Storm of a Generation

  Beginning on the evening of Thursday, 12/22/22, we experienced a cold front like few before ... maybe none. We had a pleasant high of 44° that day but by mid-evening  (7:30 PM) the front began to plow through the Miami  Valley with high winds and plummeting temperatures.

 I recorded a peak gust from the north during that night (now Friday 12/23) of 41.6 mph from the north at 3 AM. We were trying to sleep but it wasn't easy. The house rocked, the windows rattled and there was nowhere to escape the noisy onslaught.

 Here's a couple of graphs:

 Wide view of our barometric pressure

Detailed view of our barometric pressure

 Here's how the temperature fell  ...

Wide view of the temperature

Detailed view of our temperature

By Friday morning we were -10°. That was a 53° drop in 13 hours (43° at 7:30 PM on 12/22, -10° at 8:30 AM on 12/23).

 I remember walking home from JCPenney at the Dayton Mall in January 1978. We were trying to do inventory but finally got the word to vacate because of a blizzard. I walked home with another fellow  who lived in an apartment on Heinke Road. I remember walking down the middle of  725. How we managed that I have no idea. Did I have boots? Did the temperature drop this quickly? At that time I lived on 11th Street in Miamisburg  and was sure glad to get back home.

 Here's how our driveway apron looked the morning of 12/23. There was a drift formed to the east of Tom's Prius. In fact, I set the camera to record a frame every 30 seconds for 12 hours beginning at 7 PM on 12/22. Here is how the storm progressed that night.

 It's interesting to watch the drift form and even move back and forth a bit.

 By morning we had the hot water for the first floor bathroom freeze. I added a small space heater  and the line thawed without too much trouble.  Later that day it froze again. This time it took a while to apply enough heat to get it flowing.

 When Tom got home Friday evening (from feeding his cats), he wasn't able to get his car back onto the apron and settled for leaving the car parked in the driveway. The drifts (they extended from the garage apron to the west and surrounded my precipitation gauge to a depth of about three feet).

 By Saturday morning we heard a tractor nearby and I looked out the kitchen window and saw DR Coffman in his John Deere plowing us out.

The green lines are because  the camera detected motion.

Late afternoon on Saturday (12/24) Tom went upstairs to take a shower and found  the hot water frozen. Not a drip! I went out to the enclosed porch  and removed more panels and set up the kerosene heater there to really warm the porch. It took about  three hours of work to get the pipe open.

 On Sunday  (Christmas Day, 12/25/22) the sun rose in a clear sky. The sunlight was certainly welcome. By 11:15 AM (currently) the temperature has risen to +8°. We're expecting a  high near 15°.

 

Christmas 2022 - North view

Christmas 2022 - South view

 It's been a very stressful three days. On the bright side we never lost power longer than a brief interruption on Thursday (a second or two). Yesterday the power company sent an email asking that we try to conserve power, that the grid was taxed to its limit. I kept lights to a minimum but I needed  my space heaters and furnace to keep the pipes from freezing. I wasn't able to make any substantial change.

 Speaking of the HVAC, when I woke up on Thursday morning amid the screaming winds the first floor was at 60°. The thermostat was set to 66. I've never seen it so unable to keep up with the winter weather.

 Dave (our furnace guy) asked me to measure the temperature of the outlet. I found it to be 101° after 15 minutes without the Emergency setting being manually selected; it was 103° after another15 minutes with Emergency selected. I believe the unit selects resistive backup heat  (i.e. "Emergency") without any selection needing to be made. A snowflake icon on the thermostat blinks when resistive heat is being added. I remember our installer telling me it was completely automatic and I wouldn't have to do anything.

 The second  floor HVAC also produced air at 103° and it was always able to keep the room temperature at 66°. It cycled normally and was off for long periods. That indicates something isn't working so well with the first floor heat pump.  I called Dave and he will come as needed next week.

We're just beginning to come out of this Polar Vortex but it will be another day before I'll feel comfortable turning off supplemental heat (three electric space heaters). Tomorrow the high is forecast to be 26° and by Thu/Fri/Sat are forecast to have highs of 55/57/60. So a respite is near.

The Earth Turns ...

  Consider this picture ...

