Sassy & Sweet Notes

Spring ... Snow!?

I am fairly certain that it is NOT supposed to be snowing on March 22...

Crazy Weather, Here and THERE!

For those of you who know we still have the farm in Texas, and know that it's located south of Dallas (it is right under that upper X), yes there was significant weather there this afternoon. Alan is there with his family, but all is OK. Others in Texas were not so lucky with these storms. Thank you for checking in to make sure we are OK! We appreciate you thinking of us!

This past week in Washington state, we got 18" of snow and were without power for 3 days. Thankfully, our power was restored late Christmas eve. Once power was restored, I held out faith and quickly put together some side dishes for Christmas dinner that needed refrigeration and hoped they would survive the night in a working fridge. They did!! Several of our friends weren't so lucky, and didn't get power restored until today. Bummer!!!

And, for those of you now confused by SNOW in Washington state and TORNADOES in Texas .... we currently have two properties. I'm at the snowy one in Washington state, and Alan is at the "scary" one in Texas. *GRIN*

Anyway, thanks so much for checking in with your concerns after hearing about the bad storms in central Texas. We appreciate you thinking of us!

Again, Merry Christmas to you, and blessings for the coming year!

Late Afternoon on the Prairie

Pixie and I took a short drive this evening, and the scenery was spectacular... There has been so much smoke in the area lately, from area wildfires. But yesterday some small pop-up storms went through nearby and cleaned the air a bit.

This is about 10 miles from home, and just north of the city of Spokane.

Amazing, huh?! :)

the weather is broken...

There is something seriously wrong with the weather... 10 degrees hotter in Washington than in Texas!? Good grief...

B-B-B-Brrr!

Whoa! Bit of a cold spell coming in, wouldn't ya say!? Is this good-bye fall, hello winter!?

Sunflowers for the Kitchen

Today was 79 degrees and it rained almost 2". To celebrate such a wonderful day 2 of summer, I picked some of the sunflowers from the garden for the kitchen window. They make me smile!

And, I made 12 quarts of pickles! Yummmm!

Texas Sunset

Below Freezing Temps and More Ice!

Thought I would share a few more ice photos from around the farm. This is ice that has formed on a cactus that's growing in the pasture. It was a challenge getting into the pasture, since the latches on the gates are all iced over. But I was on a mission!

Everything has frozen icicles.

The trees rustle in the wind and it sounds like a soft chorus of wind chimes around the entire farm.

It was 23* today when I took these photos... and we might see a whoppin' 27* on the temp gauge for our high today! But things are supposed to warm up a smidge starting tomorrow with a high near 35*. I realize that for some of you, our weather seems almost tropical! But I assure you, it's COLD here! *grin*

A roll of wire, coated with hundreds of icicles.

And finally, the chicken house and part of the garden. Those trees hanging over the backside of the chicken house are the ones that concern me. They are still very full of leaves, and those leaves are all covered with ice, making it very heavy. If those trees snap, they could easily take out the back of the chicken house. Here's hoping they hold up. You can also see the netting around one of my garden beds... it looks like white cloth draped between two posts in this photo.

Here is a close-up of that same netting. Pretty neat!

More Ice!

A few more photos from today's little ice event... this is netting around one of my garden beds.

Pretty cool how there are little openings between each of the weaves!

Another garden trellis.

Tomato vine. This is one way to chill your veggies!

Fence rail.

And finally, the trees behind the garden. I hope they don't snap ... and I really hope the trees behind the chicken house don't snap -- they'd take down the covered chicken yard in a hurry! Ack!

Ice!

Winter weather in Texas! Fun!! Here are a couple of photos I took from underneath our back porch of the tree that's right next to the house. I'll be going out later, when it's safe to take the camera out and about (no way am I taking it out in the sleet that's coming down now!) to see what else there is to see! I imagine the ice is going to get a bit thicker with the moisture that's coming down now.

Next to the house there's not so much ice built up, but away from the warmth of the house, things are a lot icier! Cool!

Welcome to December -- Brrr!

It's about to get cold ... well, it already is cold so maybe I should say it's about to get REALLY cold! Temps in the teens!? Brrrr!!

Better pull out the woolies!

