Hoping as the power comes back on we can hear from our friends down south. How are you coping? What a horrible, horrible situation. The weather definitely messed with Texas.
And it seems your utility companies ignored the warnings.
Texas Friends - How You Doing?
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Tarlo Farm
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Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
I live in the northern part of the state, up closer to Colorado, so our area sees winter sometimes. So we were not hit as hard as everyone down south, at least we have snowplows. For just over a week it was miserable here. Our winters are usually 40-70 degrees during the day, down to about 30 degrees at night, and then we sometimes have bursts of cold where for a few days it dips below freezing, or snows a few inches.
During this episode it went from about 60 degrees to -20 in the span of a couple days, stayed that way for over a week, and threw in two blizzards that dropped almost 10 inches of snow. A lot of businesses closed, we had rolling blackouts but not the kind of days-off-the-grid they suffered in the south. My pipes were OK, but a lot of friends had issues. It set a record for cold that was last set in the 1800s.
Keep in mind that I only have run in sheds, I don't have a barn, so my horses were essentially in the temperatures all week, with no cozy barn to be closed in to. We were all miserable trying to get through it, I was getting up every few hours to haul water from the house and chop ice (I don't have tank heaters). My new horse is far too wild to allow a blanket so he was shivering all week and there was nothing I could do.
But....now the temps are back to normal. It was 60 degrees the past two days. I'm glad they all survived the weather shifts, nothing like 80 degree weather swings to bring on the colic.
So nothing I experienced is what south Texas went through. The cold is gone there, too, but there's going to be a lot of cleanup and I sure hope there is going to be accountability for the systemic issues.
Bonus photo of the ponies in the 60 degree sunshine....a week earlier it was -20 and blizzarding.
During this episode it went from about 60 degrees to -20 in the span of a couple days, stayed that way for over a week, and threw in two blizzards that dropped almost 10 inches of snow. A lot of businesses closed, we had rolling blackouts but not the kind of days-off-the-grid they suffered in the south. My pipes were OK, but a lot of friends had issues. It set a record for cold that was last set in the 1800s.
Keep in mind that I only have run in sheds, I don't have a barn, so my horses were essentially in the temperatures all week, with no cozy barn to be closed in to. We were all miserable trying to get through it, I was getting up every few hours to haul water from the house and chop ice (I don't have tank heaters). My new horse is far too wild to allow a blanket so he was shivering all week and there was nothing I could do.
But....now the temps are back to normal. It was 60 degrees the past two days. I'm glad they all survived the weather shifts, nothing like 80 degree weather swings to bring on the colic.
So nothing I experienced is what south Texas went through. The cold is gone there, too, but there's going to be a lot of cleanup and I sure hope there is going to be accountability for the systemic issues.
Bonus photo of the ponies in the 60 degree sunshine....a week earlier it was -20 and blizzarding.
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Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
I'm not going to get into the grid situation, the immediate politicizing of our power sources, or how our current power distribution economy discourages long-term infrastructure investments-- because I'm still too grumpy about it.
I'm in SE TX (near Houston). We didn't get near as cold as the Panhandle, but we definitely got cold enough. Houses and barns here are built for hot, sticky weather-- lots of airflow and, especially in attics, mold avoidance. As a result, water systems in the attic are very sensitive to weather conditions, especially if they're not getting heat from the interior of the house. We lost power 2/12 - 2/17. My parents are on a different grid that kept power on almost all week so we ended up scooting over there as refugees.
Even though I shut my water off at the main and turned on all the taps to drain my pipes, I have ~200' of burst copper pipes in the attic. It's been a wild ride trying to get replacement parts-- had to ask friends and family from out of state to send down PEX to copper connectors so I could get my house back up. I called a plumber last week when we discovered the breaks (luckily, before we turned the water back on, so no interior damage), and was told that I'm in line but there were 1733 houses ahead of me. The other 15 plumbers I called had full voicemails or did not get back to me.
