Weird Fall (Even More Snow)

Fall has been odd this year. Lingering with not a lot of color.

This is our driveway last week.


Then this Friday we got 6 inches of heavy wet snow. It proceeded to rain and/or snow throughout the day.
I did tractor duty as soon as I got home Friday.


The rain compacted the snow to 5 inches. It was very heavy. I am very glad we have a tractor.  I only had to shovel in front of my neighbors garage door. That little bit wore me out.

This is the driveway early this morning.


We were only half way done leaf removal chores. Now the leaves are under/in the snow.




While the dogs enjoy it I decided it is a good day to stay indoors. I made a hearty breakfast with dippy eggs and a pile of Spam for me. ML had an omelet



I guess the leaves will have to wait till spring.

Mary Lou, thank you for having such incredibly good taste in food.  Spam, Phil?  Really?!  Everyone knows that eggs over easy need rye toast, not Spam.

(You just know I couldn't let that pass, didn't you, Phil? )

As for your weather, ten days in Buffalo over the Christmas holiday will be more than enough.  Being the official lazy slug that I am, the very thought of having to clear snow goes against every fiber of my being.

P.S. All kidding aside, breakfast looks scrumptious!

Autumn was crazy here as well, 200 miles (?) north of you. We went from summer weather to winter weather and not much autumn weather*. I thank GOD that we just got 2 inches of the white stuff yesterday. I just wasn't ready (and it's far too soon). The ground isn't frozen so I can't plow it, and with a new auto we don't have snow tires for it, and the snows haven't been put on the plow truck (so I haven't fully retired- that's a joke). We were predicted to get up to 10" and that would have been a complete disaster. As it was I just went round and round with the plow truck (circular driveway) to pack down what we got. I like to have a base of ice on which my plow rides. This next week should see the ground freeze so that I can plow anything that follows. I plow a great deal of sq' footage so that the dogs can have room for their antics and to get to my wood racks. The problem with a snowplow is that one absolutely must plow the snow far away to start or maybe run out of places to put snow later in the season. I'd love to have a truck mounted snowblower but for 13k I'll keep my plow and it's disadvantages.

*It took me so by surprise that It never occurred to me to close the attic vents in the shop and normally I like to retain the summer and autumn heat for a time, now the shop is cold and requiring heat. I realized that I missed my cue when the wind turbine vents sucked the door shut with the winds a few days ago.

I remember reading something about how all the leaves this year will be yellow because of some rain/timing thing and sure enough all of our leaves were yellow! Even a large Japanese maple (I think?) that always has deep burgundy-colored leaves had yellow leaves.

As opposed to last year when none of the leaves fell until very late in the season it seemed they all fell in a 10 day span. It certainly helps that we had two torrential rain storms during that time. And we were able to get all the leaves up right before the snow!

Autumn was crazy here as well, 200 miles (?) north of you. We went from summer weather to winter weather and not much autumn weather*. I thank GOD that we just got 2 inches of the white stuff yesterday. I just wasn't ready (and it's far too soon). The ground isn't frozen so I can't plow it, and with a new auto we don't have snow tires for it, and the snows haven't been put on the plow truck (so I haven't fully retired- that's a joke). We were predicted to get up to 10" and that would have been a complete disaster. As it was I just went round and round with the plow truck (circular driveway) to pack down what we got. I like to have a base of ice on which my plow rides. This next week should see the ground freeze so that I can plow anything that follows. I plow a great deal of sq' footage so that the dogs can have room for their antics and to get to my wood racks. The problem with a snowplow is that one absolutely must plow the snow far away to start or maybe run out of places to put snow later in the season. I'd love to have a truck mounted snowblower but for 13k I'll keep my plow and it's disadvantages.

*It took me so by surprise that It never occurred to me to close the attic vents in the shop and normally I like to retain the summer and autumn heat for a time, now the shop is cold and requiring heat. I realized that I missed my cue when the wind turbine vents sucked the door shut with the winds a few days ago.

Brian,
I agree on the frozen ground. I too push snow back on my grass to create a "snow yard" for future snow stacking. I kept the bucket off the ground and did okay. BUT my neighbors driveway is sided by an uphill slope. I pretty much stripped it of topsoil as I pushed the snow back. I will be re-seeding that come spring.

Mary Lou, thank you for having such incredibly good taste in food.  Spam, Phil?  Really?!  Everyone knows that eggs over easy need rye toast, not Spam.

(You just know I couldn't let that pass, didn't you, Phil? )

As for your weather, ten days in Buffalo over the Christmas holiday will be more than enough.  Being the official lazy slug that I am, the very thought of having to clear snow goes against every fiber of my being.

P.S. All kidding aside, breakfast looks scrumptious!

Freddy,
I had Spam and pancakes for today's breakfast. Yum





Warning - the following is NOT a Spam - Free Zone. Procedd with caution.


I like to keep a well stocked pantry. That includes Spam.


There are 20 cans in my pantry!!! But I try to keep everything on hand. 50 pounds of pasta, cans and cans of tomato products and spaghetti sauce, tea, coffee, oatmeal, flour and sugar. ML thinks I have a problem   I just like to be well stocked and prepared.


