Cozy Time

The big storm arrived early last night. Dry snow flurries began around 0100. I viewed the radar images on my iPod around 0300, radioed to the crew that "it looks like another hour, hour and a half in this wave" and marveled that CalTrans had put up chain controls at all.

The hour and a half later came, and Mother Nature turned it up. With plenty of horses on the team, we did some extra trails. Off the ski hill just in time to open, I set about building the bridges on the cross country trails. In spite of the fact that the mercury hadn't been above freezing for two and a half days, the creeks were still running high.

Using the favored dry snow, I pushed in the creeks without actually building any dams...essentially, I narrowed the creeks so the coming snowfall could build natural bridges for us. I bridged several of the smaller watercourses, but when I was plowing the biggest creek, I noticed a "rock" in the snow that looked suspiciously like a wheel. I back bladed it up, and yes it was a snowcat wheel and tire. I jumped out and looked, yes it was mine.

The hub was intact, so I'd lost all the lug nuts. The darn thing was heavy! I wrestled it onto the tracks, and into the passenger side of the cab, then gingerly limped my ol' girl home to the shop.

I took the "low and slow" route home, and I called for an escort for the 400 yards of the active hill that I needed to traverse. I made it back to the shop without incident.

I got back to the DaveCave before noon and fired up the snowblower . I blew the five inches of earlybird snow in time to catch the Noon News weathercasts. One day in, and CBS13's weathergal said she was "already tired of talking about the weather"!

I nodded off before KCRA3's weather segment, and woke up after 7PM.

Reno's NWS forecasters have been updating their AFD all day. Looks like 6-8 inches on my front porch...little wind so far...hey, COMCAST SportsNet is showing Game One of the World Series!

Cozy time until the alarm goes off at 10PM.

More good times!