Paradise ponders, frozen elk edition...

Paradise ponders, frozen elk edition...  Yesterday morning Debbie and I took a ride up Blacksmith Fork Canyon to Hardware Ranch.  It had snowed the evening before, and had been below freezing since, so we were hoping for some beautiful winter scenery.  And we got it!  Here are some photos from the outing:

The wind was blowing while it was snowing last night, so the snow is all plastered to one side (the northwest side) of everything.  It stuck particularly well to the teasels in the first three photos.  The last photo shows a phenomenon that we haven't figured out yet.  When we look up at the mountain sides, as in the last photo above, we see swathes of trees flocked with snow – and other swathes that are still green.  Why are some trees clear of snow?

When we got up to Hardware Ranch itself, we could see that the elk were in their winter paddock, and the ranch crew were giving rides to kids (see photos below).  These rides are very popular with the local kids, and earn a good portion of the Hardware Ranch's expenses.

At home I took a couple hours to staple up lightweight canvas all around the periphery of our new deck, to hopefully trap warmed air.  Then I fired up a 20,000 BTU “construction heater” that's powered by propane.  Within 15 minutes, the deck had warmed up by 15°F – most excellent!  I'm going to use this to let me finish the deck wiring and tongue-and-groove ceiling despite the cold weather...

Music-synchronized Christmas lights...

Music-synchronized Christmas lights...  A few days ago, a friend (Michelle H.) told us about a home in Nibley that had a fantastic Christmas light display whose lights flashed to the music playing on a radio station.  Nibley is a town about 10 miles north of us, just south of Logan.  Michelle gave us rough directions, and last night Debbie and I set out on a quest to find it.  It wasn't hard at all to spot: the flashing lights were visible from one of the main roads in Nibley, and we homed in on it in just a few minutes.

This home does indeed have a fantastic Christmas light display!  The video at right is one I took last night.  It's only a couple of minutes long, just enough to give you an idea what the display looks like. The music that the lights are synchronized to can be heard on FM 100.9, which is a local transmitter for KVFX.  The selection of music wasn't exactly to our tastes, but no matter: the synchronized lights were gorgeous!

After we sat and listened for a while, we realized the music selections were on a loop that lasts about fifteen minutes or so.  This implies that the synchronized lights were hand-composed, rather than being electronically derived.  It's still quite impressive though.

If you'd like to see these for yourself, follow the map at left.  When we went (around 7 pm) there were about ten cars parked nearby to enjoy the show.  I can imagine that it gets much worse sometimes...