But we're finally getting put back together. Distribution systems are getting back online-- it's only taking a couple days for plumbing fittings to get here now instead of "well maybe never".
Water to my barn survived just fine (the miracle of PEX) so I've been hauling water to my neighbors whose houses are in a similar state to mine all week.
The horses, sheep, and dogs ended up doing OK. We did have to stuff my sheep into hoodies on the coldest night (~8 F) because they're not woolies and are not built for this cold. If you haven't put a sheep in a hoodie, you haven't lived:
I'm in SE TX (near Houston). We didn't get near as cold as the Panhandle, but we definitely got cold enough. Houses and barns here are built for hot, sticky weather-- lots of airflow and, especially in attics, mold avoidance. As a result, water systems in the attic are very sensitive to weather conditions, especially if they're not getting heat from the interior of the house. We lost power 2/12 - 2/17. My parents are on a different grid that kept power on almost all week so we ended up scooting over there as refugees.
Even though I shut my water off at the main and turned on all the taps to drain my pipes, I have ~200' of burst copper pipes in the attic. It's been a wild ride trying to get replacement parts-- had to ask friends and family from out of state to send down PEX to copper connectors so I could get my house back up. I called a plumber last week when we discovered the breaks (luckily, before we turned the water back on, so no interior damage), and was told that I'm in line but there were 1733 houses ahead of me. The other 15 plumbers I called had full voicemails or did not get back to me.
But we're finally getting put back together. Distribution systems are getting back online-- it's only taking a couple days for plumbing fittings to get here now instead of "well maybe never".
Water to my barn survived just fine (the miracle of PEX) so I've been hauling water to my neighbors whose houses are in a similar state to mine all week.
The horses, sheep, and dogs ended up doing OK. We did have to stuff my sheep into hoodies on the coldest night (~8 F) because they're not woolies and are not built for this cold. If you haven't put a sheep in a hoodie, you haven't lived:
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texsuze
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Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
Whew. Reporting from Central TX. We're on quite a bit of acreage here, out in the county. I thought, from the initial forecast, that only CenTX was going to have a little bit of snow, a bit of ice, a bit of cold, like we might expect each winter. Not.
Our power was out from 2/11 to 2/22---eleven days total. No heat, no running water for house or barn, no lights. Some much-needed moisture came first, then the epic ice/sleet blast with howling winds. That was the killer. Ice on every utility line, every pole, every leaf of the live oaks and ashe juniper ("cedar") trees. I'd say a 1/4-1/2" coating of ice, adding huge amount of weight to everything. Power lines came down, poles snapped, roads impassable. The most devastating was the tree limbs (dinner plate size diameter and entire trees), branches, entire canopy of live oaks, that broke off and fell to the ground. I'm talking old trees 20-30' tall. Cedar trees split open like peeled bananas. Everywhere. For a couple days you could hear the cracking sound of big limbs breaking then falling, throughout the day and night. Sounded like gunshots far off. Sounded like the gallows. About 4" of snow on top of all that. Trees across the driveway, smashed down onto fences. I walked 100 yards from house to barn 3x/day and dodged falling limbs. Night check was the worst. My Horseguard tape fence pastures held up remarkably well, although some sections are really stretched under the weight of large trees. Still assessing the damage.
On Day 1, DH made a dicey 3 hour roundtrip to pick up a gasoline generator from "Saint Hartley", a friend. Also to swing by mom's house in the next city over. Mom was/has been ok through all the chaos. Only rolling brown-outs but no broken pipes, no extended power outs. Thank heavens for that!
Temps inside our house were 34F for several days. Candles and flashlights everywhere. Several layers of clothes, don't bother to change what you're wearing to go to bed. Layers of blankets. The gasoline generator could really only handle my little space heater for the bedroom but it gave psychological help. It was about 8 days before roads were safe enough to drive down to mom's to have a shower. Our poor cats were nearly hypothermic, staying tucked under polar fleece blankets. No one had appetites, including me and DH. He lost about 7 lbs. during this mess. I only lost about 4 lbs.
