Fall - ing

It's officially fall, and the weather is about to turn that way - well, actually more like early winter.  what is it with spring and fall lately?  hasn't mama nature heard that there's supposed to be 3 months of both? Let's stay on schedule big mama!

 why does an early winter suddenly snuff out summer?  Or a late winter snuff out an early Spring and kill all tree blossoms?    And, while I'm at it - why do we get spells of summer in mid winter sometimes?  We hardly ever get spells of winter in mid-summer?  what happened to equal opportunity mama?

This week at WinSol, the temperature has dropped from morning lows in the low 70's to mid 50's.  the wind is picking up, birds are scattering and there's a storm in the air.  This is weird one since it's coming straight down from Canada over land - minimal moisture so they say for California. The Northwest - mucho snow! and ice. 

Personally, I like SPRING.  Fall is OK, but it's kinda like the grim reaper gettin his shit together for the winter games.  And I'm not a fan of cold, sunless winters anymore. 

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Getting WinSol ready for winter is always a chore.  City folk have it easy - they just have to clean their gutters, turn off their irrigation systems, and rely on others (that they pay monthly fees to) to carry them through the winter. oh yeah: and maybe shovel some snow.   Not for us rural folk.  we are self reliant.  I have to make sure that all the paper, wood, tools - anything that doesn't like rain/snow - is safely tucked under a roof somewhere.   And driving in the snow??  good luck with that unless you're next to a state highway or have an
expensive snow plow contract ($500/mo & up). 

 Fall is a turning down - like tucking the house & land into bed.  I like - not make that - LOVE the cooler temps.  especially after the August doldrums.  I don't care that some are reporting snow levels down to 4500 ft. already! 

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This (monday) morning it's 42F outside, 53 in the main living area and 68F in the bedroom - the new RMH reroute is working fabulously!  a long 6" flue pipe under the main exterior wall provides a perimeter type heat wall. 

  the storm?? - Big to-do about nada!   WinSol got about 1" of rain overnight on Saturday, but that was it. Most of the storm stayed way to the north and east.  But the cold front was as advertised - temps dropped over 20F for 2 days. Looks like Tahoe got a bit more as this
morning (Monday) chain controls are up on 88 just 10 miles from here.  And Montana declared a state of emergency - 2' of snow in Billings?? 
But this is short-lived.  there's nothing on the horizon (14+ days out) except a warm 'indian' summer.  Why do we call it that??  harder to say 'native american' summer... 




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