I love the care shown to all Gods' creatures. That is nice...
It is still in the 70's, we have windows open and enjoyed the evening sitting in the porch swing. Even got a mosquito bite. The cold is supposed to be here late tonite but I'm enjoying it while I can.
Ice?
I remember one winter my dad rescued some baby chickens that were freezing and put them in a frying pan to warm them up. I still have the image of warm peeps hopping around in the pan....lol. It worked though. We had calves in the house before as well. My mom is the queen of rescues, I can't even count how many different animals she has saved over the years. One of the things I loved most about growing up on a farm. Looks like the ice may not get here until tomorrow now, I have some things I have to do at the lab tomorrow but I am going to check road conditions first. I still can't believe all they have here to put on the roads is sand. Can you tell I'm from the north? The greenhouse temperature is holding around 49 right now with one heater, I'm hoping to get through tonight without the spare if it can be helped. I've got a thermometer with an alarm set to go off at 35. I threw a cover over my rose bush and tucked a towel and a bag of dirt around the base of my thunbergia....everything else is just going to have to tough it out or die. I don't have time or enough sheets to cover everything up over and over. I've been cozied up on the couch most of the day watching movies....of course I have a whole house full of things I could be doing but I don't feel like it. Maybe tomorrow.... Keep warm everyone!
Oooooh, stay warm everyone! Josephine and Mitch, I have sure been thinking of you, seeing all the coverage on TV about freezing in the D/FW area! Ted, I have relatives in Walters, OK. The daughter works at a hospital in Duncan and hasn't been able to get home for three days due to ice. Good thing her kids were with her mom and dad!
I was in Brenham this weekend (and College Station for awhile), glad tomorrow's a holiday, 'cause I'll be spending it covering plants!
(Hi everyone!)
Hello Guys, Here is the ice covering my Flame Acanthus.
And a closer view.
Gee, I could swear there are drops of ice falling right now.
Had to let the dogs out and they were not happy about the
rain, let me tell you.
Josephine, everything here looks like your photo. The wind
is starting to pick up here now and that's not good. The power
lines are all covered in ice and I hope there will be no incidents
caused by that.
Hope you all stay safe and warm.
SNOW!! I have snow on the ground... and Ice covering everything....
The sun came out and the trees and shrubs look like a wonderland covered with shining diamonds, I hope I can capture it on film, it is so pretty!!!!!
Josephine.
Woke up to plenty of ice on everything. I've still got some Christmas lights on my Texas/Mexican sage bush. I'm at work, but I think I'll turn the lights back on when I get home.
Well, I took some pictures but could not capture the sun shining through the ice.
This is the closest to it that I could get.
I cannot believe it here... not what I have seen here in a long long time..
Its about 30° right now...and just came back in from covering my Rose Campion and agave. Dang, that wind will really whistle your bloomers! Trying to rub some warmth back into my poor fingers...lol I lived near Boston for 6 years.....you would think I was use to this... :o My Boston honey doesn't understand what all of the fuss is about...lol
Melanie
Missed this thread til now. The sun is up now but the temp gauge is still reading 28. I placed sheets on the walkway going down the deck when this all started yesterday, but it rained then froze, so I can't get them up! Very attractive. The birds have been feeding like crazy and the squirrels. I got up with one of the dogs at 1am this morning and it was sleeting. It made a coating on everything and added to the danger. Glad I don't have to work today!!
Aww, poor sweet little birds! I'm glad you're taking care of them, Sheila. I have today off too (MLK day), suspect we may not be opening the office tomorrow, either. No precip since this morning around 7am, but the wind chill is in the upper 20's. We're already at the high for the day. I just hope Katie (my dil) will get off work early enough to get home safely. We're 30 miles N of Houston, she works off of I-10 & Dairy Ashford - a very long drive!
MARY!! So good to hear from you again!!I have really missed seeing you in the forums.
29 here and falling....had to make a quick trip into the lab and had ice accumulating on my windshield wipers on the way home. I'm staying put now.
Kim
We woke up this morning to sleet and ice on the ground. It is so pretty. I had rather see pictures than have to live it but.... It was so cold feeding this morning. The weather being wet and cold just makes it that much slower. I thought I had on enough clothes but I didn't. It won't last forever and it could be worse. The ice is melting off of the house and the roads are getting better. I bet in the morning it will be tough to get around for awhile again.
It was 29* here too a little bit ago. The sun is even trying to come out! Would be nice to see it for just a bit.
Stay safe and warm all!
Don't believe what the forecast says for your area! They forecasted 33 for overnight out here, but it got to less than 28! There's ice everywhere...still.
So far we don't have ice although, they are predicting it for tomorrow morning. Hopefully they will be wrong. Right now it is 38 degrees. All I can is - I'm glad that I don't have to got to work tomorrow.
