COLD WEATHER

One stays somewhat preoccupied with the temperatures up here in the far reaches of north Texas. This morning I knew it was gonna be a cold one before I even got out of bed. Sure enough, the downstairs temp was 45, on the inside, 8 below outside. Could be worse. The weather channel reported temps of 18 below at Big Lake, just 2 miles down the road. If accurate, that is a record low for this date, besting the previous low by one degree.

I fear I do not have enough wood!

Minus 4

Kind of chilly this am. Put off taking the dog out to play fetch as long as I could. The cold doesn't seem to faze him. In fact, after about 20 minutes he'll abruptly drop the ball and start wolfing down snow. Cools off his motor I guess, but by that time I'm ready to call it quits. Call me a wimp but when my fingers get cold, I head for the house. Today it will eventually warm up to plus five so my fingers are doomed. I need a pair of really good expedition type gloves!

Was a bit of ice fog late last night but fairly clear this morning. Gonna try to make salmon burgers with sweet tater fries this evening so will venture out later for the fixins. Bon apetit!

Holidays

Nothing like a good game of fetch to get the blood flowing on a cold snowy Monday morning. Course, if you chase a tennis ball face first into a snowbank, you have to be prepared to get a facefull of the white stuff. No worries for Champ who is partial to the stuff.

A friend reminded me this morning how much family and friends back home will be missed this holiday season. Almost sent me to the airlines to check flight schedules. Guess I'll stick to the original plan and head south in late January.

Speaking of holidays we have picked out our tree. I think it looks fine right where it is so if Santa doesn't mind leaving my stuff on the porch, I'll leave it in the ground.

Glaciers

Was digging around in my pics for some glacier shots. Didn't realize how many I had. This is Bear Glacier. Awesome!

Snow

The weather folks have been calling for snow the past three days and they were finally right. The white stuff started coming down yesterday afternoon and didn't stop till lunchtime today. About five inches of fluffy powder. Time to break out the snow shovel. Temperatures since Sunday have been almost warm. May have even got above the freezing mark yesterday.

Time in a bottle

Don't know how Jim planned on doing this but sure wish I could put some sunshine in a bottle. Save a bit of the stuff for the dark days ahead. We are down to just 8 hours of daylight and losing about 5 minutes daily! Makes for some long evenings.

Nine degrees this morning.

Byers Lake

Saturday morning found us on the Parks Highway headed north to Denali State Park. Waiting for the sun to rise behind us, we watched the thermometer drop steadily. The minus 2 at Big Lake became minus 8 by the time we reached Trapper Creek. By then the sun was coming up and the views were spectacular. Mount McKinley and the rest of the Alaska Range had us torn between gawking at the view or watching the road. Its always a treat to see these mountains!

We reached the parking lot of the park by 1030 am. We loaded up the sled with firewood and donned our backpack and snowshoes and headed down to the cabin. By the time we returned to the truck for a second load, the rest of the gang had arrived. Seems they had to make an emergency stop for breakfast along the way. We quickly made our second trip down to the cabin loaded down with the many goodies we would later enjoy. After getting the cabin warmed up we headed outside for some recreation. As you can see, the lake is frozen solid already which made for some great skating and ice fetching. Temp dropped to minus ten but we stayed warm in the log cabin. The wood I brought in was well worth the effort. An excellent dinner of steak, roasted potatoes, salad, and apple pie, followed by some late night star gazing on the lake. A return visit is scheduled for January 24, 2009. Can anyone say 40 below?