First snow of the winter

Yay! The first snow fall of the season. The trees were absolutely beautiful this morning coated in snow. I'm sure it will be melted by the time I get home, but what a winter wonderland today. The pups had a good romp in the backyard, racing, skidding and rolling in the snow.

Summer is gone in Wisconsin

When I left for Mexico 11 days ago, the temperatures were near 70 degrees. The rose bushes were in their final burst of flowers. I didn't want to cut them back because they were so beautiful.

The sudden cold snap that hit last week, froze the roses in their bloom. I took this picture this morning. There were about 50 blooms on the bushes and all were frozen and frost covered.

I'll be putting the rose bushes to bed this weekend. That will be fun as the temp is expected to hover around freezing with sleet and snow expected.

The Ice Storm Cometh

This is not really the kind of winter wonderland storm you want to have. Our latest storm has brought us a good 1/2 inch of ice before turning to snow. This morning the trees were coated in ice - and this is what causes them to break.


And our poor young arbor vitae are doing their best to withstand the pressure. The ones closest to the house have sustain the worst damage. If you try to shake the ice off - the branches just break. Hopefully being young, the trees will recover and straighten back (with some help from us).

If you have four-wheel drive, you can get around but it's not advised. The city buses were pulled off the road at 8:30 this morning because of the icy conditions. Even Hillary Clinton postponed her Madison town-hall meeting today due to the storm.


But never fear, my friends, Wisconsinites are used to weather conditions like this. Went to the grocery store yesterday and have supplies. Today is just another relaxing winter day. We'll make cornish hens for dinner tonight. That's about all that's on the agenda.

Ohmigod, the snow just keeps coming...

5:00 pm: It's been snowing since last night and now we have about 14 inches of fresh snow on the ground. WOW. I think we are going for a record breaker this year. Earlier this morning, I took Nanuk here out to play - as snow frisbee is his absolute favorite game. Bonus for Raine! Madison canceled school again today - twice in one week.

Here's a gallery of photos showing the progression of the snow from early morning to the final blowing of the driveway. If you click the photos directly it will take you to my picasa gallery where the photos are bigger. The best shot? The one showing Todd clearing snow away from the mailbox.

Crazy weather in Wisconsin

Its one of the wackiest winters I've seen in a long time as January brought us a weird combination of weather to Wisconsin -- including fog, record warmth, bitter cold, snowstorms and tornadoes.

Near blizzard conditions are predicted for tonight as winter storm warnings go into effect this afternoon. With winds coming in 50 mile gusts, temperatures will drop about 65 degrees (this morning it was near 40 degrees - and tonight we're expecting -30 degrees with the winds)

The rain has already started to change over to snow. It will be a fun drive home tonight.....but in my new Element - I say bring it on! (picked up my new car last night, it's so awesome!)

-31 Below Zero - Wisconsin Style

Just got a picture emailed to me from Uncle Bear. He took this photo over the weekend from the dash of his truck showing a whopping -31 degrees in Mauston. I guess he beats my entries from earlier in the week.

Holy buckets! - it was a cold weekend.

A Packer Loss

The hopes of millions of Packer fans for a third trip to the Super Bowl were dashed last night as the NY Giants kicked a 47-yard field goal in overtime to win the NFC Conference Championship game 23-20. Todd got back home around 2:30 am this morning. The few words I heard were "Cold" "Rigged" and "Cold". Above is a picture of Todd during the game. The tickets were on the 17 yardline about 15 rows up. Looks like great seats. I sent my camera along with Todd and Peter to record the day. Here's a gallery of their photos:

Maybe next year! Go Pack Go!

The high temp today: -1 degree

It's 8:00 am. Tried to let the dogs out this morning and it was a mad dash in and out. No one wants to be outside. The official temp right now is -10 degrees. The thermometer outside my kitchen window reads -4 degree. This is the kind of cold where it hurts to breathe outside. I hope my Australian friends are appreciating their summer!

A nice brisk morning

Took Teiko out for a walk this morning at 7:30. It was already warming up to a balmy 7 degrees from an overnight low of about 0. After layering on the warm clothes and sorel boots, headed down to the park to throw the frisbee for the boy. With the sun shining, it didn't actually feel that bad.

A foggy quiet Sunday

It's hauntingly beautiful outside today. We have a dense fog advisory for the day with temperatures approaching 50 degrees. Here's an awesome shot from the back yard of the trees and pampas grass. Below is the very stubborn thyme forcing its way back through the melting snow. It's always nice to have fresh herbs.