And now go back a year (12/23/21) when I was walking along this same path and at a similar time. Click here for that view.

Though the date of the picture  above  (12/01/22) was taken over three weeks earlier, the time was almost certainly different. And my location in the lane certainly  varied. On the 23rd, I can guarantee  the picture will be the same as the one I took a year ago.

 In a year the Earth travels 584 million miles in its orbit around the sun. And every year it arrives  at about the same spot on the same day at the same time. And yet that is not quite right because the actual orbit takes a little more than a year. The time required is 365 days 5 hours 59 minutes 16 seconds.

 Thus the leap year is born to bring the calendar in line every four years.

 But it always amazes me that things are relatively close and that I can count on what will happen in a year  or what  happened ten years ago. We are living in a very orderly universe. We can count on celestial matters.

Total Lunar Eclipse

  Early this morning was the Total "Blood Moon" Lunar Eclipse, the last we'll have for three years. While I didn't want to get up for it (it bottomed out at 41° here and was partly cloudy), I did set up my Wyze V3 to do a time lapse from 3 AM to 7 AM.

 The eclipse began at 3:02 AM, reached maximum (totality) at 5:59 AM and ended as the moon set at  7:21 AM.

 I set the camera up behind the garden and aimed it high (the moon would be at an altitude of 44° as the eclipse began). The results are not good, mostly because the sky wasn't clear and partly because the full moon is too bright for the camera. But as the moon moved west and became more covered by the earth's shadow, the sky began to show more detail. In the final seconds Orion  can be gliding westward with the moon.

I shot for four hours and set the time-lapse for 20 seconds. That produced 720 frames (60x4x3) and when played back at 30 fps, it nets a 24 second video. The original MP4 is much better than the WMV I converted it for a smaller file size.  

It's not good even at  60.3M .... but here it is:

 The converted file with considerable quality loss is just 7.42M and even less interesting.

 But I didn't want to miss have something to show for the event. And that's what I got: almost nothing.

Apple Dumplings again

  With five pounds of Granny Smith apples in a bag I thought I'd better get to using them. The last blog was  apple crisp so now I felt it was time for apple dumplings.

 I used Mom's Mennonite recipe which was the one Bob and I loved as kids. I used it the last time I made them, too. That blog and a link to the recipe is here.

I made one notable shortcut by buying pre-made dough. Actually Tom found pie dough as Aldi's when we were in there a few days ago.

 Of course the trouble with that is that it comes in two rounds (one each for the top and bottom of the pie).  I decided I could make it work anyway by dividing each circle into three equal sections.

 I never  end up with homemade dough that wraps  around an apple very  well anyway so I figured  this wouldn't be any worse. It wasn't. I did let the dough sit out of the  refrigerator prior to use until it was almost room temperature to make it more pliable and more easily worked.

 I cored and peeled six beautiful apples. I sat each apple on one section of dough  and poured a mixture of cinnamon and sugar into the center (nearly filling it).

 This is what they looked like getting ready for the oven. I poured the sauce over them at the last minute and had Tom carry them to the oven, With my tremor I don't trust carrying anything liquid.

 And here's the finished product. They were large apples and I could barely fit six in an 8x8" glass pan. I left them in to bake the full 40 minutes.

Note: I figured that the two cups of water for the sauce would be too much. Even after baking there seemed to be a lot of liquid around the dumplings. But after refrigerating overnight, it's just perfect. Enough needs to be left in the dish to spoon over each  dumpling when served.
 Also,  the last time I made this recipe I  added a little red food coloring to the sauce. Not so this time. The brown color of the sauce is just perfect as is.

Apple Crisp time

 Every fall I make something with apples. I prefer the apple dumplings but they're harder to make and certainly take more time. A few days ago I bought a five pound bag of Granny Smith apples and I had four apples left from an earlier purchase. Late in the day I thought I'd put together a pan of apple crisp.

I used the Mennonite recipe this time and that's clearly the one Tom prefers. You can find the recipe here.

I think the addition of half a cup of water is a little too much. A  quarter cup makes more sense but it may depend on the moisture content of the apples. This makes an almost-caramel syrup but it's a little wet for me.