Stay safe everyone!
Its about 28° out here near Helotes....I was suppose to get off of work at 10:00 tonight...but our CEO called our Unit Director who told us to close all of our stores at 6:00. I got outside and everyone had sheets of ice on their cars. Luckily I keep my ice scraper in my car from living in Boston, MA....so I "de-iced" everyone...lol Drove reallll slow back home for a 25 minute commute. Phew...stay warm everyone! My blankets covering some of my plants have ice on them....yikes....
Melanie
My thermometer is reading 35.2 here in the Stafford/Sugar Land area. It still gets me how the weathermen/women are scaring people about the ice and since it will be 30 degrees in the morning the ice will "Stick to the ground" and driving will be dangerous. People, for ice to remain frozen on a concrete road, the temp has to stay at below freezing (28ish) for 3 days to permeate. If there are cars traveling on said road the friction between the concrete and the tires keeps the road warmer. With all the northerners that have moved down here in the past 10 years I would think that they would know how to handle it.
I'll get off my soapbox now to say that with the white sheets over my begonias and the multicolored Christmas lights, it is pretty neat looking.
It is 23 this morning. I did not cover or move my pots of pansies. They look very sad. Only about 60 (?) days until Spring. I have ny propane heater on high and it is only 41 in the GH.
Saw on the news the first day of ice, that a couple from Canada spun out and hit a guard rail. Ice down here is a different kind. People laugh at a lot of us staying home and cancelling schools, etc.; but better safe than sorry. They also showed that the pavement was like 33, when the grass/ground was 23 degrees. Our main problem here is on the days following a snow or sleet. Ice melts then re-freezes over night when it doesn't evaporate.
I go lucky this time in SW Fort Worth. Our streets didn't have much on them and dried with the winds the next day, even though our temps didn't get over 28-30.
Stay warm and safe wherever you all are!
It is 27 here this morning still dark at this hour, I hope it changes soon.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr. Who knew Texas could be soooo cold. They said downtown SA this morning was 18°!!!!!
Yes! Bird Alley in my back yard was frozen solid... This morning kinda like that, only without the snow, which melted yesterday.
Maggiemoo, I have a niece in Duncan, small world!
I agree the media loves to talk about the ice and scares us more than necessary and then sometimes not enough.
I have to add, the ice isn't different in the south ~ the road care is! My life has been split between Mn and Tx. Up there, the road crews clear and treat roads beginning immediately. That serves to keep the traffic flowing. Ice happens infrequently here and in our area they are not equipped to do more than sand hills, bridges and pull folks out of the ditches. It always seems to be the northerners that cause the serious wrecks here when the road conditions are bad. They assume the roads are cared for in the same manner as their home state. Not so!
As we live on a hilly, rural, paved farm road, when it ices, we drive slowly (of course) with the two right hand tires off the pavement. It allows traction and better control. Everyone does the same if they aren't young, inexperienced or from out of state!
The ice was beautiful yesterday!! My son (who was home sick...no school holiday here) and I watched the sun shine on the backyard trees making them look like they were covered in diamonds. The Crepe Myrtle looked like it was a tree of crystals. The willow branches next door were so shiny that they looked just like long strings of Christmas "icicles". (and I figured out why those are called that) It was so much prettier than the usual dirty slush we usually have.
I got out for a little while yesterday and was driving on a long road that's still sort of in the "country". The scenery was just beautiful with the dark, fluffy wintery clouds and the bare tree branches still covered in ice. It really looked like "winter", which we don't see much of.
Well.....we've got ice here now. I could hear the rain falling last night. My truck is frozen shut and their is a thin layer of ice on the trees and such. It is 29 right now. Greenhouse is holding steady at 40. I'm trying to decide if I should go into the lab today or not, if I don't I risk losing a week's worth of work but I don't want to be on the roads if they are bad. Is there anyone in my area that knows road conditions here?
Kim
Cold and damp - how I hate that combination. Brrrrr.
The thing that I notice here is that people don't seem to slow down
and do not keep their distance when there is ice on the road.
I'm from Chicago. Ice melts, then refreezes on the streets, then more
snow falls and covers up the ice. Slowing down is the number one
way to keep control of the car and not jamming on the brake when
you start to slip and spin is the other. Sure, they salt the streets after
they plow, but the sidestreets are last on the list and very often never
get done at all. There was a radio announcer who used to close his
show by saying "Watch the car behind the car in front of you."
There's a Stop sign by my house, as I live on the corner of an intersection.
Whenever it rains or when there's ice, I can regularly hear people's brakes
sqeak as they slide through the Stop sign ! Sometimes they end up on
the grass and sometimes they will even hit the sign itself. Sometimes they
run into another car. There are quite a few near-misses. Just amazes me.
