Blizzard knockdown our swing canopy, poor birds hiding in the corner, news beds gets snow amendments...

Here in tulsa its absolutly terrible 18 inches and 3 foot drifts. Tried to go to work and turned right around. Even my 4x4 had trouble. My seedlings are doing great in the greenhouse nice and 66 degrees. Be safe stay home and sow seeds.

Mike

The Tulsa World will not publish for the first time in its history.

With the snow and drifts so deep, and the temps getting down to zero the next few nights, I hope we don't have power outages. A lot of people will be in danger. Fortunately, we had much sleet but not freezing rain at the start.

Mike, there are a lot of reports here in OKC about 4x4's having problems getting around - who wudda thunk it?

They always say that white cars are the most visible on the roadway.......? That doesn't include snow storms. In Massachusetts one year, we had 31" of snow and my little white car was heavily covered by drifting snow. I hired a kid to dig it out. Had it not been for my antenna, I would not have known it was there.

Susan

I went to bed at midnight with freezing rain, praying we didn't have a repeat of the 09 ice storm. Woke up at 7 to the sound of sleet and was relieved to see only tiny inch long icesicles (sp?) hanging under the tree branches. Started snowing a very fine blowing snow about 8 and so far have only 2-3". We heat with wood and were without electricity for 9 days last time and have a generator that is big enough to run the well and the freezers in the wellhouse, so we can do it if we have to. Don't want to go without the electric blanket again, though. That was the worst thing.

Hope everybody comes through ok.

At this point my 4x4 beds are completely under snow. So is the 5 gallon buckets I had just sitting in the yard. Wind chill is -16. I am inside reading gardening books and going NO WHERE....

Hope everyone is well and warm!

DH and I are hanging out here at home. He's watching the news and I'm messing around on the internet. We found a funny site called thelostogle.com. It's a satirical blog about OKC. If you like that sort of thing you should check it out.

We're warm and dry. Hope you are too!

its hard to tell if the snow is still coming down because the wind is still blowing. One bird finally made it to the feeder, and I had a "corner hider" too, a little junco.

The 3 containers I'd wintersown this week are not under snow because the wind has kept them blown clean, just like my covered-up figs. (I put the black fabric "potato bags" over the figs & will see how that does). But the drifts have completely buried my raised beds.

I'm thankful for power, and for the lack of ice.

I just could not live in a place that is like this every winter for weeks and weeks. Started having "thundersleet" last nite around 10:30-11 or so. could hear the wind and the sleet pecking on the windows. I checked my temps before I went to bed after 1 a.m. Outside temp was 5 and in my closet on the north side of the house- the place I call my reserve icebox had a reading of 29. The dog has been out 4 times today but thankfully did not dilly dally since we do not let her out by herself. Having to sweep off snow each time so I will be able to open the front door next time. All other doors have fairly significant drifts in front of them. Hope I don't have to leave in a hurry. Husband decided to sleep at the office (OKC) last nite so he would not be out with all the crazies this a.m. Just talked to him and he is at the airport and said it has been really crazy. Tigerdawn- I have enjoyed the lost ogle for a couple of years now. I am glad they reprinted the winter drinking game rules. Of course all my family thought it was a scream, I couldn't send it to people who didn't live in OK_ since they don't know who Val is, and prolly could not appreciate all the terms that we are all too familiar with. But I enjoy it every time I read it. The lost ogle is a great waste of time. I can't tell if it is still snowing or snowing again or if it is just blowing around. Supposed to be even colder tonite, and I am NOt looking forward to it. HOpe everyone is safe and warm.
Mo

I have seed mats in my dog houses. The small dogs are inside. I got two dog cages out of the barn for when it gets colder. It is 18 degrees now I'll probably let the big dogs come in when it gets really bitter. It is still snowing and blowing which is good because some of it is blowing off my roof and dish antenna. I think I have 10 inches to a foot of snow with sleet on the bottom layer. It is hard to tell because of the drifts.

Tulsa is officially at 14 inches now. We have 10 to 15 here. I have no idea since it is blown around so much.

I put up more bird feeders, posts, and cages outside the back windows last night. We have about 50 juncos, 10 to 15 finches, 10 to 15 blackbirds (not starlings), and a handful of cardinals and various sparrows just outside the window.

