Winter Hell in South Texas

[Sabre52]

Howdy folks, Just a couple of pics from our home in Texas during our six days of Hell. Two severe ice storms, eight inches of snow, and temps down to zero. And I moved to Texas because I like hot *L*. No power or water for all six days. Got to live like cave men in front of the fireplace. Had to maintain enough heat to keep the pipes from freezing and keep our old cockatoo alive. Cooked in front of the fire and thank God for Sweet Baby Ray's beef jerky and hot cocoa. The bush in the picture is a antique rose that came over from Scotland with a sea captain. We bought our home from his great grandchildren. Those friggin icicles hanging from our back deck were as long as five feet long and stuck in the ground like spears when they finally dropped. Global warming my arse!

rose by lonerider652000, on Flickr

icicle by lonerider652000, on Flickr

[rockjunquie]

HOLY MOLEY!!

[fishnpinball]

So sorry, I think that weather followed me down there. Glad to hear you had a fireplace, lots of folks with frozen waterpipes down that way.

[hummingbirdstones]

Dang!  Thankful y'all survived intact and that you had a fireplace to hang out by. 

[manofglass]

Normal weather for the north

[Brian]

Glad you survived relatively intact! Ice is the worst.

I hope you and your neighbors recover quickly! I’ve talked to a couple coworkers down there and have heard too many horror stories of busted pipes and price gouging to fix them.

[Pat]

It’s beautiful. Glad to hear you are managing.

[standles]

Mar 1, 2021 19:20:27 GMT -5 manofglass said:

Normal weather for the north

Yep.. Ya'll try to keep your winter weather at home up north and we will try to keep the hurricanes down here.

[Garage Rocker]

Ouch! We had all the ice and snow, but kept power. I think a few similar storms over the last decade had us better prepared.

Glad you made it through in tact.

[jasoninsd]

Mel, those pics look like they were taken up in our neck of the woods!

I'm hoping that rose bush survives! If it were mine, that would probably be what hurt me the most if it didn't...

[orrum]

Impressive pics Mel!!!

[Sabre52]

Yep, as a guy who hates cold and the ugly white c**p. I was not happy to see seven days of that garbage. It stops being pretty after you take a couple of falls on the ice trying to cut dead oak trees for firewood cause you are down to burning expensive lumber from the barn to stay warm, Insult to injury, all the trees I could cut for firewood were covered in an inch of ice. I had to crack the ice off every piece I cut with my friggin rock hammer and prop it in front of the fireplace to dry out before burning. Managed to keep temps in front of the fire in low 50's but had to tend the fire 24/7 because we have a heatalater and since the fan was electric, could not close the front or it would not generate enough heat. Had to sleep in shifts, tote buckets of water for the toilets and washing etc. All of it an experience I'd not like to ever repeat. I believe that's the longest I've ever gone without a shower even when considering long rockhounding trips to the desert. I'm now building a humongous wood pile so I NEVER HAVE TO CUT WOOD IN THE FRIGGIN SNOW AGAIN! I really don't know how you northerners live in that stuff.

PS: About two days into this Hell I was wanting to take Al Gore and John Kerry, stand them in front of my house, squirt them with water and use their frozen carcasses for lawn ornaments. Maybe with a sign that said " Support global warming"

[jasoninsd]

Mar 2, 2021 22:41:09 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Yep, as a guy who hates cold and the ugly white c**p. I was not happy to see seven days of that garbage. It stops being pretty after you take a couple of falls on the ice trying to cut dead oak trees for firewood cause you are down to burning expensive lumber from the barn to stay warm, Insult to injury, all the trees I could cut for firewood were covered in an inch of ice. I had to crack the ice off every piece I cut with my friggin rock hammer and prop it in front of the fireplace to dry out before burning. Managed to keep temps in front of the fire in low 50's but had to tend the fire 24/7 because we have a heatalater and since the fan was electric, could not close the front or it would not generate enough heat. Had to sleep in shifts, tote buckets of water for the toilets and washing etc. All of it an experience I'd not like to ever repeat. I believe that's the longest I've ever gone without a shower even when considering long rockhounding trips to the desert. I'm now building a humongous wood pile so I NEVER HAVE TO CUT WOOD IN THE FRIGGIN SNOW AGAIN! I really don't know how you northerners live in that stuff.

PS: About two days into this Hell I was wanting to take Al Gore and John Kerry, stand them in front of my house, squirt them with water and use their frozen carcasses for lawn ornaments. Maybe with a sign that said " Support global warming"

It's because we all look like this:  






(Just watched this again for the umpteenth time the other day!   )

[HankRocks]

Mar 2, 2021 22:41:09 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

PS: About two days into this Hell I was wanting to take Al Gore and John Kerry, stand them in front of my house, squirt them with water and use their frozen carcasses for lawn ornaments. Maybe with a sign that said " Support global warming"

That made me laugh!!!

