Blizzard, Winter storm watch, active weather pattern

Welcome to the end of January in Maine.  I used to want to see snow falling on Christmas morning when I awoke, and have resigned myself to the fact snow will probably be falling on my birthday-or it

 will be 20 below zero.I

I have pledged that once before my years come to pass I will spend my birthday someplace warm and sunny, and one has to be careful what they wish for, because that may mean spending a birthday in Georgia moving 100 pound hives onto a truck bound for the California almond pollination.

This week we had an official blizzard on Tuesday, we think we got around 2 feet.  The Firebird and I spent three hours midday in the teeth of the snow moving the snow out of our 300 + foot driveway.  The wind was howling and like idiots we were revelling in it.

Wednesday night we had to move the last 6 inches of it to make way for today-our area to have "the jackpot" of 12-18 inches.

I crawled up to work today while the saplings slept in-their third snow day of the week.  I made it to the shop on Wednesday to be greeted with eight foot high drifts in front of the doors which needed to be cleared-after our drive, and then work, and then our drive again my legs were pretty sore yesterday.

I have to take comfort in the fact that I must be pretty ripped for my age-once I get out of these sixteen layers of clothes sometime around April I will be able to tell...

Once in Blue Moon

Our second full moon of the month is building. It was high in the sky through the snow encrusted trees well before dark tonight.

Yesterday I was practically cavorting in a tee shirt in the warm sunshine-temps have dropped drastically with 12F at afternoon chores, and howling winds out of the NorthWest as I type. A storm of "epic proportions" (according to the young weatherman on the local news channel) is building for this weekend. I hear that and I imagine a blizzard of several feet accumulation, but we have no snowfall amount predictions from the novice at this time.(*ed note: he is now saying storm of the decade)

I received a couple of ounces of fingering weight cashmere yarn from Boss as a Christmas gift, and I want to make a hat. I don't know how to knit, but I learned to crochet years ago from my grandmother. Granny squares. As a young adult I did some free form crochet as Christmas gifts, but I have never made a hat.

I found a pattern and diligently unskeined and balled the cashmere into a teeny tiny ball. I followed the pattern protocol and made a gauge; a number of stitches that are then measured to make sure the size is right. Wrong. Too small. UGH. The difference is that I am using very thin yarn. So I spent several hours trying to find a comparable pattern online. Usually my googling skills have high returns-not this time.

I did find one pattern that might work, so I might just wing it and see what happens. I suppose if it comes out too small I could give it to someone with a smaller head or rip it out and start again.

The hat, not the head.