of it still much higher than the motor vehicles driving down the road or highway, but this too shall pass.

And so now begins the phenomenon familiar with anyone who grew up on a farm or ranch or out in the country; the bottomless mud.  This is not a phenomenon I knew as a child or adult, until I moved out here nine years ago.

Just.....so.....much.....mud.

The first plastic cat-litter box emerged from the snow yesterday, and so soon I won't be having to use cardboard beer-flats as disposable cat-litter boxes.  There's eight of those plastic things, and by unlucky chance or accident, I had left them on the front porch the morning of December 23, 2009, after which they all were buried underneath eight feet of snow.

Until now.

Things are looking up; God is good.

[NHSparky]

Yep...two of the five New Hampshire seasons are still in effect today; both "Still Winter", and "MUD".

High of 50 predicted today, and 51 (51!) tomorrow.

Virtually no snow left in the front yard, and the usually high pile in the back (northern exposure) is rapidly dwindling--only maybe 1/3 of the back has any snow coverage left.

Last load of laundry buzzing downstairs as if to tell me to GTFO the computer and make the bed.  No other housework to do, save a quick trip to the grocery store to get last-minute items for making spaghetti sauce and other meals for the week.

After that, using the "flingy-stick" to tire out the dog without having my arm fall off.  No other work to do for the entire weekend, save cooking-related items.

And maybe some poker today, should I feel lucky.

[debk]

It's an absolutely BEE-U-TI-FUL day in the neighborhood!!!

Up to 45 already and headed into the low 50's!! The sun is out! the sky is blue!!!!! 

There is no rain in the forecast until Tuesday!!!

Things may just dry out a bit. Weather guy said the other day that we will be in El Nino's weather pattern at least through spring so it's still going to be wetter than normal. But it doesn't matter because...TODAY the sun is out.

Going out running around with Runnin' Buddy. Time to start looking at what we will be doing to our flower beds and such.

Have a glorious day, Everybody!!! 

[Chris]

Haven't been outside today, but I hear it's nice and sunny.

Couldn't find any transmission fluid or which correct oil to use.  Feh.

[Chris_]

54 now here in sunny West Texas, should get up near 70 today. Yesterday I had to turn on my AC for a little while, it got up to 77 I think it was, and nothing but sunshine. A few clouds today keeping it cooler.

[Randy]

Warmer today than it has been. There was freaking frost on the car windows yesterday morning...in march. That just doesn't happen here.

[littlelamb]

Beautiful day out today better than the snow we had on Tuesday

[longview]

I was supposed to take an elderly friend on an overnight trip to Deadwood.  We were booked on one of those senior party buses.  On the way to her town, the bus hit black ice and slid off the road.  The organizer cancelled and I still have a couple hundred in my pocket.  Not a bad thing!

[vesta111]

Sun today----Sunday, spring is just over the horizon so we are preparing for the future 4 weeks off and on we will need the air conditioner in bedroom.

We have found that a canope over the back deck and the sliders cools off the house by 20 degrees in the summer.   We need a new one due to storm damage and checked into these new age window blinds that are suppose to repel heat in summer and draw the heat from the sun in the winter.

We have to do the math here, do we spend $300.00 for blinds or for another air conditioner.?

The cost of energy to cool the house to nipplie, or put up blinds that will last 15 years.

I have checked into cost for front window canopes outside  and figure they are not within reason.  The cost for a whole house conditioning unit is for my square footage, obscene.  For the asking price I can get window canopes for every window in the house and both doors with $500.00 left to play with.

That's it, no utility bills, and they can be retracted in the fall.

Anyone have any experience with the outside canopes.?



 

[Thor]

Had a sun setter awning on my house in Becker, MN. It didn't do much to cool off the house, but it did make the deck very pleasant. I suppose that it would be a major factor of where the awning is, the relative position of the sun during the daytime, and how big your house is.

[Chris]

There's a very steep hill with a retaining wall along the rear of my apartment building.  That side stays in shade during most of the summer and on the hottest days, my apartment never gets above 85° inside.  It's very comfortable.

[vesta111]

Had a sun setter awning on my house in Becker, MN. It didn't do much to cool off the house, but it did make the deck very pleasant. I suppose that it would be a major factor of where the awning is, the relative position of the sun during the daytime, and how big your house is.

Small, very small but there is just the 2 of us and the pets.

Perhaps 1,200 sq foot, we have 2 unused bedrooms that we forget about, turned into junk rooms actually.   Now that I have nerve problems and have a problem standing and walking I find we have too much house to care for, we still have 2 full baths, family room, laundry room, living and dining room and a good size kitchen and the master bedroom.  Way too much space for just 2 people. 

When we bought our home the seller was an American Indian ---Micmac I believe and the house faces the north west.  Kind of strange as all others face west.   

We have noticed that there is less storm damage due to high winds then our neighbors.  We have lost a few shingles but not to the extent we see from the other homes.

Come summer the sun coming from the east moving into the south heats up the deck and as it[ the sun ] moves around to the front we get the full heat of the day on the front of half the house.

Really odd about our location, we had 3 years ago one of those so called Ionic Bursts, took down trees, sent them into neighbors windows and roofs.   Heck of a storm, some homes were actually moved of their foundations.   Homes on both sides of us had great damage, we had just one loose shingle,  All houses that got the brunt of the storm faced west yet for some reason tracking the damage down the highway it ran in a East pattern.

Screwy if you ask me. They ruled out a tornado, so no one to this day really knows how or why this happend.

We had a cheapo awning on the deck for a few years, took down in the fall, put up in the spring and it did with the help of ceiling fans keep the house cool enough so we did not sweat allot.       Before we could get it down last fall a big wind with mega-rain came up and tore the thing apart.  We could not believe it, neighbors with the same awning had no problem with theirs so I have to put the fault on poor Hubby who did not install it correctly that year.

 New homes built today in this area have overhangs from the body of the home over the windows, they block the sun in summer and when the sun is low in the sky in the winter allow light and heat in.