Hello. I hope your Christmas was wonderful. We started out with breakfast with Sue’s Son’s family. Got some cute photos of Irie opening presents. I didn’t blog on Thursday because I was studying for a final on Friday (which I passed, FYI). We’ve had some cold, cold days. Yesterday we had snow, which was beautiful coming down in the morning. Our first inkling was when SweetPea, the German Shepherd, came back in with snowflakes all over her back. It was still quite dark and we couldn’t see past the porch. As it began to lighten, it was obvious it had been snowing for some time. Continue reading
chillin’
28 Saturday Dec 2019
Posted in Weather
We’ve had some amazingly low temperatures the last few days. Yesterday was the coldest by far 29°, if I remember correctly. We warmed up a couple of degrees today. I’m talking about morning temperatures. Today we warmed up into the high 60’s! The next few days will remain a bit cold and then Christmas eve we’re in for a bit of rain… maybe snow if it doesn’t get too warm. The cold gives us some issues that we hadn’t really thought about before. 
…winter isn’t coming, it’s already here! So, I knit and I read, so after I read the “Game of Thrones” I chuckled heartily when this little phrase started popping up all over after the series started to air. I always try to knit faster, but I’m easily distracted. Now winter has arrived with truly gale force winds heralding its frigid arrival. 
The weekend has been really quite normal, apart from the winds. We did regular tasks yesterday, and some good things accomplished. The winds came up in the afternoon and all through the night, they are still here and we’re watching them tear through the property from all directions, creating little tornadoes, knowing things over and blowing trash from all over. It whistles through the drain holes in the window sills, it sounds low sonorous moans as it blows over the hollow fencing posts. It drives the chickens and the goats inside; only the ducks and the geese try to brave the buffeting. 
Autumn arrived in the Sky Islands today! I know the Autumnal Equinox was yesterday, but we had our first Fall day today. I saw somewhere that we had 2.6 inches of rain! That was a good rain for us. We had/have a flash flood warning for today, until 8pm, but it looks like most of the rain is over for tonight. This photo was taken during dusk this evening looking to the South East, what I usually term “down Mexico way”. You can see the remnants of our storm, but it is starting to clear up for the evening. 
We have been waiting for weeks and weeks! Yes, we’ve had smatterings of rain here and there, but not the all out downpour that we’re used to getting on a regular basis during Monsoon. Last night, we finally had our first downpour on the property. Not sure when it started, but by the time I arrived home around 5:30 it was in full swing and it may have been going for a bit of time. Lasted about an hour I’d guess. Stopped raining for a couple of hours and then started again around 9pm. Always nice to lie in bed and listen to the rain. 
How are you all doing in your corner of the world? Summer is here in full swing. Today we may even have entered into the monsoon season at last. There are showers all around us, but never really quite reaching us here. Lots of virga… the heat keeping the moisture in the air. The extremes have taken a toll on all of us here – seeking relief from the heat has been our pastime of late. We’ve already talked about a few things we have doing to help the chickens beat the heat, there are other issues – though – that we have to think about due to weather. 
When I postponed writing until today, I didn’t even think about it being Father’s Day; however, it is only fitting to wish all the fathers out there (especially mine!) a very happy day to you! Nothing about the rest of this post has anything to do with Fathers’ Day… shall we get to it? 
So, hey – we’ve got things going on. We’ve got a freezer full of veggie-sicles for the chickens. We’ve got watering going on because the trees are hot and dry. We’ve got a clean house because the keeper was here today (yay!). We’ve got the old cabbages cleared out and fed to the chickens making room for some new plantings. We’ve got chicken pies in the oven getting cooked for dinner. What’s next on our list of happenings? 
Even though summer doesn’t begin until June 21st, we are heatin’ up all the same. Monday we had our first peek at monsoonal type moisture; accompanied by a rather destructive micro burst in Bisbee. Today we have rather high clouds and are a bit muggy; hopefully this is a good portend for our monsoonal season. This is a photo from the National Park Service… but it is a good example of what we will be seeing in just a matter of weeks. 