A bit chilly but a good day, especially for the casino that got my money.

They usually do @RpR!

We had a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Did you know that the Thanksgiving we just celebrated was the 400th? My son just told me.

I bet you're all gonna be jealous...we've been having sixties and fifties. Last year we were having twenties and tens by now, but because of the drought we're still getting warmer weather.

Right now it's just about fifty.

What with some of the bad storms that come through your part of the country you deserve the nice weather, Kim!

Frosty the Snowman says "it's winter now!"

Wish we had some of that...

Johannian said:Wish we had some of that...

Be careful what you wish for!

We had a beautiful sunny day today, temp in the mid 30s and windy enough that the trees and my high tunnels all shed the snow. And it looks like the coming week will be more of the same, off and on snow showers, off and on sunshine, and temps in the 30s. I like it!

I went Christmas shopping today, actually little to buy as there are so few I have to buy for now and some of it was done early.
As butt wrenching last minute buying can be, I actually miss having one week to go and having to hustle.

I did something today that I have not done for years, and used to be how I did it ever year; I went to four stores on the same day. Now that is no big thing but these are stores, some I have not been in, in years, I used to hit most of them from, once a quarter to every month to near every week.
Probably worse is some I used to go to every Christmas no longer exist.
Now I cannot Christmas shop while with Sharon, but it has been a long, long time we have been in some of these stores at the same time and it used to be routine.


I went shopping a couple of days ago and came home in the dark, we used to every year go shopping at night; now Sharon does not want to do anything at night any more.
I am walking the entire store, especially the toy section, not sure why but I have a quite upbeat attitude this season even though I miss that is it not what it used to be.

OH well, Merry Christmas

Well, I'm a guy and to be a true man you can't like stores. But I like shopping, NGL. Especially shopping for gifts.

We got some rain last night, some very welcome rain. Over here in the MidWest we're having a really bad drought, so we need all the water we can get.

We got a little bit of snow last night but it is 40 right now so we lost some of what we got. It's suppose to get colder after today, nothing above freezing in the 10 day forecast. I did most of my outdoor Christmas decorating today, it's the warmest day I can remember doing it for a long time. That was nice. :smily:
I don't have much Christmas shopping to do, mostly we just send money to those who live away, so just a couple of grandkids. I am not a happy shopper...... except for plants! so I will probably do a lot of it online. It's been many years since my husband has gone shopping with me. Which might be good because then we don't have to agree on anything, I get to pick and if you won't help you can't complain.

No snow. It was 76 yesterday, really bright and sunny. I'm sorry...what? 76? That's NOT supposed to happen in December. Wackiest weather I've ever seen (not saying much at my age LOL). Seems to me the weather's cornbread ain't done right in the middle...

Its the banana belt!

https://www.rushmoreregion.com...

I loved the weather in Rapid City when we lived there. I have a picture of my husband and our two month old son with just his sweater on sitting on our Harley with the sun shining at Christmas time.
We are suppose to get between 5"-10" of snow from Saturday evening through Sunday night and -8 Sunday night so tomorrow is probably going to be the last time I'll be able to get to the barn to get pots to start seeds this winter. We are on the top of the hill and the barn is at the bottom and it usually drifts so bad that I have a hard time dragging this 5'1" body down the hill and back up carrying pots. So I'll probably have to get by with whatever I haul up tomorrow until spring.

Susie, it sounds like the winter games are beginning - your 5-10" of snow is making the 3-5" that we are supposed to get sound pretty good!

It snowed most of the day here today, but the temp was around 35°F and none of it stuck (and I think more of what was already on the ground melted). My garden is almost bare of snow right now - quite unusual for December, for sure!

I know Rj mentioned the banana belt. Speaking on that matter, did anyone hear about the 12" snow blizzard in Hawaii?

Hawaii!! Snow...in Hawaii. I mean, has this been a crazy past two years or what?

Northern Mn from yesterday:

20.1 inches - Grand Marais (5 miles NNW)
18 inches (estimate) - Golden Eagle Lodge, 20 miles north of Grand Marais
17.2 inches - Grand Marais (4 miles W)
16 inches - Finland
15 inches - Chisholm
14 inches - Hibbing, Lutsen, Solway, Wales, Bemidji
13.5 inches - Hovland
13 inches - Kelly Lake, Lake George, Two Harbors (2 miles WNW)
12.3 inches - Keewatin
12.2 inches - Brimson
12 inches - Virginia, Iron Junction, Gilbert, Britt, Silver Bay, Cherry

Wow, most we got yesterday was a couple snowflakes. You guys are getting tons of snow over there.

Wow, Rj we only got 6 to 8 inches, it is hard to know for sure because we got a lot of wind with it, so it drifted bad. I was excited because it covered up all the plants the deer had dug in and it got pretty cold so I wanted the insulation. But guess what, they were back again last night digging again.
Here's a couple of pictures where they've been.






All my gardens were like that.

Oh yes that's totally us with our deer over here. Such a nuisance they are, but then I'll go ahead and feed them from my hand

And then as soon as they run away from me, they're suddenly hated by me again

We ended up with about 8 inches of snow too - along with what were reported as "gale force winds." I'm thankful that our yard is sheltered by a lot of tall cedar trees, and also that the wind and relatively mild temperature (mid 30s) resulted in both high tunnels completely clearing themselves off. Then overnight the temp plummeted to 5°F... but a week from today it's supposed to be back up to 40° . The weather is always kind of crazy around the Great Lakes, as many of you know, but this seems even more unusual to me!

Meanwhile - back on Thanksgiving day, on the way home from the family gathering, hubs sneezed and asked me to get one of the fast-food napkins out of the glove box so he could blow his nose; but when I opened the glove box all the napkins were shredded up and there were other definite "signs" of mouse activity . Since then we've trapped at least half a dozen in the engine compartment - the fun just never ends