tons of ice. I have one palm that is not looking well. Most of my cycads seem uneffected. Not a great day here in Leon Valley/San Antonio
Ice?
Bigbubbles....great to see you here!!! How do you like this weather we're having??? I covered about 10 things...will let the rest remain on their own!
I can't WAIT for spring and another DG nursery crawl!!! Everyone here up for that??
My hot tub and tanning pool should be finished by then, so I'll have everyone over if they want!
How are the grands? (I remember you have one...maybe more?)
I'm off again tomorrow....yea!
I am relieved to see Texas A&M came to it's senses this evening and postponed opening until noon tomorrow. Originally they were going to open at 9am. The weather has been predicted to be bad for travel Wed morning all day so I don't know why they did that. Classes don't begin until noon either. I'll be hanging out at home until lunchtime anyway. I got into the lab today for a little bit just to take care of my experiment, but the bridges were iced over. I've been baking bread this evening, seemed like a good night for baking. I can't wait for warmer weather and getting out to work in the dirt. I didn't cover much of anything, guess I'll get to see what can take the ice and what can't. I sure hope this is the last blast of winter before spring weather comes. I hope everyone and their critters are ok. Up north we see this cold all the time, but then again we have the shelter and protection for those occasions. I've been seeing a lot of birds in my backyard, I need to go get some birdseed. Poor things probably can't find anything that isn't frozen!
:) Kim
I'm real close to you, jester....outside loop 1604 and Braun...and man o man, the ice is about 2" or more thick on my car, which I haven't used today. Work was canceled...and I'm luckily off tomorrow as well....but I'll have to get that ice off somehow or another. My huge lavender bush and everything else is also heavily encrusted and just shatters at my gentlest touch. *sigh* It looks like a war zone outside... : /
Melanie
Well, the sleet has hardly stopped. The ground outside looks like we got snow! But it was all sleet. And I am getting cabin fever. And I have a feeling some pipes might be frozen. Both gates outside are frozen shut. Make it go away! I hate this!
I'm a hot weather lover who LIVES in flip flops. I wear them year round to work (I teach high school), garden in them, and use a separate pair as "houseshoes." Okay...this freezing Texas weather has me making some changes. No, I don't own wooly houseshoes or booties to put on, but I did buy these flip-flop socks one year on a whim from the dollar bin! I'm trying to keep the thermostat on 68 to save money and energy, so I remembered the socks! They keep the feet warm but do feel and look strange. Even Brutus got into the pic to examine them!
Very cute Connie, but my feet would still be cold.
Linda,
Thanks for posting about frozen pipes. I just went outside and turned on the back hose to drip! I usually open my cabinet under the kitchen sink, and I did that last night.
This will be our 3rd night of freezing temps, so I hope this will keep everything safe.
Josephine,
How cold is it in the Dallas area? I'm driving there (well, Fort Worth) on Friday afternoon for my DH's planning session for a high school reunion this summer.
It is 30 right now, Friday 30 to 39 with freezing rain expected.
No! I"ll be very disappointed if we have to cancel our trip. I will get to meet DH's close high school friends! We've just been married 5 years, so I've never met most of them.
Here in Austin, they're predicting precip for Friday, but not freezing during the day. Thanks for the quick answer!
Well, they could be wrong, you know how it is with forecasts, I hope you get to come.
Josephine.
Love the flip flop socks and the snazzy leggings. I just wonder what Brutus was thinkin' ... : ))
How is it this morning? I tried to go out... spun around a couple of times came home and called in.. everything here is white and slick... not a fun morning but I hear this is better then the ice for the garden?
I don't know the driving conditions yet, but everything is white outside it looks like icy snow, but not very thick. Stay safe.
Josephine.
I'm supposed to get my hair cut this morning but I will not be driving today. Too many idiots on the road so it ain't worth it. People is such a hurry! May they reach their destinations safely. My destination is just to stay warm and out of the weather. The weather turns some semi-careful people into maniacs, it seems.
Ann
Woke up this morning to find that A&M closed again. So much for the first week of classes. At least today I don't have to go into the lab. I was smart and froze cells back yesterday just in case. I do not want to drive in this again. We got some more ice overnight, my plants and tree are now encased in ice. Tomorrow's forecast says 40 right now so hopefully this will start to go away. Stay warm and safe everyone!
Kim
It's white here this morning, and schools are closed again all over the area. My Great Pyrenees is even willing to stay inside this morning, even though she has been loving the cold weather. We will wait a few hours before making the 11 mile drive to the ranch. Hungry cows have to be fed when all the grass is under snow and ice. We have a 4-wheel drive pickup and not much traffic to contend with. Stay safe, everybody, and as warm as you can.
My school is still having school... they called to doubel check I would not be in - out of 8 first grade classes they said no one had showed up yet...
Esthers job just sent them all home so she will be home soon too.
Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
What a fun drive to work! Carefully wandered my way here this morning through the icy overpasses... Just to discover that 98% of the place is shut down due to a small fire overnight that cut power to almost all of the work site..
HMPH.
We plan to stay home today, called my daughter in Dallas and she is staying home too, it is a mess out there,so if you don't absolutely have to go out, Don't, it is not worth it.
