What is your weather like ... today

[callingcolleen1]

We stay warm with fat puppies, when it is this cold we can all squeese on the bed or couch, all nice and snug tight!

 

[addy1]

no kidding this little one is a hot spot where she touches me. Think they say their body temp is around 102

Sun coming up, we are heading out for our COLD beach walk, currently around 70....................

 

[callingcolleen1]

I just read on the news, approaching Deep Freeze could break records set in the U.S. MidWest!

 

[MitchM]

I'm going to run out of firewood at this rate, lol.

 

[rebelangel_3733]

3 degrees right now and windchill advisories for late this afternoon thru tmrw evening......hope my fish kids put on their parkas!! Dont know how the 1250 wt deicer is gonna do as there isn't much of a hole around it and the bubbler is domed over

 

[callingcolleen1]

Mitch, you are surrounded by trees! I think you should go do some quick "de-forestation" soon and collect some nice new hunks of wood to burn! I see your freezing your "butts off" there even worse than here!! Your going to have to snuggle up to the wife and doggys to keep warm tonight! :boldblue: The wind chill does not help today either!

I see here it is a extra beautiful day, currently -31C {-24F} and not a cloud in the sky, just the clouds of exhaust on the chimmys and behind the cars!

Getting a hot cup of coffee right now sounds real good!! Going to have to tell tell the puppies the park is cancelled for today, their limit of outdoor fun this morning was about two minutes only!!

 

[CountryEscape]

I only had 1" of snow at 7 a.m., so stupid me went back to bed for another hour or so. By the time I went out to feed horses (picture filling wheelbarrow up with loose hay from round bale and pushing it ...) at 9, there was at least 4" of snow, and coming down heavy and fast. Temps were still at 33 at that point. I shoveled deck before I went to barn, when came back 15 minutes later, at least another 1/2", so it's coming down about 2" per hour or so. They are now saying 11-13" maybe more for my area. Darn!!! I doubt I will be getting out to work tomorrow. Not even sure I will be able to get my truck out of the barn to get the tractor out to scoop off the driveway! But, if I put the tractor in front of the truck, and the tractor doesn't start, I'm SOL for longer! I can burn vacation or personal time, no worries. Temps dropping all day today, down to -2 by midnight, and -13 by tomorrow morning before starts climbing all the way up to -4 for a high tomorrow. Brrrrrr !!!! Winds picking up this afternoon, going to dry out that snow and start blowing it around and drifting, so that's going to make things even tougher. Double darn! I guess if I stay home tomorrow, and get my tractor out, I should plow the neighbor's driveways, but I'm not very skilled, and would hate to make it worse than better! We shall see ..... I don't have a blade, just scoop on the front, which makes it much tougher to do. I can drive backwards, point the scoop down, and drag it, but it's really heavy, so not sure that will even work.
Here are a few pics of the snowfall so far. I've been out twice to shovel. I know that's ridiculous, but I figure if I take it off a little at a time, it won't be so hard. Shoveling 11" is going to be tough, as heavy as it is. Besides, when Yukon begged to go out to play in the snow, I figured I might as well get something done while I watched him and Smokey run around. Notice the new collar on Yukon, as he is quietly watching the little sparrow outside trying to find a dry place to perch.

I think I must have died and went to .... CANADA! :blueflower:

 

[MitchM]

Colleen, I have no desire whatsoever to go cut down a tree in 3 feet of snow and -33, lol.
There's probably some furniture around here I don't like, lol. I could burn that.

 

[Big Lou]

With all this high wind we have a leaf pond. LOL. Gonna clean it out. Continual process since I decided not to us a net due to the likelihood of trapping birds.

