The Great Blizzard of 08

[PolishWineP]

Up North, welcome to the forum! We're NE of Grand Forks. We're getting a pretty good concentration of wine makers around here. And still, no snow.

 

[rgecaprock]

Hi upnorth......Welcome to the fourm.


Wish I could share some of this 70 degree weather we are having here in Houston, Texas...


Ramona

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hi UpNorth....75-80 miles east of Grand Forks.

Well, the storm has arrived....
Snowing pretty heavy, hard to tell with the strong winds of 29MPH...Windchills of -30 at this time...



Statement as of 4:31 AM CST on December 14, 2008Weather Report...

A Blizzard Warning remains in effect until 6 am CST Monday.

Snow... heavy at times... will continue tonight through Sunday
evening. Total snow accumulations from this storm will range from
7 to 14 inches. The snow... combined with north winds gusting to
40 mph... will produce near zero visibility in whiteout conditions
all the way through early Monday morning. The winds will also
produce life threatening wind chills as low as 45 below zero.

The combination of snowfall... strong winds... and low wind chills
will make this blizzard a very serious... life threatening one.
Conditions will be at their worst late tonight and Sunday.

A Blizzard Warning means severe winter weather conditions are
expected or occurring. Falling and blowing snow with strong winds
and poor visibilities are likely. This will lead to whiteout
conditions... making travel extremely dangerous or impossible. Do
not travel. If you must travel... have a winter survival kit with
you. If you get stranded... stay with your vehicle.

 

[vcasey]

Gee that sounds cold! Here in my part of sunny Florida we are expecting partly cloudy skies with lows in the lower 60s and highs in the upper 70s.
VPC

 

[PolishWineP]

Funny about the winter survival kits. A few weeks ago I found one of those 1 pound Hershey bars in my glove box. Both Bert and my car pool buddy claim they didn't put it there! I know I didn't, so I'm I'm at a loss. My dad always kept one in his glove box during the winter, but since he died in '96, I don't think he did it...

Now, I wonder how long it will last when I have a need for chocolate some night...

 

[rgecaprock]

PWP.....maybe it was your Dad

 

[NorthernWinos]

Okay...who's betting the Hershey bar doesn't last through this snow storm?????

Should we have a Poll????

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[Bert]

But she also has a number of chocolate bars and cookies to choose from too...

 

[PolishWineP]

And although pride goeth before the fall, I hate to look bad or lose a bet.

I bet I can keep that very same Hershey's bar in that glove box until at least April. (Yes, we still get blizzards in April.)

 

[rrawhide]

ok youse guys & gals - -

My wife, daughter and daughter in law decided to start a 'tradition' by baking cookies together - - -

well, there was 'cookie stuff' everywhere so here's what some of them look like:

and

so my son, Ryan, and I decided to take the quads and go up the mountain a little way - about 20 min drive to Jack Flat Road and went up the hill - towards Sequoia National Forest. Started snowing and temp dropping but we decided to go for a little while. Headed up toward the old Dillonwood Sawmill and started snowing harder - were up to about 5000 feet and turned around - 28 degrees - about 5 miles of a very rough abandoned road. Our quads are Honda 420's and 4 wheel drive. The 'trunks' are filled with first aid kits, survival gear and blankets since these are also search and rescue quads. So we did feel safe going up the hill. Great ride in the snow and since we were the first ones in on virgin snow it was beautiful - -

anyway, a couple more pictures for you - about 2" but expecting much more this week - if the weatherman is right!!!!!

then when we returned there were great aromas and warm cookies waiting - - - -

good day --

rrawhide

 

[grapeman]

And the best part was you didn't even need to do the baking to get a cookie!


Looks like a nice ride. It must be nice to have to go a ways to get to snow! It seems to find us here without having to go looking for it, except in the spring. When we used to ride snowmobiles we would travel an hour away to get to the snowpacked mountains for riding up into May.

 

[rgecaprock]

Fantastic,,,,winter pictures.....The cookies look great too. Who ever is going to get those tins is very lucky!!!! Cookie making is alot of work and time. They did a beautiful job making them.
You all must really be in the Christmas Spirit with the snow. It is 75 here today....I have a spiced apple nut cake with eggnogg sauce I was going to make today...but just too darnhot to turn on the oven..........

RamonaEdited by: rgecaprock

 

[Wade E]

If I had 1 of those quads and places like that to ride you wouldnt have to worry about the cookies as Id never come home.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Was pretty nasty outside today, so we stayed indoors and did wine maintenance....

Jim ventured out to plug in the tractor as it is -12°F already....
He fed the horses some grain...
He also rounded up a snow shovel...

It looks like it was snowing pretty good, but the with the wind blowing it around it's hard to tell....

It is starting to drift around the buildings...

The few birds we saw were hanging by the feeder and having a hard time flying...They did hide behind a spruce tree near the house out of the wind...

"On the 10th Day of Christmas...
My true Love gave to me
5 Bluejays in an Oak Tree"

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[grapeman]

You have to love it there to stay there in the winter! Nothing like the prairie for being isolated.


It looks like you have a Wood Pecker also- not just Blue Jays. I watched hundreds of little finch type birds this afternoon while waiting in the barn blind. Very entertaining. Just bring a split bottle of a nice white wine with me, set it in the drifted snow and sip on it while I wait..... and then find out the deer are in the front yard not out back.

 

[Wade E]

Should have brought a few cigarettes with you too Rich so that the ATF could really love you!

 

[PolishWineP]

Oooooo doggie it's windy out there! The snow is about done falling (I hope) but we're trying to blow it all to South Dakota. Most of the highways are closed and you're a fool if you go out of the city. Here's the view from INSIDE the front window. No need to outside to take pictures!

Edited by: PolishWineP

 

[NorthernWinos]

Looks like your really getting hammered in town too.....

So...how many cookies did you make....?

 

[PolishWineP]

3 batches candy, 2 batches bars and a batch of egg nog cookies!

 

[NorthernWinos]