Hope your weekend is sunny and mild-a major storm has been forecast for the 303 so we snuck out of town to see my parents. Sam’ll let you know just how much of the white stuff falls once the winds die down.
Live, love, bark! <3
Category: Weather
Wordless Wednesday
Live, love, bark! <3
Snowmageddon – 2016
dragged me out to the end of the driveway encouraged me to pee. I complied and then ran like a bank robber back to the house. The rest of the day I kept looking at her hoping she’d figure out a way to build a litter box for me but she let me down. In the afternoon she and dad went out to build a luge run shovel the walks.
This was one of those super heavy, wet Spring storms that break tree limbs. Our neighbor across the street narrowly had a big limb crash on top of his car. It was too depressing for her to show photos since the same thing happened to her a few years ago when a couple of huge branches crashed through the fence. It even took a few guys built like Paul Bunyan to even move them off the sidewalk. Eek!
Not sure how long I can ‘hold it’ but hopefully there’ll be enough melting today and Friday so I can get back to peeing and pooping in the perfect spot. A boy can only hold his legs together for so long.
Live, love, bark! <3
Word(less) Wednesday
So Tuesday’s weather was 72º degrees. Today we are experiencing a blizzard with up to 12″ of the white stuff. It’s definitely Springtime in Colorado and in a couple of days (depending on the depth of drifts) we’ll enjoy the conditions below.
Happy National Puppy Day. Hug a puppy today-it’s more fun than listening to a talking camel on ‘Hump’ Day.
Live, love, bark! <3
Monday musings
If you follow me on Facebook or have liked the Tails Around the Ranch Facebook page, you no doubt have seen all the kvetching I’ve done about the Spring storm that blew through Denver over the weekend. Denver is officially considered a high mountain desert and when I say we need the moisture, I mean it (even in an El Niño year that has hardly delivered its promise of above normal precipitation). With apologies to those who’ve seen my multiple posts complaining of winter this past week…let me just say you guys can go should you so desire (but truth be told we’d really love it for you to stay a while 😉 ). For the rest of you, here’s my latest rant take on Mother Nature’s cruel hoax where Spring is concerned.
This past week was chilly, grey and VERY windy (for a couple of days we thought we were back on I-80). I can deal with the chilly temps, even the occasional dreary day but an entire week is highly unusual (remember we have over 300+ days of sunshine in the Mile High) especially when they follow several days of 70+ degree days that I was getting used to, it can be a real shocker to the system. And then there’s the fact that I absolutely loathe windy conditions and complain like a one-legged pirate walking a gang plank.
rat rodent again. It was wonderful being able to garden in shirtsleeves and not have to dress like a bundled up Eskimo out on the ice flow. But Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor in Colorado. Just when you come to expect moderate temperatures, she throws you a curve ball with a whole lot of icy spit on the side. The low yesterday morning was 16. That’s right, ONE-SIX-freezing-my-tush-off degrees! Are you kidding me??!!
From smiling yellow daffodils to snow-covered crocuses, extremes like this are the norm and not the exception in Colorado. Sigh.
Luckily, bulbs are fairly resilient around here, even if the about-to-bloom flowering trees are not quite as forgiving. No doubt there will be a number of flowering plums that simply will refuse to flower this year just to spite you, Mother Nature.
Chalk it up to just another ‘Springtime in the Rockies” red herring from Mother Nature’s arsenal of dirty, rotten tricks. ‘Snowball bushes’ in a Colorado Springtime landscape look more like this (bare shrubs with real snowballs) than the lovely version below.
Below is a photo from yesterday morning showing how bizarre landscapes can be in Denver…even on the same block. See the leafed out globe willow tree on the left side? Notice across the street on the right side where there’s still snow covering the front yards? Yeah, that’s how we roll around here at a mile above sea level. 
Here’s hoping your first weekend of Spring was a good one. Is the weather as crazy in your neck of the woods as it is in ours?