 The  dry ingredients after the butter has been cut in will be crumbly.

 The Granny Smith's I bought at Kroger were perfect. I prefer a tart apple for this recipe.

  The shot above is before baking. Pecans are not a part of the recipe but I added what I had. Cracker Barrel makes an apple dumpling that includes pecans and I've always thought the combination with apples was wonderful.

 After baking the "dry" mixture melts into a caramel-like sauce. My oven might  be running a bit hot; some of the pecans are a bit over-toasted. I've known for some time that  the back of my oven  runs hotter than the front.

 I've blogged  about other versions of apple crisp, too. You might want to check on of them out by clicking here, here or here.

Arroz con Leche

 I love rice pudding and I love  Pati Jinich and her Pati's Mexican Table on PBS. I'm a real fan of Create and I watch many of the cooking shows. I rank Pati tops for her enthusiasm and the wealth of easy recipes. She does a great job of explaining what she's doing, too.

 I make rice pudding now and then but I've never managed a creamy version and her Arroz con Leche looked to fit the bill. I'm apparently doing something wrong because again the pudding is not creamy.

 Even so, the flavor is good. The recipe is here.

 What am I doing wrong? I suppose part of the problem is the rice I'm using. She uses a Mahatma white rice. I picked up a bag of long grain rice at the grocery (not the cheapest, either) and we've been eating it in various dishes and like it quite well.

 Otherwise I followed the directions  fairly closely. I used ground cinnamon rather than a cinnamon stick and I used grated orange peel instead of the actual rind of  an orange. I can't imagine either makes a difference in the consistency.

I cooked the rice with two cups of water as the recipe (and the bag of rice) calls for. I added every drop of the four cups of water and also the full 4 ounces of sweetened condensed milk. That's a lot of liquid!

 In fact when the cooking was done, the pudding looked exactly the way I wanted it to. But as it sat and cooled - and especially after refrigeration - it seriously thickened. There's nothing creamy about it. It's thick enough to hold on to a spoon.

 I've made it three times before and I've always had similar results: Try#1   Try#2   Try#3

 Give me credit for traying, at least. I'll get it but I'm not there yet.

DR Takes Me for a Ride in the Harvester

 

 The sun is just rising when I'm out starting my laps just after 8 AM. DR Coffman started harvesting his corn a few days ago and yesterday he did the entire field east of Pinehaven. Today I found the Case sitting at the edge of the field to our west.

 It's a cool 39° and the dew has collected on the corn debris which is lying in the field. I know he'll wait a while for the sun to dry things off a bit before beginning any work today. But it's a sunny forecast so he'll  be harvesting before some rain  arrives Wednesday late.

 I posted these two pictures on Facebook and got a number of suggestions that I ask  DR if I might join him for a pass. It's certainly something I've always wanted to do. But I know he's a busy man, especially now, and I hate to bother him with such a request.

 And yet most tell me he won't mind. So after lunch, when I see him threading the rows of corn, I send him a text message: If you ever have room to take me along for a swipe while you're harvesting corn, let me know! I'd love to see it close up.

 It isn't long before he answers: Come on out.

 And so as he ends a row near Pinehaven I walk over to the grain bins and wait a few minutes for him to  arrive and start unloading corn. He opens the door  and unfolds a ladder and motions me aboard.

 Oh, boy.

 I'm now in the cab protected from the dust as he slides back to the driver's seat and continues unloading  the corn. He moves the harvester back and forth to evenly distribute the load.  And then we turn and head back the field.

 The  Case 2166 is a behemoth to me - though perhaps small by today's standards -  and it looks complicated. But he drives with his left hand on the steering wheel  and his right on a small controller that does heavens-knows-what.

 And so we start west (Pinehaven is on the right). This row of corn is about a third of a mile long and two passes - just once in  each direction - fills the hamper and requires the  corn be unloaded. While it is noisy, it is less noisy on the inside. The stalks of corn slips between the metal guides and disappear at our feet. Kernels of corn are collected behind us; chopped corn stalks and cobs fall to the ground in a never-ending mechanical dance.

 A look  at the controls for the harvester. He steers with his left hand and uses a small controller for various functions of the harvester.

