AWFUL!!!

Pretty soon the mercury will just disappear!

CANADIAN WEATHER

For my friends south of the border I have this weather map of Canada.

The red indicate one or more of the following: Extreme Cold, High Winds, Snowstorm, Blowing Snow.....   You get the idea!

Our overnight low is predicted to be -30ºC (-23ºF).  And it won't warm up a whole lot tomorrow during the day.  Our predicted high for the next week is several degrees below the normal high for this time of the year.  How long can this go on?

This was the view from our back door this afternoon:

Well, it is pretty, especially when the sun comes out!

GOOD BREAD

I finally got around to baking some bread.

We really miss our homemade bread when we are in AZ, but baking bread there just doesn't work for me.  I bought a second-hand breadmaker to use for making dough.  When the dough comes out of the breadmaker it seems just fine.  It feels smooth and elastic.  But after shaping it into loaves and setting it to rise, it just flops.  It doesn't rise.

When we lived in Salem, Oregon I had the same problem.  Just couldn't get the dough to rise although I had been baking all our bread for seven years.  There was a rather small wall oven there and I thought that might be the problem.  But then why won't it work in AZ either? 

People have suggested that it's the flour there, not as good as the flour at home in Alberta.  So I took some Alberta flour (I grind my own flour from wheat) along to AZ.  No dice!  It made no difference.  I took some AZ flour to AB.  It rose just fine.  So I think it must be something about the elevation.  We are just under 3,000 ft. here, and at only 1,200 ft there.  Any ideas?

I also last weekend got around to making burger patties.  I like to use a lean ground beef for burger patties, but Jim doesn't want to eat beef, so I make his from ground chicken or 

ground turkey.

The ground meat goes into the big glass bowl.  I add (not measuring): a handful of quick oats, some oregano, some basil, a little bit of nutmeg, some seasoned salt and some garlic powder and some chili powder.  I used to add chopped onion, but now we just slice some onion onto the bun.  That all gets partially mixed through and then I add a raw egg to help the patties stick together.

The white contraption there with the ball of ground beef on it is, for lack of a better term, a patty shaper.    The metal object next to it is a good digital scale.  I scoop up a portion of seasoned ground beef, weigh to make sure I have 4 1/4 oz., roll it into a ball, put it on the patty shaper and press it down with the top part (the white thing with the handle).  They are put onto a cookie tray lined with parchment and put into the freezer until they are hard enough to store in a zip lock bag.  All ready for a Saturday night supper, a tradition here.

I've always loved burgers.  When I was in High School there was a restaurant across the street run by a cousin of my Dad.  An aunt on my Dad's side took care of a room for H.S. students downstairs.  If a student had a permission note they were allowed to cross the street for a burger or hot dog lunch.  One other girl and myself helped my aunt prepare the burgers, hot dogs, fries and malteds.  Our pay was our lunch.  So throughout most of my high school years I did not need to make a bag lunch--I had a burger.  I still liked them when I graduated.  Still not "burgered" out!

In 1987 our oldest daughter and I drove to G.R. to visit Mom who was in a hospital with an operation for colon cancer.  K. lived in Niagara Falls, so I flew out there.  The first evening she didn't feel like cooking so we went out to a Burger King.  That was fine with me!  The next day we drove to G.R., about a 7 hours trip.  Had a burger for lunch on the way.  We stayed in Mom's home and went to visit her in the hospital every day.  For lunch we went to the Burger King right next door--every day.  On the way home we stopped at a plaza on the 401 and got some lunch.  But we couldn't face another burger.  The only other choice was a chicken fillet, so that's what we had.

A few days later I flew home to Portland and Jim picked me up from the airport.  He had a special treat for supper that night: Burgers.  I said, I don't know if I can eat that.  "But you LOVE burgers!"  I did eat it.  It was sweet of him to have one of my favourite suppers ready.  

DEPTHS OF WINTER

Since we came home to Alberta we've been in the deep freeze.  Overnight lows have been around -30ºC (-20ºF).  So we've spent a lot of time indoors.  It began snowing last Thursday, very light tiny flakes, hardly big enough to fall to the ground, but evidently they did because the snow cover began to grow.

We went to town on Saturday afternoon to visit the library and the grocery store--preparations for a house-bound weekend.  Saturday evening the snow was coming down in big, fat flakes, thickly swirling.

By the time Sunday morning that it had warmed up to -22ºC  I bundled up and went out to do some shovelling.  I had made a deal with Jim: he would do the kitchen cleanup and I would do some shovelling.  Twenty minutes later I had the path over the back patio to the driveway and the path from the backdoor to the garage door cleared.  It felt really good to be outdoors and get some exercise.  Here's the cleaned path.  The snow on the driveway is between 6" and 10" deep.
                            