Live, love, bark! <3
May Showers Bring…
finally we can get the complainers to shut up and quit fussing about grey skies and rain (in 6 weeks, those same folks will be grumbling about the dog days of summer and the whining mantra will be “it’s toooooo hot and dry” to which I can only say: please go back to wherever it was where you came from but that’s for a totally different rant post). While I didn’t mind the rain too much, the idea of having to keep the furnace running in May was not cool but thankfully here we are now…fabulous sunshine and…wait for it…glorious gardens.
Though just on the other side of all those lovely lupines lies the vast wasteland former grassy area I refer to as the not-so Great Plains (otherwise known as dirt). Said wasteland was removed late last Autumn and is slowly being replaced with ground cover and perennials. And to think all those lovelies came from only 2 plants–talk about prolific re-seeders! The bees have been very busy pollinating as this is the first year that I’ve ever seen a red lupine. Usually there’s just purple and pink.
Sam loves it when I garden; it allows him to spend time in the yard and welcome the passing world of strollers, dog-walkers and neighbors out and about. Here’s where Mr. Canine Concierge is in his total element. A master of social skills, no one is allowed to pass by without the Swiffer tail wagging or a bouncing dash along the fence line to check out who exactly is in that stroller. “Wait, that’s got to be my bestest buddy ever that I absolutely have to check out” (even though I’ve never seen them before). And if I don’t give him the amount of attention he thinks he deserves, he’ll come by, lick my face and pester me till I stop what I’m doing and dote on him. That dog can be very persuasive a pest at times. Needless to say, it always takes longer to do yard work with him around. 😉
So this weekend Sam decided to ‘help’ me even though he’s short on thumbs. Note the scratching out of a couple of nasty Sumac tree seeds. One of our neighbors has one of those bad-boys bastards that send those disgusting seeds EVERYWHERE all year long that if the tree doesn’t sucker, will sprout babies wherever they land (I’ve had one try to sprout between bricks at the corner of the house a few rows up from actual soil–and yes I’ll admit, I totally went nuclear with vinegar on that one and am delighted to report it is quite dead). Everyone despises those disgusting trees-they have a most foul scent plus the fact that they are so cotton pickin’ invasive puts them at the top of the short list for 99.99% of us who live around here (the .01% being that neighbor who considers that tree wonderful “because it’s very tall and has a lovely branching appearance and provides wonderful shade”). Blech, gag me-that tree is in league with the devil and I rip those seedlings out whenever I spy them and ash-can the seeds! For the record in case you couldn’t tell, I am very OCD when it comes to removing all traces of the nasty Sumac.
Sam’s way of helping out though consists of laying in the middle of wherever I’m working at which makes gardening a lot like trying to vacuum around him. He always manages to be right in the way but it gives him the perfect spot to check out the neighborhood goings-on and still be within paw’s reach of me. When I ask him what he thinks he’s doing he gives me either that ‘come hither” look with furious tail wagging or the ‘yeah, I’m in the way…so…you gonna make something out of it?’ look. Ironic how a New Jersey attitude is cute on a poodle even if incongruent and makes me smile. 🙂
I just wish he had thumbs and could rake or at the very least, pick up and haul off weeds, Sumac leaves and sproutlings, but apparently that’s asking for the moon. So I guess I’ll just be content with the benefit of his company and leave it at that which isn’t the worst thing when you’re gardening–finding Sumac seeds will fill that role. 🙂
Live, love, bark! <3
Rain, rain, go away…
come again another day. NEVER thought I’d be singing that playground rhyme around here. Most of the time I’d be thrilled for the moisture. Denver is located at the western edge of the great plains at the base of the Rocky Mountains, we are semi arid and currently at 60% of normal precipitation for this time of year. Trust me, come August when it’s day after day of 90-100 degrees, and humidity in the 8-15% range, I’ll be hoping whining for this rain.