Rain, Rain, Glorious Rain!

Yes, it's true .... we got RAIN!

Another *Amazing* Sunset

Last night's sunset was spectacular! Enjoy these photos!

This is the photo I took with my phone, before running into the house to get my "real" camera. The sun was still completely behind the cloud. By the time I got back outside with my camera, the sun had dropped just below the cloud.

If you'd like to see more sunset photos, check out the Weather category for posts about all kinds of weather... sunsets, heat, rain, etc.

A Beautiful Sunset

Tonight's sunset was beautiful! I'm glad I was out and about, and had time to get my camera! Going...

Going...

Gone.

August Rain!

With all the rain that's been falling in various parts of Texas, just NOT on us, we finally got a bit of it! Unbelievably, one small storm popped up yesterday and passed right over us yesterday, early evening. Even though it was small, it was mighty! It delivered 1" of rain to the farm in less than an hour. I got outside just in time to get some shots of just how dark and menacing the clouds were, before they were upon us.

You can really see the wall of water behind the front. That rain was comin' DOWN!

The storm really wasn't very large at all. The edges fanned out like light, wispy petals. The neighbor's cows weren't too concerned.

The color of the clouds was very pretty. There was a teal blue green area that would show through as the lower clouds rolled forward.

The breeze picked up, and I could see the rain was getting closer and closer. And it seemed as though we might be swallowed up by the clouds!

More of that pretty teal blue green color showing through.

And finally, it was time to go in... rain was soon to be upon us. YAY!

Three Days of Spectacular Skies

In the past three days, we have had some fairly spectacular skies. The scattered thunderstorms over central Texas, while not actually giving us much more rain than we received over the weekend, are providing lots of sky eye-candy. The photos I'm sharing on this post are from today (Thursday), Wednesday, and Tuesday of this week.

The first few photos are of tonight's sunset. I didn't think it would amount to much, but it actually turned out quite nice.

I always love it when the sky fades from warm oranges and yellows to cool greens and blues. Tonight, it did just that!

After the sun completely set, there were lots of beautiful little pink-bottomed clouds.

These colors always remind me of western paintings by Charles M. Russell.

YESTERDAY: Storms sailed just past the farm (both sides!) not leaving us with a drop of rain. But we did get to see that pretty cloud formation in the distance. This was taken hours before sunset, but look how dark it was under those clouds!

TUESDAY: The sky was quite different on Tuesday! When I was on the other side of town delivering eggs, the storm off in the distance was really something! The storm was coming up from the south, and I was convinced with all that was coming our direction that we'd get some rain. Nope. It split in half and went right around us.

Meanwhile, the view west from back at the farm (this is the view you usually see in my photos) gave a beautiful image of the sun peeking down through the clouds.

And in case you're wondering, Fidget has been my evening helper while I'm out checking out the sunset. She's quite the helper.... follows right along, chattering up a storm. *grin*

Mid-July Rain...

As unheard of as it is, we've had unseasonable cool temperatures for the past few days, and yes, even RAIN! We received 2" of the beautiful liquid over the course of Saturday and Sunday. We didn't get as much as some neighboring areas (3, 4, even over 8 inches!), but we're happy with what we did recieve.

Moose wasn't too thrilled with the rain. He did enjoy the 30 degree drop in temperatures, but he's not too fond of rain. Maybe if he hadn't torn off the cap and all the patches Alan made for his dog-loo, he wouldn't have a leaky hut! He survived hanging out on the porch... barely, if you ask him.*grin*

I'll take the rest of July just like this, please and thank you! This Pacific Northwest girl LOVES rain!

last days of spring

Earlier this evening, we were supposed to get a nice bit of rain ... some much needed rain. But instead, we watched the storm blow right on past, missing us by mere miles, and didn't get one bit of the much needed moisture. But, I did gimp on out to the end of the driveway and snapped some nice photos!

Tomorrow is the last day of spring ... and summer around here promises nothing but hot, HOT sunshine.

Are you ready for it? I'm NOT, if you can't tell! *grin*

Lavender Sunset

Hope you're not tired of weather photos ... but I thought I would share this shot of last night's sky, taken after the afternoon thunderstorm passed through. We got a wonderful bit of rain, and it dropped the air temperature down over 20 degrees. Perfect!

