What's outside of your picture window today?

@loribmt. Yes, Lori, it's a very emotional experience to be standing in the midst of these clearcut sites in person, as we were. To imagine the wilderness beauty that's been destroyed had us in tears.
CBC TV followed us around for several days and made a 15 minute mini-documentary of the trials and tribulations we faced as passionate artists with serious environmemtal concerns on this emotional journey we faced.

reply to @gingerw
Your town needs to know that clearcutting can COST a small town a huge amount! Clear cutting itself causes silt, which means that drinking water coming from the clear cut area must be filtered, and adding spraying of the area with chemicals that are the very ones used in Agent Orange following the cut will also require water filtration. The small town of Rockaway, Oregon (pop. 1400) had to build a $2 million water filtration plant after the industrial forest company that owned the Jetty Creek watershed the town had used as a water supply clear cut much of it. The stated cost doesn't cover maintenance of the plant, just its construction. The watershed was totally owned by the forest company, so the town got not one penny from the sale of the trees. There is no responsibility for the property owner to provide for the filtration plant--although some lawyers are looking at various existing laws to see if there is a way that this small town won't be saddled with this huge burden. This has become such an egregious problem that various environmental organizations are pulling together to see what can be done. Meanwhile, the citizens are maintaining a registry of illnesses of residents following the spraying.

I filled my bird feeders in preparation for todays first big winter storm. The light stuff started about an hour or so ago with the heavy stuff coming later this afternoon and evening. We are looking at 9 to 12 inches by tomorrow morning so it will be a White Christmas. The one small woodpecker was taken this morning as the snow started, Big Bird, Fluffy the cat and the other woodpecker were taken during the first snow last week. Fluffy is inside with me enjoying a toasty warm chair 🙂

What's outside your window today around Connectland friends?

@johnbishop Right now there are a few blue chunks of sky, making the frozen drops of water glisten on the branches of the bare naked tree branches. The deer were out early this morning just at first light, so they are telling me they will hunker down under our pine trees or against our fence for most of the day. The cedar waxwings had their annual blow through the area a few days ago, getting drunk on fermenting berries and then moving on. We expect rain mixed with snow, and cold temperatures for the next few days. Of course, it is all subject to change at Mother Nature's whim.

The city is moving gravel over to areas commonly affected by the storms; I regret my foot will not allow me to handle our downslope to clean up the street gutters and storm drain out. Nary a breeze out right now, an unusual thing to see.

Watch your footing!
Ginger

We're in the "snizzle" stage - just beginning, making everything sloppy & slippy. We just pulled in - have our supplies, errands are finished, and are settled in for the duration. Expecting 5-8" if it follows the current track. So glad to be retired and not have to face rush hours.
Sue

@johnbishop . Hello John, and all the Connect storm watchers. Living on Vancouver Island this November and December has been a challenge. We had more rain in two days in November than what we'd get in the whole month of November, plus more rain almost every single day. We get very high winds here too and yesterday the north part of the island was expected to have from 90 to 120 km winds! We "only" got 50 to 60 km where I live!
We've had two days of power outage this week too. I was in the hospital for four days (again!) when the first
8-hour outage was in progress. I'd been transported back to my seniors' residence via MediVan but when we arrived, the elevators weren't working. (of course). After some deliberation, the two medics decided to carry me up the four flights of stairs to my suite via their MediChair contraption. Oooeeee! Hairy experience! These poor fellows were not young, either. I felt so sorry for them. Good thing I'd been unable to eat much all week. Lol.
Food was scarce in my suite, plus I was not mobile yet. The kitchen sent meal trays up to everyone but with my diet restrictions, (IBS) I only got an egg salad sandwich, HOLD THE BREAD, on one day, and a ham and cheese sandwich the second day, which I'm not to eat. I have chicken dinners and chicken vegetable and/or pea soup in the freezer, but of course no microwave working. Bananas and Peanut butter on rice cakes saved the day(s)!
Yesterday, we had a third Storm Warning this week, with very high winds and rain, rain, rain, but our power stayed on. Yaay!
Many roads and bridges are washed out, many rock slides and mud slides along the highways, ferries to the mainland cancelled, and our only highway to the rest of Canada, the Coquihalla, is seriously washed out and not usable 'til some time in January. There's never a dull moment living here!
The rest of BC has been declared an Emergency too, and I know many of our U.S. neighbours are suffering in the same way. Our thoughts and sympathy sincerely go out to you.
Here at my seniors' residence, we're all in good spirits though, despite everything. It is what it is. This, too, shall pass.
Warmest wishes, Laurie

