Photos – Page 18 – Five Acres with a View

Too Cold to Snow?

For years I heard the phrase “too cold to snow” but decided it was a lie after moving to Colorado.

Jack’s personal weather station this morning:

Notice the minus 4F which was the outside temperature and the humidity of 86 percent. It’s not showing any precipitation because we are getting a very light, dry powder snow at present.

The view outside our house:

I googled the phrase “too cold to snow” and found that is is almost never too cold to snow. However, very cold snow will not hold as much moisture as temperatures closer to freezing. Another mystery explained, courtesy of Google.

Happy New Year

… from a windswept morning in Colorado.

White Christmas

…at least until the sun comes out and it burns off.

Tree

Jack and I put the tree up Tuesday. This is the earliest we have ever done so. This is a new tree: our previous one was shedding so badly that Jack bought this one on clearance after Christmas two years ago. This is our first self-lit tree: Jack doesn’t miss wrangling the strings of lights at all.

Morning Observer

I had an observer as I fed the horses this morning.

New Gig

Today I had my first solo experience driving the Mountain Community Senior Services shuttle. I first heard of this service over a year ago, and since I had been looking for a volunteer opportunity, I signed up a few weeks ago. MCSS provides two types of transportation for community seniors: volunteers who drive seniors to appointments in the volunteer’s vehicle, and volunteers who drive the shuttle for what is called the “social” program. For the social program, the shuttle picks up clients at their homes, delivers them to lunch, and then returns them to their homes. At present, I am driving once a month.

I was fortunate that the first woman I picked up today was adept at giving directions, so I didn’t have to rely on the GPS of my telephone. Although I thought I knew northern El Paso County fairly well, I have discovered completely new neighborhoods sheltering among the foothills.

The shuttle was easier to drive than I expected. I had figured it couldn’t be any more difficult than our (no longer existing) horse hauling rig, and I was right. I was amazed about how small the Subaru Forester seemed when I drove it home afterward.

First Snow and Alpenglow

I took this photo through one of the west windows, leading to the artifact in the lower part of the photo. We are having our first real winter cold snap: it was fourteen degrees Fahrenheit when I woke up.

November Sunrise

Achievement Unlocked

I live in Colorado. I had planned on dropping off our mail-in ballots this morning, but I screwed up my ballot when I was filing it out yesterday. Jack also made an error. We checked the voting website, and learned that we could vote in our local town hall this morning. They were still shaking out their procedures since this was the first morning, so it took a while, but achievement unlocked!

Autumn Valley

I took the dogs for a walk yesterday, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. (The downside of the lovely weather is that we are under a Fire Weather warning today.) It’s cute to watch the dogs struggle to contain their enthusiasm since they are learning that I won’t attach their leashes until all four paws are on the ground.