Before I moved to NV, I never saw skies like these. I used to love watching storms roll in over Lake Superior when I was growing up, but somehow it was just ... different. Everything here seems just a little more 3-Dimensional. If someone were to use the phrase "valley of the Gods" ... I could picture it being this place.

That top shot (click the link for the full-sized image) was taken about 2 miles from where we currently live. Our house would be off to the left of where the image stops.

This next one was taken as you're coming into the Carson Valley from Carson City. I've lived here since 1996, and when I come over that hill and catch sight of this view it still seriously takes my breath away.

To watch a storm roll in over the Sierras (the mtn range on the right, almost obscured by snow/rain) is inspiring. It really gives you a sense of being overwhelmed and fairly powerless. It's humbling. And beautiful. Oh, and that little white oval? That's the location of our new house which, 2 weeks from today, we will hopefully be completely moved into. If Multiply is cooperating, you should be able to click on that photo to enlarge it.

We've started loading up a construction trailer with boxes of stuff. Today we also got to load on it a new (to us, anyway) couch and coffee table we found yesterday on Craig's List. It's the exact color and style we'd decided we wanted for the house, and when we went to see it, it was in waaay better shape (apparently only used in a seldom-used vacation home) than it looked in the photos. So, slipping and sliding on icy Tahoe roads in Jeremy's "1-wheel drive", we made our way up the hill this morning and picked up some living room seating, so that when people come over, we actually will have somewhere for them to sit, other than our one 3-person couch, one cushion of which Britley has tried to eat.

A pretty quiet weekend around here, though by reading some of your blogs I see it hasn't been the same everywhere. Glad I have you guys through which to live vicariously. I'm just gonna sit back and watch the storms roll right on by.

This morning our phone rang at about 4 a.m. A server emergency had Jeremy out of bed, making phone calls, typing frantically, and me, trying to go back to sleep amidst it all and thinking "In our NEW house ..." (that seems to be our mantra these days) "... he can do this out in the living room and it's a big enough house that I won't HEAR it!" :) Of course once I opened my eyes, it was all over because the DOGS knew I was awake. The tandem "thump thump thump" of tails on the bed always makes me smile, and then I'm a goner, cuz I'm a sucker for a snuggly dog in the morning.

Soooo, I was awake. Jeremy fixed what needed fixing and then just decided rather than go back to sleep for less than an hour (at which point his alarm would have gone off), he'd go to work. When he left at 5:30, I got up and jumped in the shower, too. I'd seen some clouds in the starry sky and thought eh, good morning to try to shoot the sunrise.

Now, mind you, it's been up in the mid-60s (F) every day for about the past week and a half. Spring is supposed to be HERE! But the forecast for today called for snow, so I thought I'd play it safe and throw on some layers. Thank goodness I did! It was coooold out there. The car said 28º, but there was a really cool breeze (rare for here in the morning), so I was glad I still had all my "real cold weather" gear in the car from the trip to Yellowstone a few weeks ago. On went the earmuffs, glove liners and mittens.

My hair was still wet from the shower (I hate to use a blow dryer on it so almost always let it dry naturally), so I got a little more chilled than usual (my hair's pretty thick - it usually keeps me pretty warm). But I figured it's ok. Just a short while of suffering and then I'll be in a nice warm office with nice hot coffee.

So, I took my photos (as you can see) and headed to work.

Where I walked in the door and immediately learned the furnace was out.

And it was 48º in here.

I went out and got all my Yellowstone gear and made coffee.

And now at 9:50, while typing this, the heater JUST kicked on! I guess the heavy winds we had yesterday, with the storm blowing in, knocked the cover off the furnace thingy so that it was off-kilter, and it won't run if it's not on there perfectly. Wheee .. heat! I figure my fingers oughta be thawed out by about, oh, 2:30 or so.


I decided to add a little P.S. to this blog, too. Recently there was a discussion on someone's blog (Sandy, was it yours?) regarding DSLR sensors and dust. I know some people weren't aware of how to tell if their sensor was dirty (and if you don't change lenses very often, yours probably isn't), but it just so happens that mine, at the moment, IS. So, here's a good example. The tighter your aperture (large F-stop number), the more dust will show up. So this morning I was shooting landscapes and using a tripod so I set mine to F/22, which has a very large dof (which is why the dust will show). Here's the result (of course once it's online it appears much lighter. If you'd like to see the original file, I'm going to attach it here, so you can download it and look in a photo editor):

So, if you're ever shooting with a tight aperture and you see lots of soft dark spots all over the place, you've got dust!

(yes, Heather and Jammy, quite different than your iDeer .. ha)

Today at lunch I ran out to Genoa to try to get some pictures for this week's PP. After a not-overly-successful shoot, I turned around and saw movement.

