Snow and Cold

The snow started early this morning and it’s really coming down. I went out walking cause the whole campus is so pretty, although the snow is a little deep once you get off a sidewalk or roadway. The temps are tolerable today but overnight the temps are supposed to plummet and the wind chill will get really brutal. They are saying that tomorrow’s wind chill will make it feel like 35-45 below zero. It’s gonna feel like we’re living in Alaska. I’m prepared though….I went to the office and bought an alpaca ski mask and gloves. I am on alpaca “close” all week and work tomorrow morning with the alpacas. I should be able to get everything but my eyes covered up so that should protect me from the bitter cold. This snow is a really wet snow, unlike what we got the other day that was super dry and fluffy. We already had about 5” on the ground and they are calling for 6-12” by the time it’s done. It was mid-way to my knees in the fields when I was out earlier. Just got a text from the garden manager that we need to go out periodically and brush the snow off the greenhouse and high tunnels so the weight of the snow doesn’t make them collapse. That will keep us busy till the storm is over.
I put the finishing touches on my scarf. I had to tie off the fringe and weave in the loose ends where you start and stop with different colors. Then you soak it in hot, soapy water….being sure to not agitate it because that will felt it. After it soaks for 10 minutes, you pull it out, change the water to clear, hot water and let it rinse in the water (still no agitation) for 10 minutes. If it still has soap in it, repeat the process again. After it’s been washed and rinsed, you blot it between towels and then lay it out flat to dry. I’d love to get a small rigid heddle loom and continue to weave. Will wait till we get back on the road and have some income coming in. In the meantime, I’ll use a loom here for the remainder of my time here.
Well, time to get ready for lunch and then go outside to work in the snow. Hope everyone has a great upcoming week. Stay warm and dry !

Quiet Day...

We worked yesterday and today. Sunday's are nice because we close at 3 so it feels like you have half of the day off. Saturday was busy and some people were crabby about having the shovel the snow from in front of their units. We set out three shovels for the tenants to use but about six people came in and demanded that we shovel the snow from in front of their door. All were women...they probably were worried they'd break a fingernail. I shoveled out several but the snow keeps sliding off the metal roof and it doesn't even look like you shoveled. One woman who wanted hers shoveled came in and said we hadn't done it but I had. Linda told her about the continuous push of snow coming off the roof but she insisted we hadn't done it. Trust me...from the way Linda's and my neck and shoulder felt last night.....we did them ! After lathering up with Tiger Balm last night, before bed, I felt pretty good this morning. That was until I got hit with an avalanche of snow from the roof while getting into one of the company units today. It was like a karate chop to the back of my neck.

We have off the next two days although we need to hang around here on Tuesday because the President of the company is coming for a site visit. We're hoping he comes here early so we don't have to wait around all day. We have a few errands to do in the area.

It has warmed up a little bit the last two days so it's helping the snow to melt. I'd love to see it keep on climbing and melt it ALL away......

Look What We Found When We Woke Up....

Oh My....what a mess we woke up to this morning. We are sure glad we got in Wednesday and got set up cause there is no way we could have done it today with all of the snow that was on-site. We figure we got around 24"...the winds were horrible blowing the snow into drifts around our rig and the storage buildings. The snowplow guy arrived around 6 a.m. and worked all day, with a little break, finally finishing up at 4:30 p.m. He was exhausted when he got done. Running out of places to put the snow as the snowbanks are so high that the plow can't push it any higher. We are hoping that this is the last snowfall of the winter !

We went out to dinner with friends tonight to Arthur's....a local restaurant. Linda had Coconut Shrimp and I had the Seafood Platter.On the way out I saw this cake in the dessert cooler. I asked the hostess about it and she said it's their Black and White Cake....it was huge !! Our friends said that it gets served on a big platter.....$15 a slice. That's some dessert !! We had a great time....a pleasant end to a day with cold, wind and just plain miserable weather.