My parents are out of town so the many varieties of birds they feed culled pecans to all winter are suffering. They get a great mix of birds that will eat the pecans there in the river bottom that would surprose you, including many bluebirds, and even some woodpeckers that will pick up a pecan and fly away. My feeders are boring by comparison.

I just saw a ray of sunshine and the snow is very light now. Looks like we are done just in time for the skies to clear and temps drop to zero. One station has our local temp forecast for Wed night at -9. Surely that is exaggerated.

We have had intermittent sunshine and blue skies this afternoon, but it is bitterly cold and snow is blowing everywhere.

We only have 3" of snow on top of maybe a half-inch of ice, but the roadways all have that coating of ice and are a mess.

We are feeding hundreds of birds every hour in 5 different locations where I laid boards down on the ground on top of the ice and snow and poured seed onto the boards. We also have 4 hanging bird feeders which I constantly refill, and one birdbath I have to refill every hour after the current batch of water freezes. (If we had this kind of weather for weeks on end, I'll buy a heated birdbath so I wouldn't have to lug water outside every hour.) I go outside every couple of hours and put another 10 to 15 lbs. of seed out. We stocked up and bought a lot of deer corn and bird seed in preparation for the storm and I am trying to ration it out carefully, but when I look at those tiny little birds out in the snow, I feel sorry for them and keep carrying out more, more, more bird seed. If I run out of bird seed before the roads thaw, I'll think of something else to feed them. Based on previous bad cold spells, I know they like pancakes and scrambled eggs.

Mo, I've had seven big dogs in the house today, including the three who usually spend the night in the garage. They'll be sleeping in the house in their dog crates for the next few nights and spending most of their days inside too. All the dogs are being unusually well-behaved, most likely because they don't want to blow their chance to stay inside and stay really warm.

The cats are sitting and looking out the windows at all the birds, attempting to claw their way through the glass, growling at me when I tell them to stop staring at and stalking the birds, etc. Our house is sort of a cross today between a circus and a zoo.

We have oodles of birds seeking shelter on the covered wraparound porch, in the dense evergreen shrubs, etc. and most are on the east side or southeast corner of the house so they can use the house as a windblock.

With temperatures due to stay so low for so many days, I'm worried that neither the ice nor the snow will dissipate quickly.

Ack!!!! Tim just came inside after taking dogs out for a quick run and a chance to do their doggie business, and he says snow is falling again. So, half our property has sunshine (the southern part) and the more northern part is getting snow again.

I have one flat of tomato seeds started and might start the rest of the tomatoes and all the peppers tomorrow. I might even start some flower seed.

With the sun shining, all the surfaces like plants, power lines, fences, etc. that are covered in a glaze of ice are sparkling and shining in the sunlight and looks gorgeous. I hope it all goes away soon even though that means we then will have mud.

It has been very, very quiet here today, so I think most people heeded the warnings of the authorities and stayed home. We only have had trouble on the interstate intermittently throughout the day, and by far it was the worst between about 6 and 8 a.m. although every now and then a semi gets stuck on I35 or someone slides off the road and into a ditch.

I hope everyone's power stays on and that everyone is able to stay safe and warm. Now, if only spring would get here.

Its not too bad here, light rain turned to sleet about daylight, by 10:00 AM was down to 23 degrees, 27 by mid afternoon. It is 20 degrees now at 4:45 PM with about .6 inches of sleet and snow on the ground, and very light snow falling. It is much worse from Ft. Smith north.

DW canceled Dr. appointment in Texarkana so we will be staying home and out of the weather.

I hope everyone can keep power to their homes and stay safe.

Larry

I tell my friends every year, I'm moving to Tahiti. Just forward my mail to 3rd cabana on the left.

Drifts were high enough that my poor mutt couldn't get out his doggy door. I wound up shoveling a very small area, but at least he can get outside now. I spent a few minutes at a time trying to shovel my sidewalk & driveway, but I haven't even reached the driveway yet. My neighbor kids were digging a tunnel through their yard. Thankfully our office is closed again tomorrow, so I won't have to burn any vacation time.

Well, my power was out for 2 1/2 hours, but my gas heat in the fire place and the old fashioned bathroom wall heater kept it decent in here.

However, the hot water was froze for a while, and still no water at the washing machine.

Hopefully no pipe bursts....

Watching the people get stuck in the deep snow is a real entertainment when there isn't any power. :)

Moni

Well...officially here according to the news channels we have 8". Here at my home in the rural NE Norman area, we have at least 10" with maybe an inch of that ice that fell first. BoomerSooner - what reading did you get in your area?

