Great winter morning...was 26 when I went out and getting to 40.
...this is how winter is supposed to be...cold, windy and sunny...had our first sunset and sunrise in a long while...this is much better than fog, drizzle and such. Nice to have frozen ground to walk on instead of mud and soggy lawn. Dragged some broken off magnolia limbs/leaves down to the brush pile this morning...much easier on frozen ground. Still have some snow patches left.
Snow and sleet and freezing rain predicted to start tonight...really bad sounding, especially for folks just south of us...3/4 of an inch of ice on a tree will be devastating here. Went to TSC to refill a LP tank, but they were sold out empty...also didn't have the battery that my generator uses...but pull starting it has been easy. Picked up a new tire for the wheelbarrow, which has been getting a lot of use since the tractor is parked. Replaced the tire and used the wheelbarrow until dark last night bringing in firewood. What a great wheelbarrow it has been...big sister gave to us as a housewarming gift over 40 years ago...was a Hechinger brand contractor model with nice oak handles, thick steel and strong axle and frame...painted blue, but wore off many years ago. Has mixed plenty of concrete, hauled all kinds of wood dirt and kids around. Hechinger was a great store...before the HDs and Lowes, etc got big...whatever happened to them...I think they were a chain out of Maryland.
Ron, my wife and I think your squirrel phots is our favorite ever. You could get that published if you wanted. We've been watching the chipmunks chasing each other this morning...must be mating season...hardly ever see them in the winter...and all the evening grosbeaks have told their friends about our bird feeders...never seen so many and for so long a stretch.
Don, the big boom has been explained, but we were hearing big ones as the 2' icicles fell off the roof the other day...so you may start to hear new ones.
Workin' ...do you ever watch the RFD TV show, Classic Tractor Fever? great show for old tractor lovers...they also have a lot of "You tubes" to watch.
Buppies, sorry about the ice storm mess you have...mine seems smaller in comparison.
We have so few power outages that I've never installed a connection to the house for the genny...so last week's ice storm, just ran a twist lock cable with 4 outlets (with its own circuit breaker) through the window from which we run 12 gauge extension cords to the refrigerators and to power a lamp and phone chargers. Ran it about an hour, 3 times a day to refresh the frig. So, no water except what we store in buckets inside for prep and from the rain cisterns. We never even had a generator until 5 years ago...after one ice storm I built an ice igloo to move all the freezer and refrig food to on the north side of the house...power was out for 5 days, but that was back in the early 90s...last really bad ice storm.
Prayers for the folks in Texas.