And if you're wondering about the view in the direction of the setting sun..

...you're in luck! I took this shot as well.

Happy Wednesday!

Another Sunset

Sunsets are one of the, umm, two things I like about Texas. *grin* And last night the sunset was another beauty. It was very cloudy and grey early in the evening, and I didn't think we'd see any sunset at all. Alan and I were sitting in the living room, when out the window I saw the light had changed and was completely different. Everything was gold and glowing! The sun had dropped beneath the storm clouds and was casting beautiful gold light on everything around us. Outside I went, camera in hand.

We could see the storm to the north, and the VERY black clounds of the storm that was to the southwest of us that promised to come our way. And between the two storms was the setting sun.

The last photo I took of the sunset.

When I first started taking photos, when the sun was well above the horizon, the air was completely still. Our own moment of silence for those effected by this week's weather.

Coral Colored Texas Sunset

We had kind of an usual sunset last night. Thankfully, I was outside at the time and was able to run in and grab the camera before the color was gone. Everything was pink -- it was the strangest color cast!

We had some storms to the west of us but the clouds weren't high enough to block the setting sun. The humidity did block much of the sun's light though, which made it possible to look at the sun without being blinded from sunlight.

I thought the coral color was so pretty, how it faded to pink. Not too much longer and the sun was mostly obscured by the distant storm clouds. It was sure pretty while it lasted!

Happy May Day!

Happy May, dare I say, to all of you who got SNOW today!?!

Wacky Weather Update

Yesterday I mentioned that our forecast for today was supposed to be 80*. Well, I take it back.

How about 85* instead.

Seriously!?

Wacky March Weather

Wow ... tomorrow's expected high is 80*. Of course, the low is expected to be 45* so it's not like it will be warm for long. But, I might be able to turn the heat lamp off of the baby chicks for a couple hours, anyway!

Wacky, wacky weather.

February Texas Sunset

I took some photos of a sunset we had earlier this week that was truly amazing. The clouds were interesting, the colors were vibrant, and I was happy to have been outside at the right time to see it.

I thought you might enjoy it as well! Click on the photos for a larger view.

And it's almost time for Happy FRIDAY!! I can't tell you how glad I will be when 5:00pm Friday rolls around. I don't know why, but this week feels like it's been soooooo long. I actually thought today was Friday until about 10:30am. Talk about a rude awakening when I realized that today was only Thursday! Ughhhhh! But I got through the day, and look forward to the weekend.

Happy Friday, happy WEEKEND!

Sweet Potato Update

I thought I'd pop out to the barnyard and see what Sweet Potato was up to this afternoon. It's been a month or so since her last update.

Just as I suspected.... she was eating hay. Pretty exciting. You can barely see Princess Leia behind her.

And she's filthy from the rain and mud. Not really looking like a baby anymore, is she? She's a very quiet calf. Hardly ever makes a peep. She has been sneaking milk off of Princess, so she's not really into bottle feeding any longer. And finally she's interested in hay! Took her long enough!

Looks like it's going to get chilly up north of us tonight! We're expecting a high of 71 tomorrow, but then it's supposed to drop down into the low 30's and 40's starting Sunday, after a bit of rain on Saturday. Damp And Cold = Brrrrrrr!

Happy FRIDAY!

I can't tell you how thankful I am that today is Friday! It's been a very long week. It started out fine on Monday, but Tuesday morning at 2am I woke with a flu bug that kept me up the rest of the morning, and in bed all day and night on January 1st. Not such a fun way to start the new year. But, Wednesday rolled around and I was starting to feel better. I was still moving slow with the achy flu-body feeling, but was feeling better regardless. Alan is a good nurse when I'm sick and he made sure I was taken care of.

This morning we were supposed to get SNOW for about 8 hours, but we got NONE! I was very disappointed, as it's so pretty and quiet here when we have snow. We didn't even get any rain! Bother!

Twiggy has the right idea though ... all wrapped up in her snowflake blanket, keepin' cozy.

I have lots of crafty projects to share with you soon, so look forward to that!

Hope you have a delightful Friday, and even better weekend!!

