So, its SUMMER here in Oregon!

I know, all that snow piled up and cold weather back east... but here? It was sunny and 65 degrees in my yard today! Spring has sprung, about 2 months early. All my plum trees are in bloom now and the bulbs are all blooming as well. It should be in the 30s and snowing here and all, which it was back in November. I have enough wood for the 17/18 season processed and split now, and I have been burning shoulder season stuff only at night lately. It has been like this all month.

Just a heads up from the only one pinned on the map here from Oregon. I know, we suck. But I will rub it in anyway.

 

I don't need to say anything then.

 

I feel bad. Really. The problem with the warm weather is you have such a low snow pack. This isn't a good sign for the summer.

 

Sthilhead, thats great (for you). Windy with below zero temps and nothing but white to be seen, here.
No excuses needed; we'll be in the same boat in May...3 months!
And you don't suck, either....just the no-burning laws we keep hearing about, suck!

 

Gonna tear out your stove and go "heat pump"???

 

I grew up in Eugene, we were visiting in late august into first week of September didn't rain once. All my fondest memories are still there.

 

thats when we have our best weather in the PNW

 

Yes, rhododendrons are blooming, daffodils are blooming, grass is being cut, clothes out on the clothes line and no snow pack on the mountains. "Pineapple express" strikes again.

 

This weather is not going to last through this winter, nor into spring. It is supposed to be nice again next week, and then things change. It is supposed to snow a lot in the Cascades week after next, and the snow level will probably drop to the level of my house here in the Cascade foothills. We are sure to get frost as well. The average last frost date here is mid April, two months to go.

But it has been a great winter here compared to last winter, when I threatened to sell this place and move to Arizona. Tonight we had a camp fire in the front of the property, and it is a balmy 50 deg. F. out there now. Feels like summer, but it gets dark at 6pm and I have a small fire to keep the chill off at night.

 

Naw, this was a foreclosed property when I bought it, and the heat pump had been torn out (the compressor anyway). I ripped out two old copper heat pump lines and sold them for scrap at $4 a pound. I made about $200! I fixed the electric furnace, but I have no intention of using it or switching over to electric from wood. Wood is way cheaper, even with a heat pump. My costs per cord of scrounged wood here is about $50, which comes out to $3.25/MBTU. Even if I were to buy wood at $200 a cord, it would cost me $13/MBTU, vs. $30/MBTU electric (@10 c./Kwhr), or $21/MBTU electric+heat pump which does not include the added cost of the heat pump.

 

My oldest brother still lives in Portland. He said he's been playing tennis in shorts all week. Crazy. What is also crazy is the low snowpack.

 

We don't rely on the snowpack here like they do in California for water. But snow skiing sure sucks. I have not been up at all this year. Nor have I gone snow shoeing. Sad, as the price of gas is low and I can go farther out to ski and shoe.

What is really weird is that it has been warm even in eastern Oregon. Bend has been in the 50s...

 

I miss night skiing at Mt. Hood meadows, last time I was there was NewYears eve 1984-85?

 

Yah, I usually night ski at SkiBowl, but I go to Meadows when they have a night siing price deal, like President's Day.

 

I love ski pit, ( skibowl). Meadows and timberline are great too. I actually learned to snowboard at Meadows.

Around here, all the ski areas charge weekend rates for president's day. Which I think it's garbage.

 

Meadows does that now; charges more on weekends and holidays, except night skiing on MLK and Presidents Day. So I usually ski there at least 2x per year. Mt Hood Meadows is $74 for Spring conditions rock skiing. They have only had 75 inches of snow up there this year. Boston had had more than that. In Colorado, Aspen prices are $129 for a one day lift ticket, and Vail is $159.

 

When I was a kid my dad would drive up to Government Camp, and for 25 cents we would take the bus up to Timberline. Then we would ski down through lower T-line to Govy through Summit Ski Area, and that was a good day skiing. I was on the Mt Hood Ski Patrol for several years patrolling at Summit, SkiBowl and Timberline. That was back when they had good benefits and you could rotate patrolling at any of the resorts. Now the resorts are stingy with the benefits and you have to join a team and patrol at one resort with that team one day every other weekend. So it just became a scheduled boring job at the same resort with the same people every other week. It's also mired in politics, and everyone wants to be emperor of the mountain.