Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Thursday’s Thoughts. #28
Good morning everyone! I hope your day is going well. They had forecast a major winter storm for us, but it seems that it missed us instead. We have had some snow, but not much, about 1.5 inches (3.75cm) so far, but it is very windy so that part was correct. And we are supposed to get more snow today and tonight, but right now it doesn’t look too bad, it’s barely snowing. Not that I’m complaining that the forecast was wrong, it’s perfectly fine with me. And it could change yet, we will have to wait and see. There is not much bird activity this morning. The chickadees were first and are quite busy eating. Nuthatches showed up next but they did not stay long.
There were 2 evening grosbeaks, but they also did not stay very long. I think there was perhaps 6 blue jays, down a lot from the 22 that normally show up for breakfast. Kind of odd really, usually during stormy weather the birds are very active at the feeders, after all, it is easy to get at the food. November can bring us some bad snowstorms though. One year we had a snowstorm that gave us 17 inches (42.5cm) of snow, exactly one week later we got 5 inches (12.5cm) of snow, exactly one week later we got 18 inches (45cm) of snow. But really, we don’t normally get huge snowfalls up here, more like 4 or 5 inches (10 to 12.5cm) of snow at a time. However that can still add up to a lot of snow over the whole winter.
They have given us a brief summary of our forest fire season this year. We set a new record for number of acres (hectares) burned this year. There were 793,325 hectares (1.96 million acres) burned this year, nearly all of that in the northwest portion of our province, which is this area where I live. The previous record was in 1995 when 713,914 hectares (1.76 million acres) burned. The largest fire was just over 200,000 hectares (495, 211 acres) in size and was the largest fire since 1960. But 1976 still holds the record for number of fires at 2,092, this year we had 1,198 fires. 1976 was our third worst year for number of hectares (acres) that burned. It is a good thing that our bad years are spread far apart.
Just thought I would give an update since I was talking about our fires a lot this past summer. More grosbeaks have shown up and I was just out cleaning the snow off the feeders. It is not really snowing much at all right now. I have just been watching as the evening grosbeaks fly in from the neighbors trees, there are more than 60 of them again. I probably missed a few. Have a beautiful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 
as i write this at 0923 hours, it is 73 degrees and we are heading to temps in the mid to high 80s today and it is forecasted we will head into the 90s the rest of the week.
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Wow, not bad, my kind of temps! Though I’m sure you probably think I’m crazy for saying that. But that’s me! We’re supposed to dip a bit in temps down to the low 20s this weekend.
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It’s funny how nurses use army time. I do the same thing! 😂 It’s easier to read. In the beginning, I used to confuse 1500 a lot. Not sure why that was so difficult 😅
Now, as for degrees…. I only understand Celsius. My husband keeps our house as 68 degrees and it feels like an Arctic in here. I’m breathing cold air. Is 68 supposed to feel this cold?!
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military time is used by a lot of people/companies in the healthcare field. it can cut down errors of time. 68 could be comfortable to some yet a bit cool to others. i guess you should be the one to set the temp. lol
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I increase the temperature when my husband isn’t home. I find 68 freezing, and 70 is more tolerable for me. 72 would be ideal but he will never turn it up past 68. He’s cheap when it comes to heating the house.
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lol
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glad you didn’t get too much snow. and I guess the record setting fires is not the kind of records you want to see…
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Yes, I’m happy the forecast was wrong, I wasn’t looking forward to 16 inches of wet snow!
Definitely not the right kind of records for sure, I’m just happy it doesn’t happen too often.
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16 inches of snow would have been perfect for all those fires!
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The heaviest snow is falling in the area where those fires were located. Apparently none are burning now. They were concerned that some might continue burning through the winter, but we had enough rain this fall to extinguish them.
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mother nature to the rescue…
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That’s usually what it takes for some of these fires.
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16 inches of wet snow is gross, Steve. You dodged a snow bullet!
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Yep, that would be a lot of snow to suddenly start winter with, so far we have 5 inches (12.5cm), but it is still snowing a bit yet so I’m sure we will have a bit more by morning. 68F (20C) is rather chilly indoors. I keep mine at 72F (22C).
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It completely blows my mind how you are dealing with snow there and over here, we just got a nice hard rain and now the sun is shining down where I’m sitting on my front porch. Amazing weather we both are having! Love the bird pics. ☕️🐦
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Thanks Renee! At least we missed the worst of the snow, right now we have 5 inches and the temp is dropping a bit. We will likely have more by morning. Winter has begun! Enjoy your time sitting outside! I won’t be doing that for another 6 months!😂😹
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Your pics are wonderful ! The snow continues 🌨🌨❄️❄️…have a pleasant day ! ☕️☕️😻🙂☕️☕️
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Thanks so much! It was a good day to be inside, but I had to go out a lot to keep the feeders snow free today, it wasn’t easy to keep the snow off them. Oh well. Yep, a little snow here too, we have about 5 inches now.😁😻☕☕☃❄❄
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Winter delivered you a gentle “hello” Steve. I hope next summer’s fire season is much less intense, but I have serious doubts about that.
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Yes, much better than the 16 inches that was forecast. There is 5 inches right now and still snowing lightly. We don’t normally get 2 bad fire seasons in a row, but it could happen.
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