Visitor Center Rain Gauge

This was the rain gauge as it read on Dec 26, 2009.

You can see we had less than our average of 10 feet for the year.

It was only about 8 feet last year - 95 inches for the year I believe it was.

This last week we have been working hard on making up for last year -

6 inches one day alone.

Now that's an ice cube!

This was created during the recent storms in a water barrel.

It has wonderful bubble patterns.

We just had to try putting a light inside.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

River is rising

This is one of the rivers that make the forks our town is named for. It is rising, and we're getting more rain. This was taken a couple of days ago.

Rainy day mowing

Can't let a little rain stop the mowing, can we? This is one of the big tractor mowers you see keeping the road edge clear.

If we stopped doing whatever we're supposed to be doing just because of rain, we wouldn't get much done around here... We've gotten over 10 inches in the last few days and we're expecting another round of heavy rain the next couple of days. The rivers are high and getting higher.

The rainfall for the year is at 75 inches I think. Doesn't quite sound like enough, yet. We get an average of 10 FEET each year, so, we're running a little dry - for us.

Two weather faces today

Mowing the field across the way, this morning before the storm hit, with a very happy dog chasing whatever caught his eye.








The evening sky with rain and storm. You can't see the winds blowing, but it is a good storm.

Nice.

Before and during storm

Main Street Holiday Decorations - Friday, when skies were blue, and Saturday morning, at the beginning of our first snow storm of the season. We had gotten several inches by evening, along with hail, and are forecast for about 20 hours straight of rain, giving 6-8 inches of rain on top of the snow melting. The rivers are going to be running deep. "IIIII'm dreaming of a Whiiiiiite Christmas..."
[I refused to put any Christmas decorations up before Dec. 1, either at the house, or on the website. Now that it's December...]
I'm sorry for not posting for a couple of days, and it might be a little sporadic until I get situated enough to not exacerbate my newly-diagnosed carpal tunnel. We think it was doing the website with my laptop actually on my lap in the evening.

Stormy and dark day

This is the parking lot/wading pool of Forks Outfitters/Thriftway, with a truck water-skiing its way to a parking space.
Today was the third (fourth? fifth?) straight day of stormy weather here. This piece of the storm, with high winds and driving rain, put out the electrical power for a little over 12 hours here today. I'm not sure how widespread the outage was, though it was the Forks area. It started about 4:30 this morning, and our power came back on at 5:20 this evening. I think all of Forks is back now. The stormy season has BEGUN!
When we have power outages, which are not rare, it is usually the whole town, which includes the main street of businesses. The only ones who do business have a generator. The grocery store in town, Thriftway (which is also Outfitters Clothing and Ace Hardware), has a generator that gives it the ability to sell, but it also has an espresso stand that gets especially busy on these days.
The only restaurant that is open during outages is the hospital coffee shop - which feeds a lot of people on outage days, I'm told. As we drove around today, looking around, we spotted one of the local espresso stands open as well.
Most cooking is done with electricity here - very few people use anything else. There are no gas lines, and propane is available, but electricity is fairly inexpensive here (compared to other parts of the country we have lived in). Most houses are all electric here, I believe, though quite a few of us use wood for at least partial house heat.
We use the fireplace insert to warm the house, so we stayed toasty warm as long as we stayed inside. Going out meant getting soaked in a matter of moments.

This is the entrance and espresso stand at Thriftway (through a rainy windshield). During a power outage, lights and a neon OPEN sign can be very warming!

Dewy spider web

This web is only about 2 inches wide. I was amazed at the intricacy in so tiny a space. I didn't see the spider - it was probably hiding nearby. This was taken just after sunrise - which is just a little before 8 am here.

The sun was lighting everything up and the highlights were different than I usually see. Me and my camera - kid in a candy store.

We passed the century mark with rain here - we have had 100 inches of rain for the year so far, on our way to an average year of 120 inches.

Beautiful autumn weather

Today was a variable weather day in Forks. You can see the rows of marching clouds. This was taken toward the northeast - the direction the clouds were heading as they marched by. We would have clouds, blue sky, clouds, blue sky, VERY DARK clouds, blue sky... I love days like this. If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes; it'll change.
We were outside working on the last stages of painting the house, so kept praying for clouds only, no rain. We didn't see rain today, surprisingly for Forks, and thankfully for today. We did get the painting on the house done. Hoorah!

Getting ready for winter

This is the time of year that we lay in a supply of wood to burn for winter. This is our yet-un-stacked pile in the rain we've had off and on the last couple of days. Rain makes for a good excuse not to be doing all those pesky outdoor chores. Yes, I do love a good rainstorm! ;~)

ready for lots of rain?

We do get a LOT of rain here in Forks - an average of about 120 inches, yes, that's 10 FEET each year; but this is taking preparedness just a step beyond, I think. Having a jetski parked on the front lawn, ready for the water to come rolling in? Think he has an ark in the back yard, too? Does he know something we don't?

Lest you think we are up to our necks in water, we really don't have a lot of flooding problems - just lots of beautiful rivers.

We were just taking a drive around town, and I had to stop and snap this one. I do like the hanging baskets and the flower boxes. Very pretty.

Raindrops on roses...

We awoke to the sound of rain today. Not unusual here. I went out back to revel in the misty rain, leaned on our deckrail, looked down, and this rain-kissed rose greeted me.
This poor rose bush has had a rough time lately, but has still rewarded us with several buds. The framing of the ferns set off the pink beauty.
We keep cutting the ferns back; they keep trying to take over from beneath the deck.
We think the rose bush might just make it, though.