Let's visit on the Porch II (theater, cabinet, live in)

[Reziac]

Put a couple layers of cardboard under it to make the heat more useful -- no point in heating the concrete slab!

I've got two pig warmers I got probably 30 years ago -- they're all metal, ugly as sin, and only use 17 watts, so they heat slowly and never get too hot. Right now the porch cats have one and the other gets used for puppies. They're about 15x20 and cost about half as much as the plastic covered ones, if you can find 'em.

I've also got a couple of heated floor mats I found at a True Value hardware for about $40 -- they get a lot warmer and use about 50W. Put one inside a pallet and the dog bed or house on top, and it'll stay nice and warm. I use one (on a Thermocube since they don't have a thermostat) to keep my tack room from getting too cold. Also worked wonderfully well on the cold floor of the trailer!

[DiaDeMuertos]

Holy. Wind. That is all.

[Reziac]

I can hear it.... and I'm in a dead spot and this house is really quiet -- if it's blowing like this next to my house, it's gotta be hurricane force when you get out of the shadow of the hill-and-barn or whatever here makes the wind go somewhere else. (Often I'll hear it ROARING overhead and the treetops are bent sideways, yet it's calm at ground level. Freaky!)

Write when you hit Wichita...!!


<checks NOAA>

SW wind 36 gusts 46 at Laurel municipal airport. Just a light breeze...!!

[Reziac]

For when you have an hour to waste staring at the cool patterns.. this is upper atmosphere wind and temperature (actually a predictive model, but close enough):

https://earth.nullschool.net/#curren...106.103,47.261

Play with the menu at the lower left to see various other stuff, and mouse/scroll the globe to rotated or zoom (chemical overlay over China is... alarming). Click the indicators (km/h etc) to change scales. Click ON the map to get atmospheric conditions for that spot.

[MTSilvertip]

Geez what fun!
Helena went from -25 with a couple feet of snow, to a slushy mess, rain and slick ice overnight

Wind isn't bad, around 15-20, but that pack ice on all the side streets, that's just wrong!!! I had to go to 4 wheel drive just to park.

[DiaDeMuertos]

That was some extreme wind. I've experienced worse going through hurricanes but never expected a hurricane here. We love Montana very much but you're constantly reminded death is one wrong step away.

It's probably the most beautiful place I've ever been. The people here are amazing. We are gifted something weekly. Vegetables, canned goods, hand me down coats and boots for the kids, hand made gifts, all of it. The beauty is that much of this is from people who don't have a lot to give but they give from their beautiful hearts. I couldn't be more appreciative. The people here are second to none. They make the bitter cold wind all worth it.

[Reziac]

I've been in 84mph winds twice... once at Bozeman (just north of where Costco is now), and once in the SoCal desert. I've driven in 65mph wind (there's nothing more alarming that seeing GRAVEL flying at your windshield! tho my sister once saw a sports car picked up by wind and moved over a whole lane ) Livingston has had winds over 100mph on occasion. We've had folks here tell of 160mph coming down off the Colorado slopes, so we've been getting off light. <g>

Hey, have you been to the thrift shop in Laurel? Lots of kids clothes, and some fairly nice work clothes -- $1.50 a bag for all you can stuff into it. Also some games, books, housewares, and a food pantry. They only take cash but if you're short, pay next time you come.

[DiaDeMuertos]

I haven't been. Our kids had nothing except flip flops and shorts so it was interesting. Not just coats but hats mittens sweatshirts thermals all of it. I will go next time I'm there. What's it called and where is it? Luckily I shouldn't be short a buck fifty.

All kinds of fun stuff in MT.

[Reziac]

What the heck IS it called? Take the highway into Laurel, turn left at the first stoplight (at the off-ramp), go across tracks, turn right on first real street which is Cedar (I think). It is at the north end of the street (you can't really go any further unless you enjoy big pits in the road) on the left, sort of a white house-like building. I think it is closed Sunday and Monday? and closes early, around 3.30pm, can't remember for sure. You can't tell whether it's open by the outside; sometimes it looks positively abandoned and is busy inside.

[DiaDeMuertos]

I am laughing. This is so Montana. Everything about that post.

Thanks and I'll check it out.