DR Coffman - Farmersville Ohio

 A sincere Thank You to DR for an informative ride and one thing I can now cross off my bucket list. After 35 years of  watching from my window,  I've finally seen a corn harvest from ground zero.

Pinehaven Rice Patties

 

 Mom used to make a rice patty that we both loved. I remember she got the recipe from Kettering Memorial Hospital. They were Seventh Day Adventist and served meatless meals. This one immediately got our attention. Trouble is, I have no idea what happened to the recipe. In fact  Mom only made it a few times. I remember it was a lot of work.

 What to do? I figured I could recreate the recipe if I had some basic guidelines to  follow. So I looked at several recipes on the internet for rice patties. I modified quantities and added (and deleted) ingredients and think it's fair that I call this recipe mine.

Pinehaven Rice Patties

1 cup long grain rice - upon cooking you'll end up with a few cups to work with
    [Note:  Use a nice long grain rice. Do not use a quick rice!]
1/2 small onion
1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese [or whatever]
1/2  cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes [optional]
1 cup chopped pecans

 Just follow the directions to cook the rice and then allow it to cool somewhat before continuing (so you don't scramble the eggs).
 I mixed the onions, cheeses, salt, pepper and and red pepper flakes in a large bowl.
 I whisked the eggs.
 Add the rice to the bowl with the onions, etc. and mix thoroughly.
 Add the egg mixture and mix again.
 Finally add the chopped pecans and stir everything together.

 Refrigerate this mixture for half  an hour or so until it's easier to handle.

 Heat s skillet with some vegetable oil. I started on high and backed off to just above halfway to finish them off. It's best to cover them while frying to heat them thoroughly through the middle.
 Use a tablespoon  to gather fistfuls of the mixture and press into a  ball. Mine were an inch to 1.5" thick. Then can be pressed down a bit while frying.
 Add them to a skillet and fry about 7 minutes per side (I like them fairly crispy on the top and bottom)

 This recipe makes an even dozen rice patties.

 Too dark for you? Back off the heat or fry them less time.

Before frying - this is an 8" non-stick skillet

After about 14 minutes

 Tom has to limit his salt intake but I added more salt to mine on  the plate. If this isn't a concern, more salt could be added to the mixture before frying.

 When Tom first saw them he said, "These look just like crab cakes".

 Tom ate three; I ate four (I'm a pig). I have the rest in a container in the refrigerator for later this week. They're an absolute hit as a meat substitute.

Gnomon Experiment

  This is an experiment I try to remember to do every October 8. I’m walking in the neighbor’s lane every morning (weather permitting)  and on that date – if the sun is shining about 8 AM – my shadow exactly hits the middle of the last large tree nearby. The left image is 10/08/13 at 7:51 AM and the right image is 10/09/22 at 8:10 AM. Near enough. Yesterday, when I was set to do the experiment, it was cloudy at sunrise and we also went out for our Saturday morning  breakfast. It means that the Earth is in the same spot in its orbit and the tilt is exactly the same for this line-up to occur. I think it’s a good demonstration of how precise celestial mechanics is.

 I am effectively making myself a gnomon, the vertical piece that stands up in the middle of a sundial that casts its shadow to the time. I suppose I'm demonstrating both time  and date because if neither are the same, standing in the lane my shadow will not shine on this tree but at about 8 AM.

 Click on  the image to enlarge. See my original post here.

How to vent our dryer?

  We've lived here 35 years and had a washer/dryer for most of them. The pair sits on an inside wall for two reasons: 1. There's nowhere else they could possibly go and 2. That's where the electrical and water hook-up's are.

 I've always wanted to vent it outside. Had it been a gas dryer, it would have been required (because of the carbon monoxide risk). But seeing as how our dryer is electric the outside vent might have been convenient but it wasn't required.

 How did I manage venting for all these years? In the early years I vented into water. The idea is that lint will "stick" to the surface of the water. It does. Somewhat. But not well.

 Then I decided a better choice might be to wrap a pair of women's hose  across the outlet pipe and make a sort of filter. It works,  too, though it pushed warm, humid air  against our wood wall and I was afraid it would either stain it or warp it. Even so, I managed many years with that set-up.