Carol - if you stop by here, let us know you're ok? I haven't checked to see the other threads yet to see if you've posted. I was watching our CBS station here in OKC who was showing pictures from their sister station in Tulsa. They've been hit like we were Christmas of 2009. I've heard that Grand Lake has had problems with roof's caving due to the weight of the snow so I'm concerned for you.

How about our friends up and around Jenks? What's it like up there?

Scott - how is all this going to affect your blueberries??? I'm sure you've mulched heavily...(which I haven't as much as I should). How's all this going to affect them?

I've already decided that even if the FAA is open tomorrow, I'm not going. Just not worth the risk. I'm going to spend the evening with all my seeds and graph paper!!! and like Dawn, probably re-filling bird feeders tomorrow.

Paula

Thanks Paula. I didn't go anywhere and in fact, haven't heard a car all day although I thought I could see some tracks where my young neighbor had pulled through, so maybe he went out early in the day.

My friend is in Dallas so I would have just gone south thru McAlaster and Atoka, rather than over your way. It is much closer this way. Actually she will be in the hospital until she gets a liver, and her mother is with her. I probably could have made it down yesterday, but if they had waited for me to get there, then they would have gotten caught in the storm on their way back here. Not much is moving in NE Oklahoma so we were better off not trying to 'switch' places until after this storm. We have more snow than I have ever seen in Oklahoma. Of course, I have lived in the UP of Michigan, so I am not new to snow.

The weather man just moved us out of the blizzard area within the last hour. A lot of people have had high winds, but I guess my neighborhood is sheltered from the wind because I didn't notice it being a problem today.

My DH heard a noise earlier and ran to the door to see what fell, but couldn't see anything. I looked out the window a few minutes later and saw a neighbor's car lights on. I knew that he wouldn't be driving his car and if he needed to go out he would most likely drive his truck. I yelled at DH and told him that it looked like Jeff was pulling his car out of the carport and into the yard. He went over there, and the carport had collapsed on his truck and he was moving his PT Cruiser in case anymore fell.

I started shoveling the back walkway today and after abour 6 feet my DH came and took the snow shovel from me and finished it. I walked out to the chicken coop and picked up some eggs and put them in a little plastic bowl. About that time my foot slipped and I turned my ankle, and the eggs went flying. By that time it was 10 or 12 inches deep and the eggs didn't even break. I just followed the indentation in the snow and fished them out. The eggs didn't break, but my ankle hurts a little. I'm such a clutch on the ice or snow. I don't have the right footwear for it anymore.

It looks like all of Oklahoma is in for a hard night, so everyone be careful and try to stay warm, and say a prayer for your plumbing. LOL

it's just as bad in jenks as everywhere else... we've got 13" in my backyard with drifts hip high...we're short, so that's probably somewhere in the 3" range.

so unbelievably cold....the hot tub is buried, and i don't have the will power to sit out it in in this weather, although i'm sure it would help with the fibro...

we never lost power, so it's been a "read a little, eat some more and take another nap" kind of day. :)

crossing my fingers that the restaurant i work at will be closed again tomorrow..i'm thinking my honda's gonna have some trouble with the roads for a day or two...

glad to hear we're all making it through to one extent or another.

be safe and warm. and yes, feed the birdies if you can. i feel for them so in weather like this...

dody :)

From inside the house it didn't look too bad. HA! I started shoveling and discovered those drifts were much deeper than I anticipated. I'll have to get up in the morning and start again....the boss expects us to get in "when we can..."

Lisa

Blizzard still going strong here but power has remained on so we're fine. Last I checked, before dark fell, drifts were neck-high. I'll have to climb out a protected window in the morning and dig out the doors so I can tend to the animals.

Still no plows out this far, of course, so the road is nonexistent. Hubby's going to just stay in town for a few days. More wind tomorrow but, hopefully, it'll calm down a bit for Thursday. I'll see if I can sweet talk the skidsteer into starting so I can dig us out enough to get around easier -- and hubby can get into the driveway should they eventually get the roads cleared.