Genoa is a very beautiful little town that is located right at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. As you can see in the background, that's the mountain, rising right up behind this rancher's barn.

But do you see them? Do you see what I saw moving? Let me give you a better look at what it was I saw and what they were after ...

Aren't they just magnificent?

Well, at least I thought so. :) I'm sure the rancher would have had a few different words for them, had he been around.

Jammy, is this making you sad?

Ok, well, as if seeing all these does and yearlings and such wasn't enough, I walked around to the other side to see how many more blacktails there were stopping in for a free lunch and saw this guy.

Of course, he wasn't quite as pleased to see me.

I made my retreat when it appeared he was going to come over the fence at me (remembering hearing how many people are actually killed by deer each year).

I didn't wanna tangle with the horns .. but what an incredible moment this was.

Even if I didn't get a good PP shot, this was so totally worth driving out there at lunch. :)

I don't make new year's resolutions. I don't have a problem with people who do - I mean, whatever works for you, y'know? But it's just not for me. I won't ever change just because it's a new year. I have to have a bigger wake-up call, and then I just start the wheels in motion for the change I want to effect.

However, due to other circumstances, so far this year I've had lots of reason to take a look at my judgmental nature. Jeremy, ever the loving diplomat, says, "Yeah, you're pretty 'black and white', but you're usually pretty fair, as well." *smile* Well, he's biased and I want to be a better person.

I think maybe today I got a little bigger wake-up call. Nothing major .. just a little tap on the shoulder, reminding me not to jump to too many conclusions.

We went out for breakfast and then decided to drive up to Topaz Lake just to look at the scenery. It was the only part of the sky that had any blue.

In weather and with road conditions like this, you find that drivers run the gamut from those that are overly-cautious to those that drive like maniacs with no clue what it's like to try to stop on ice. For the last 2 days while we were driving around, I've been commenting on the people who felt the need to pass me in dangerous conditions, etc. We've watched people fishtail and spin, seen people in ditches. More than once I've commented on the "idiots" out there driving what I considered to be too fast for the conditions.

Well, meet one of the idiots.

About 2-3 miles out of town, we were driving along with no problems. There was some slushy stuff and you couldn't see the asphalt, but the roads didn't seem bad, really. There wasn't a curve in the road, no need to brake - nothing. We were just driving. All of a sudden, a little fishtailing and next thing I know we were heading into a spin, and also into the opposing lane of traffic. Luckily I know better than to hit the brakes, and I also to try to steer into the spin, if possible.


I was able to keep us out of a spin, but unable to keep us on the road. Thank goodness there was no oncoming traffic. We went across the road and into the ditch. As you can see by the pic on the right, we stopped just short of the fenceline. And yes, that bent-over roadside reflector was courtesy of our front bumper. We were lucky in a lot of ways. When I stopped shaking enough to feel like I could try to get out, with the help of Jeremy and 4WD low, we did indeed make it out. We backed right back out the way we'd come, got back on the road and pulled off on the next available road so that I could let my heart calm down a little and work on that shaking hands thing. We scrapped the idea of driving to Topaz (I'd have been a nervous wreck) and turned back around to head home (stopping briefly, of course, so I could take a couple pics).

We made our way home, slowly. :)

When we got here I took a quick closeup pic of the icicles before they completely disappeared, and now I think I'm going to do something safe like bake cookies or something. I think I should at least be able to do that without judging anyone else but me and my cookie-baking skills.

This was our house this morning. Saturday of "The 50 Year Storm" raging through the Sierras.

Look! We have icicles! We never have icicles. :) Although you might notice they are slanted a little to the right due to the heavy winds last night. haha.

So yep, this is our 650-square-foot house. You'll notice the blinds are up a bit on the window panel to the right. That's for Britley. She looooves to look out that window, so when we leave for the day (and often when we're home, too) we leave that window set up like that for her. This house was built in 1902 - I think it's pretty cute.

When I turned to the left, this was my view.

The main house you see on the right belongs to our friends Christi & Nathan. Christi and I worked together at my first job when I moved out here and we just remained friends. They actually own all this property and the house we rent. So, they're our neighbors, some of our best friends, and also our landlords. :)

In the background you see the Sierras with the next leg of the storm rolling in. And, in the foreground is our sagebrush in a severe state of shock.















So I stepped back to get a shot of the entire house, our cars, the yard .. to give you an idea of, well, I guess our most immediate living area. It's nice and quiet and, while small, it really works well for us.

To the right is the dog's pool (14' x 8' x 3' pond) ... guess there wasn't much swimming going on in it today. But Jaime, notice I employed something from your recent PP submission? I told you I loved that shadow from the trees in your shot .. I tried to do a similar thing here. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? ;)













And of course the dogs had a blast playing all morning. This is in our backyard, with Hot Springs Mountain in the background. And oops! The heavy wind + massive snow actually tipped the boat!

