Ruby of The Thundering Herd Annex (the Hu-Grandparents)
Is it Monday already?
Wake me when it is Friday
The Thundering Herd
We Are Safe – Thanks for Asking
Woo – What a small world. There was a mudslide in our little town and apparently it made the national newswire. We received a number of emails during the course of the day asking if we were ok. The answer – Yes. Same true for Tartok and Ruby over at The Thundering Herd Annex.
What happened? About a mile away from us, a wall of mud began sliding down a mountain side. That wall was tall – 30 feet (9 meters) high. That wall was wide – 175 feet (53 meters). And it slid a very long ways down the mountain – 3000 feet (900 meters). The good thing? It was slow. It took 30 minutes to move that distance which allowed for evacuation and no serious injuries or deaths. Absolutely amazing.
Photo from Asheville Citizen-Times
Between of the amount of snow, ice and rain we have had in the last couple of weeks, the ground simply gave way.
Mud slides like this are very common. While the Maggie Valley slide made news, we also had major slides in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (partially closing US 441 – for a second time), one in Weaverville, and another not far away in South Carolina – all this weekend. And all of this on top of the Interstate 40 rock slide that has had the interstate closed since October. Mother Nature simply likes to remind us that all of this rugged beauty is, well, rugged.
As always, a special thank you to the excellent emergency response crews in our area that worked around the clock to make sure everyone was safe (including digging out 4 canines from the mud – and all 4 are safe and sound). Those crews had to work in ATV’s like these to get around the mountainous terrain:
Photo by Asheville Citizen-Times
But we are safe and sound. We did do a survey of our area and, other than some downed trees from wind and ice, no problems around our house. More snowy scenes back tomorrow from our weekend adventures:
The Herd sniffing out a downed branch - Photo by the Hu-Dad
Slushy Snow Day
We seem to be having a lot of this in the past couple of weeks, but it was another slushy, icy, snowy, rainy day here. We had a couple of inches of snow, mixed with some ice and sleet, and finally about 2 inches of rain during the course of the day – with a high temp of 35 F (1 C).
We were curious what those 2 inches of rain would have meant if it had been just a little colder. A “rule of thumb” (now why isn’t that called a “rule of paw”?) is that an inch of rain equals 10 inches of snow. But the reality is that that depends on the density of the snow (are we getting scientific or what?). According to the National Weather Service, an inch of rain could equal as little as 3 inches of wet, heavy snow or as much as 100 inches of dry powder. We think we lost out on 15 feet of snow today. Ok, probably not, but we sure wish we had had more snow than this steady cold rain.
But you know The Herd. We never miss our walk. That is the deal with the humans. Walk us everyday and we will not destroy the house. Maybe The Herd is good at the extortion racket, what do you think? Anyway, hope you enjoy our soggy, cold walk.
Red Team starting out on our walk. Do you think Rusty is happy?
Kiska fluffing her tail against the wind and rain.
Queen Natasha - Ever alert for critters underneath the snow's surface.
Coming back down our drive at the end of the walk, Kodiak executes a perfect "Cheoah slide" to maximize snow coverage.
Today’s forecast is for a few inches of fluffy snow. Let’s hope.
UPDATE – 7:34 a.m. – We just read Max’s of South Africa update. We know most of you are already checking in, but please go there right now and wish Max and his family the best. They have just received the news that none of us ever want to hear.
Friday Scenery
It is the start to another great weekend and the weather is supposed to be perfect – if you are a Siberian Husky (cold, windy, snowy – awesome!). So we thought we would share a few scenes from around where we live to kick off our weekend.
Driving into Maggie Valley
Looking up at Cataloochee Ranch from our road
Looking the other way on the road at the ranch (over 1000 acres at the ranch)
Another view of our regular walking road
But the best scenery is here
And here. Don't you agree?
Let’s Go For a Walk
Rusty: Hey, Hu-Dad! Why are we inside?
Let's go do some of this.
And certainly plenty of this
Mostly, I really want to do this!
Can You Hear Me Now?
Kiska: Hello? Can you hear me?
Ahem! Can you hear me now?
Can you hear me NOW?
My Sunbeam
Our pal Huffle will certainly agree with this post considering Huff’s post yesterday.
Queen Natasha the Evil is quite clear to the rest of The Herd that she is in charge. What she wants is hers and nobody had better question that. Have any doubt? Check out the picture below. Natasha is being clear to Kodiak and Kiska about whose sunbeam this is. And Kodiak’s body language is crystal clear that he is not about to argue.
Snow and Ice Pictures
With the ice mixed into the snow this weekend, we did not get out and do any trails – much too difficult to walk. We pretty much stuck to walking around where we live since the road had been plowed. Hope you enjoy our scenery.
View from the Front Porch Sunday morning
Tree limbs covered in ice glistening in the rising sun
House near Chez Herd - Brand new and for sale - Come be our neighbor
House with a metal roof. We love how the snow slides off this roof
As the snow slides off the metal roof, it creates these "waves".
Red Team does not notice the scenery, but focuses on the walk.
Speed Walking
Another one of those 24 hours periods where we have all types of weather – snow, rain, freezing rain, ice, sleet, and freezing fog. Makes for some very crunchy snow – not the fun powdery stuff. Oh well, it did look pretty first thing this morning:
Before the plow
After the snow plow got to our road, we went for a walk. The weather was still all the nasty stuff, so we were walking pretty fast. Well, the black and white team was. The red team was dawdling.
Hey - B&W Team! Wait up for us redheads!
We are catching up with them.
Queen Natasha believes she should always set the pace
current weather
Click on current herd picture for bio page
Natasha
Rusty
Kiska
Kodiak
Qannik
Cheoah
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