When the sun came out after some days, and we cleared a lane on our driveway road, another neighbor, "Saint Curtis", just down the road from us (his second home), texted us his gate code, location of ranch keys, and said 'take what you need'. DH and I heave-hoed his propane generator into my truck, borrowed batteries, gasoline, propane tanks, an old army sleeping bag, and a small charging unit and were able to survive the remaining days until power was finally restored. At the barn, we hooked up a small electric pump (with long hose) to the generator. DH climbed up the extension ladder, dropped the pump down through the porthole of our 10K rainwater tank and we pumped rainwater into every bucket, jug, thermos, bottle, container, we could gather. We filled a 25 gal. spray tank that we use for watering trees. Tank sits in the Gator and has a little pump and spray wand. I used that to replenish barn water.
My oldster gelding was in lockdown (12'x18' stall) for 8 days. Too much ice/snow in his pasture. I couldn't assess which trees had blown down/split or pasture fence conditions before that time. He wears shoes all around, ice skates. No way for me to trailer to a vet or for them to get out to our place if he got hurt. He was ok until the first sunny, beautiful, safe day of turnout. But then decided to go completely off his feed, attempting to eat hay/dead grass only, and now won't step foot back into his stall. We're on day 5 of that behavior. Good grief.
All 6 hens were inside the barn, in Bertha's coop. They were hunkered down but came through ok. No electricity meant no way to use a heat lamp for them.
DH managed to scrounge/locate some PVC to make a band-aid fix of a broken water line in the pump house yesterday. We took showers last night, first time in our house since 2/11. He asked how it felt; I said I was too nervous about unseen broken pipes to enjoy the shower! Still no water at the barn (cracked water pump), so toting water in the spray tank in the Gator. Trying to regroup slowly and keep watch to make sure no plumbing surprises as we thaw out.
Lots of neighbors helping neighbors around here, which is what happens in this area during a crisis. My friend in Castle Rock, CO was so unnerved watching the news reports and not being able to contact me that she managed to phone our county sheriff's dispatch to send a VFD person to come check on us! What a surprise to hear a knock on the workshop door as DH and I were fumbling with the flashlight! There stood the volunteer fireman: "We hadn't heard from you in a while and wanted to see if ya'll are ok". I almost cried. I feel bad that we did more "taking" than "giving" during this situation but we are able to lend a hand now that power and water are back for now. Folks in the great white north may think we're overreacting a bit, but it's obvious that some, including our great state, were taken by surprise with The Big Freeze of 2021. Stay tuned and thanks for listening!
Our power was out from 2/11 to 2/22---eleven days total. No heat, no running water for house or barn, no lights. Some much-needed moisture came first, then the epic ice/sleet blast with howling winds. That was the killer. Ice on every utility line, every pole, every leaf of the live oaks and ashe juniper ("cedar") trees. I'd say a 1/4-1/2" coating of ice, adding huge amount of weight to everything. Power lines came down, poles snapped, roads impassable. The most devastating was the tree limbs (dinner plate size diameter and entire trees), branches, entire canopy of live oaks, that broke off and fell to the ground. I'm talking old trees 20-30' tall. Cedar trees split open like peeled bananas. Everywhere. For a couple days you could hear the cracking sound of big limbs breaking then falling, throughout the day and night. Sounded like gunshots far off. Sounded like the gallows. About 4" of snow on top of all that. Trees across the driveway, smashed down onto fences. I walked 100 yards from house to barn 3x/day and dodged falling limbs. Night check was the worst. My Horseguard tape fence pastures held up remarkably well, although some sections are really stretched under the weight of large trees. Still assessing the damage.
