Sunrise

Beautiful sunrise this morning.  It's been several days since we've seen any sunshine.

Yesterday the snow fell from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.  

Snow Day

Let's just say that the snow we wished for is here.

I'm posting a mixture of photos from last night and this morning.

I hope this doesn't all fall off at one time.

I haven't gone outside yet.  That's the nice part about being retired.  We will be tackling today's snow project on our time schedule, which is definitely after 10:00 a.m.   I'm still on my second cup of coffee.

The breeze has picked up a bit, but so far we have power.  I did read last night that the Northern Lights customers were without power in both Bonner and Kootenai counties.

We're ready.  Shovels, snowblowers and generator, if necessary.

O Christmas Tree

The snowstorm finally caught up with us this morning.  

The chickadees and bluejays love our Christmas tree on the corner of the deck.  It has a suet treat for them hidden in the branches.  They fly from there to the deck rail and the bird feeder all day long.

O Christmas Tree

The snow is still falling and later today it will be time to start up the snow machine.

The quest for a gluten-free pizza

Retired Mountain Man and I will be cheering for the Seahawks this weekend and enjoying our favorite snacks during the game.  What sounds really good to me is a pizza. 

There is a problem though.

Pizza crust without gluten is almost impossible to make.  Yes, they might try to tell you that those frozen pizzas that are gluten free taste like pizza, but they don't.  

I have been trying different recipes for the crust.  Just like everything else that is gluten free, there are dozens of recipes online that claim to be "the best pizza crust".  It's a challenge just to try to narrow it down to one or two.

This time I might finally be close.  

After doing some research on the subject, today was to be the test day.  I finally decided on a pizza crust recipe that contains a small amount of almond flour, psyllium husk and both yeast and baking powder.  I know, it's a strange combination, but I want a pizza with a crispy crust.  

The crust had to be baked for 15-20 minutes before adding the toppings and as you can see from the photo, I baked it a bit too long.  The end result though was that the rest of the crust was crispy.  

My pizza toppings are pepperoni and black olives with mozarella cheese and a bit of cheddar cheese.  

Once the toppings are added, it's baked another ten minutes or until the cheese melts.

The next time around I would try to find better pepperoni since the brand I used didn't seem to have much flavor, but all-in-all it tasted like I had pizza for dinner.  The first time in over a year.  

Ah.  The simple things in life.  

Onward to Sunday.  Go Hawks!

Is it March yet?

As you will see, I began this post on Sunday, but it never made it to publishing. 

The Seahawks won, but it wasn't easy. 

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It's Sunday.  Five days into 2020.  So far it hasn't been a normal December or January.  Yesterday the high was 41 degrees.  We have about a 1/2 inch of snow here and there with lots of green grass still showing in the lawn.

Today it's snowing lightly and the forecast calls for a rain/snow mix until later in the week.  That said, I won't complain about the weather since it's helpful to anyone who is walking around with a cane or any other such assistance.

We're in the January slow-mo days.  Entertainment is watching the NFL playoffs and hoping the Seahawks win.  I wasn't sad to see the Patriots lose yesterday.  It's time for another team to take the spotlight.   There's also the Zags games which are also exciting to watch.

In years past Retired Mountain Man and I would be outside with our snowshoes on, trekking through the woods, but there's not enough snow for that this year.  Since I'm writing this down, it should mean that we get three feet of snow in the next week or so.  Let's see what happens.

Have you made your New Year's resolutions yet?  Did you sing The House of the Rising Sun at midnight on NYE?  If so, it will bring you good luck.

Do you think things are getting crazy out there in the world?  The powers that be have gone off the deep end?  Check out my friend Marianne's blog post for a solution.

Reality Island

 Retired Mountain Man says we must have a remote control so that we can nuke the island just in case one of them tries to escape.

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We've made it to Tuesday, Jan. 7th, and yesterday Retired Mountain Man and I made a treacherous trip to Sandpoint for doctor's appointments.  The road conditions were bad and we saw three wrecks on our way.   It was white knuckle driving time.

The heavy, wet snow has now turned to rain.  Lots of rain.  

 This is an old photo from January 16, 2015.  The bird feeder is on the deck in the exact same location.  The amount of wet snow on the railing is the same.  The only exception is, there is no squirrel feeding there this year.  We're not sure why because they are around, but not coming to the feeder. 

It's damp.  It's foggy.  It's rainy and cold.  It's a mess out there.  It must mean it's still January.

Ugh!

Here's a happy picture.