But lately we seem to be in some sort of unusual holding pattern in the Mile High and despite the Chamber of Commerce mantra of 300 days of sunshine a year, the weather has been uncharacteristically grey and wet for several days in a row. You can imagine how ecstatic everyone was when the sun came out for about 30 minutes late yesterday afternoon. Some people at my office took off work early to run home and mow their hay fields lawns before they turned into jungles which was promptly followed by clouds and an extended shower later on in the evening. So imagine how the conversation went this morning.
Before I recount this morning’s conversation, let me set the stage here. First, it’s pee-o’clock (otherwise know at 5:00 am), the sun isn’t quite up yet and it’s raining fairly hard. Here’s how it went down.
Me: “Ok, ok, I’m getting my shoes on, just hang on to your whiskers!”
Sam: “Oh yay, oh yay, I love this time of day!!” [bounce, bounce, bounce]
Me [opening door and Sam bursting out like he’d been shot out of canon]. Sam slamming on his brakes and skidding to the end of the covered patio. Screeeeeeech!!
Sam: “Wait, what…it’s raining. Uh, yeah…I think I’ll just stand under the eve of the house and watch.”
Me: “Come on, let’s go pee!” [spoken in an encouraging voice]
Sam: “But um…it’s wet out there. You can’t possible expect me to go stand out there and pee in the rain? Nope, not doing it. I’m going back into the house” [whereby he runs along the house under the eves so as to not get wet until he hits the covered patio and makes a mad dash to the back door.
Me: “Oh, for heaven’s sake, you aren’t going to melt you dimwitted fur ball!” [waking back to the back door and being greeted by a tail-wagging doofus with the “Hey, I’m sure I can hold it” look on his face]. I swear, this dog has the drama down pat like a character from a Mozart opera.
I had to laugh out loud at the whole scene and we go in. I figure I’ll make some coffee to warm up and start to get ready and then we’ll go on our walk once the rain has subsided. Five minutes in and he’s bouncing up and down like a pogo stick, “Oh my god, I have to pee, I.have.to.go.pee!”
Me: “Oh, all right!” So I head toward the back door and he continues to bounce up and down like he’s about to explode. I grab his snow coat because it’s fairly waterproof. He’s wagging his whole back-end and I can’t get the buckles connected so he doesn’t pee on them and he keeps licking my face as I’m bending over trying to get him to stand still for a couple of seconds so I can hitch him all up. No sooner than I get everything all connected, he goes bouncing outside and screeches to a halt again as soon as he sees the rain which by now has diminished to a steady sprinkle now.
Sam: “Um, you know it’s still raining…you expect me to go out in that?”
Me: “GO PEE!!!”
Sam: “Well, when you put it like that, I suppose I could. I’ll check out along the fence line and then just wander down the alley a couple of houses because I don’t like the fence line spot. There’s no pee-mail to read so I can’t possible pee there.” He starts sniffing and circling, then more sniffing and circling.
And then quick like a bunny, he dashes down the alley, near a neighbor’s car and proceeds to relieve himself on a tire. Oh Gawd, I’m horrified and quickly look around to make sure no one sees him. I catch up with him just about the time he’s finished but not before I see that contented look of relief on his face. Soon as he sees me, he breaks for the back door again. Dashing back I go to the door, let him in and he has this smug satisfied look on his face. Ha, ha, ha. Brat! 🙂
Sam: “Aren’t I a good boy?!” Tail wag.
Where did I go wrong? So…again I say, rain, rain, go away, come again another day but preferably after 6:30 in the morning so I don’t have to stand in the rain to make sure that knot-head doesn’t run after some early morning critter or stand around getting drenched in tee-shirt and PJ bottoms freezing my tukhus off and soaking my sueded slippers while I shiver in the rain waiting for him to stop being such a sissy boy.