On Day 1, DH made a dicey 3 hour roundtrip to pick up a gasoline generator from "Saint Hartley", a friend. Also to swing by mom's house in the next city over. Mom was/has been ok through all the chaos. Only rolling brown-outs but no broken pipes, no extended power outs. Thank heavens for that!
Temps inside our house were 34F for several days. Candles and flashlights everywhere. Several layers of clothes, don't bother to change what you're wearing to go to bed. Layers of blankets. The gasoline generator could really only handle my little space heater for the bedroom but it gave psychological help. It was about 8 days before roads were safe enough to drive down to mom's to have a shower. Our poor cats were nearly hypothermic, staying tucked under polar fleece blankets. No one had appetites, including me and DH. He lost about 7 lbs. during this mess. I only lost about 4 lbs.
When the sun came out after some days, and we cleared a lane on our driveway road, another neighbor, "Saint Curtis", just down the road from us (his second home), texted us his gate code, location of ranch keys, and said 'take what you need'. DH and I heave-hoed his propane generator into my truck, borrowed batteries, gasoline, propane tanks, an old army sleeping bag, and a small charging unit and were able to survive the remaining days until power was finally restored. At the barn, we hooked up a small electric pump (with long hose) to the generator. DH climbed up the extension ladder, dropped the pump down through the porthole of our 10K rainwater tank and we pumped rainwater into every bucket, jug, thermos, bottle, container, we could gather. We filled a 25 gal. spray tank that we use for watering trees. Tank sits in the Gator and has a little pump and spray wand. I used that to replenish barn water.
My oldster gelding was in lockdown (12'x18' stall) for 8 days. Too much ice/snow in his pasture. I couldn't assess which trees had blown down/split or pasture fence conditions before that time. He wears shoes all around, ice skates. No way for me to trailer to a vet or for them to get out to our place if he got hurt. He was ok until the first sunny, beautiful, safe day of turnout. But then decided to go completely off his feed, attempting to eat hay/dead grass only, and now won't step foot back into his stall. We're on day 5 of that behavior. Good grief.
All 6 hens were inside the barn, in Bertha's coop. They were hunkered down but came through ok. No electricity meant no way to use a heat lamp for them.
DH managed to scrounge/locate some PVC to make a band-aid fix of a broken water line in the pump house yesterday. We took showers last night, first time in our house since 2/11. He asked how it felt; I said I was too nervous about unseen broken pipes to enjoy the shower! Still no water at the barn (cracked water pump), so toting water in the spray tank in the Gator. Trying to regroup slowly and keep watch to make sure no plumbing surprises as we thaw out.
Lots of neighbors helping neighbors around here, which is what happens in this area during a crisis. My friend in Castle Rock, CO was so unnerved watching the news reports and not being able to contact me that she managed to phone our county sheriff's dispatch to send a VFD person to come check on us! What a surprise to hear a knock on the workshop door as DH and I were fumbling with the flashlight! There stood the volunteer fireman: "We hadn't heard from you in a while and wanted to see if ya'll are ok". I almost cried. I feel bad that we did more "taking" than "giving" during this situation but we are able to lend a hand now that power and water are back for now. Folks in the great white north may think we're overreacting a bit, but it's obvious that some, including our great state, were taken by surprise with The Big Freeze of 2021. Stay tuned and thanks for listening!
Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
Gosh texsuze what a nightmare. Glad you are coming out the other side and jingles that you can clean up quickly and get back to a more normal conditions.
Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
Yes, what a nightmare, Texsuze. We are 35 miles NW of Austin and had similar ice. Fortunately, we only had intermittent power outages but some of my friends here weren’t so lucky. I was worried about the horses because they’re so used to being turned out all day but I didnt dare let them on that ice. The ice was so thick that it didnt even break when I drove the gator over it. And we had the trees breaking, too. The horses were very spooky in there stalls from hearing the crashes so close to the barn.
And then Wednesday it was 81
. My old guy was quite sweaty and already has a tendency to colic so we were worried.