Wintery Wonderland

In just a few hours I will be flying to Washington state to spend Christmas with my family. I always wish for a white Christmas, and it looks like this year my wish will come true! Today in Texas was 80*. Unusually warm, but 80* just the same. It's quite a bit cooler where I'll be for the next 10 days!

Wherever you find yourself this Christmas, here's to keepin' cozy!

September Texas Sunset

Tonight's sunset was amazing... hope you enjoy! As always, click on the images for a larger view.

Tonight's Sunset ... and a drag!

We had a very pretty sunset this evening, and I got outside just in time to snap a photo of the last bit of color. Sorry, but I think I missed the most dramatic part while I was in grabbing the camera. The rays of the sun were shooting so high and were a brilliant pink color. Amazing! This photo is nice, but oooooh, what it could have been!

While we were out, Moose took Alan for a drag. *grin*

Moose is getting so BIG! And such a ham!

Tonight's Sunset

Another storm is moving across North Central Texas, and while we don't get any rain from those storms, we do get pretty sunsets!

How about this evening's sunset for a winner!

August 12, 2012 Thunderstorm: Central Texas

A small storm cell moved through, just northeast of the farm last night, so I popped out to take some photos. The lightening show was great! BIG bummer though, I didn't realize that the powerlines were still in the camera frame, and were for almost every shot. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!

Anyway, enjoy the show -- we sure did! You can click on the images for a larger, clearer view.

Want to see more weather related photos, including last fall's spectacular thunderstorm? View the Weather category. Cheers!

Variety of Photos....

Thought I'd share a few mobile phone photos I've taken while visiting Mom and Dad in northeastern Washington.

Boating on Davis Lake, trees in the front yard, and last night's full moon over the Pend Oreille river.

Such a great visit, and place to be.

Red Hot Sunset Photos

We usually have pretty sunsets here on the farm, but night before last the sunset was pretty spectacular!

A storm cloud was moving off to the southeast, opening up the sky at just the right time for sunset. The dark portion at the top of the photos is the tailend of the storm.

It would have been nice to get RAIN with the passing clouds, but we didn't ... bummer.

At least we had a pretty end to the day.

Mercy...

Looks like tomorrow is going to be a dreadful day... ugh.

Pretty Sunset

Happy FRIDAY!! We got a bit of rain last night ... about 1/2" ... and are hoping for a bit more this afternoon/evening. Cross your fingers for us! We can use all the rain we can get!

Big plans for the weekend!?

Happy Earth Day!

Hope you have a wonderful day today, and take at least a moment to appreciate Earth. Yesterday evening, Alan helped me "refresh" the garden bed where I had spring peas planted, so today I get to plant some new seeds, water them in, and watch them GROW! Also in celebration of Earth Day, I did some video clips of the garden, and will post the video shortly.

Promises to be a gorgeous day here today ... a Sunny 81* ... a perfect day for a sundress, sun tea, and relaxation.

An April Storm

A rather large spring storm passed through today, and I stepped outside to take some photos. The clouds were dark, and active. Areas in and around Dallas experienced tornado damage, but we got by with just some heavy rains (not quite 2" of rain fell), a bit of hail, and lots of wind. The only casualties on the farm were in the garden. A banana pepper plant was snapped in two, two newly planted Juliet tomato plants were demolished, and the larger leaves on the zucchini plants are torn and filled with holes. Aside from the pepper and tomato plants, everything else will survive. My next trip to town will require a visit to the garden center to pick up some replacement plants. Here are some photos from this afternoon, as the storm rolled in.

An Anniversary, and a Sunset

First, here's wishing Mom and Dad a wonderful, happy anniversary! 42 years, if my math is correct! Wish we could be with you to help celebrate ... or, at least have some cake!

And, what a lovely sunset we had this evening as the last of the big storm moved off to the west of us. Thought I'd share it with you! Going....

Going.....

Gone.

Thanks for checkin' in!

Garden Update & the Weather

After the bit of rain we had over the past few days, I was happy to be able to get some work in the garden done today! I'm really happy about it too, because by the look of our 10 day forecast hopefully the seeds will get some much needed rain! There's still LOADS of work to do in the garden, but at least I've made a small dent.