  But now  I'm trying a BetterVent®. I bought it from SupplyHouse. Click here for information.

 It easy to install: four screws. And I've used it once and really liked the way it spread the humid air our into a gentle flow through two filters.

 It'd be better to get the vent outside but this is a reasonable alternative for my set-up. Sure, it adds hot, humid air to the house in the summer (a negative) but it also adds that warm air in the winter (a plus). So I think economically it's a wash.

 More about the product can be found here.

Furnace Filter Woes

  I've been changing furnace filters here for 35 years and I've never liked it. Lately I've come away from each change bleeding.

 Here's what the last filter looked like after I got it removed on 09-21. Yes, it was in shreds. And it in turn shredded my hands. That red is blood.

 The slot has never been wide  enough for a 14x20x1 filter. And recently the filters I've been buying fit even tighter than before. They'll  drop down into the slot but they can't be pulled back out. I've tried screwdrivers along the edge and needle-nosed pliers in the center. They just jammed every time.

 So I called Dave and asked if a new holder for the filter could be made. This is what the furnace looked like with the existing filter holder removed  and the filter just taped onto the bottom of the furnace.

09-29

 In just five days Dave brought the new aluminum piece.

 Rather than drop the filter in from above, it's inserted in a track that allows it to slide in horizontally. Much nicer! And the filter size was increased to a 16x20x1 so the air flow should be a little better.

 We've had the furnace on today and all is well. This is going to save my hands ... and my fragile temper.

Flight Radar

  As a kid I used to look up to the sky and watch jets passing and wondering where they were going. For some time now, technology has provided that answer in the palm of our hand: Flightradar24.

 It's available on the web and also as cell phone apps. I use the Android version.

 This morning I saw a very high jet coming towards me from the  east  and I could see that it was passing south of me. It was just a dot in the distance but I pulled up the  app and found that it was flying at nearly 34,000 feet. It was an American Airlines Airbus traveling from Philadelphia to Phoenix. How I'd have loved the kind of information when I was a kid.

 And who would have thought it would ever be available to the man on  the street?

 This is a zoomed shot as the plane just passed me to the south. It was so high I could barely see it and I couldn't hear it at all.

 Flying 530 mph, it was soon disappearing to my west.

 I thought: here I am walking among farmer's field, part of the dark shadows passengers would see if they looked in my direction. The sun was barely risen (and behind a cloud). And yet I could see them heading to the warm Southwest while I exercised amid nearly freezing temperatures.

 It's nice that I can be a virtual part of the travels ... and they mine.

 

First Frost

  It came just five days before the average date of first frost. Usually we see a frost by 10-09 but this year we found a light, patchy frost on the morning of 10-05. That's based on 49 years of my own record-keeping.

 While I didn't see any frost in my yard, as soon as I began doing my morning laps in the neighbor's lane, I found frosty grass lining my walkway. The area adjacent to Clayton Road, by her mailbox, was patchy white, too.

 Here's Millie's yard, also covered with patches of light frost. My Tempest weather station recorded a low of 32.7° at 7:45 AM, exactly when I stepped out the back door for my walk.

 And so we can't avoid thinking about winter. Cold weather isn't far away and the hint of its nearness was clearly etched on blades of grass this morning.

Incredible Sunset

  Last evening (10-01-22) I had already locked the door and turned on the security system when I happened to look up at some of our white curtains and saw that they were glowing orange. It looked almost like a fire was burning outside. I went to a window and saw that the  western  sky was alive with the deepest red I've ever seen.

 So I called Tom, turned the alarm off and headed out the back door with camera in hand.

 Hurricane  Ian had ravaged Florida, crossed the peninsula from west to east, then come ashore again in South Carolina as a renewed hurricane. It then quickly lost its punch and became a low pressure system, staying ever east of us but forcing showers into Ohio as far west as the Columbus area.

 But throughout the day clouds streamed across Farmersville from the east to the west. And at sunset they opened enough for the glow of the setting sun to light these clouds from beneath. As the sun sunk ever further below the horizon, the reds got richer and deeper.

 But as Tom and I stood beside the garden, they also quickly faded. Still, it was a sunset to remember, all thanks to the remnants of a hurricane.