A Couple of Weeks In January

Red clay hill on a sunny afternoon.

Heading home on our afternoon walk.

Interesting clouds in a blue sky.

Ice on the little waterfall behind our house.

Ice flow from seeps on the bluffs.

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A Couple of Weeks In January

More Ice Photos

A few more photos from the early January deep freeze before moving on to something else. These photos were taken on January 8, 2010. This one shows a leaf encased in one of the ice flows on the bluffs below our house.

Icicles on the waterfall below our house. Unfortunately, our house is on the same level as the top of the waterfall so it cannot be seen from the house. We must climb down into the ravine to view.

Water seeping into the overhang behind the waterfall formed icicles too.

Water seeping out of the bluffs above the creek froze and formed its own icicles and ice flows.

But now all the ice is gone, except for a few of the largest ice flows along the bluff. During the first several days of thawing, I often heard icicles crashing down into the creek bed as they melted and came loose from the rocks.

Today is sunny and the temperature is predicted to climb up into the lower fifties. There are no below freezing temperatures in our immediate forecast.

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More Ice Photos

SkyWatch: Blue Sky Over A Bad Road

The unusually cold temperatures that put the Ozark Mountain region into a deep freeze for a couple of weeks have moderated. On Wednesday I made a trip into town and re-provisioned for the first time in a couple of weeks. All is now back to normal.

The photos below were taken while we were still debating when we'd be able to make a trip out. We live a couple of miles off the blacktop and the last three-quarters of a mile of dirt road is a dead end down to our house, though parts of our "driveway" are used by our neighbor when checking his cows, cutting firewood, etc. We did not receive much snow and ice during the deep freeze -- only about an inch of snow. The problem was that our temperatures stayed so cold, the little bit of snow received would not melt.

The snow on sections of road receiving full sunshine on clear days melted fairly quickly. (I know this looks more like a dry creek bed, but it is a road. Trust me on this.)

Other sections of road stayed mostly in the shadows. The snow compacted and glazed becoming almost as slick as ice. Not negotiable by our 2WD vehicles with street tire, especially when trying to drive uphill.

We have many winter seeps. When they empty in to the road, an ice flow forms. One must be careful getting around these even when walking, especially when they're hidden under a dusting of new snow.

On the other hand, the red clay sections of road can become even more difficult to climb after they thaw.

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SkyWatch: Blue Sky Over A Bad Road