Diane

Carol - you fell but retrieved your eggs??? Mercy, Woman!!! Maybe we need to all pitch in and get you some off-road Crocs!!! Seriously, ice that ankle, take IB's and elevate it. (yeh, like you really need ME telling you that!) I've been thinking I wanted some chickens...but didn't realize the effort that was involved in Oklahoma's unpredictable weather so I'm thinking...maybe NOT! Sorry for the tumble, but still glad you're home and relatively safe.

dody - "so it's been a read a little, eat some more and take another nap kind of day." LOL!! I've made stew, 3 meatloafs, cornbread, cake...and I think that's enuf. Done some garden strategy too....scary part is I discovered I'm planning 16 different tomatoes types and 21 different peppers ... so far. That doesn't include the cukes, melons, okra, beans, carrots (all of which are multiples too!). So much for down sizing. I'm attributing it all to being cooped up...and that Evil Seedmama is tempting me with the Fedco seed webpage!!!!

Diane - my prayers (and I'm sure others) are with you & the kids!!!

lisa - only one lone track of tires in the road? Wow, show's how bad the side streets really are!!! Has Muffat wrapped himself in blankets and buried himself in the warmest corner of the house? I can only imagine what he thinks of this weather!

I'm signing off for the nite, but leaving the water trickling on the north side of the house...brrrrr!

Paula

Bless ya'll! What a MESS! I hate to chime in about us... we got lots of rain! LOL... Seems this year we've avoided all the major snowstorms so far. Keeping my fingers crossed that keeps up, LOL!
Ya'll stay warm!

Beth

these blankets are supposed to be great for cats that have to stay outside, like our 9 feral cats:

http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Mylar-Blanket-Blankets-EB-10/dp/B000FETSDQ

Right now i have cardboard boxes that are in a room off the house and have straw in and around them. i am thinking of buying these blankets. of course they are probably sleeping in the attic as usual, but i have not heard them up there.

Caretakers have reported the Mylar blankets are also effective when laid on the floor of the shelter. They don't absorb and take away body heat like ordinary blankets when a cat lies on top, but instead reflect heat back. That's why they're sold as emergency blankets for car travel in wintertime. Mylar blankets can be purchased at a cost of $1.50 each from Healthy Harvest. Go to http://www.healthyharvest.com and do a search for "Mylar Blanket."

Jessaka, I think that's what Carol used on her light stand to reflect light and heat for the seeds and seedlings, no? I think I'll pick up a couple - one for seeds and one to keep for emergencies. Thanks for the link. I looked at Walmart the other day, but they didn't have any yet. When I asked the clerk for the Camping Department, he just looked at me like I was nuts! Hey! I cudda been looking for a propane stove! It's worse, tho, if you take the time to explain that you need them for your seedlings in an indoor plant stand, so I just avoided that altogether! :3)

Get ready everyone, I've been hearing on the news that we may be in for another storm Monday or so. I hope it 1) misses us or 2) isn't as bad as this one.

Susan

Here in Tulsa the highways are full of stranded cars & semis; DH and I are working from home, and he's been trying to clear the driveway, but the snow's so deep it's taking a really long time. And he's from Minnesota and used to this stuff! Thing I worry about is getting water to the birds; anything you put out freezes so quickly they can't benefit from it. Our pond is still partially open, so there's that.

But, my lettuce and broccoli seedlings are warm and toasty!

Stay warm!

Carol, you might need some of these for the next snow/ice occasion? I have them, and used them in ice when I livewd in Tulsa. They work great.

they are called yaktrax! Get the style with the strap for over the shoe. I did loose one of mine once, and had to back track.

WOW, Lisa, that's a tall snow cover on your driveway!!!!

Moni, those are cool!

Paula, I haven't spoken to Musset since the snow hit, but bless his heart, it was his birthday! What a birthday! He did get an electric blanket for Christmas. I'm quite sure he's making good use of it. The cafeteria was open, I hear, but I had helped him stock up on a few snack items, so I bet he never the room.

Lisa

We are snowed in. Dave was silly enough to try to drive to work yesterday, and his car is stuck somewhere down the road (pushed off to the side). We are taking shifts shovelling the driveway out, but the road hasn't been plowed yet so we are just doing a little at a time.

Jo

that is what i keep forgetting to look for. yaktraxi. will order on amazon. thanks for bringing it up

the mylar blankets i just ordered on amazon.

Thanks Moni, I saw those at Shoe Carnival last year and didn't buy them. I need to get me some of those. I am sure that I have boots packed away somewhere, but I haven't worn them in so long, I don't have a clue where they are. I didn't fall for years, and now it seems I fall everytime we have ice.

