Deer Canyon Folks.org

Finally into the La Niña pattern.

And, we hit 60° today.

It’s been raining off & on all night. It’s raining now. Yard & driveway are darkened and damp looking, but I don’t see any puddles, so it’s not raining that much. So far.

Still, it’s nice to know the water devas haven’t forgotten about us, but were merely letting us dry off a bit.

Oh hey: it’s snowing. Snowed nearly all day yesterday, too. Alan’s best guess is — brace yourself — 18 inches so far (and keep in mind that it is still snowing). It was windy late yesterday, so there are big drifts all over the place, which is why that’s Alan’s best guess.

Let’s see. It snowed Sunday & Monday past. Then Tuesday & Wednesday we had temps in the mid-30s, so unfortunately we were back to mudville. At least right now it is nicely cold, down in the teens.

UPDATE: That’s 18 inches on top of 6-8 inches left over from Sunday/Monday snowing, which itself was on top of a bit of snow. I lived in Iowa for 14 years but I never had to deal with this much snow on the ground at once. Well, it was southern Iowa. But still...

Even if we end up with bunches of mud, this is good: it’s been raining all evening. Presumably we’ll get snow before the night is over. Yay!

Maybe 8 inches overnight, snow still coming down steadily, some wind, lots of snow in the forecast.

At dawn, with the clouds so thick and the snow everywhere, all the world was a pale blue. Good morning for cocoa on the sofa! We’ll see later about tea on the porch. The index today might end up something like: all clothes, thimbleful of tea.

We received about 8 inches in the first snow (Friday night), but that was pretty light stuff and packed down pretty well. Also our heroes plowed, and the county apparently plowed Beginning Road too, so we were able to get out on Saturday. Then about another inch of snow Saturday night. But this current snow is the big one!

Views from the porch:

As you can see, vistas are still short-range, but boy are we sparkly!

Also, no wind. That is always appreciated!

That wasn’t stormy last Friday. Today is stormy.

Well... today is windy and getting windier and chilly and getting chillier. Maybe today is simply the promise of a real winter storm. Stormy-promise. 

You should have seen the lines at the check-out at B Street Market this afternoon! Although, Edythe did say that once the snowing starts then the store will really be crowded and she seemed to find it amazing that so many people wait until the storm actually arrives before stocking up.

Not us. We’re ready to stay home for the better part of a week if we must. But I do not believe we’ll need to do that. At the same time, I like to be as encouraging to heavy precipitation as possible, so we are all ready.

Can you tell I can’t think clearly today?! What an incomprehensible ramble.

This morning at early tea on the porch time, I passed up going outside because even though the temperature was a balmy 46°, it was also raining and breezy, with the result that the porch was all wet.

The rain turned into a thunderstorm, followed by sleet, then snow. In all we got 2/10 inch of rain here.

Meanwhile, the temperatures dropped to 33°. Now we are drying out, it’s 37° out there, and I finally had tea on the porch: standing, 3/4 mug, with polar fleece shirt & a sweater, and a cap. (I’m thinking I need to standardize the Tea on the Porch Index somehow. I’d like to end up with a number. It could even be a ridiculous number; I’d just like a number.)

We have blue skies with clouds, too. A chilly but beautiful day here, typical pre-winter.

Today we are producing a new feature of this (so intermittent) blog:

The Tea on the Porch Index

We anticipate that the Tea on the Porch Index will be most useful during the colder months. That is, now.

The Tea on the Porch Index consists of 2 measures:
1: how much clothing &
2: how much tea!

The amount of tea gives you an approximate time, as tea is always taken in a leisurely manner, and sitting, unless specifically noted otherwise. One proper mug of tea drunk at a leisurely pace requires about 15 minutes. 

Today’s Tea on the Porch Index is long-sleeved t–shirt with a polar fleece vest and 1 full mug of tea.

As I am sure you have already realized, the Tea on the Porch Index is highly subjective. It is not intended to be taken as science!

But I think it will give you an idea of the comfort level for morning tea on the porch.

Important contextual information: my porch faces the mountains and is therefore shaded in the morning. Also, the prevailing New Mexico breezes are from the west and northwest, which means they blow onto the porch in question. The Tea on the Deck Index, if it existed, would have entirely different results, as the deck receives morning sun and is sheltered from breezes by the house. Just so you know.