The sun is shining and the temperature is clawing it's way up into the 40's today. It feels like a veritable sauna out there this morning. You can see the and hear the ice cracking, melting and falling everywhere but it has turned the ground into mud and made it impossible to go cut another load of wood and will take a few days to dry out so looks like I am going to be splitting some more this afternoon.
The house is completely trashed and the kitchen looks like New Orleans after Katrina.
However the animals are finally happy once again and back to their old haunts. The kitten is more than pleased with all the empty boxes and bags laying around and the outside cats are relieved they can once again get away from each other to their own territory.
It was amazing how the sub-zero temperatures created a sense of community among the Small-Hold cat population and rivalries were set aside temporarily for a bit of extra warmth.
It's going to take a few days to dig out from under this mess and take note of damages. I know for a fact I lost a rain barrel to this ice storm. One of them that I hadn't gotten put up before our cold snap back in early November (The earliest single digit temps I ever remember here) had about 25 gallons of water frozen in it and try as I might I couldn't move it. Somehow it got more water down under the ice and when that froze it cracked the side of the thing wide open.
Live and learn for now on ALL rain barrels get drained in October rather than November. I had just never seen a freeze that early and once it hit it never had time to thaw out enough for me to drain and move it into storage.
Anyway this is a quick update I need to get back to work. The kitten is now looking longingly at the Wife's little Christmas tree and I got some serious cleaning to catch up on.
I should be back to normal posting soon.
I hope everyone had a wonder Christmas!!!!
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Glad to hear your ok. I have been thinking about many of my friends all across North America. Kymber & Jamie seem to have gotten the most snow 15". We picked up another 3 to 4 " here. Instead of draining the barrels could you hook up a low current electric heater?? So you don't wast any water??
ReplyDeleteWhat Rob said. Glad you're all okay.
ReplyDeleteWe have a huge mess from this ice storm! A tree fell on my daughters car, we have trees down everywhere. Ours started to thaw the other day, it was like it was raining under all those trees. It was dangerous to do chores since big chunks of ice were falling everywhere and the mud, good grief!
ReplyDeleteGlad your okay, hopefully your damage isn't too bad :)
Take notes on lessons to be learned and you will be prepared for even worse messes in the future! I have a few projects to do here in warm weather based on stuff that has gone on in the cold out of power weather. Sounds like you did pretty good, lucky your supervisors could all agree to stay calm.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you back on line. I know you had some rough weather to contend with, ice is the worst. But it seems to me that you did quite well, all you lost was one water barrel and the family (including the family animals) survived. I hope the horses did ok.
ReplyDeleteMy family room looks like Santa and all of his Elves threw up ribbons and paper. The kitchen was even worse. Papa Bear is still quarantined from sunlight so he cleaned kitchen and did some laundry. Be still my heart!....hahahaha
ReplyDelete