Our neighbors carport fell in last night. Al heard the noise and went outside to see if we had lost something. A while later I watched the neighbor moving his car, but all I could see were lights. Al walked over to see and his carport had folded and is being held up by his truck. The PT Cruiser was short enough that he could get it out without damage.

We are having some strange weather. The temp is 8 degrees and the airport is showing a wind chill advisor with a WC of minus 7, but it is extremely still at our house. We have a forecast of minus 8 as the actual tempature tonight. Then down to one the following night. Then more light snow. It ain't over folks!

Since our weather has overachieved today (original forecast high was 12 but once the actual temp at Burneyville's mesonet station hit 17, they instantly raised our forecast high to 17), they're raised our forecast low for tonight from 2 degrees to 7 degrees. I'm really excited about that! At our house, the high so far today has been 25 degrees. I don't know why we've gotten so much warmer than forecast, and I don't even care why...I'm just glad that it is so warm.

We haven't shoveled any snow but the only place it is an issue is where there are drifts up against the garage doors. Since we aren't opening those doors, we left the drifts there. We did sweep the snow off the steps with a broom, but that was a cinch. We didn't get much snow though, and in this case the crunchy,crusty dry snow is helpful because you can walk on it much easier than you can walk on the layer of thick ice that lies beneath it.

We have had sunshine and blue skies since around 9 or 10 a.m., but now clouds are drifting in from the southwest, and they're raised our chances of precipitation from 3% to 17%. I hope we don't get any more.

It isn't bad here as long as you have something to do to keep you busy. I do feel sorry for all the parents trying to keep kids entertained in these conditions. No school here yesterday or today and probably no school tomorrow either. The kids are going to have a lot of snow days to make up.

The next snow storm approaches our place from the south on Thurs or Friday, but there's a good chance it will stay well south of us and miss us entirely.

Sunshine here as well, but it isn't doing much since the temp is 12, with windchill of zero. We are in for a cold night of minus 8, they say. Everything still heats or flushes, so we are OK so far. LOL

I was up at 2 AM Tuesday raking snow off my greenhouses. thankfully I didn't have any damage. I had one greenhouse that had a near casualty, but I caught it just in time.. My greenhouses are small making it easy to get the snow load off. I have both generators primed and ready to go with around 35 gallons of gas to get me through a couple of days if needed. My heaters are running over time and I swear the steam rising from the vents are in the shape of Dollar Signs floating away!

Good luck everyone! I'm looking forward to moving back to OK as soon as possible from the concrete oven of Phoenix.
Today was the coldest day ever for a Feb and tomorrow will be a record cold ever day at 23 with windmills in the low teens.
I felt so bad that I didn't put a turnout sheet on my one horse who was body clipped in November, I thought his coat had grown out enough. But we don't have a windbreak and I had no idea how low the windchill would be. I blanketed the other horses and they were much happier. Blanketed the cold guy tonight, I'm sure he appreciates it.
I'm really worried about my 2 year old eggplants and fall planted peppers as the sheets keep blowing off. I'll be very sad if I loose them. I'm very attached to my Japanese eggplant and just ate the first yummy Habaneros last week.
Anyway, feel for all of you. I was snowed in up in the AZ mountains a couple of years ago when working an ER job, 40 inches of snow in 24 hours. Despite growing up in CO I've never seen anything like that!

Our Internet usage is about maxed out until Monday, when it rolls over. We're doing fine here, staying warm and full. Our work has been canceled, now, going on three days. Our oldest daughter, who works at Walmart, was one of TWO non managerial employees who showed up for work yesterday. She tells us that the back rooms and most shelves were bare: a good reminder of the importance of laying up emergency food stuff in our homes.

George

The snow and ice on our roadways partially melted in yesterday's sunlight and temps in the mid-20s but then totally refroze late yesterday when the clouds covered up the sun and temperatures fell. I think they are the worst now that they've been since the snow fell. There are accidents right and left on the highways last night and this morning, much more than in the previous days.

We still have electricity, internet and can flush as well, and the mail is even being delivered so everything here is peachy keen.

George, We were, technically speaking, well-supplied with everything we "needed" but decided there were a couple more things we "wanted". Tim and I made a quick trip to town yesterday, which is about 10 or 12 miles round-trip, and I was surprised how good the roadways were then. We picked up more deer corn and chicken scratch for the wild birds, and cookie-making ingredients (I was running out of flour after baking about 10 batches of cookies, cupcakes and cinnamon rolls for the firefighters in the last 6 days).