One final comment on ML's taste in food. You'll notice she is using supermarket syrup while I enjoy Saxton's Real Maple syrup. 'Nuff said

Mary Lou, thank you for having such incredibly good taste in food.  Spam, Phil?  Really?!  Everyone knows that eggs over easy need rye toast, not Spam.

(You just know I couldn't let that pass, didn't you, Phil? )

As for your weather, ten days in Buffalo over the Christmas holiday will be more than enough.  Being the official lazy slug that I am, the very thought of having to clear snow goes against every fiber of my being.

P.S. All kidding aside, breakfast looks scrumptious!

Freddy,
I had Spam and pancakes for today's breakfast. Yum





Warning - the following is NOT a Spam - Free Zone. Procedd with caution.


I like to keep a well stocked pantry. That includes Spam.


There are 20 cans in my pantry!!! But I try to keep everything on hand. 50 pounds of pasta, cans and cans of tomato products and spaghetti sauce, tea, coffee, oatmeal, flour and sugar. ML thinks I have a problem   I just like to be well stocked and prepared.


One final comment on ML's taste in food. You'll notice she is using supermarket syrup while I enjoy Saxton's Real Maple syrup. 'Nuff said

Please tell me that last isn't true!

As always, just the two of you enjoy.

Spam is one of the foods I miss with my new diet. Even the lite has too much sodium and sat' fat. But I'll cook it and have 2 very thin slices once a week.

Phil, have you tried the bacon version of Spam? It tastes very mildly of bacon. But one way to REALLY ramp up the flavor is to smoke it for a few hours. The factory does make a smoked version, but since I was unable to find it I decided to make it myself. It's really good. When I was doing it (those days are over) I would let the neighbors know that the time was coming and to give me what they wanted smoked. It got to the point that instead of just one smoking I had to do the neighbors Spam and do a second smoke for mine. The smoker can hold a lot of Spam. I think one neighbor brought over 25 cans the last time I did it.

Mary Lou, thank you for having such incredibly good taste in food.  Spam, Phil?  Really?!  Everyone knows that eggs over easy need rye toast, not Spam.

(You just know I couldn't let that pass, didn't you, Phil? )

As for your weather, ten days in Buffalo over the Christmas holiday will be more than enough.  Being the official lazy slug that I am, the very thought of having to clear snow goes against every fiber of my being.

P.S. All kidding aside, breakfast looks scrumptious!

Freddy,
I had Spam and pancakes for today's breakfast.




Warning - the following is NOT a Spam - Free Zone. Procedd with caution.


I like to keep a well stocked pantry. That includes Spam.

There are 20 cans in my pantry!!! But I try to keep everything on hand. 50 pounds of pasta, cans and cans of tomato products and spaghetti sauce, tea, coffee, oatmeal, flour and sugar. ML thinks I have a problem   I just like to be well stocked and prepared.


One final comment on ML's taste in food. You'll notice she is using supermarket syrup while I enjoy Saxton's Real Maple syrup. 'Nuff said

Please tell me that last isn't true!

As always, just the two of you enjoy.

Tis true. She does all that sap collection in the snow. Then sits out in the cold during sap boil down. But she doesn't  like the finished syrup.
Truly a labor of love for her. And family time.

This past October we stopped at a "sugar shack". S yrup making place that also serves breakfast. Every table had a bottle of real maple syrup on it. ML ordered french toast. Then she asked if they had supermarket syrup. The waitress was nonplussed and said "Sure. We get lots of requests for it". So ML is not the only one.

Freddy,
I had Spam and pancakes for today's breakfast.




Warning - the following is NOT a Spam - Free Zone. Procedd with caution.


I like to keep a well stocked pantry. That includes Spam.

There are 20 cans in my pantry!!! But I try to keep everything on hand. 50 pounds of pasta, cans and cans of tomato products and spaghetti sauce, tea, coffee, oatmeal, flour and sugar. ML thinks I have a problem   I just like to be well stocked and prepared.


One final comment on ML's taste in food. You'll notice she is using supermarket syrup while I enjoy Saxton's Real Maple syrup. 'Nuff said

Please tell me that last isn't true!

As always, just the two of you enjoy.

Tis true. She does all that sap collection in the snow. Then sits out in the cold during sap boil down. But she doesn't  like the finished syrup.
Truly a labor of love for her. And family time.

This past October we stopped at a "sugar shack". S yrup making place that also serves breakfast. Every table had a bottle of real maple syrup on it. ML ordered french toast. Then she asked if they had supermarket syrup. The waitress was nonplussed and said "Sure. We get lots of requests for it". So ML is not the only one.

That’s funny.  Now a serious question for both ShadowsDad and you.  What is so appealing about Spam?  Why not a slice of ham, instead?  It isn’t the flavor of Spam that I find objectionable, it’s the incredible amount of salt.  As Brian stated, even the lighter version isn’t exactly light on the sodium.  All that comes through for me is the salt.  As I’ve stated before, to me, salt should be a flavor enhancer, not the flavor itself.  With Spam, salt is the dominant flavor, in my opinion.  So, again, what am I missing?  I know I am not the only one who dislikes Spam.  It seems to be a particularly polarizing food.