And now for the best parts! We drove up to Luther Pass, but had to turn around due to road conditions and weather. On our way out, we'd seen some hawks and another large bird (which flew away when we got close) gathered around some dead animal. We stopped for a shot on the way out, and also on the way back. Robin, here's where we need your help. Click on the images to enlarge them (I've included some detail shots here, too) - we're trying to figure out what they've got. My guess is a duck .. looks maybe like a mallard? What do you think?

The shot on the right is just a little closer crop to show you the absolutely incredible patterns on the underside of the red-tailed hawk. I am just in love with the raptors in this area. I was even lucky enough to get a catchlight in its eye! Just love it. And then on the way home...



Unreal! Couldn't believe it .. a golden eagle! Sitting right there, working on the kill. When we got too close, I guess he figured he'd had enough, so he just picked it up and went on his way. Take a look at the size of these feet and talons as compared to the wings on what we think is a duck! These birds are huge!

An exciting day. :) The rest of it was filled with the storm chasing us all over the valley, so no more photos, but that's ok. This was enough excitement for today. I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Wheee!! Our "50 Year Storm" (they've been warning us allllll week) has finally arrived and it is way better than I ever anticipated! I was skeptical as to whether we'd even see ANY snow on the valley floor, much less the 6-9" they've been predicting. Well, gotta hand it to them this time .. it poured rain all day (last report I heard was that the mtns were getting 6"/hour of snow the whole day ... wow) and now it is dumping snow and it is BEAUTIFUL! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve .. I can't wait to get up tomorrow and see what the world looks like. :) Guaranteed I will have lots of pics to post this weekend!

Yay, thank you snow fairy (or "Sharon", as I like to call her .. hehe)!

Above is our backyard as of 8:30 p.m. tonight. You can see, on the right, our swing, which has blown over so much in the wind we've just plain given up. In the back is the pump house, and then on the ground are our two 1/4 wine barrels, which were used for that photo of Dante at bathtime some of you may be familiar with (or, as Vikky's daughter calls it, "Doggy Doggy Quack Quack) :) Oh my goodness I think I'm actually giddy! It is always such a treat when the high desert gets snow like I remember back in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I love it, I love it, I love it!

Edited to add the 2nd picture ... figured I'd throw in one of the front yard, too. Our neighbors turned their Christmas lights back on when the snow started and I think it just looks so pretty.

It's the only word I can find to really describe today.

As some of you know, I had a photo shoot early this morning up in Tahoe. Chris (the guy in the white shirt) wanted some pics of his family to send back East for Christmas. It was kind of a rush job, as he contacted me early last week and, well, Christmas is fast approaching! We scheduled for this morning, and then the storm rolled into the Sierras. It was touch and go right up until about 6 a.m. this morning as to whether the weather would cooperate or not. As you can see ... it did! It not only cooperated, it stood right up and handed us a perfect morning for shooting. We were supposed to meet at 7 a.m., but any of you with kids (let alone THREE of them) know that that is kind of a pipe dream. We got to the spot at around 7:40 (after meeting them at 7-11 at about 7:30) and had a few issues with the sun being higher than I'd wanted, but all-in-all, I was pleased with the results. Unfortunately, it was only 19º and the wind was starting to pick up, and the little guy in the front wanted NO part of this photo shoot by about 8:10. There was no consoling this little popsickle, so the shoot ended way earlier than any of us anticipated. I'm hoping they find something amongst the proofs that they like, anyway.

And then we drove. From North Shore over to South Shore (Tahoe itself is, I believe, about a 77-mile drive all the way around) and the Taylor Creek area. I honestly felt like I'd stepped into some sort of winter fantasyland. I don't know that I can remember a more beautiful winter scene. If you click on the images, they'll open up a little larger.






























Then we took off on a little hike, from the spot pictured above, passing this spot on our way, and finally to about a mile in, where we reached the shoreline of the Lake. The snow was wet and really heavy with this storm (not common for our area) and had downed some trees, and bent many more over so that they blocked the path. We didn't care! It was incredible. Yep, cold, but we know how to layer. And who could resist this scenery?


We hung out at the Lake for a while, just shooting and enjoying ourselves. The snow had these wonderful patterns on it from the wind. It almost looks like desert sand, doesn't it? On our walk back to the car, I told Jeremy that the only problem I really have with a day like today is that I smile so much when I'm walking around, and it's so cold, that it makes my teeth ache! Haha. He said he was just thinking the same thing when he was walking along the shoreline. I guess if that's our biggest problem of the day, we're pretty lucky, huh?









After Taylor Creek, we headed to the overlook of Emerald Bay. Gorgeous (again), but coooold! We didn't stay there long. The wind was really kicking up now, and we were ready for lunch.