 

[CountryEscape]

Colleen, the water I have moving in the goldfish pond is all still moving, under the ice. The bog is feeding the stream, and even though stream is frozen over solid, I can hear the water flowing under it. The 4200 gph pump on milk crate in the pond is still feeding the bog, and although the bog is frozen over solid, water is continuing to flow back into the pond. The water fountain bubbler is only about 8" from the water surface, that's the one that I'm surprised is having a hard time keeping a hole open. Yesterday, it was domed over with ice, but still running. So, heated water melted the dome, and dropped heater in there. It was larger opening today, about 2' diameter, but now snowing heavily, which is fine. If everything freezes, it just will. I wonder if my ponds freeze sooner because they are about 12" above ground level? The koi pond heater is doing it's job, as it had a 3' diameter opening with the air bubbler moving the heated water this morning. This is all going to change, though, as the temps go to -15F tonight, and only "up" to -4 tomorrow for daytime high. I only worry about using an air bubbler if it freezes solid, as the air building up under the ice, if it doesn't have a way out, won't that cause an air space, pushing against the ice? I know it did this last year, when I turned it on after the pond was frozen over, and realized quickly that was NOT a good thing to do! I could hear the ice lifting and cracking, so shut it off, used hot water to open hole, then turned it back on. No one is going to die if the ponds freeze solid. I will open them up as soon as I can, after the arctic CANADIAN air moves past our area on Wed or Thurs. Wed. temps are staying above zero all day, so that will be the turning point.
Rebel, we are under a wind chill warning through Tuesday. Winds are starting to pick up now, and the heavy wet snow initially is going to turn into dry blowing snow. Coming down sideways as I type. I'm sure glad to be inside with the dogs! Wish my outside cats could be happy inside, but they would freak out! They have tons of old straw/hay in the hayloft to snuggle up in, though, so I'm not worried. They will not be out in the storm.
Electricity popped on and off about 20 times in the last hour, so kicked heat up. If it's going to go off, I wanted my house warmer than 61. I turned heat way down since dogs are not used to this warmth, but house will chill faster at 61 than at 68! Have 2 kerosene heaters to fire up if/when electricity goes off. Pretty sure I'm staying home from work tomorrow. I would only fret about animals and my electricity going off, and it's just not worth it. Roads should be better by Tues. a.m. anyhow. Temps still bitterly cold, but will be more confident of not losing power by then, too.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I am sure the fish will be fine as long as the water is still running under the ice, and it is good that you have at least one hole open. Use the heater and that should keep a hole open in the pond during the real cold blast comming from Canada.

This morning it was very cold, and I am just using the 1250 watt heater to keep the holes open for all three ponds. I have thin ice at the edges of the top pond this morning and small finger sized holes in that pond. The middle pond has about a 7 inch hole not too far the the heater and the water channel from the top pond to the middle pond has a good 5 inch round hole open there too. The bottom pond is pretty much frozen over good but the water is still running under the ice.

We are supposed to get nice weather tomorrow as our cold air mass moves over to the U.S.A. Mitch said he is running out of wood and we are tired of freezing to death. I suspect Mitch left the "Door" open this time! ha ha ha!

 

[MitchM]

This winter is like night and day compared to last winter.
I really feel for our friends to the south. It's even more unusual for them.
Last winter I went through 1 cord of wood all winter.
This year I had 2 cords ready to go and I've already gone through 1 1/2 cords.
There's still 3 more months to go.
Next warm up period I'm going to have to get resourseful and get some more wood.

 

[Big Lou]

Thank you Mitch. So far has been DFW's coldest winter since 1912 but nothing compared to the northern and midwestern states. Have been trapped in numerous airports over the years up in snow country, especially Wisconsin.

Currently 32. With wind chill feels like 24 according to the weather folks.

 

[j.w]

Feel bad posting we have nice sunshine again w/ temps going to go up to 45F today. Sorry for all you folks stuck in the deep cold. Nothing I can do for you so will just have to force myself to enjoy this nice weather

 

[addy1]

It is pouring rain as the cold front pushes down to here. The floridians will freeze at the 40 degrees they say is coming, night temp.

At home it is a nice toasty 30f. Looks like we are having an ice storm, again, I see icicles hanging off the bird feeders, the net and other places.