Snow

Thanks, Lisabees, I am enjoying all the feathery and dendritic shapes on the windows. Longdog doesn't mind being stuck to the door, as he spends all his time there, anyway.

Now the sun has hit the office window and it's all sparkly and ready to party.

Hey Picante, which Cowon do you have? We love our little D2. One of the firmware upgrades included a Korean-English dictionary which was rather entertaining.

Mine's a D2 too. (Sounds like: mine's a D-tutu).
I only do firmware upgrades when absolutely necessary, as sometimes that leads to sending it in to get "debricked".
Mostly I like it, but I cannot get SD cards to work in it, and the internal memory is 4 Gb, which is inadequate in my case. (The tango collection is a whole Gig by itself, and the folk dance collection is 6 Gigs, but needs a thorough cleaning out.)

We have now fixed the French door so it will stay closed, we think. Couldn't get the bottom latch in because we couldn't find the hole it goes into in the snow -- even poking around with a chopstick. But the top latch, the middle latch and the deadbolt are all in place. Hopefully now it will stay put. We also righted the jade tree which weighs over 200 lbs we think. Now we have learned that the heat zone that covers our bedroom isn't working. I now have a call in to the plumber who may get here this afternoon and may not depending on his other calls. If not he will definitely come tomorrow. We do have heat in the rest of the house though and can just pile on lots of blankets. Heck, it is up to 33 outdoors just next to the window -- so it is probably around 28 elsewhere in the yard. It is the tropics compared to you northerly types.
I had never heard of a Cowon. Sounds nice. How did you choose Cowon over ipod? Sounds like you can add more kinds of files to a Cowow than an ipod. Would I be correct?
I used DH's ipod for a while at the gym but found itunes a pain in the derriere. Couldn't use it for workouts now because I swim. I don't really need to be wired all the time anyhow.

What are SD cards? I hate it when I get behind in technology.

They are itty-bitty memory cards that fit into certain cameras and MP3 players and who knows what else.

Ah, so you can download your digital camera to it. I think we may have one of those that is no where near as nifty -- called a picture porter.

SD cards are wonderful little memory cards that can be used for many different applications. They are about the size of a large postage stamp and the largest ones currently hold 32GB. Our music player, camera, GPS, and other toys all use the same cards so we can swap them out as needed. On long road trips we start out with all the cards full of music and then reformat and use them in the camera after we listen to the music. By the end of the trip we have several cards full of photos and we're listening to the radio.

DH was beta testing an audio component for a company from Boulder, CO and one of the firmware updates they sent to fix a minor problem turned it into large, expensive doorstop. I think the poor technicians worked all night to figure out how to undo their update because there was a new firmware and instructions for getting it installed using an alternate method by 6am the next day.

DH found the Cowon on http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

Oh, SD also comes in the SDHC flavor, which stands for High Capacity. Anything over 4GB will be SDHC and some devices require a firmware update to read the HC versions.

Wow, lots of catching up to do! The sauna sounds just lovely! How nice it would be to enjoy that on days like this! It sounds like lots of you are getting some fun new toys, Hooray! We got probaby around 14 inches of snow since yesterday morning... lots of shoveling and snow plowing go on out there today.

Sort of off topic, is it possible to put a new card in my ipod to increase it's storage capacity? Mine only holds 250 songs which clearly is not enough.

I'm with Paj on thinking you peoples up North make it seem like the tropics here. Except its dry. We've warmed up above the forecast 35 and have hit 38 at the airport, 40 at my house. The sun is shining brightly, the slush from this morning has melted, run off and the streets are dry. The predicted low for tonight is a bone-chilling 16 or 20 (depending on the weather service). I'm sure there will be a couple icy patches tomorrow morning.

It is about 28 degrees here. Dogs have been happily romping in it all afternoon. They are both part husky -- maybe that's why their feet don't hurt. Tonight it is supposed to be 4 degrees but I hate to complain given what those of you north of us are getting. And the plumber is coming! I am beyond excited.

I love that web site -- anythingbutipod. Will be checking it out. For me ipods are counter intuitive. DH and I fought and fought with his to get stuff loaded onto it and then to get the stuff to play. I did get it to work but itunes takes forever to download the NPR shows I wanted to listen to as I worked out. Got tired of the whole business. The ipod is now in a dish somewhere. DH keeps threatening to use it, but so far hasn't done so.
Will also look to see what kind of cards our digital camera uses. Would be cool if we had one of those Cowans and it would use our digital camera cards. I understand MP3 files really well.

Wow Paj, that was lucky to get a plumber so quickly. Tow trucks and plumbers are in high demand during cold weather.