So guess what the forecast is for this weekend? Get this…according to the National Weather Service, ‘heavy thunderstorms passing through metro area – Severe storms today, snow on Sunday. Saturday will be an encore performance of wet and cool weather in Denver with highs staying in the mid-50s. To the west, expect snow to fall in the northern and central mountains — perhaps a foot or two. A WINTER STORM WATCH is in effect for the Northern and Central Mountains above 9,000 feet for Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning.’
Yup, you read that right, snow on Mother’s Day! Looks like I’d better drag out the snow shovel.
Live, love, bark! <3
Oh the weather outside is frightful
Baby, it’s cold outside and if you’re like most of the US right now (except for those lucky dogs in Hawaii), you’re probably “feelin’ the love” from our Canadian neighbors in the form of arctic cold fronts catching a ride along the Gulf Stream. Hard to believe winter has arrived with such a vengeance and so early in the season. Even the Deep South is experiencing cold weather (it’s 28 in Atlanta today and only 40 in Houston at this writing).
Apart from the snow shoveling (which, can I just say for the record, am already sick of doing?), there’s that whole thing trying to keep both me and Sam warm while getting in our daily exercise. This has not been an easy task either.
The National Western Stock Show opens this week in Denver and for some inexplicable reason, the temperatures always are quite cold. The joke in town is when temps plummet, we say, “oh, it must be Stock Show week.” I mean, I love a longhorn cattle parade down 17th Street every January as much as the next person (that’s somewhat sarcastic on my part but loads of people seem to like it…whatever), but I am so over the bitter temperatures that accompany it every. single. year. 🙁
So naturally temps dropped to bitter at the beginning of this week. But inexplicably, each cold day has been followed by one where the temps were more like mid-October. It was 61 freaking degrees on Tuesday. I thought I was in a time warp when I left work. That night however, another cold front arrived and you know what that means. Can you say melt/freeze cycle?
After melting snow, you get a nice layer of ice. I was putting my recycling bin out for pick-up the other morning and fell trying to maneuver the bin through deep ice ruts in the alley and suffering bruises & bumps to forehead, knee and keester for good measure [insert appropriate expletive here]. Of course Sam came bouncing over immediately to investigate what was up with all the swearing and why wasn’t I getting up immediately. There’s nothing like having your dog race over to you while you’re trying to clear the stars out of your head and him thinking “Gee, I think she wants to play!”
Once I assured him it was in fact, not play-time, I hobbled back into the house and applied some Arnica gel right away. If you bruise as easily as I do (and are, ahem…as equally graceful as I am 🙂 ), then you NEED this stuff. It works like magic reducing and even eliminating bruises and promotes healing. I got lucky the bruising was kept to a minimum and the pain only lasted overnight. Whew…dodged a bullet this time.
Apparently, Mother Nature is an equal opportunity beotch when it comes to weather, because Sam took a digger on the ice the next day. He gave me that WTH was that all about look, as if I had something to do with his crash and burn. Luckily he didn’t suffer any injuries and the good news is he’s not running at full speed like a maniac…as much.
Why it is you pull out the heavy-duty coats and hats early enough, but seem late in taking out the seriously warm gloves/mittens every winter? It took me a day or two to pull those suckers out and of course every day I felt like I had frostbitten fingers. We’re bundled up like Alaskan Eskimos, donning layers of wool under a terribly unflattering puffy coat (don’t you hate looking like the Mrs. to the Michelin man?), wearing two sets of gloves, sherpa lined boots and hitching Sam up with his fleece-lined coat and boots to prevent ice balls from forming and we’re still freezing. We look like unattractive extras from the movie Frozen and more than a few times have had to abbreviate our morning constitution because of the damn Stock Show effect.
Yup, it’s cold out there, baby. But because I’m a glass half-full kind of gal, I’m celebrating each additional minute of sunlight with every passing winter day. 🙂 Now where did I put the Yaktrax crampons for my boots? Sigh.
How do you and your pets deal with frigid weather? Stay safe and warm till warmer days arrive. Live-love-bark! <3