Driftless Skies

In search of tree…

Our Christmas Tree in our home…

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

In a big world with big names…some with lots of money behind them…Ray is sustaining the outdoors through today’s youth, and sustaining today’s youth through the outdoors.

Vote for Ray Howell 

…Howell started the Kicking Bear Foundation, which holds bowhunts, camp-outs and archery shoots for disadvantaged youths, at no cost to them, and this work has pretty much consumed his life. He uses his own money and much help from sponsor…

The first real cold air of the winter season has arrived.  More is on the way.  Our morning started off at 9 degrees and the afternoon remained in the teens.  The coldest day yet this season…at least for my nape of the neck.  Another cold front is set to arrive around lunch tomorrow, and then a couple reinforcements are following up this weekend.

Yesterday afternoon while prepping my forecast, I glanced at the southern Manitoba surface map.  Minnesota, even International Falls, was in the 30s.  100 miles to the northwest, Manitoba was sub-zero.  I didn’t understand why all the other forecasts I was looking at were indicating highs in the 30s today, but I knew that wouldn’t be the case…and it wasn’t.

So, what better day to come home to a nice, warm house…

Or, not so warm as I found out.  After 4 years of solid furnace operation, the house had cooled and it was even colder outside.  The littl’uns were cozy in their beds, but knowing what 8 more hours of drafty windows would do, after checking what I could check, I had no choice but to call 24-hour emergency service at the local heating and cooling joint.  This, of course, would mean having to fork over a little extra dough, but we needed the warmth.

To make a long story short, because I’ve been up with furnace repair-guy for the last hour, it turns out that only our little Owen is to blame.  The bright, shiny, beautiful little blue knob next to the furnace, which must look like a beautiful toy to a 1-year old, was turned off.  This set the furnace into a tailspin since it couldn’t light itself, and everything had to be reset.

I should have known this by looking at the flashing LED inside the furnace.  Everyone knows that one short blink followed by 4 long blinks means the furnace is in emergency shut-off mode and needs to be reset. DUH!

Off to our warm bed, which we’re lucky to have…

I was out taking a few pictures for a super-secret-undercover mission tonight.

This is where we live (well, not exactly where we live, but you understand)…

Sorry for the unusually long absence.  I haven’t had much time or much to say here lately as work and home have been a focus over the last month.

I have kicked off a new blog at work and will work on a consistent, daily entry there, so it may be slim-pickens around here for a little while until I get in the swing of things.

Feel free to check out my “weather journal” at KTTC.com

It has been a rough August around here, weatherwise, and people are becoming weary. My wet basement and mold are a nuisance, but it pales in comparison to the devastation in parts of Southeast Minnesota that are now designated Federal Disaster Areas.

As of 8pm Tuesday, August 28th, La Crosse, Wisconsin is a hundredth of an inch of rain from setting the new all-time record** for the wettest summer on record. This comes after one of the driest Julys on record. So, even though the summer of 2007 will be going down in the books as one of, if not the, wettest summers on record, it is only as a result of August receiving ridiculous amounts of rain.

Rochester currently sits in the number 8 spot (an additional .04″ tonight will bump us to the #7 spot) for wettest summers on record*. This is only because of this August being the wettest month (of all months in any year) on record for Rochester…not just the wettest August on record. Just last month, before the rains came, a good chunk of Southeast Minnesota was in severe drought. Now, nothing remains of drought conditions in Southeast Minnesota except for the already brown corn standing in water-logged fields.

On the flip-side, much of Minnesota from the central part of the state to the Arrowhead remains in Extreme Drought.

*Meteorological summer is June-July-August

**The record was broken late on the 28th

This weekend, the local paper did a story on a woman and her family who are working to cut their emissions by 90% of what the average American consumes.  Wow.  Her blog is inspiring, and chronicles her family’s adventure as they radically fight against the currents of society.

Her latest post discusses the alienation that one feels when they go about the world in a different way, and that alienation seems to come from many different directions.  All the more reason to stay strong.

It’s good to be different…my hat’s off to you, Miranda and family. 

From NWS La Crosse article

With early morning showers and thunderstorms producing 1.16 inches of precipitation on August 27th, Rochester International Airport surpassed June 2000 (12.51 inches) for the wettest month ever in Rochester. Through 7 AM on August 27th, Rochester International Airport has had 13.59 inches of precipitation fall this August.

In addition, Rochester has had 5 days where the daily precipitation has exceeded one inch (August 4th - 2.09 inches, August 11th - 1.66 inches, August 18th - 5.16 inches, August 19th - 1.87 inches, and August 27th - 1.16 inches). This is the most ever during a month. The previous record was four days set back in July 1938, May 1982, September 1986, June 1990, July 1990, April 1999, and June 2000.

In the midst of all the madness as of late, I’ve had a batch of rhubarb/grape wine–a little over 5 gallons worth–fermenting in the basement. It’s been coming along very nicely, and was a bit beyond its time to be racked from the primary fermenter into the secondary. The density of the wine would indicate that it’s just about down to the perfect level of alcohol and dryness. It will sit in the 6 gallon carboy until next weekend, if not a little sooner, when I’ll rack it into a 5 gallon carboy and shut down the fermentation process. In a couple months it may be ready to bottle, but I think I’ll let this batch age a while.

This wine is being made in the middle of our flood clean-up, born from the rhubarb in our backyard. Any ideas for a name?

Stockton was hit particularly hard by last weekend’s flooding, and Minnesota’s Governor, Tim Pawlenty, will be touring the area Monday morning.

Interested in volunteering in Stockton? NECHAMA has been sending in volunteers. In case you were wondering, you don’t have to be Jewish to volunteer with Nechama. Read flyangler’s post on the Wisconsin Fly Fishing Forum.

Flood Photo Gallery