Summary of the Week

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday morning we went to Denny's for their free breakfast. All the waitstaff had these t-shirts on which we thought were cute. The line, outside the restaurant, wasn't too long so we only had to wait about 15 minutes before we got in. The couple that was ahead of us in line was the same couple we had chatted with last year for this same event. Weird, huh ? Inside they were a lot more organized than they had been last year and we waited just a few minutes for our free Grand Slam. There was a balloon artist making neat animals out of balloons while people waited for their food. It was a fun event and hey, ya can't beat free food.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the cranes here in the park and the day after I put that post on,I realized my error in calling them whooping cranes because we went to the bird sanctuary and got to see Sand Hill cranes, like we have here, at their facility. Our friend Cindy let us know about the mistake...Anyway, there is one missing and I'm worried that something has happened to it. There is only one wandering around now...Don't know where the other one went to. Hoping nothing bad has happened. Is this the time of year for sitting on a nest or raising young ? Guess I need to study up on sand hill cranes.

Today we took our friend Jan to the hospital to get some blood work done. By the time she finished up there it was around noontime and since she had to fast for her test and we drove her to the hospital, none of us had eaten and we were starving. We went to Cinnamon Sticks and had breakfast. I had french toast stuffed with a strawberry cream cheese mixture. Very good ! We got our bellies full, got some propane and came on home.

In an earlier post I spoke of the windmills that are going up near my mom in Pennsylvania. Well, I heard on the news the other night that the new clean energy initiative (which I think is great) is not creating jobs in the US but that 80% of the money is going to companies overseas to build these products. Grrrrr......How is that going to create jobs here ? The news report said it was congress's fault because no specific provisions were put in the energy bill that the materials/jobs, etc. should be "American". Come On, Congress...get with it ! Isn't that the point of trying to jump start our economy and "create" jobs in our country....not send all our money to China so they can send the manpower and equipment back to us ? Duh !!

It's been chilly here...in the 50's. Tonight they are expecting 1-3" of snow through the panhandle area of Florida. Safe here...whew ! Friends and family up north are saying it's horrible up there. High winds and lots of snow. Oh no, I just heard where there is a possibility of ANOTHER storm next week for these same areas. And to think that Vancouver has had to truck snow in for the Olympics....they didn't have enough snow on the slopes. Hah...Maybe they need to move the Olympics to Maryland.

The Weather Outside Was Frightful...

We were hoping to dodge the weather bullet but no such luck, although it could have been far worse. I had to go to N. Bergen Saturday to work at another Mini U facility there and that was a 44 mile round trip excursion. It started snowing around 4:00 p.m. there so the manager cut me loose around 4:30 so I could head home before it got too slippery. Good thing as around 5:00 p.m. it started snowing much harder and the roads were starting to get a little slick. We closed our normal time at 6:00 p.m. and hunkered down for the night. The company that we contracted with for snow plowing came by about 9:00 p.m. and made a few passes to get the feel of how the site is laid out, which was good since we already had a couple inches on the ground. He and I talked and decided to have him come back at 6:00 a.m. to do the brunt of the plowing. Linda and I went to bed hoping the weather man's prediction for record snowfalls and blizzard conditions wouldn't come to fruition. Alarm went off at 6:00 and we got up and went out to start getting the facility in shape for the day. Sunday is our usual day off but we knew the day would be spent shoveling and using the snow blower. Linda figured out how to get the snow blower started. I've never run one before. I had a 4 wheel drive ATV with a snow plow that I used at my house and that made pretty quick work of any snow storm. Thank God we had the snow blower cause I spent 6 hours today clearing the areas that the snow plow doesn't get to (near the keypads, sidewalks, etc.)and also spent time shoveling the doorways. Linda took over on the snow blower for a while, while I shoveled and she fell on her keister several times.....her butt and body sure hurt tonight ! In the back corner of the first floor, near the elevator, there are two automatic sliding doors. Well, when the elevator door opens, it trips the sensor on the door, making it open. During the storm, apparently alot of snow got in the door, not allowing the door to close so the lobby was filled with a pile of frozen snow across the width of the lobby. The elevator, on one of the times when the door opened, filled the door cavity with snow and that was having a hard time closing. I spent about thirty minutes with a hair dryer getting the ice out of the automatic door so I could get it to close and get the glacier out of the lobby....what fun we had today. We're both sore and exhausted !
Linda was supposed to go to her family Christmas gathering today. She had hoped to head out early this morning but early on it wasn't clear how good the roads would be. When she did decide that she would go I went out and started clearing the snow from around the car so she could get it out to go. I thought I'd start it so it could warm up and thaw alot of the ice and snow off of it while I ran the snowblower. Somehow I hit the lock button on the key fob and the keys were locked in the car AND the car was running. Linda called our Good Sam Road Service to see if they covered that and they did. They said it would take two hours for someone to get there, as they were really busy helping emergency vehicles. Well, an hour later "Pop A Lock" arrived and using a little inflatable air bag that he used to open the door about a 1/4 of an inch, he was able insert a long steel rod and then just put the window down. Luckily I had filled the car with gas on the way home from North Bergen so it didn't run out of gas AND the car was toasty warm and all the ice was defrosted when we finally got inside..HA...what a day it was. Linda decided it was too late to start out for Chambersburg...it would take her four hours if she had good roads the whole way and it was already around noon. We've been watching the football games and ran out to get some grocceries. Tomorrow, our other day off, we'll go out and see what sales the stores might be running and just get out for a while. Linda spent a bunch of time on the phone this afternoon with one of our tenants that had trouble with the Mini U truck today so it's best if we just leave the rig for a while so the assistant manager will have to take care of things herself instead of calling us.