My chickens came through with no problem. There coop is inside the barn so they were double protected. I had plenty of crumbles but ran out of meal worms and they were disgruntled about that. When I finally got more mealworms they acted like they had been starving and were hopping up and down pushing each other out of the way and clucking up a storm.
Glad you survived and I hope your old boy is ok.
And then Wednesday it was 81
. My old guy was quite sweaty and already has a tendency to colic so we were worried. My chickens came through with no problem. There coop is inside the barn so they were double protected. I had plenty of crumbles but ran out of meal worms and they were disgruntled about that. When I finally got more mealworms they acted like they had been starving and were hopping up and down pushing each other out of the way and clucking up a storm.
Glad you survived and I hope your old boy is ok.
Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
I'm glad to hear from all of you and glad that you (and your critters) have survived with issues that are fixable! I hope the folks who are in charge of your power grids will see the light, realize that our climate probably is going to become more unstable, and take steps to prepare for the next arctic blast.
texsuze - it's great to have saintly friends and neighbors. I'm sure you have earned their help. It sounds like you will have quite a pile of firewood when you get your place cleaned up.
I love the pictures of sheep in hoodies!
texsuze - it's great to have saintly friends and neighbors. I'm sure you have earned their help. It sounds like you will have quite a pile of firewood when you get your place cleaned up.
I love the pictures of sheep in hoodies!
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texsuze
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Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
Yes, love the sheep photos! Glad to hear that chickens are back to normal! Demi, you must be out towards Marble Falls or Burnet? We know someone in Oatmeal 
. And yep, sadly, more firewood in our yard than we'll ever need. So interesting to hear about the various conditions and situations folks had to deal with.
The geothermal HVAC guy, "Saint Brian", arrived yesterday to put our upstairs unit back on line. He's from San Antonio and said when The Freeze hit, all highways in and out of S.A. were shut down by law enforcement. Took him 15 minutes to drive from home to frwy on-ramp--took him 2 hours to turn around and get back home!
Our hometown newspaper reported that when one of our town's BBQ restaurants lost power and refrigeration capacity during the worst of this, the owner kept the pit fired up and BBQ'd all the meat he had to prevent it spoiling. Then they delivered meals to the local fire station and to the electric co-op headquarters for the first responders and linemen to eat. Awesome. Many of the hotels/motels that still had electricity opened their doors to local folks who had none, either at greatly reduced rates or no charge. Cooperation in time of crisis! I wish it could be a year-round attitude, but I will take what we can get.
. And yep, sadly, more firewood in our yard than we'll ever need. So interesting to hear about the various conditions and situations folks had to deal with. The geothermal HVAC guy, "Saint Brian", arrived yesterday to put our upstairs unit back on line. He's from San Antonio and said when The Freeze hit, all highways in and out of S.A. were shut down by law enforcement. Took him 15 minutes to drive from home to frwy on-ramp--took him 2 hours to turn around and get back home!
Our hometown newspaper reported that when one of our town's BBQ restaurants lost power and refrigeration capacity during the worst of this, the owner kept the pit fired up and BBQ'd all the meat he had to prevent it spoiling. Then they delivered meals to the local fire station and to the electric co-op headquarters for the first responders and linemen to eat. Awesome. Many of the hotels/motels that still had electricity opened their doors to local folks who had none, either at greatly reduced rates or no charge. Cooperation in time of crisis! I wish it could be a year-round attitude, but I will take what we can get.
Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
oh! what an ordeal! I'm so sorry but it sounds like you had a good community of friends helping
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Kyra's Mom
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Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
I am glad all of you made it through relatively in good shape. Love the sheepies in their hoodies. I bet that was fun .
Susan
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Chisamba
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Re: Texas Friends - How You Doing?
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ponichiwa, my sheep are Barbados and Katahdin and have lambed in sub zero Temps with blizzard conditions without problem. I think it's super sweet that you gave them Hoodies but they were probably warmer than you were despite being more accustomed to Texas weather.
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