Here's what got planted today:
Zinnias
Sunflowers
Onions (two types)
Spinach
Carrots
Radishes (two types)
A little bit of lettuce
A few broccoli (never grown here -- just a test)
A few cauliflower (never grown here -- just a test)
Peas
Garlic Chives

I didn't get tomato seeds started yet (I had hoped to get them started a month or more ago), so I will most likely just pick up a few plants at the store one of these days.

What's left?
Zuccihini
Cucumbers (several types)
Tomatoes
Beans
Squash
More Spinach!
More Radishes!
...what else? ... I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

High Hopes Spring Release

High Hopes is celebrating March with a small spring release. Get all the details on the High Hopes blog. I hear there are some prizes being given out as well! I do love prizes, don't you!?! My card features Laurie's Garden Angel. She's pretty cute, I say!

Pop on over to the High Hopes blog for all the details.

We're expecting a big storm to roll through over the next few days ... we can use the rain, for sure! And lucky for Alan, the clouds are blocking the full moon. I get a little crazy during a full moon, so maybe I'll be a little LESS crazy this month! Haa!

More Winter, More Rain. Please!

I'm finding it difficult to move into Valentine and spring themed projects for some reason, wanting to hold onto snowmen and snowflakes and cocoa and woolies. I don't want spring to come just yet, even though I think it is the best season in Texas. We haven't had enough winter, and we desperately need more rain before the onset of summer 2012. Lately the weather has been very spring-like, minus all the lovely wildflowers that bloom in Texas. Hopefully the weather gets a bit colder, and we get some of the rain that the weather-people say is coming our way tomorrow.

If I MUST think about spring, let it be of baby chickens. That I can handle.

Several years ago at a local auction house, I bought several photo albums (5 to be exact), each one of them FULL of vintage postcards - someone's collection. One of the folders is all Easter cards, and soooo many of them feature chickens or chicks. The above image is from one of the postcards I bought that day. Maybe flipping through those old cute postcards will put me into the mood to work on spring projects...?

I'll sip hot cocoa while I do. *grin*

Mother Nature and the Garden

I found images of a project I created in October using the Lifetime of Happiness cling set, and thought I would share them with you.

It's kind of timely that I came across these photos tonight, because we've got quite a windstorm happening and I'm hoping that some of the garden debris finds it's own way out of the garden and into the pasture with the donkeys and cows. Nothing like a little helping hand from Mother Nature when it comes to getting some of the farm chores done!

I really like how this project came together. The peachy colored paper I hand dyed using various distress inks and pearl colored Glimmer Mist. It really is quite pretty being slightly shimmery under the image, which as you can see also happens to be dressed up with even more glitter.

To add the top sprinkling of glitter, I gave the card a light spray of adhesive (spray adhesive comes in a can, like spray paint) after the card was all assembled. While the adhesive was still tacky, I lightly sprinkled crystal glitter here and there. A light hand is best for this technique ... it's easy to get carried away and add too much adhesive, and glitter! (Do you believe me?) *grin*

After the adhesive dries it's no longer tacky, so you don't have to worry about random things sticking to your project after the adhesive is dry.

I dressed up the inside of the card too, using a sentiment from the same set. I chose to add faint butterfly stampings, as well. And more glitter!

... I do believe we're sneaking up on a Friday! ...

Thanks for checkin' in on me today!

We got RAIN!

Alan has a rain gauge hung on a fence post out at the barnyard. It actually came in handy today! Even though I was gone all day, Alan left the rain water in the gauge so I could see just how much rain we got today while I was gone. Yahoooo!!! I just had to get a photo!

And would you look at that pretty sunset in the background, too!

September Thunderstorm Photos

A storm brewed up north of us this evening, and put on quite a light show! I put the camera up on the tripod and took some photos. I couldn't decide on a favorite photo, so I'm sharing a BUNCH of photos! I am posting them in the order they were taken. And, I encourage you to click on the photos to get a larger, clearer view. Pretty cool!

You can see our neighbor's house in the distance. I did move the camera a few times because sometimes there were just more bolts in different parts of the sky, but I kept the neighbor's house in every photo.

What was strange was for the longest time we couldn't even hear the thunder. In fact, it wasn't until the last few frames that it became a distant rumble we could actually hear.