It's really nice to have everything use the same card format so you can swap between gadgets and only need one kind of reader on the computer.

OK I got the pump house thawed out and the pipe and valves changed. No my neighbors are from Calif 2 years ago and they retired here. They had a heater in the pump house fail and it caused the pipes to freeze.
Boy Picante you have a lot of moisture in your house. I can't get any moisture to settle on any windows. We heat a lot with wood and that dries everything. Even with a roaster steaming all day and night on top of the stove.
Another beautiful snowless day here. This is the tree with the sun coming in the west window.

Beautiful tree, view, and home, Soferdig!

IPOD stands for I PAID OVER DOUBLE that amount.

I live on my I pod and use it for movies and all. I download at night and then I don't have to wait. A watch IPod does not download.
No B the Ipod is fixed with memory. Kind of a package. I have a 80 gig and that does all I need.
My mom has settled in to my house pretty well.

Thanks for the info Sofer. Your Mom looks very comfy!

Sofer, pretty tree! And your mom looks right at home. Twenty five degrees here currently and sunshine and ice. I confess, I have not been outside All Day! I've been painting. Hadn't done any water colors in ages due to camera obsession. Took me awhile to get the right feeling for it and by then was losing my light. But, I always end up throwing out a few paintings before I get anything decent. It takes me awhile to let loose of the subject and let the paint do itself.

Wow Sofer, I dream of someday have such a beautiful sunroom. What is the flowering shrub next to your tree?

I've been in that room. It looks all the way across the valley to Whitefish, doesn't it?
Your mom seems to know about the "two dogs are better than one" principle.

Yep, Sofer, our humidity is so high that we open a window in the dead of winter to blow moist air out. We haven't figured it out yet. The house was built in 1935, and isn't exactly airtight! Scott installed a vent that pulls fresh air into the cold air return ducting every time the furnace runs. That is helping, but where is all the moisture coming from???

Dry as a bone here. I can zap static across a room. How in hoot did all this snow miss you Sof?

Beautiful frost pic's, Picante! The view from here.

Oh wowie wow, roybird! golden icicles....... how splendid!

Sofer I like the ribbon around your tree, very pretty.

Yes our sunroom looks North to The mountains near Canada and east to Glacier and the Flathead Range. It is kind of a 180 degree view of sunrise and sunset.
Katlin the plant on the right of the tree is a Rubber Tree and it blooms from end of October until Middle of January. This year is better than last and it is over 80 years old. It was my grandmothers, then my uncle had it and gave it to me over 20 years ago. I have pruned it a lot and now I prune only after blooming. The compost tea has made it a magical plant. I have often root pruned it to kind of make it a Bonsai.
Picante you must have a basement that pulls moisture out of the ground. Do you have an aquafur under you in town. I know that is common in E. MT because I had one in Great Falls that ran under my house. It caused a lot of settle issues with my foundation on my rental house. Though if you have a large amount of outside air coming you are pulling in all of that snow moisture.
This is the view up to Whitefish MT Ski area from the house.

That rubber tree is amazing, I didnt know they could bloom! Your views, well, WOW!

I'll second that!

Sof, your rubber tree is lovely, but it looks and blooms a lot like my jade tree. Is rubber tree another name for jade tree? or vice versa? What I grew up calling a rubber tree had great big leaves -- well, we called it a rubber plant. Jade trees have much smaller leaves and are actually succulents. The rubber grows outdoors in New Orleans but is much more common in more tropical areas. I see the jade trees growing outdoors in California fairly commonly.
I have a jade tree, myself that is about 40 years old. I know I moved it with me from Santa Fe to New Orleans, New Orleans back to Santa Fe then to three different houses in Los Alamos. It is about 4 1/2 ft. high in its pot which is probably 1 1/2 ft. high. It blooms beautifully every winter if I put it outside in the summer so it can soak up lots of sun. It has suffered incredible abuse at my hands when I didn't have time to water it or do anything for it but it keeps on living and growing and blooming anyhow. It is now like a member of the family which it had better be because it lives in my bedroom in front of my west facing French doors in the winter and outside on the balcony in the summer. Just moving it from the house to the balcony and back again is a major operation each change of seasons.

Here is the jade tree in plant files:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/36534/'

Here is the rubber tree in plant files:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/718/

Yes it is a jade plant. I have always called it a rubber tree. I only keep the latin for medical things. And that is a constant learning curve with the same bacterial group having its name changed 3 times since I graduated. Serophorus Necrophoris =Fusobacter Necrophoris=Fusobacterium nucleatum. You must understand I have to also call it "lumpy jaw" to my clients

That reminds me of what the vet said when Piper had an ear infection. I asked what the stuff in her ear was, and he said it was "exudate". A fancy word for something that exudes?
More often she is full of exuberate.

