Last year, we had our first snow just before Christmas. It was the day we were to take gifts to some friends who were living rough while building a house. We had a basket of food and goodies as well as presents and supplies for them.
So we bundled into the Explorer. It was snowing heavily. I'll tell you our route through the sage brush along Crab Creek, as we go.
Here we are turning onto Laney Brother's Road from Coyote Heights Road. I love the names of the places out here. That's my forehead in the rearview mirror. It's been so dry out here (alright, I know it's semi-arid, but there are degrees of semi-arid and we have been hitting a mark close to zero rainfall for weeks on end.); the snow was definitely a source for excitement.
No one else was out on the roads. Actually, we don't often see anyone on this road, at any time. In fact, in our little town, three cars at the main intersection is considered rush hour.
Here, we're approaching the high point on the road, just south of Sylvan Lake and just west of the big meadow where there's a dairy.
Okay, we didn't photograph the dairy. Don't ask me why. The road goes right through it between the house and the barn, so I'm always busy watching for cows, equipment, calves, ponies, dogs, cats and, most importantly, children. Now we're almost to the crossing of the creek. Up to the left in the next two pictures, are eagles' nests.
Bald eagles are quite common along Crab Creek where the palisades line the flood plain. I didn't see one on this day.
These palisades were formed progressively over thousands of years from massive lava flows and eruptions, three different times. The basalt that we see here, can also be found on the seashore at Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Many of the palisades are high and massive. Now, we've made the turn and are on the bridge across the creek. In the background are the palisades we just went past..
And another view of the palisades.
Then, at the top of the hill coming up out of the coulee, we turn onto Lamona-Kramer Road. It's a primitive road with no warning signs and very little traffic, ever. One of our favorite parts of the short trip. It runs, here, through sage brush and pasture land.....no wheat right here, but plenty of it a mile or so to the south (to the right).
There's our friends' building project in the distance as we're turning onto Downs Road.
The house is coming right along!
Well, have you cooled off yet? Feel any better? I know I do. I turned up the AC! That, plus the snowy landscape, did the trick.
Hey, you can win a free pattern of your choice by leaving me a comment and telling me
HOW YOU KEEP COOL IN HOT WEATHER.
I'll draw the winning name on Monday, August 18, 2014,
at 5 PM PDT.
Thanks for coming by and visiting. We love to hear from you!
It`s nice to see snow pictures right about now. We use air conditioners.Not my favorite way to keep cool but necessary. I`m in a remote area in northern Arizona. It gets very hot and we are more humid this year. Our worst drought in 1200 years. My favorite way to cool off is to sit outside in a comfy chair after a thunderstorm. The breezes are wonderful and usually last all night. We didn`t have electric for 14 years. It was too far away to hook in to. Night time, in the summer, I`d hang wet sheets on the open windows. The cool breeze blowing against the sheets made it comfortable. During the day I walked around with a spray bottle of water, lol.
ReplyDeleteI felt so much better after blogging those pictures. Then, we had a horrid duststorm, a Haboob. I'm going to blog some pictures of that later.......and a good rain that lasted about two hours. Enough rain to make mud on everything. Are we ever happy? I think not!
DeleteEating ice cream is a nice refreshing treat on a hot summer day.
ReplyDeleteABreading4fun [at] gmail [dot] com
I've been eating a it of ice cream, too, in these hot evenings. Yum. We got a Cuisinart ice cream freezer for our anniversary and I've been experimenting with it. Yum, definitely.
DeleteThank you for the nice geography lesson. It is enjoyable to see other parts of the country. And in West Michigan, we get some hot days. I like to stay cool crafting in the basement or with the air conditioning in any other part of the house. Thank you for the chance at the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. We had a break in the heat last night with a storm and rain. Of course we want more.....rain, not storm. Oh well. It's something, at least. Thanks for coming by.
DeleteOh, just seeing snow, give me hope! Of course once it starts flying, I will likely be complaining about that too! LOL!!
ReplyDeleteWell, you know what they say around here.....if you don't like the weather, wait a minute or so. However, that hasn't held true this summer. It's been just plain hot and dry, period. Whew!
DeleteThe snow pictures are beautiful! We don't get a lot of that here where I live. I keep cool by staying inside with the AC on and a big glass of sweet iced tea. Thank you for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteYou must be one of the southern Carter families, although sweet tea is everywhere these days. A very refreshing drink. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteCould use a little cool in Denver today! some houses have a/c, most older have 'swamp' coolers, so in June when we had so much rain, the house smelled "damp" and I ended up turning it to just fan and opening up the windows at night. I've done the cool shower and go to bed wet trick before as well! thanks for the snowy wishes
ReplyDeleteSharon Schipper in Colorado
It has been a little difficult trying to sleep with the temp at 90 degrees F. at 11 pm. To me, that's really taking things a bit too far. Golly. I did resort to a cool shower before bed. I just shouldn't have bothered to dry off before I hit the covers!
DeleteWe are fortunate in SLC Utah to be only half hour from the mountains. So... when the hot weather gets to us too much we go for a drive up the one of the canyons and walk around in the cool mountain air. :)
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of where we could go to escape the heat; 200 miles to the ocean and 200 miles to the lakes. We stayed put because we didn't want to be out in the heat at all. Felt safer at home with the AC. Lucky for us we did because the alternator went south on our travel car. Good thing we weren't in the middle of Montana somewhere when that happened, huh? Providence.
DeleteOhhhh...I feel cooler already, Kathie! That's some ride - you're way too brave for me! Would love to see their finished house some day. You can leave my name out of the drawing - my pattern drawer runneth over :>)
ReplyDeleteCheers!
I'm glad. But, seriously, hasn't the rain been wonderful. We had a good 2 hours of it last night....plus a lot of thunder and lightning, but we survived. What a refreshment. Washed away the mud we got in the Haboob earlier this week. It was a wall of dust just like you see in the movie Hidalgo. Then, afterward, a steady rain for about an hour.....which made lovely mud on everything. Maybe Mother Nature has a sense of humor, you suppose?
ReplyDeleteWow, that did help cool me off. I almost got a sweater, then I realized that I was to hot for that. I'm so looking forward to fall, it truly is my favorite season!!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Tammy. We're ALL looking forward to fall in the West.
DeleteThose photos are refreshing and lovely. Been about 20 years since I have lived in snow country. I loved to take our collie for his nightly walk, but when snow was on the ground.......he didn't walk. He ran. I was young then and could keep up with him. :-)
ReplyDeleteI am thankful for our a/c here in this triple digit summer weather. We also use fans to keep the air moving and relieve the a/c of some of its load. Of course, the smart thing is to do the outside work and the heavy inside work earrrrrly. Am I smart? Sometimes. :-)
Yes, indeed! The formula for not just surviving the heat, but capitalizing on it is the early morning. Sunrise in the garden. Nothing better. Thanks for coming by. And, now, for the drawing.
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