Once the storm got closer to us (it was moving very fast!) the thunder proved to be quite loud. Mister Farley had to get all nervous and scared, but eventually decided that his "safe place" under the coffee table was OK.

To take these photos, I put the camera on the bulb setting and manually held the shutter open for between 15-25 seconds. I had planned to use my wireless shutter release, but the batteries were kaput. So, all of these photos were taken with my finger holding the shutter open. I'm sure they're a bit "wiggly" if I inspect them at great detail, but they're not too bad considering!

In this photo, you can actually see how fast the clouds were moving ... the lightening made the storm clouds look double exposed in the upper right corner (right in front of that nice glow).

We even got a bit of rain once the storm made it over to us. Not quite a quarter inch. Better than nothing -- we'll take every last drop!

Enjoy the rest of the photos...

You can really see the rain coming down in this photo.

Something was getting hit! Zoweeee!!

This one might actually be my favorite. I love the curved arches of light in the center.

Hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!

A Drive Through Texas Farmland (Video)

Alan and I made a trip to the farm supply store this evening -- join us as we drive home through Texas farmland.

Video has been edited to 3x time, and ends with a beautiful Texas sunset. It was 96 degrees.

Enjoy!

As always, if you have trouble viewing the video here on the blog, you can also view it on my YouTube channel.

Enjoy the weekend!

Texas Fire Update

Thank you for all of the emails and comments you've left wanting to know if the Texas wildfires are burning near us or putting us in danger. I'm happy to say that no, they are not near us, and we are fine.

Our farm is located in central Texas. There are fires south of us near Austin, northwest of us west of Fort Worth, and northeast of us east of Dallas. The sky is filled with smoke, but thankfully none of the current fires pose any threat to us or our farm.

We've had a hard enough summer without the threat of wildfire, too. Not everyone is so lucky though, and we hope the fires are contained quickly, and safely for all involved.

Thank you for your expressed concern. {{hugs!}}

Northern Winds are Welcome

Today calls for a little celebration! Today will be our first day below 100* since MAY! And by the looks of the forecast, it might stay that way for the week. We get CLOSE to 100* towards the end of the 10-day forecast, but as long as we don't see triple digits on the thermometer I'll be grateful.

Enjoy the rest of your fun-filled, holiday weekend!

Pumpkins and Bears and More +100* days...

There's a challenge on the High Hopes blog today and the topic is "Autumn Colors". The challenge runs for two weeks, so I encourage you to play along! Get the details on the High Hopes blog. For my project I chose to use the "Angel Bear Jumping Out Pumpkin" image. I didn't want the angel wings on my project, so I quickly and easily snipped them right off. Sinful? Probably... *grin* The sentiment on this card is from my Whipper Snapper cling set called All Things with Love.

I got this pretty sunflower Scentsy warmer in the mail from my long-time friend Tricia, who knows I'm a craft/stamp/paper junkie. THANK YOU, Tricia!! A small 25W light bulb sits in the base of the warmer and heats the wax just enough to melt it, and the wax scents the room. She sent along a few wax blocks too: Cinnamon & Vanilla, Clove & Cinnamon, and Black Raspberry Vanilla. No matches, no fire! Perfect for my craft room. To get me in the fall spirit I put Clove & Cinnamon wax in the pot and got busy stamping.

Mmmm! The room was filled with yummy goodness and I couldn't help but want to dig out all of my fall and halloween themed stuff!! I had a ball coloring up this image, wishing for cool Autumn days, which are hopefully coming our way sooooonnnnnn.......

Speaking of "cool", let's check in on the weather forecast for the farm, shall we?

UNCLE, already... UNCLE!!!

August ... hot.

It's still blazing hot here on the farm. 107 as I write this. Looks like another 107 day tomorrow. Followed by 105, and then day after day of more miserable heat. We *might* get below 100 on August 26th. Forecast for that day is 99. I'd better get out the scarves and mittens!

Last year in August I had beautiful zinnias and sunflowers blooming in the garden, and loads of cucumbers and zucchini to pick.

This August is quite different. No butterflies in the garden, and certainly no beautiful zinnias or sunflowers!

How dreadful.