I think we've had enough snow now

I think I've had enough snow now. We had another six inches yesterday - This is the most snow - this early that we've had in wisconsin for years. We're still trying to figure out the global warming angle to all this snow.... The snow-encrusted patio furniture picture was taken off the back deck right as the sun was dawning this morning.

But all this snow means that ski season has arrived as well. Last night, Raine and Todd headed up to Cascade mt. for the first ski run of the winter. It was Raine's hella lucky day, as she got her christmas present early - new ski boots and a helmet.

Soon they will be heading to Mt. Bohemia in the UP for some serious extreme skiing. I'll take a nice green/blue path any day with a chalet where I can get hot chocolate after each piste run.....

Be careful what you wish for....

Okay, so you know the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for"? Well, back in November, Todd and the boys went up to the property in the keweenah pennisula for the deer hunt and my dad went to the old family farm outside of Reedsburg.

I was really hoping for venison since we had one package of steak left in the freezer. So I told everyone "good luck" and to bring me back some deer. Well after the hunting weekend, nothing. Todd missed a buck, my father wasn't having any luck - so it looked like 2008 was going to be a long year without venison.

But...towards the end of the 10-day hunting season, Todd gets a call from Al to get his butt up to Stevens Point to process some deer. And my dad calls with news that he got a buck and doe. HooHoo! The next think I know, i've got about 125lbs of venison packed in my freezer! Yeah. Basically we don't have to buy meat for the next several months.

Here's a link to a blog entry about venison steak that I wrote in July 2007

Let it snow....

All Right! Let Winter begin.....

The first big snow storm of the season is predicted to hit southern Wisconsin starting around noon on Saturday. The meterologists are threatening promising us a little bit of everything; snow, ice and maybe even thundersnow (thunder and snow together, how cool is that?). Will provide photos of anything exciting over the weekend.

12/07 Update: That was an intense storm - By Sunday morning we have over 6 inches of snow with the first 3 inches being heavy icy crud. It took over 2 hours to blow and shovel the sidewalk and part of the driveway. The temps then went down to 0 degrees to really harden everything. I've been chipping at the iceblocks in the driveway ever since. And during the week we've received another 7 inches of snow - It is definitely a winter wonderland in good ol' Wisconsin this year.

November blooming Delphiniums

Imagine my surprise to find late blooming Delphiniums in the backyard today. They bloomed in June of this year as well. This is the second year this plant has given us two blooms within one season. Cool.

Venison, the other white meat

Had a real Wisconsin meal last night - venison on the grill with a fresh garlic, rosemary ginger, lemon marinade. Wow! Venison is something that I've always taken for granted, being raised with a hunting family. It was nothing really to sit down to squirrel, rabbit or venison at family gatherings. This venison came from the Sauk/Juneau county line where my Dad has been hunting for years.

Summer flowers in full bloom

What the sun and Teiko haven't fried and the lack of rain hasn't shriveled, the perenials are doing well this summer, considering. The Beesbalm and Echinacea (cornflowers) have taken direct hits and may not survive the year (drastic measures are being taken to curtail Teiko and his markings....) However, in the front yard, the Rudbeckias are just beginning to bloom. The Geraniums are blooming again after a month of regeneration. Did you know that you can winter Geraniums in Wisconsin? By deadheading the flowers, cutting back all leggy branches, pulling out the plant (with roots intact) and storing them in a brown paper bag in a "warm" corner of the garage they often survive the winter. They can be a bit long and leggy the second year, but careful pruning and deadheading will force more leaves and better foliage. The newest addition to the garden is Papyrus - yep, the very plant that the Egyptians used to make paper. Papyrus loves water or very wet soil. For some reason it's doing very well planted in a whiskey barrel. When I planted it this spring, I placed a bowl under the roots to capture and hold water. This seems to do the trick. The plant stems are almost 4 ft tall now. For the winter, I'll bring them inside and put them in a tall glass vase with just water and rocks. It's nice to bring a bit of the garden into the house during the bitter cold days of Wisconsin winters.

My, how your garden grows

So the garden has started producing, yeah! We've had a few problems with the peas (burnt) and the brussel sprouts (something is eating the leaves) but the tomatoes, peppers and beans are coming on strong. Above is a photo of the garden from our deck and below is the most recent harvest. The large tomato is an heirloom variety which will work great with BLTs.

Tomatoes anyone?

We built up a nice raised garden bed on the side of our house this month for vegetables. By July we are going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears. As per the course with Todd developing the project, the small little garden for my three plants is now 15 meters by 6 meters and I’ve been hauling wheelbarrow loads to fill the damn thing up and still haven’t made a dent on the mountain of soil the delivery men plopped in my front yard two weeks ago.