It actually looks just beautiful outside with the smooth, fresh snow covering everything.  Right now the sun is shining and the hoar-frosted trees shine with millions of diamonds.

Yesterday just before 6 p.m. I looked out the front window at the setting sun:

The camera has a hard time capturing the full effect.  There are no filters for this camera, but the right filter would have shown the setting sun as a big, very red ball.

The scene out the back door was also inspiring:

A big, luminous moon was rising as the sun was setting.  What glory!

When I was up during the night around 3:30 a.m. the entire landscape was glowing in the moonlight.  How beautiful!

When we are in Arizona we don't see much of the sky.  We miss sunrises, sunsets and seeing the moon.  Here in Alberta we are treated with a 360º view of the horizon and the big, big sky overarching it all.

Just now the neighbour's hired man arrived in a Bobcat and began plowing out our driveway.  We have wonderful neighbours, a farming couple, young enough to be our children, and the young man doing the bobcat work is younger than some of our grandchildren.  We are blessed to have ended up here, among these terrific people!

QUILT CLUB

Yesterday was a regular meeting of the town quilt club, always so enjoyable.  Not that we get a tremendous amount of quilting accomplished, but we visit, we tell stories, we joke and laugh and sympathize where needed.

I was working on the last few squares of a Disappearing Four Patch that was begun last fall.

I was aiming for 42 blocks, for a 6 x 7 setting.  At seven square inches each, that makes a 42" x 49" quilt.  Add a border and binding and you have a nice sized lap quilt to donate.

Yesterday was a day of one mistake after another.  I counted 41 blocks and was working on the 42nd, but gave up after lunch and settled down to cut out another 42 blocks for a similar quilt, but one that has a variety of beige backgrounds and darker main fabrics.  By 5 p.m. we were all at quitting point.  We packed up our machines and our projects and went home.

Just now I took out the finished blocks and put them up on the wall.  There was room for a 7 block by 5 block display.  To my surprise there are 19 more completed blocks!  That means there are 12 extras.  Wonder where they came from?  They will go into another quilt.  

The extra blocks that I cut in the afternoon are for a demonstration day in March on how to sew a Disappearing Four Patch.  I've made up a method in which all the seams can be pressed to the dark fabric, so all the sides of the blocks will "Nest Together" nicely.

It's slightly warmer today, still not what deserves the title "Warm."  Current temperature:-19ºC or -2ºF.  Just high enough that our county is no longer "red" on the national map, signifying "Extreme Cold."  So I guess we are just plan "cold."

EXCELLENT CONDITIONS

We reached home around 3:30 this afternoon in bright sunshine with clear, dry roads.  For just a short distance in Montana we had packed snow in the driving lane, otherwise the driving lane was always clear and visibility was good.

We stayed at the Days Inn in Helena Montana because we like that motel.  They serve an excellent breakfast there.  The hotel is very close to Interstate 15, but is a quiet location.  It's one of our favourites, just like the Comfort Inn in Fillmore, Utah.

The house was warm when we arrived, thanks to S. who cares for everything while we're gone, and that was so much appreciated because the current temperature is -9ºF or -23ºC.  BRRRR!

I'm all tuckered out from three days on the road, but wanted to let you know we reached home safely.

ANOTHER DAY ON THE ROAD

After a good night's sleep and a filling hot breakfast at the Comfort Inn in Fillmore, UT, we got on the road by 8:10 a.m.  We got to the southern end of the HOV through Salt Lake City by 9:30 a.m. and were through just south of Ogden by 10:30.  Saturday mornings work well for getting through SLC with minimal hassle.  Weather was high overcast, but the roads were clear and dry.  We felt blessed by those conditions and a very moderate amount of traffic.

Most of the day there was a high overcast.  About 20 miles on either side of Monida Pass, the boundary between Utah and Montana, and also the continental divide there was a lot of snow on the fields, up to 2 feet I thought on the Utah side, less on the Montana side, but the driving lane was always open and the visibility was good.  There was just some low snow blowing over the roadway.

Just for a bit in Montana even the driving lane was snow covered and bumpy.  The rest of the time the driving lane had at least two track open.  Jim drives according to the conditions, so we were always quite relaxed about the drive.

Were happy to arrive at the Days Inn in Helena, Montana about 5:40 p.m.  We like to stay here on the way home because they have a really good breakfast.  Lots of choice and all good and hot.  That's for tomorrow morning.

We hope to reach home late in the afternoon.  The forecast is for fairly clear weather but COLD, COLD, COLD!  That's just the way it is right now.  The car heater will keep us warm, as long as the road is reasonably clear, we'll be all right.