What a night! Power went out before midnight, just back on a little while ago but once it's off that long you have no faith it'll last! There's so much ice encasing everything outside, had to take hot water to pour on the front gate to get it open. I hear cracking noises from time to time which I finally figured out were tree limbs breaking all over. Hope the live oak over the corner of the house holds out. A lot of the cedar branches which haven't broken yet are bowed down clear to the ground with the weight of ice. Yeah, everything outside is covered mostly with ice and white stuff, but don't ever talk about it being a winter wonderland around me! This stuff is causing nothing but grief...even my cats are pissed! Signing off and shutting down to conserve power for a while, everybody. The power companies are right. We could have a region-wide blackout if we aren't careful and then what? Haven't gone anywhere since last Friday, but that's okay for now. I don't know if anyone around here has gotten out this week...probably no de-icing except on the main highway a couple miles away.
AngelSong, we just moved back to Houston from Victoria - we lived in Woodway. People in Victoria drive worse than in Houston. I don't envy you trying to get anywhere there. How many accidents on 463 and/or the HEB intersection today at Sam Houston? Heh, heh.
Ann
I don't know about that intersection, Ann... 59S from Inez (444 or so) to 185 was HORRID (regular 59, not B59). There were remains of an accident clean-up on the 59N overpass going over 87. It doesn't matter how much sand you toss on the bridgers, it just adds lubricant to the ice in some cases.. Good thing my Yankee-instinct to test the road (by hitting the brakes) when there wasn't any traffic around kicked in . I coasted over all the bridges, and didn't go over 60 until I was on 185S....
Co-workers were boasting "it wasn't bad for me.. I don't know why ___ is too chicken to show up." I replied, "Just because it was good for your drive doesn't mean it's good for everyone else. The overpasses on the major routes are a mess."
Linda, I'm down the road from you in NW SA near Marshall High. Conditions here are weird. Drops of water are coming off the icicles on my house, but the "fringe" on my neighbor's house is growing longer. Power is still on...I've closed the spare bedroom vents and doors. Wish I could get out to fill the bird feeders, but too risky to chance it. Hope the cardinals at least will find the plate near the door.
Linda, don't get me wrong, even though it looked pretty on Sunday, I really hate the cold and the mess the ice and snow make for us.
I lived in Chicago for seven years and I basically hibernated all winter, however I did have to get out of the house one very bitter cold night, my daughter was born January 15th with the temperature a 20 below zero. Talk about a fun ride to the hospital, with labor pains and freezing to death.
I will never forget that one, it is a classic at our house, we were just talking about that last night and laughing. It helps to have a sense of humor, although it is hard to laugh when things are happening.
Josephine.
We're not getting all of the ice and snow you all are getting, but we got enough freezing rain to cancel school. I'm ready for spring!! :-)
It's cold enough for 6 winters today. Enough, already! Spring isn't too far away is it? Hope not!
Ann
Here are the ice/snow pics DH and I took yesterday and today. We had full on beautiful snow yesterday from 11 until 11:45am yesterday. Then back to sleet. It better warm up soon...almost out of milk!
to see pics: http://photo.omega71.com/albums/f0b9fda747e591168e218147537b83db/
Michelle
I wish we would've seen snow instead of all this ice. Here are some pics I took yesterday and this morning. Temp is above 30 now so we've got some melting finally.
Kim
The roof had so much ice it looked like snow yesterday.
The grass is quite crunchy.
And the mini lake that has formed in my backyard.
I moved down here from Michigan to get away from this kind of stuff, but my two year old is loving it so I guess it is OK every once in a while.... :)
Just got an email from a daughter in San Antonio that said she hadn't had to go in to work for 2 days now. Our son here in Houston replied to her that he has had to go to work and he "hates her". LOL
Ann
We have snow, snow, SNOW on top of ice, ice, ICE! Very pretty. :-)
We got it good out here too (just south of San Antonio) . . . not sure what all is going to survive this blast . . . we'll have to wait and see I suppose.
Ice cold lemonade anyone? lol
Zone 8b, Broaddus, Southeast, TX
Wed. 1-17-07 forcast for sleet and snow.
Mitch, I have blooms on Camellia, and Hydrangea about the size of large marble. I covered them with sheets then placed plastic leaf bag over sheet to keep it dry. This Protects buds from cold wind also.
I am encouraged when I recall the old saying, "Don't fret about Texas weather; in 5 minutes it will change".
Question for Mitch or anyone: I have a 23" pot o Snapdragons. The blooms were frozen. I cut the blooms away. Will my Snapdragon rebloom in the Spring?
I use as a screen saver pics of my Spring 06 flowers in full bloom. This reminds me of better days ahead!
Thank you, nice DG'ers.
Thank goodness the wind isn't blowing here. We have more ice and some sleet and snow right now. I hope it ends soon.
The big bulk feed trucks are here filling up the feeders in the pasture so the roads must not be too bad. We did see one TXDOT truck sanding our little bridges. Thank goodness the ground is frozen so we can get the feed in. Lots of hungry cattle this morning and they are like us and eat twice as much when it is cold!
School is out again today and Katie is loving it. She may not get out of school this year until sometime in June!
I have a ton of birds and ran out of bird seed so I made a pan of corn bread and crumbled it up and put it out. They must like it since it is almost gone. Since that water in the bird bath is frozen I took them some hot water and melted it some. Now to get out and take the goats some water. Getting it out of the sink and taking it outside will take a while but they have to have a drink or so I think.
Stay safe and warm everyone!
sudie - always give plants the shot and they will try their best to bloom for you - well worth a shot.