In town, the local grocery store was only out of one item as far as I could tell.....and that item was regular Dr. Pepper. They still had the sugar-free ones, but I wanted the regular ones. They weren't out of bread, milk, eggs, etc. but were out of Dr. Peppers. Actually, I eventually found one in the little drink cooler by the checkout stand, but anyone looking for canned DPs in a carton or case or for 2-liter bottles was out of luck.

Today the roads are refrozen and I'm glad I bought more chocolate chips for cookie baking and that 20-oz. Dr. Pepper. I have a house full of good healthy meats, fruits and veggies, but an astonishing lack of junk food. (We normally don't eat much junk food.)

It is much colder and cloudier here than yesterday, but I know we're warmer than most of the rest of the state. It is 18 degrees here right now with a forecast high of 21.

The dogs and cats are very frustrated about being kept inside but the wild chills are so low that I won't let them go outside. Well, the dogs go out into the fenced dog yard periodically to do those things a dog must do outside, but what they really want is to be let loose to run wild and play in the fields of snow.

The chickens are tired of being cooped up, but they are staying inside to their feet won't get wet. They can cope with cold feet, but not with wet, cold feet.

Spring seems far away right now and I'm trying to avoid rushing into seed-starting since I'm staring at a forecast that includes more snow this week and next. (I hope they're wrong about that.)

Dawn, that's sad to know SPRING is not near yet :-( I am desperately waiting to start seeds...

It's looking like we will have the snow on the ground for at least 2 weeks and likely until past the 20th of the month. Anyone know the best place to find a forecast for 10 days to 3 weeks out?

Starting seeds is the easy part. The hard part is keeping the seedlings indoors as they grow and get larger.

I'm not worried so much about warm-season crops. I can hold those seedlings inside a long time with no problem or can keep them inside at night and carry them out to the sunporch or outdoors on nice days. I've already started a whole flat of tomato seeds and am about to start a flat with the rest of the tomato seeds and some pepper seeds but they won't be going into the ground for a couple of months yet.

With cool-season seedlings, many of them usually do best if they go into the ground while quite small---peas at 2 or 3 weeks and broccoli, for example, at 3 to 5 weeks. If you keep them indoors too long, they won't do as well when transplanted outside. I always take my time starting cool-season seeds indoors because it never fails that a big cold spell will hit right when I'm ready to transplant them out. Last year, about a week or two after the pea plants were transplanted into the ground, a very cold spell with snow hit here. Almost all of the pea plants survived, but it looked iffy for a few days.

We had snow flurries in our forecast last night and we had thunder, but not precipitation.

We have snow flurries in our forecast for tomorrow, and I hope that storm misses us.

We have a 20% chance of snow Monday, and you can bet I'm hoping it misses us as well.

The current storm track makes me think this might not be our last snowfall of the year, even though I still think we might get to plant warm-sesason crops a bit earlier than usual in March. I just think February planting dates may be a bit iffier.

Dawn

Scott, both wunderground.com and accuweather.com have extended forecasts available by zip code.

During yesterday's digging out, I talked to our closest neighbor. Turns out, she loves to garden but her garden just ups & dies every single year. Hmm... I'll have to quiz her in detail about it when it's a bit warmer and our frozen faces make it hard to talk.

Also called to check on another set of neighbors further up the road. They're snowed in until the plows can make it out that far, probably tomorrow but find. I already knew that he was a gardener and grows heirlooms but he shared with me yesterday that he's been a member of SSE since the 70s. How cool is that?

I cannot wait for warmer weather so I can get out and chat with these people more!

Diane

Checking in,
Fed and observed the birds. Beautiful arent they? Also "PLANTED" my poppy seed. I distributed the seed over a 4 foot drift in the garden just at the end of my tomato tunnels. The snow will know to plant them when the time is right. I was wading and fighting the drift, which was half way up on my thigh. If only those little poppy seeds knew what I went through to get them situated.
The best of luck to you all!
Bill

I made homemade pickles, soft pretzels from scratch, and corn chowder today.

When I am stuck inside this long, I cook.

I am good on staples (flour sugar milk butter) but the fresh produce is long gone. I used a couple of sad old store cucs for the pickles, but they were delicious.