Here, on the Oregon coast, the real storm blew in very early this morning, although last night, when we got home from our fly fishing club's Holiday Dinner, there was serious wind blowing rain, making the trip down and across the creek and then up the hill to the house seem longer than it is. I'm totally tired of parking just off the road at the end of our driveway and carrying everything across and up the hill; last night, I had to make two trips. I now am keeping raingear and knee boots in the car at all times--this morning the creek is starting to creep across the driveway. Again. It's only been a month, and I'm already tired of not being able to use our driveway...probably won't be able to until late March, if last year was a fine example. We did luck out on the drive home last night, about 45 miles straight up the coast from Newport, as it was only raining lightly most of the way. I usually let our dog out via the front deck, but all the furniture had been blown across it, blocking the stairs, plus the wind at the front of the house was fierce, so I offered him a chance to go out via the dining room door...but he said he thought he'd hold it until we build him an inside bathroom, like that damned cat has! I took him to the far back door, where the house protects that part of the yard from the worst of the wind, and he did reluctantly go out, but was back very quickly. He hates going out when it's this wet, but he does love getting toweled off once he's back inside. My car is parked just off the road and my boat and trailer are now parked at a friend's house so nothing will be trapped when the creek starts flowing over the driveway. If this storm ever quits and the nearby river drops, I'd like to go crabbing in the bay. When rivers are high, the crabs move out into the ocean to avoid too much fresh water, so it won't be any time real soon! I should fill bird feeders, but not until there's a break in the storm.

@joyces Be careful! We are down a bit from you and inland near the 5,. We have had whipping winds all morning, along with rain. Not quite cold enough to snow, but that could change at any moment. Good day to stay inside.
Ginger

Have you considered a small skiff to get your things across that swamp in the winter. What a ridiculous situation, just so that someone could pad their annual bonus. Ugh

Due to the annual flooding here, I store my 18' drift boat and trailer at a friend's property where there's actually level ground so that I can simply back up to my boat, hook it up, and take off. Here, our driveway is so cramped up at the top that I need to unhook the boat and back it uphill by hand to park it so that I still have just enough room to turn my car around...and, at 79, I just don't have enough strength to push a big boat uphill on gravel any more. I do have a canoe here, and thought about putting my disabled other half in it when we wanted to go out for Thanksgiving, but the creek subsided enough that he was able to get out with his walker, which has extra-large wheels to handle uneven ground. I don't use the driveway because the top layer of gravel went downstream while it was totally flooded for a week in early November and the creek is still even with the edge of the driveway, meaning that the ground is totally soaked, easy to tear up by driving on it. It should be usable again by the end of March. I've sent our City Council members a short PDF file of a PowerPoint I put together to show the flooding and describe what causes it every winter. Their Zoom meeting is Monday night, so I'll learn if any of them have actually looked at what I sent. The City not only controls the property (via zoning, development rules, etc.) east of us but OWNS that property: right after they annexed our area and had all that lovely tax money coming in, they bought the more than 200 acres of failed development east of us, plus another piece of it downstream, about 18 acres between us and the big blue Pacific Ocean. As a result, they are tresspassing upon our property with the creek's water, so we could sue them. I really don't want to do that, hope that they'll spend the money to fix what they've allowed to happen over the years. Best thing of all is that those of us with acreage would have spoiled their triple majority (they had most owners and assessed value) because we prevented them from having a majority of acreage. That means we pay a small fraction of what our taxes would be if we were in the City.