Today's surprise... Oops!
Fortunately all my 182 parts are at the airport now.

Here in Ellensburg, WA we have doubled the record snowfall total for the Month of Feb. This is Eastern WA desert with a average annual snowfall of 22 inches. We have had over 30 inches in Feb this year. The forecast was for clear and sunny today so I went for a little snowshoe walk to check out the ELK feeding station up Joe Watt canyon. It was sunny and 14 F degrees when I left the truck. When I got to the top of the local sledding hill it was 18 degrees and sunny but fog had settled in creek bottom where the Elk are being fed. So the elk photos are not so great.

Snowshoe trail up the hill.


Sunny on top


The line of small brown dots that look like fleas just this side of the tree line is the Elk herd. About 800 Elk X 7 pounds of hay each = 2.8 tons of hay per day


Close up


The money shot. Just amusing myself while waiting for the fog to lift in the creek bottom.. It never did

Minus seven this morning at Fairmont Hot Springs. Day two of Montana Aviation Conference 2019.

MTV

Gave us a flavor of spring with being up to 0*C the last couple days, this morning its -34*C with a breeze. I'm ready for spring...

Finally got my pacer airworthy, supposed to start my tailwheel training Sunday. . but. It's gonna be 14* big snow coming our way in colorado

-22 at 7:30 AM. I went into town yesterday to prep the plane for a fly-in down at Mille Lacs today. Got to the hangar and there was 3+ inches of solid ice all the way across the front of the bifold door. It is at least an inch+ over the top of the rubber seal on the bottom of the door. It's about 1-2" below the walk through door. Needless to say...I didn't even bother trying to chisel the ice away. Said heck with trying to make the Fly-in. Only mentioning this since the door is south facing. The sun warms the door up enough to cause the snow to melt and then it turns to solid ice in the evening. If I don't clear the snow away from in front of the door, on the day it snows, I end up with solid ice under the snow. The joys of living in God's country!

Ended up with a heater that didn't work. so I pulled the seats out of a wrecked plane (Rebel) I have in the hangar (froze my fingers!).
I'm going to temporarly use them in the Rebel that I have nearly completed.

-12 fahrenheit last night...only supposed to be -4 tonight! Still getting salads out of the greenhouse, but we've been heating it for the past month. Firewood pile is disappearing like a snowman in a skillet. Strange weather for this time of year in the Bitterroot, but you get what you get...

This morning the thermometer read 20 when I ate breakfast at 7am. That's 65 degrees warmer than it was 2 days ago.
John

Weather is cold for this region... last night a bone chilling 67F, it was hard getting outside. All this week small craft warnings with solid 20kts gusting to 30kts. I decided to stay on shore today and take a run/walk, instead of fishing.

This afternoon 77F moderate trades:


Harbour Pub Restaurant, good pizza across the street:


In contrast to...

Last month February -1 degrees Fahrenheit in Oregon Cascades, and Snow on the coast:

The temperature here in Ellensburg, WA has warmed up to the low teens F at night and high 20s F in the daytime. The snow continues. Five inches today for a total of 19 inches on my snow stick in the back yard. Most areas in SE Washington received 30 to 40 inches of snow in Feb. this year.



The old barn down the road collapsed two weeks ago from snow. It has been leaning for a while though.



Feb 2019.