28 Degrees and Record Snow in May!

Boise Foothills  

28 Degrees and Record Snow in May!

We have had very weird weather this May, almost more like March weather with warm temps thrown in. Yesterday morning it was 29 degrees and snowed quite a bit! The last time it snowed this much in Boise was in the 1890s! Because the weather has been so bizarre lately I'd been holding off on planting outside which was probably good. Typically around Mother's Day it's warm enough during the days to put out hanging baskets and annuals. Not so much this month. Heading into next week we're supposed to hit the mid-70s! It's been a real roller coaster. 

Waking up to snow

More info here-

From Ktvb.com

Full Swing Spring! New Job

 

Full Swing Spring!

We had some cool weather, but it's been definitely spring in the daytime! We had some 60s/ 70s, then back to the 50's with heavy rain, 30's at night. Almost time to take off the comforter and put on the quilts and blankets. It's a ritual every Spring. We have such a heavy thick winter comforter that we start cooking when the weather is milder. Everything is really coming up in green and it's just gorgeous! Our curved garden we added last year came through the winter really well with a minor loss of plants. Dave touched up the bar dust a little bit and it looks great! 

space for a replacement shrub

Interesting garden visitor, a Tippler Pigeon

I did some research and found out our feathered visitor is a racing pigeon, more here Pigeonpedia.com  I will see if I can get it used to me to see if I can find the owner by the band #.  The chickens for laying 2-4 eggs a day and are in full swing. Ironically with egg prices skyrocketing I actually don't know how much they cost in the stores? I know our feed has gone way way up and I'm hearing information from the NW and the South feed prices may double soon, if they haven't already. That will not bode well for farmers. Not enough corn for Ethanol either according to hubby's co-worker. We have a little extra feed stockpiled and I do have some ideas if things get really bad as far as how to feed the hens over the winter, etc. Anybody else seeing skyrocketing feed prices or other animal supplies? Cat food seems to be staying pretty level it's up a little bit but not too much.

New Job-

It took me awhile to get there, but I decided to quit my job last month. The job I started with was customer service, but since the first of the year it morphed into a high-volume call center environment. It  was not my background, and adding of more and more stats was confusing. I reached a point where it's just really wasn't worth the stress, especially given the current job market. Since I have a great skill set I applied for a job with a large private practice and got hired! Happy dance. I'll still be working in the medical auth biz but it has been more of a quiet work environment. Listening to phones ringing off the hook all day is not my thing. I may be doing more of a hybrid kind of job, working from home two weeks/office two weeks.  It's flexible. My previous employers tried to talk me into staying by offering me more money, but when I mentioned moving into a different position they had no response. That confirmed my decision. When you're already short-staffed the last thing you want to do is squeeze your existing staff harder and harder. It was time to go. I LOVE my new job and staff so far. Really great group. Biggest work space so far, time to decorate! 

From 75 To Snow! Limit 4 Per Customer/Meat Restrictions

From 75 To Snow!

April has been a wild ride! It's 75 degrees last week and woke up to snow Sunday morning. Next it poured rain, then three more rounds of snow.  We got much-needed snow up in the mountains as it has been dry the last couple months. A local ski resort will re-open this Saturday, with 18" of fresh snow on Bogus Basin ski area. Being in high desert we really rely on the snow up in the mountains for water. We are into a mega-drought, a fact of life with water issues.  Our bulbs have come up. My kale and collard greens I wintered over have almost doubled in size with the warmer weather (before the snow). The chickens are doing well in their coop and we extended their run so we can plant more intensively in the veggie garden. Our construction on our street is coming along slowly but steadily. Once that's done we will be replanting part of the front yard. All our fruit trees have blossoms, will be plating seeds inside soon. Summer is around the corner!

Ducks friends are back daily!

Limit 4 Per Customer/Meat Restrictions-

This week was the first time I had seen a sign limiting meat purchases. I had heard about this from other people in different parts of the country. First time I saw this was Sunday at the WinCo grocery store. There was a big sign for all their packages of chicken that said limit four per customer. I've heard about the culling of huge amounts of chickens due to the avian flu. If you want chicken and eggs I would definitely advise to buy some now while they're still relatively available. If you can, better yet, start your own chicken coop! We love our fresh eggs and while we choose not to harvest our hens there are some people that do that. Anything you can do to be more resilient right now it's a good thing! You can buy more beans and other protein sources. We have French Baked eggs for dinner sometimes. Cheaper than meat and has all the amino acids. Bon Appetit!