Snowmound

I was telling Dale that I think it has been a while that the snowmound has been this big.

Alley View

Garden in Winter 3

Garden in Winter 2

Garden in Winter 1

School Cancelled - And Again!

Looks like school is cancelled for Tuesday as well due to extreme cold.

School Cancelled - Again!

School cancelled today. The temperature when I woke up this morning is shown above.

Front Yard Planter

January 23

Missed the anniversary of the blog yesterday. School was cancelled due to extreme cold. Warmed up quite a bit today (up to 34!). 

Snow Mound

Warmed up to 34 degrees today. Supposed to be below zero by Monday. Little bit of snow today.

School Cancelled AGAIN

School is cancelled again tomorrow due to extreme cold.

The Birds

Crows have been gathering en masse over the last few days and they've been cawing loudly. The photo shows Jim and Megan's backyard silver maple with a bunch of them. Our front yard silver maple had a good number as well. I took Athena out for a walk just before 5 p.m. and the skies and trees were so full it looked like something out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. At times I'd look up and there were so many flying above that it reminded me of  the scene from The Wizard of Oz  when the flying monkeys are released.

Overnight Snow

When Dale and I went to bed last night close to midnight, there was no snow falling. When I woke up this morning around 6, I noticed that quite a few inches of snow had fallen overnight. Dale shoveled most of the snow on his own but I helped with the driveway. 

Bad Haiku

The snow remover

Shovels the powdery snow

Methodically

Sunset at 5:01 P.M.

The sunset today will be at 5:01 p.m. It won't set before 5 p.m. until November. Hope exists.

Full Wolf Moon 2014

From The Old Farmer's Almanac: "January is the month of the Full Wolf Moon. It appeared when wolves howled in hunger outside the villages. It is also known as the Old Moon. To some Native American tribes, this was the Snow moon, but most applied that name to the next full Moon, in February."

According to space.com: "The smallest full moon of 2014 rises in the night sky tonight (Jan. 15), and there's some interesting science behind the lunar sight... A 'Minimoon,' like the one rising this week, is a full moon at apogee, or its farthest point from the planet."

Photo taken January 14th 2014 at 42nd Street and 12th Avenue South.

Cold as Mars?

Todd Nelson of the StarTribune wrote yesterday:

"According to a recent report by NASA, average high temperatures recorded by the Mars Rover Curiosity, have been comparable to what we experienced Monday [Jan. 6]! Our overnight lows have actually been colder than highs recorded on the surface of Mars, so next time your family calls from Phoenix, you can tell them how hardy us Minnesotans really are!"

More Below Zero in the Backyard

Below Zero In the Backyard

Just found out school is cancelled for tomorrow too...

Bitter Cold

The governor called off school today because of the extreme cold. I woke up about 8:00 this morning and the temperature was 20 below zero. By 9:30 it was still 20 below. By noon, when I took Athena out for a walk, it was 17 below!

The Holly Fairy

Welcome 2014

Have been on vacation for the past 2 weeks. Was to go back to school on Monday but just found out that Governor Dayton has called off school for that day due to anticipated temperatures being extremely low. They are predicting -27 for the low on Sunday and then -15 for the high on Monday.