Your Weather, 2021

[baymule]

It’s melting! Last night was the last freeze. It’s hard walking through all that mess. Now we have watery slush, but that’s ok, it’s leaving!
I got a round bale of hay for the sheep, my hay guy has cattle. He lost 2 calves, they froze when it went below zero.

 

[Zeedman]

Probably a lot of young animals lost this year due to the horrible weather down there. Not great conditions for the people either. Glad to hear that the weather is finally improving, hopefully the power situation is improving as well. I can't imagine how difficult it will be for people in Texas to deal with all of the broken water pipes though.

 

[ducks4you]

Sorry, wasn't trying to criticize, just help. I have a short handled sledge hammer for breaking up ice.

 

[bobm]

or A 2' crow bar works wonders too !

 

[Ridgerunner]

Growing up on the farm we used a mattock to bust holes in the pond ice for the animals. I miss those days every chance I get.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Bright and sunny today! The high ended up being somewhere around 65F

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Bright and sunny today! The high ended up being somewhere around 65F

Oh man it was nice out was it not? I did not get to play plants, but worked on my windows all day so I enjoyed the day.

 

[Zeedman]

Snowing here again, but it has almost finished... looks like about 2" of light, fluffy snow. A week-long thaw is forecast to start tomorrow, daytime temps in the low to mid 30's F.

Yesterday was cold but clear, so DW & I went for a drive along part of the Lake Winnebago shore line. Winnebago is a big lake, 36 miles long & 16-18 miles wide at the widest points... 137,700 acres (215 square miles). When frozen over in Winter, it basically becomes another county - with its own temporary population. This weekend the lake was the site of a massive ice fishing tournament, "Battle on Bago". People come here from all across the U.S.. It is an incredible sight; thousands of ice shanties & vehicles as far as the eye can see! The long stretch of sub-zero temps helped to really thicken the ice, which enabled heavier vehicles to drive out & no doubt increased attendance. Not sure how many thousands entered the tournament, but there were 3500 prize winners.

I took a lot of photos; but while I've generally been happy with the phone camera, I found its weakness. It was unable to adequately capture such wide panoramas - and when I maxed out the zoom, the phone restarted. After each photo. So excuse the poor quality. Each of these photos was taken at a different point along the shore. It does display the enormity of our endless "white sand beaches", though.







When we first moved here, I taught all of our early-teen children to drive by taking them onto the frozen lake, putting them behind the wheel, and telling them to drive slowly but have fun. Nothing to hit (the snow was not deep) and if they turned too sharp or braked too fast, all they could do was slide. They were too young at that point to get their learners permit, but they learned driving basics in safety, and it was an experience they all remember fondly.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Snowing here again, but it has almost finished... looks like about 2" of light, fluffy snow. A week-long thaw is forecast to start tomorrow, daytime temps in the low to mid 30's F.

Yesterday was cold but clear, so DW & I went for a drive along part of the Lake Winnebago shore line. Winnebago is a big lake, 36 miles long & 16-18 miles wide at the widest points... 137,700 acres (215 square miles). When frozen over in Winter, it basically becomes another county - with its own temporary population. This weekend the lake was the site of a massive ice fishing tournament, "Battle on Bago". People come here from all across the U.S.. It is an incredible sight; thousands of ice shanties & vehicles as far as the eye can see! The long stretch of sub-zero temps helped to really thicken the ice, which enabled heavier vehicles to drive out & no doubt increased attendance. Not sure how many thousands entered the tournament, but there were 3500 prize winners.

I took a lot of photos; but while I've generally been happy with the phone camera, I found its weakness. It was unable to adequately capture such wide panoramas - and when I maxed out the zoom, the phone restarted. After each photo. So excuse the poor quality. Each of these photos was taken at a different point along the shore. It does display the enormity of our endless "white sand beaches", though.

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When we first moved here, I taught all of our early-teen children to drive by taking them onto the frozen lake, putting them behind the wheel, and telling them to drive slowly but have fun. Nothing to hit (the snow was not deep) and if they turned too sharp or braked too fast, all they could do was slide. They were too young at that point to get their learners permit, but they learned driving basics in safety, and it was an experience they all remember fondly.

Sounds more fun than a parking lot! I think all kids old enough to ride in the front should know how to turn a car on and off. How to pull the Emergancy brake. How to hit the horn and turn on the emergency lights. Had a friend who was driving with his little sister in the car. He ended up having a seizure which led to him being locked up with his foot on the gas. She saved both their lives by pulling the Emergancy brake right before they hit a tree.

 

[digitS']

That's one very big lake, @Zeedman !

Lake Pend Oreille is the biggest lake in Idaho at 148 sqmi. Lake Coeur d'Alene is nearby and 50 sqmi. Cd'A will sometimes freeze but seldom. The lakes for ice fishing are smaller, although one bay of Pen Oreille will freeze. Ice fishing has been going on through this month but January was so warm that it will be a short season. That's especially likely since it's above freezing with wind gusts above 30 mph and supposed to warm further over the next few days but first -- higher winds this afternoooooonnn!!!

The entire idea of driving on a lake doesn't sound safe (!) to me but, I've never lived further north nor in the Midwest. Hey, how is it that a region in the great state of Alaska is referred to as the "southeast," couldn't there be a better name for the Ketchikan/Juneau/Sitka/islands area ?

Just out with the garbage can, snow is all off our roofs. Felt guilty about not shoveling it off the greenhouse deck. It's gone. Geeze this wind!!! Won't be driving over the Cascades to Seattle today. The passes had "heavy rain" on top of all their snow. Passes are all closed because of avalanche danger!

Steve