Hope everyone is keeping warm today. I'm keeping on my sweats and
fuzzy slippers. :o)
Hopefully we are being spared the bad rains, ice, etc. Only have the winds and cold to cope with. I don't go out when the weather is awful mainly because the weather seems to turn nice people into demons on the roadways.
Ann
Heavy ice is weighing my two small Senna trees down to the ground and some wee branches have already broken off. *sigh* Any ideas on how to get these chunks off without breaking even more of my little trees? SA seems to be in a mess today as well....lots of road closures and accidents all over the place. My blankets covering my plants are stiff with heavy ice, lol. And its still sleeting...temps at about 28°. Stay safe, everyone...
Melanie
It got to 27° this morning, now 29.5° and it's been sleeting for quite a while now...we're between the Pipe Creek/Lakehills areas. Ice was already there. Very early this morning, I heard noises like something hitting roof and sides of the house. When I got up and looked out, I realized it was ice from the trees which the wind was blowing off of them. Here's a pic of my Bamboo Muhly Grass. Ooh, I don't believe that downtown S.A. temp got that low...I'd believe that of Kerrville, but not S.A.
It hasn't gotten warmer than 30ºF today. Factor in the wind chill and it's soooo much colder. I just thank god for little favors in that the worst of last night's weather stayed north of us. It's 37ºF in my orchid greenhouse and 45ºF in the larger one. My outside plants will have to fend for themselves. Last week, I had told my DH that it was time to prune my roses, but that the ones on the east side of the house still hadn't lost their leaves. Well, I won't have to worry about that any more. The leaves are frozen stiff and encased in ice.
I'm worried about our cows and their calves. We have 5 newborn calves and another 3 cows ready to drop their calves anytime now. We had the 3 cows in a pasture with 5 yearling bull calves so I can keep an eye on the cows. I lost my favorite heifer giving birth last month because she went into the woods and we couldn't find her. I finally got our dog, Blue, to find her, but by then it was too late. On the downside, this pasture doesn't have any protection against the wind and rain. So early this morning, dressed in so many layers it was hard to move, we spent at least an hour enticing the group into the corral to separate the cows from the group. The chains on the pen gates' locks were encased in thick layers of ice. Couldn't open the chute gate there was so much ice on it. By the time we had separated the cows, the rest of the herd came round begging for feed cubes too. Had to feed them too. Poor cold, wet babies!
Here it is several hours later and my feet still feel cold. Our Border Collie, on the other hand is still running around outside in this sleet even after following the truck to the corral and running through every puddle she encountered. The puddles are too large to be completely frozen, but are ringed with ice. Her favorite thing is to run through a puddle and scoop up water to drink. She has a warm protected doghouse, but she prefers to be with the cows.
Hello Veronica, good to hear from you!!!
How is the new house coming along?
Josephine.
Here are some of my "icicles" pics! It's just stopped sleeting here in Lakeway....no school today, maybe not tomorrow either!
I just noticed that the foxtail fern in the background of the pic above didn't get covered! About 6 others did....guess I got distracted! I guess it will be a good "test" to see if it survives this 28 degree winter!
This pic is from my living room. We're proud of our icicles here in Lakeway! AND, the insects will be less bothersome this summer, yes?
Gorgeous icicles Connie, those will win a prize in Lakeway or anywhere.
Josephine.
I planned to whine about my greenhouses not being warm enough until I read about the cows and calves. 'Forget about the weather affecting all manner of flora and fauna outside of my tiny domain. Not to mention blue eyes research project. I will tell you tho, that I've finally found a use for that Swiffer that I bought because everyone else bought one..... It's great for popping ice off the top and sides of the temporary greenhouses! I just got inside and hit the top and sides...pop, pop, pop...off it slid....until I worked on the big one by the side fence. I had just turned to DH and said, "I hope this plastic's going to last thru this winter." Then I popped a huge hole in the side of it with my handy Swiffer. 'About the size of a 5 gal. pot. I spent an hour with a glue gun and ladder and a sheet of plastic inside that gh....patching that hole...with sleet and snow still coming down. I'm ready for some clear skies.....but seems we're in for snow tomorrow. No matter, I still love having tropicals...and will probably be up around 3AM to check on ice accumulation on the ghs. Could be worse....
We have 20 nanny goats just about ready to pop. I just hope they wait to have their babies until nest week. They have a barn but that is it. Mother Nature has a way of taking care of her own. Just hope She doesn't forget about these babies.
We are on the northern most edge of the rain,sleet snow stuff now. I hope we don't get anything more. It has been less than 31* all day so nothing has melted here except for the ice that was on the house. Our roads are fine. If we get something during the night we could be in for a mess. Our little FM road is the last in the county to get any attention even though it is a back up for I35 between Waco and Hillsboro.
Just think y'all we are one day closer to spring!