Jo

I heard Gary at News9 say this evening that with all the additional snow and cold temps in the forecast, it could be 4 to 5 weeks before we see any really good clearing of the snow and ice on OKC secondary streets. Grrrrrrrrr.

Anyway, life indoors goes on, as I sit here with 4 cats in my lap.....

Susan

I ventured out to work today!!! The FAA was open with a 3 hour delay and DH got my Husband of the Year vote (he may have competition from Splat Man who has more kids) because he drove me to downtown OKC to pick up documents and then to the FAA. Took us 2 and a half hours...ugh. You guys would NOT believe the MOUNTAINS of ice & snow at work. The main roads were all good on the way home with only an ocasional patch of ice which is WAY better than the trip to work. The neighborhoods are awful. Saw LOTS of people stuck just trying to get in and out of the Additions. Think I'll be brave and drive myself tomorrow.

The birds have eaten thru half of our stockpile of seeds so will probably stock up before the blast next Wednesday. All this is only giving me more time to plot out garden space...and collect more seeds (thanks, OwieBrain! I SOOOO did not need more but what can I say...I'm weak!) I'll be starting peppers & maters this weekend...I've fought off the urge as long as I can!

Paula

They tell me that there is gardening soil under all of that white stuff, but I don't expect to see it for awhile. No seed starting for me yet. I should go dig out my flower seeds and try to scatter a few I guess since those 'simple' reseeding ones seem to cause me the most trouble. Maybe if I do it tomorrow before the 'light' snow comes, they will grow. Or maybe I should wait for Sunday when the rain and snow is coming. LOL Nope, no seed planting here.

I'm thinking about y'all and hoping everything is ok, especially with another storm coming. I have a horse that lives with friends in Gainesville, TX and I haven't been able to get ahold of them for two days. I'm hoping they're ok.
Here in AZ we're dry but not at all warm. For the first time, I'm afraid I may have lost our very old Meyers Lemon trees. I also think, despite covers, I may have lost my eggplants, habaneros and jalape�os, all mature, in fact the eggplants are 2 years old.
Funny story- today I went out to where I keep my horses and the water to the automatic waterers was frozen. PVC comes 2 feet out of the ground to the waterers. I know, stupid design, but that's AZ for you. Anyway, I went to HD, came back, filled a trash can with water. Drained the 100feet of hose. Just as I hit the last inch of hose, I kid you not, I hear a whooshing noise, the waterer had thawed and started filling up! So, I spent $70 on new hose and over an hour for nothing!
Anyway, stay warm and safe. Good luck!
Despite your weather trials, I want to be back there in the worst way! As soon as my husband's degree is near finished I will be shopping for a farm like nobody's business!

Paula,

I can't believe you had to go to work in this mess. Well, yes I can, because it is the FAA after all. You be careful out driving in this and especially walking on the parking lots and sidewalks! So many people are falling and breaking bones and stuff.

Tracy,

I'm just across the river from Gainesville and while I-35 is a mess, Gainesville itself is basically fine. As far as I know, their power has remained on more or less and they only had 3-4" of snow. Some people on the Texas side of the Red River have had minor rolling blackouts where the power is out for about 15 minutes at a time about once every couple of hours, but I think that all occurred yesterday and not today, and I don't even know if the affected area included Gainesville. I know it included a lot of the D-FW metroplex. DH drives through Gainesville on his way to work and thought Gainesville seemed fine once you get away from the low-lying river valley area along the highway where all the traffic problems are occurring.

If you want to see the Gainesville news, you can go to KXII.com or visit the webpage of the Gainesville newspaper, which I've linked below.

Most of the "bad news" (other than travelers rolling over on or sliding off of I-35) locally seems to be coming more from the Sherman and Denison area than from the Ardmore, Marietta, and Gainesville area, if that is any consolation.

Maybe your friends are down in Fort Worth for the Stock Show?

I'm sorry to hear the cold has hit your plants so hard. It doesn't seem fair that the cold would hit y'all that hard after you already had to endure all the summer heat.

Hang in there and when your DH finishes his degree, y'all can move back here where the weather is more normal. Well, OK, not exactly normal, but you know what I mean.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Gainesville Daily Register

Hi Tracy. Sorry about your plants but all of us may be replacing a few after this. I don't think you will have trouble finding a place when you are ready. Will he finish this year? Do you have your eye on a practice yet?