Spring on hold in the West

Casper is currently at 36 degrees with clouds and an occasional flurry.

There was a brief period of snow yesterday, and snow reported

elsewhere, especially in the northern part of the state.  Typical

weather for this time of the year.  I had to give up on putting my

plants to harden off. 

I am going to head to town and get some perennials on sale at Home Depot (I hope).  I bought an annual at Walmart that is really pretty.  I

love purple flowers!

Deer come around a lot now.  They look really bad this time of year.  Fur falls out in clumps!  More pics
on the wildlife blog!

Roller coaster weather

Today started out bright and mostly sunny, getting up to 57 degrees.  Then a cold front came through, dropping the temperature 22 degrees.  There was pea-sized hail and then snow flurries.  The front passed through and the temp made it back up to about 51 degrees. 
Even more odd, it was 39 degrees in Casper and 78 degrees in Torrington, 144 miles away!  It's not often there's such a spread in temperature across the state. 
It's cloudy again and 45 degrees.  I am guessing I will not be working outdoors for a while.

About a week ago, we had northerly winds at 40 mph most of the day.   We lost 8 shingles in a single day!  The neighbors had two trailers pushed around by the wind.  My garden space had the fence torn up--and the deer got in overnight.  They did not do much damage, fortunately. 

Winter was not as windy as usual, but spring is looking to make up for it!

Wet and rainy for a while

It's cool and rainy today.  My putting my plants outside for air and light no longer happens. 

I need to put up eave troughs on the north side of the house, but it's just too wet right now.  I have no desire to be climbing on a ladder when lightening develops.  The north side never had eave troughs.  However, I dug up irises and relocated many of them, leaving exposed soil.  Then we had the trailer releveled and the skirting is further up out of the ground.  Between those two changes, when it rains, the drip line creates pathways to under the trailer.  Wetness under the trailer is never good.

I put down some plastic and gravel to help with the drainage until we can get eave troughs up.

It's spring (sort of)

The temps are now up in the sixties, so it seems more spring-like. The snow could easily return, but for now it's sunny. The wind is often and on--today we have a somewhat brisk wind.
The birds have finally decided to eat out of my "bathroom sink" feeder, which is an old bathroom sink! I put popcorn and old bread out for them in the sink. For a long time, none of the birds would eat out of it. Then, a couple of days ago, I found sparrows hopping in and out of the feeder. So I put out more popcorn and bread. I'll try to get a picture.
The deer are mostly just passing through now. I find tracks most days, but only see them early morning or at dusk.
The land is turning green again! We don't get many months of green in Wyoming. Many years, the prairies turn purple in June from cheat grass, then brown in July as the prairie grass dies. So green is exciting!
Most of the activity right now is with birds. I am always checking out the bedroom window for birds at the "pond". They are enjoying the corn-on-the-cob I have left for them (birds are very good for eating the bread and other things you don't get around to eating in time!).

Spring or Winter?

 In typical Wyoming fashion, the weather for the past week has fluctuated between 60 degrees and sunny then cold and snowy then high wind warnings.  Today started out with snow then turned sunny, but still windy and very cold.  Easter egg hunting outdoors will require a coat and maybe mittens.  Which may be why Easter egg hunts tend to be held indoors.

This was the view on 4/2/2010 and this morning also.  The snow melted very quickly on the 2nd and today.  Now the yard is a bit muddy. 





Going to town yesterday, we saw a most unual method for hauling two cars in for salvage:

I have no idea how they got the top car stacked on, but I would love to have watched the process!