A Cold One

The middle of the continent has been cold today, and for another couple days to come. Nothing like what the east coast has had lately, but cold, nonetheless. I haven't managed to keep the woodpile restocked. So, it was time tonight to restock. That takes the wheelbarrow and a lot of cloths.

Last winter I was finally tired of getting cold while shoveling the driveway, so I bought my first pair of insulated bib overalls. I've always wanted a pair, but I'd look and the high price and just keep walking. After the past few cold snow shoveling workouts I had my justification.

 Tonight was the first time to use them, and they performed marvelously! The outside temperature was 5 degrees F and with a 17 mph wind the wind chill was -14 degrees. With my biking balaclava and a hood pullover, heavy expedition-style gloves and heavy coat, I was comfy. I always like the challenge of getting the layers right for the temperature at hand. No need for a base layer since I'd be working and could just go inside if I get cold.

I love the cold, as long as you can dress for it. I took a 4 mile hike on the Landon Trail this past weekend, right after the snow hit. Trudged through 4" of snow to get to the Wakarusa River bridge. 20 degrees F. It was a nice time to be hiking.

Enough Already

We had two events this year to make it the worst weather damage year we've ever had. We've been dealing with replacing and fixing things ever since a hail storm in April and a lightning hit in July. I had these telephones and electronic gear ready to throw out but wanted to sketch them first. They are now in the garbage can. The TV was fixable, which required replacing 2/3 of the electronic boards. Unfortunately the damage from the lightning wasn't enough to exceed our deductible so repair and replace was on our dime.

As for the vehicles, we had to junk two of them and we bought one back from insurance. We fixed the Suburban. Local body shops were inundated with jobs and will take a year to get back to normal.

Just had our roof replaced. The local contractors have enough repair work from that one 10 minutes storm to work through next Spring. We were in the house when the hail hit, and we could tell from the low rumble sound that we were in trouble. Some more car damage needs to be fixed, but we're basically through it all. Dealing with insurance for hail damage was a protracted effort but I can't complain. They paid out as they said they would in our policies.

As for the sketching, this is the first time for using Noodler's Lexington Gray in my flexible fine nib fountain pen. For journaling I have always used my Pitt Artist marker pens but this time I used my Namiki pen and used varying pressure to get the variety of widths I needed. I think it worked well. The Lexington Gray didn't bleed like the Noodler's Black does. The pen gets carried to work, too, for day-to-day writing. If I need a quick pick-me-up I'll secretly do some warm-up calligraphy exercises with it just to watch the flexible nib do it's thing.

Way Too Much Snow

Well, the snow just won't quit here in eastern Kansas. We had our first big snow in a long time, 11 inches, on December 24/25. Then last Wednesday, less than two weeks later, we get pounded again. This time 5 inches but much more wind and much colder. Wind chills -10F to -20F. And I get to shovel in all of it. We've blown shut many times and I'm all sore. Borrowed my brother's Ford 8N (see post of April 22, 2008: Tribute to the Ford 8N) with a blade and bladed us out once and for all today. The winds have finally stopped pushing the snow. The neighbors and us have seen nothing like this in the 12+ years we've all been out here.

Note on process: The sketch of the mailbox is my coldest I've done to date, at a sunny 7F.
I did it lead free, which is my habit lately, but especially for the time savings. A pencil sketch would take too long. In a short 5-10 minutes my fingers were numb, so I had to add color back in the warm house. The waterbrush would have frozen up. A couple neighbors drove by as I was sketching, so they probably question my sanity.

Too Much Snow

We've been here for 13 years and this latest snow storm drifted the worst we've ever seen. The snow hit the day before Christmas. December snowfall for Topeka set a new local record. Most of the driveway was fine, but the start and ending of the driveway both had killer drifts that took quite a while to dig out. Makes me think about what to do when I'm all gray and not able to shovel. Some of the neighbors have nice REAL tractors with blade and/or front scoop, or little Bobcats to do the work. Seems overkill . . . until you have drifts like this. The workout felt good, though. I still ate too much but some of the guilt went away from this exercise.

kaBOOM

Been having some weather with attitude lately. Spring. We've had close lightning strikes before. Real close. Lost a phone or two but nothing worse. Until this week. Luckily the dollar loss won't be outrageous.

The one thing I can't figure out is why the satellite clock was reset to Eastern Standard Time. It's battery powered so it would not see the surge that tripped the breakers. Yet it must have experience some energy field. Wierd. I actually had to change the clock settings, which can be a challenge for me. The kids laugh at my inability to work around digital mode settings without instructions. But I DID it. Now we just need to go out and start replacing things.

Out Of The Blue

I just never know where the next sketch is coming from. This one came out of nowhere. Saturday I was looking out toward our back yard and saw something orange in the pasture just north of us. Thought it was a gas can, since our neighbor was out in his pasture earlier in the day (lives in town). When I walked over to check it out the thing was a plastic parachute rigged up with everything you see here. When I was a kid my Uncle Lawrence found a weather balloon in his pasture and I remember playing with it with my cousins. The balloon material looks the same. The instruments are much smaller and lighter now, though. Some Internet research filled in the rest of the facts I mention in the journal. Pretty neat stuff. I used my voltmeter to check the 'just add water' battery and it's dead. Final proof that it's trash. There's no "If Found Call XXX-XXXX' label. Their trash . . . my treasure.

Tornado Watch #955

I've lived in Kansas for most of my life, but the weather we've had over the past week has been very weird. It's at the top of the weird list, shared by only a very few other moments in history. And the first time we've had a Tornado Watch in December that I can remember, much less the day after Christmas. Just thinking about a tornado as Santa visits brings images to mind, so a journal entry is in order.

Huntin', Day 3

Well, it's probably my last day of deer hunting for 2008. Full moon last night will mess up the deer. They'll eat at night and sleep in the day. Sure enough. None seen today. Had a good sit, though. Listened to turkeys waking up and watched cold weather move in. Made one more sketch, but just in time. I was dressed for 50F and the cold front brought in 25F with 25-35 mph winds so wind chill was around 10F. I could feel it steal my heat by the minute. Shivering told me it's time to quit. Head for a warm home . . . wait for another year.

Close Call

It's been a hectic tornado season this year. Here in Kansas the towns of Claflin, Manhattan and Soldier's Creek sustained horrible damages last Wednesday with loss of life. The following day Topeka was spared damages when a hook cloud with rotation came through. Too close for comfort. This is a textbook tornado-producing cloud system, but this time it just put on a show. It caught the wife and I off guard in our car.