Transudate= passivly crossing vascular barrier, Exudate= productive inflammatory attack on a body surface. I call a transudate a leakage and an exudate a bunch of boogers.

Well, now I am quite excited... I HAVE a jade plant that I rescued this past fall when some tenants moved out and left their plants behind. I gave them ample time to come get them, but ultimately I had to bring the jade plant inside so it didn't freeze. It's quite happy right now in our bay window... as yours is in a very 'windowed' area, Soferdig, am I correct in assuming they like winter sun? Any advice is appreciated, jades are one of those plants I've always loved but haven't been that successful with in the past. I am far better with outdoor plants... don't know why.

They do well with little sun. They must be an understory plant because my sun room faces North. Summers I protect it from direct sun and feed it with the short 3 hours of direct winter sun. I never put it outside in the summer due to the dry blasts of summer wind. It is fed only with compost tea one to twice monthly. None in the winter because the compost is here frozen. It is somewhat dormant after flowering and quiets it's song to become an attractive plant that loves to grow and grow. Each summer I Prune and shape it to a oak tree shape. Its base is about 5" across and its height is about 4'. My DW waters it once weekly and I change its pot and soil every other year with a little root prune. Its root system is weak but mine is now quite strong. Be carefull as it grows not to let it get top heavy cause it wants to. Branches are very flexable and will take training quite well. You can see the one I have led down the trunk to hide the base. I am starting another one on the other side for the next few years.

Thanks so much, Soferdig. I was amazed because a part of the plant had rotted roots, I pulled those off, and I kep a bit that was somehow still trying to put out new leaves. That little piece is still growing! The main plant seems very happy, but it is in a south facing wall big window. Is that too much sun?

Not during the winter. It is too low on the horizon to hurt. I think being tropical it needs that. Mine was rotted that way too. I root pruned and changed the soil frequently with little watering to provide a poor environment for the root rot. hence the compost tea to clean up the environment.

So, how do I make compost tea? I have two bags of steer manure compost that have been sitting for months... still no compost pile (hopefuly next year).

Bagged cow manure has only bark, wood chips and/or sawdust with a light sprinkling of cow manure. Its culture of bacteria and fungus is not rich like the compost nurtured by nature. I would put the cow manure with some shredded leaves out on the ground for about a month and let it cook and then just put a quart in a 5 gallon pail and run cold water into it and use that for watering your plants. Put the compost in the pail back on the pile and let it cook another month and repeat. There are compost piles that your city may have to get the good stuff from or other friends with compost.

Sof, that is a magnificent jade tree. Mine is not looking as good as usual today since it got knocked over by the French doors when they blew open yesterday at 6:00 am. We righted it in the afternoon. It lost a few branches, but as Sof points out they will grow back.
Mine is in a west window all winter and out doors on the balcony off that window in the summer. I think if they get enough sun they will bloom otherwise they just grow. Before I learned the trick of putting them outside, mine never bloomed. I guess one would say mine have sun and shade because that side of the house doesn't get sun in the morning, but it gets very strong sun when it gets sun. I would expect that it would handle full sun just fine. As with any plant, jade's go into shock if you move them in to a much sunnier location. Jade's leaves will turn red and sometimes even fall off if it suddenly gets too big a change, but then it adapts. Leaves get reddish with more sun.
Sof's tree is treated with love. Mine has suffered neglect and abuse and blooms anyway. I water it once a week but sometimes maybe only once a month. You can tell when it needs water because the leaves begin to shrivel. Not die -- just lose their fleshy nature. Jade trees are succulents so you really can kill them with too much water. With lack of water -- they can go for months at a minimum. I can't remember when I last fed mine. I can no longer repot it because it is too heavy to remove from the pot and if I went up in pot size it would need a bathtub. It is already in a huge pot.
It still is lovely and whenever someone happens to see it they are stunned at its size and beauty. This has to be the world's most forgiving houseplant -- along with mother-in-law's tongue.

-6º here at 9 am. windchill is a balmy -24º. And there is not a cloud in the sky. Brrrrrr.
My windows are covered in ice too. We run steam vaporizers in the house all winter as it's so dry here anyway. I wouldn't say it's humid in the house, but at these temps, what little moisture we have in the air is condensing and freezing on our very inefficient single pane widows (we live in a 101 year old house).

Thanks again for more info on the jade plant. DenverJude... that is dang cold! My computer is saying it is minus 16 right now, but I've just been outside and I don't believe it is that cold. We are just getting plowed out now... about 2 feet of snow in the driveway!