Getting Ready

It’s a record breaking 55F/13C here today! Yowza! It made cutting back prairie plants near the sidewalk in the front yard a pleasant and mildly sweaty experience. But the weather is soon to change.

The polar vortex is about to be disrupted, one of the earliest disruptions on record since scientists could track this with satellites. The disruption is due to sudden stratospheric warming. It’s hard to pin down any particular reason for the sudden warming, which is caused by Rossy waves in the troposphere changing and pushing ozone into Antarctica or something like that. It’s a natural, though not regular, phenomenon. Seems to me though it happens more frequently than it used to and I suspect it is therefore related to global warming. We humans are doing a stellar job of fouling our nest.

I’m glad I was able to do the last of the outdoor work in fine weather since Monday night the rain starts and Tuesday night the snow. Our temperatures won’t be plunging just yet. We’ll be below freezing, but it won’t get truly cold until next weekend. The one good thing about this polar vortex being so early is that temperatures will be above zero fahrenheit at least, so that’s something! #small blessings

The chickens are out roaming the garden in the sunshine today and the sparrows, chickadees, juncos, a pair of cardinals, and even a jay, enjoyed a swim in the water dishes on the deck. The avian exuberance never fails to delight.

The garden is ready.  And it’s a good thing too because I ripped the knee out of my gardening pants and both my gloves have multiple holes in them. I can mend the pants, but I will need to buy new gloves for spring. The chicken coop is almost ready; just needs a few finishing bits done. My winter bike with its studded tires is ready. James is taking the e-cargo bike beast to the bike shop tomorrow to have studded tires put on it because it is easier to pay someone to do that for us than it is to wrestle a 90-pound/41 kg gigantic bike into submission, especially when I weigh 120 lbs/ 54.4 kg and James 140 lbs/63.5 kg and the bike is longer than we are tall. We are little people!

My altered recipe whole wheat bread two weeks ago came out great! Today I made cinnamon-raisin swirl sourdough. I made this once before many months ago and it came out ok but kinda dense. Today though, it came out perfect. I had originally planned to make sourdough pumpernickel bagels this weekend, but to get really good bagels takes three days. James and I went to a Beloved Community Circle gathering Friday night, giving me no time to do the first step. I have a four-day weekend ahead because of Thanksgiving on Thursday and my plan is to make them then. Also in order to make them I had to finally break down and buy a kitchen scale because the whole recipe is written by weight in grams rather than volume in cups. I’m upping my sourdough game ya’ll!

We will be having our “traditional” vegan enchiladas for Thanksgiving Thursday. This has been our Thanksgiving meal for around 30 years. It’s kind of involved since we make our own beans, enchilada sauce, and filling. And what would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie? I have never missed turkey and all the trimmings, but I cannot celebrate the holiday without pumpkin pie. James roasted and pureed the pumpkin this weekend and no has three jars of puree in the freezer, one for Thursday and the others for future pie! And maybe pancakes and muffins too. 

If you are celebrating, and even if you are not, may your day be filled with love, kindness, blessings, and gratitude.

#kitchenScale #polarVortex #pumpkinPie #recordWarmth #sourdough #thanksgiving

Lows tonight are going to be absurdly warm in the #OhioValley and #MidAtlantic. Large swath of 30 degrees above normal with some places pushing 40 degrees above normal.

Some warmest low temperatures in January on record inbound.

#climatechange #uswx #recordwarmth

RT @[email protected]

This crisis hasn't gone away, incidentally...
#ClimateCrisis #RecordWarmth #ExtremeWeather #CaliforniaWildfires
https://twitter.com/i/events/1296032952766173184

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/MichaelEMann/status/1296103333950894080