Just When We Thought We Had It Figured Out....

Well...seems that the couple who came to check out our site isn't going to take the job so the job has been offered to the couple I interviewed and chose. They will start January 5th...we'll train them for five days and then we are done here. Yay !! We've also been told that we should have some time off, once we finish here, so we want to head to Florida, see our friend Jan and get some work done on our rig before we get another assignment.

Our North Bergen location is really shorthanded so I've been asked to help them out this weekend. I will be going there tomorrow to work. It's about a 30 minute drive to get there so not too bad. I've been to the site before...it's huge....over 1000 units. I haven't worked there...just visited. They also want me to go there on Sunday but it will depend on whether Linda takes the car to go home on Sunday. Ordinarily I wouldn't mind driving Bertha (our second vehicle) to another site but we have a HUGE Nor'easter comin our way and they are calling for 8-12" of snow here. Supposed to start around 9 a.m. tomorrow and snow till Sunday morning, which is when Linda wants to head out for Pennsylvania. I won't try to drive Bertha in a snowstorm, especially when they say we might get 30-50 m.p.h. winds with whiteout conditions. Nope, not gonna do it....and it will probably prevent Linda from going home too for her family Christmas gathering. Tomorrow I will drive our 4 wheel drive car (the Xterra) and I'll be fine getting to North Bergen and back. You can be assured that this storm is something we'll be keeping our eye on. Linda will be working here tomorrow by herself so hopefully it will be a quiet day for her.

TGIF....

Glad it's Friday although it really doesn't make much difference since we are down an assistant and Linda and I will be working pretty much 7 days a week until we find a new one. Several other units are in the same predicament. Not sure why it's so hard to find good employees in this part of New Jersey. Many young people are put off by the amount of paperwork that is needed with doing leases, etc. I'm hoping we can find another assistant like the one we just hired. He is awesome although he's now working at another unit. I've begun looking again for a new management team. I feel like we're getting close to finding someone. We're running the background on one couple but I'm going to keep interviewing in case it doesn't come back with good results.

It was a busy week. Seemed like this was the week for people losing their keys. I've had to drill out a lock almost every day this week. The one today was due to the death of a young man. According to his mother and sister he was murdered in Newark about two weeks ago. When she brought in the power of attorney, death certificate and other paper work to prove who she was, I noticed that her son's day of birth was the same as mine. Was kind of a weird feeling. Linda and I were surprised how calm the mother and sister are since this tragedy happened so recently. Even when I took them up to his unit and drilled out the lock, you would have thought it was Christmas day. When they opened the door there were all sorts of clothing items right there in the front. If that had been me, I would have lost it at the sight of my son's clothing. They seemed more interested in the flat screen TV and other stuff. Everyone processes things differently so perhaps they are still in shock and haven't come to grips with it yet.

Calling for a chance of some wet snow tomorrow. I went and bought a new broadcast spreader for the ice melt. Hoping I don't have to use it....Yuck ! I suppose I need to fire up the snowblower one of these days so I know how it works. I hope we get out of dodge before we get any significant amount.

Tomorrow is our early day...in at 8 a.m. Hope everyone has a great weekend !