Progress report...

Progress report...  We went to Lowe's yesterday morning to buy a 7/16" drill bit so I could finish installing Debbie's closet door.  $276 later, we staggered home with a truck full of all sorts of things we needed.  Probably the most important of these things was a snow shovel, which I employed when we got home to clear out out front entrance way.

I did, finally, finish installing that closet door.  Debbie now has an absolutely absurd amount of closet space.  Of course, it's not actually enough space, despite being large enough to have its own zip code :)

Then it was on to the next big indoors project: setting up our temporary office.  I assembled a little equipment “bread rak” that fits on top of a table, and now I'm in the middle of getting the networking gear all working.  Hopefully I'll have it going today...

Snow in Paradise...

Snow in Paradise...  The storm on Christmas day left us with 6 to 8 inches of snow, with a layer of ice underlying it because of the initially warmer temperatures.  The first consequence of this was that I needed to plow our driveway – all 18,000 square feet of it!  I purchased a nice snowplow for my little Kubota, and this was the first time I really needed it.  The snowplow has a hydraulic “flipper” to change it's angle, and it's mounted to the loader (in front), so it's really easy to use.  The tractor's four-wheel drive makes it behave solidly even on the ice.  I've never used a snowplow like this before, so I had some learning to do.  One thing I learned: the curves and variable width of our driveway don't make plowing it easy :)  About a week ago I installed snow stakes along the sides of my driveway, knowing that the snow was coming.  It's a darned good thing I did, because without them I wouldn't know where the edge of the driveway was!

The dogs had a ball in the snow, except that toward evening when it was a bit warmer, they started to have trouble with ice accumulating between their toes.  I actually had to carry poor Mo'i in from one walk, as the ice was making it painful for him to walk.  I've ordered a set of dog boots for him, as this will be a recurring need.

We made a drive into town this morning, and the roads were quite slippery.  However, people were driving slowly, and appropriately so.  They've obviously seen this action before :)  Later I drove to the post office to pick up our mail (we don't have rural delivery here).  The post office is on a side street up a gentle hill, and it's street was very slick.  I watched a car turn about 45° as it came down toward me.  The driver was totally calm and unflapped; she just turned into the skid and recovered when she got traction again.  If that had happened in California, the driver would have completely freaked out :)