[victor1941]

Sabre52, Austin was not much better so I can fully appreciate what you went through. We did have gas for the range but no electric or city water for several very cold days. Our son did drain the water from the pipes in our two story house to prevent burst pipes that so many experienced but we are now faced with a lot of cold damage to our landscape and necessary cleanup. The good news is we are both OK and have had our second covid 19 shot. Take care!

[lookatthat]

Mar 2, 2021 23:48:00 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Mar 2, 2021 22:41:09 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Yep, as a guy who hates cold and the ugly white c**p. I was not happy to see seven days of that garbage. It stops being pretty after you take a couple of falls on the ice trying to cut dead oak trees for firewood cause you are down to burning expensive lumber from the barn to stay warm, Insult to injury, all the trees I could cut for firewood were covered in an inch of ice. I had to crack the ice off every piece I cut with my friggin rock hammer and prop it in front of the fireplace to dry out before burning. Managed to keep temps in front of the fire in low 50's but had to tend the fire 24/7 because we have a heatalater and since the fan was electric, could not close the front or it would not generate enough heat. Had to sleep in shifts, tote buckets of water for the toilets and washing etc. All of it an experience I'd not like to ever repeat. I believe that's the longest I've ever gone without a shower even when considering long rockhounding trips to the desert. I'm now building a humongous wood pile so I NEVER HAVE TO CUT WOOD IN THE FRIGGIN SNOW AGAIN! I really don't know how you northerners live in that stuff.

PS: About two days into this Hell I was wanting to take Al Gore and John Kerry, stand them in front of my house, squirt them with water and use their frozen carcasses for lawn ornaments. Maybe with a sign that said " Support global warming"

It's because we all look like this:  






(Just watched this again for the umpteenth time the other day!   )

Even the wimin!

[lookatthat]

Ice, yuck!!!! I'll take a foot of snow over a half inch of ice any day.
Cardboard in front of the windows helps keep the heat in.
The icicles indicate you've got major heat-loss issues you might want to look into in the spring.
It was zero here yesterday morning and winds blowing 35 mph but we're set up for it. I do feel bad for the people down there. Houses aren't built for it, animals aren't used to it, and the plantings!

[Garage Rocker]

Mar 2, 2021 23:48:00 GMT -5 jasoninsd said:

Mar 2, 2021 22:41:09 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Yep, as a guy who hates cold and the ugly white c**p. I was not happy to see seven days of that garbage. It stops being pretty after you take a couple of falls on the ice trying to cut dead oak trees for firewood cause you are down to burning expensive lumber from the barn to stay warm, Insult to injury, all the trees I could cut for firewood were covered in an inch of ice. I had to crack the ice off every piece I cut with my friggin rock hammer and prop it in front of the fireplace to dry out before burning. Managed to keep temps in front of the fire in low 50's but had to tend the fire 24/7 because we have a heatalater and since the fan was electric, could not close the front or it would not generate enough heat. Had to sleep in shifts, tote buckets of water for the toilets and washing etc. All of it an experience I'd not like to ever repeat. I believe that's the longest I've ever gone without a shower even when considering long rockhounding trips to the desert. I'm now building a humongous wood pile so I NEVER HAVE TO CUT WOOD IN THE FRIGGIN SNOW AGAIN! I really don't know how you northerners live in that stuff.

PS: About two days into this Hell I was wanting to take Al Gore and John Kerry, stand them in front of my house, squirt them with water and use their frozen carcasses for lawn ornaments. Maybe with a sign that said " Support global warming"

It's because we all look like this:  






(Just watched this again for the umpteenth time the other day!   )

Can you skin Griz???

[parfive]

www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/travel/winter-lake-surfers-canada.html

[Sabre52]

Lookatthat. There were literally icicles on everything, even our unheated barn but as you've said, I'm sure the house has heat-loss issues. Thing is, this is south Texas where the friggin house is supposed to have heat-loss issues cause it's supposed to be friggin hot here. That's how come the house has ten foot regular ceilings and about a twenty foot high cathedral ceilings in the living room. It's built to disperse heat here, where really cold days are rare. This winter blast set records no one dreamed of. Yeah we might get a day or so when we need a heavy jacket, might get a little ice or a little snow just for effect but seven days of that is ridiculous this far south. The game ranches here lost literally thousands of exotics that had been thriving for forty years. We had dead axis and blackbuck all over the ranch I burned our little pile of"cold weather fun fire firewood" in a day and a half which is about the longest we ever have to burn a fire and that's usually because the heat pump sometimes breaks down in cold weather. Usually we still have power. Learned my lesson and now I have a monster firewood pile and will lay in more *L*. I used to love shooting black powder but I ain't no Jeremiah Jackson.

You know, for awhile in college I was studying weather and climate cause I wanted to be a weatherman in the Air Force. Back then, about 50 years ago, the prediction by my professor ( who was an expert) was not global warming. The prediction then was in forty or fifty years we were going to go back into a little ice age. That would be just about now. Man oh man I hope he was wrong!