The first week of the year has been uneventful.
On Dec. 31st, for about two hours, the neighbors set off loud bangs, both fireworks (I can’t see) and firearms seemed to be involved. Most of the noise was between 10 o’clock and mid-night.
A more annoying hour later in the week involved my neighborhood Great Horned Owls. Normally the sounds the Owls make are not problematic. The bigger trees are more than 100 feet from the house and the calls are low pitched and muted by the distance. Sometimes I can hear three calling.
Listen to such calls here, under the photo:
https://www.audubon.org/news/can-you-recognize-call-great-horned-owl
About halfway through there are the screech and squawk calls. Whether I had a visit from a young one telling the parents it was meal-time, or an older one, I didn’t try to find out. I did open a window and yell, but that didn’t cause flight. The noisy critter sat, not far from the bedroom window, for about 30 minutes. I would have had to dress and go out with flashlight, track the source, and chase the bird to a new location.
Interestingly, I did not hear any of the low hoots during the time.
By the end of this week the temperature is expected to go to 8°F. There is -35°F degree air 900 miles north around Great Slave Lake. Over the next 4 days the pattern is for the winds to slowly shift and come from that direction. We’ll see. The air has to come over the Rocky Mountains, then down into the wide Columbia River area of central Washington (600 feet elevation) and up to me at 2,240 feet.
Meanwhile, a storm off the Pacific Ocean is expected to bring a couple feet of snow to the Cascade pass just 70 miles west of me. Wind gusts might be near 50 mph.
I’m near where these two air masses will collide. Forecasters have a hard time making sense of this sort of situation.
I’m planning to be house-bound after Thursday, from cold – not snow.
I will practice making bread again.
[If you haven’t seen the obituary for the Pillsbury Dough Boy, search it up. Some are labeled “in Loving Memory”, others “Sad News”.] There are many images, but if you want the story, here is the link:
https://patch.com/illinois/wilmette/remembering-pillsbury-doughboy-american-icon
The obituary pre-dates {2012 I guess} the death of the creator.
I need to put wood in the stove.
Keeping Track in 2024
on the Naneum Fan
John