After warming up at the Fire & Ice Grill, we headed back to North Shore to take Mt. Rose Highway over the hill into Reno for a bit of shopping. Unfortunately the 2nd wave of the storm had rolled in, and we were only able to drive 15-25 mph for about 75% of the drive across. Wheee! Usually I am a white-knuckle driver in the mountain storms, but today everything just seemed too perfect, and the stress level was low.

We made it to Reno, did our shopping, then headed home. We made one more stop which will be a blog all of its own (I can almost guarantee you it will have you rolling when you read it and see the pics – it was an experience neither Jeremy nor I had ever come close to experiencing before and we're still laughing), but it will have to wait for a few days for something else to happen first. Cryptic, I know, but hey – it'll keep you checking back, right?

We had such an incredible day, I can hardly explain it in words. It was magical and I felt like a kid in a candy store, witnessing the aftermath to this storm! However, we were up at a little before 5 a.m. this morning and it's now almost midnight. Jeremy's in bed and Dante's snoring beside me, here on the couch. I'm off to dreamland, but hope you've all had as good a weekend as I've had. :)

Yep, it's true. It's snow! Can't see much of it because the mountains are also covered in fog this morning, but I shot this out my back passenger window while in the Starbuck's drive-through. Still can't see the mountains right now, so I don't know how MUCH snow, but you can definitely see it on the mountainside below the fog line. I hope, hope, hope we have a great winter this year. Last year's snowshoeing really kinda sucked .. it'd be nice to have a good snow year to take the dogs out exploring. :)

Today we went on a 5-mile hike to Winnemucca Lake. What a gorgeous day. There was, however, way more snow up there than we expected! Good side: fewer people. Bad side: harder hiking. The picture above was taken by my friend Kat. It's all 4 of us, with Winnemucca Lake behind us. Later this summer (the spring flowers should be blooming up there in early July) we hope to hike up a couple miles higher, to some of the other alpine lakes.

All I can say is, after hours and hours starting the "big dig" of our new pond (ie - pool for the dogs), and then hiking today, we are wiped out! It's not so bad that I hurt while sitting still, but there's almost no movement I can make that doesn't hurt something.

We hope to finish the pond/pool tomorrow, and then there'll be new pics. I hope everyone's having a fun weekend, and that those of you in the U.S. are having a great holiday weekend.

After work, I went for a drive to one of my favorite places - Monitor Pass, otherwise known as the California Alps. It is really one of the most incredible drives in this area, in my opinion, and rivals Yosemite's beauty in many ways. Jeremy had to work late, so I took my time and did a little offroading. Got to get very close to some mountain deer (thought they were whitetails, but they had black tips on their white tails .. going to have to look that one up). The scenery was gorgeous and there's no way I could do it justice, but this will give you a little idea of how I spent my evening.

Another example of a Sierra Storm. Notice the teeny, tiny buildings? Those would be warehouses (just to give an idea of scale). This is why, in this area, you can almost always see a storm coming a fair amount of time before it's reached you!

The cool thing about living in a valley nestled amongst huge mountain ranges, is that when a storm comes rolling in, you can really see it coming, and sometimes it looks downright sinister. This is a picture of the clouds remaining at the end of a snowstorm that rolled through here on Monday. It dumped a bit of snow in the valley (enough to make Tuesday morning's drive to work about 4x as long as it usually is) and that night, after Pilates, I drove up into the mtns to see if there were any good sunset pics. That was a bust, but on the way home, I noticed this sinister cloud climbing its way over the Sierra Nevadas on the right and creeping across the valley. This road is about a mile from my house and gives a really good idea of our "early warning system" :)

The vast difference in temperature and climate between the valley in which we live and the mountains in which we explore can sometimes be remarkable. Especially in the spring! Jeremy and I started out this afternoon in the valley at around 60º and ended up playing in the mtns, where it was decidedly chillier. Well, the air temperature wasn't so much colder, but the ground temperature sure was! Especially for stupid photographers who didn't plan well enough to bring closed shoes for exploration. To be fair, we didn't expect to end up where we did. But to be more fair ... we know better! So here you see me, running through the snow in sandals, camera firmly attached, and Jeremy trying to wash off his muddy feet in freezing cold mountain spring water. I really thought these photos represented us and what we do on our weekends.

We got more snow last night than I thought we were going to get! Nearly a foot on the valley floor, which is rare. Of course the sun is out full force today, so it'll likely mostly melt by tonight, but I got up a bit early to clean off the car and such, and took an extra couple minutes to take pics of the dogs playing outside. They do love snow, that's for sure! The bottom of the photo is part of the view from my office. I have the only office on the 2nd story of our building, and it has three very large picture windows that look out at the snow-capped mountains. Go ahead and envy me .. it's ok. :) I'd envy me, too! It's gorgeous out there this morning!