Yay for possible real snow!!!!! We're all excited here! We've only had anything other than dustings once in our 6 years here and that as just a couple of inches. Half of my kids have never seen anything more than that.

Our forecast says widespread 3-6", depending on the storm's exact track, of course. I'm not holding my breath for it but I'm hoping all the same.

I just lit a fire in the stove. I'm not sure if the temp is actually dropping yet or if it just feels colder since I'm obsessing over snow...

Whatever the case, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!! Our (satellite) internet has been spotty since the storm moved in so figured I'd better say it while I have the chance.

Diane

Dawn I hope you get your white Christmas. But most important that everyone traveling has a safe trip. With the bad weather especially. Not much of a white Christmas here. Sun out bright now. Already warmer than they predicted. 26 and rising. Looks like cooler to cold here for the next 2 weeks. Hopefully we will start seeing a warm up later in Jan. Wishing everyone a safe and Marry Christmas. Jay

Hey, it is already sleeting here. DS is out driving in it and trying to make it home (he worked all night in Dallas) before it gets too bad.

Dinae, I'm getting a bit nervous about this. Every time our weather guy talks about it, he makes it sound like it is going to be much worse than they previously thought.

I know that our cops and tow truck drivers are already out on the interstate in northern Love County working to get traffic moving as some folks are losing control and sliding off the road already.

I expect to lose internet service any minute now too.

Diane, hope your family has a wonderful Christmas. I bet it is fun with all the kids!

Dawn

Rain that turns to snow usually leaves everything covered with ice and makes it extremely dangerous to travel. I pray your son makes it home safe and Tim makes ti too work ok. The weathermen always say don't travel. Many times we have no choice. I've drove around road blocks so I could get to work to keep gas flowing so everyone would have heat. Sounds like your weathermen were like ours. Had no clue where the storm was going to track. I just pray everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas. Jay

Dawn, I just reloaded the radar and noticed the pink is in your neighborhood, with white close on its tail. Safe travels to your family -- and everyone else that is on the move today and tomorrow!

We're snuggled in here at home, ready for whatever the weather brings but hubby does have to make a quick run to town this afternoon. Someone hired him to do a little Christmas surprise and he's working as quickly as he can to beat the frozen stuff.

(We gardeners sure do love our weather, don't we?)

Diane

This is the weather link I like to watch.

Thanks for the link. Wish we had something like that available for our area. Stay warm and have a Merry Christmas. Jay

I'm hoping for some pretty snow for ya'll and no ice! I keep looking at the radar and seeing the blue over Oklahoma and wondering how ya'll are doing... LOL! :)

Here? We're drowning a bit! No snow in our forecast, gosh durn it. Still flash flood warnings. It has rained continuously since last night, and I'm ready for it to stop! It's 51 degrees, also... I had to turn the heaters down! Bryan is out getting the last little bit of food stuff we need, Little Bryan is playing with his toys his Nanny and Pawpaw gave him last night, Chance is at his Dad's... so we're all about ready for Christmas!

Ya'll stay warm and safe and enjoy your family's! Merry Christmas!

Beth
Ya'll sta

Whew! My work is done....for the moment.

Tim's car was loaded down with 42 gift bags, each containing 4 jars of home-canned goodies. He has the cooked turkey & ham for tomorrow's big Christmas dinner at work. He has several days' worth of clothes and stuff. We woke him up at 11 a.m. and told him he needed to leave by noon or he wouldn't make it, then we loaded up the car while he tried to wake up after less than 4 hours of sleep.

He is now as far south as the Lake Lewisville Bridge, and the storm is chasing him down, so I think he'll get to his police station before it gets really, really bad

Now, for the weather. Have y'all been paying attention to the NWS page? LOL They cancelled our winter storm warning and issued a Blizzard Warning until 10 p.m. tonight.

Never, ever in my life did I think we'd ever have a blizzard warning here, much less the prospects of a blizzard. I think they issue blizzard warnings when wind speed reaches a certain amount (or is forecast to reach that speed) when snow is falling.

Our law enforcement officers, medics, and fire departments are busy, and in some cases, the tow truck drivers cannot reach vehicles to tow them. There's been one house fire so far....a dog house caught fire. (I assume they put a heat lamp in it and the lamp caught the dog's bedding on fire.)

In looking at the radar, it seems like the heaviest snow is west of us, but we've had sleet and snow for 2 or 3 hours now, but it comes in waves because those bands of clouds are circulating.

I'm kind of amazed we still have power, the internet and TV reception because the power lines come into town from the west and that's where the ice is the heaviest. A deputy who lives out west said around 10 a.m. that they had 2" of ice on the roads out there, and that's the part of the county where the tow truck wreckers are decining to respond to calls for assistance because the roads are too bad for them.

The snow is beautiful. We've had thin gainy pellet type snow...or maybe it was sleet. We had about an inch and a half of rain before the sleet started. Now we're having mixed snow---some big fluffy flakes occasionally but mostly small, fine ones. Visability is pretty low. The interstate and state highways are a mess. ODOT has been out sanding and plowing/scraping the roads since about 9 a.m.

The yard is full of wild birds, and a couple of cats are on the porch watching them, but most of the pets are inside including the chickens who are snug in their coops. Every now and then a chicken runs outside, but it doesn't stay out long.

There....that's all the news from here. Our fire radios are wall-to-wall with call after call after call. I think it is going to be a really, really long day or two here.

I hope all of you remain safe and warm and have a terrific holiday with your loved ones.

Jan, I hope your remaining kids are able to make it home from OKC.

And.....I know it is a long way off, but we already have rain/snow in our forecast for Tuesday of next week.

Jay, our local weather guys are telling us the computer models "were way off" on this storm. LOL We need to teach them how to reach animal signs.

They are cutting into local programming every 20 or 30 minutes to update the current weather. In some parts of southern OK, it is snowing at the rate of about an inch an hour, but I think that's mostly a couple of counties west of us, roughly in the area between Lawton and Paul's Valley.

So, what's happening where you are?

Dawn

Still status quo here in sw Missouri. Supposed to hit us around 6 pm.

Wow, sounds like Oklahoma is being hit hard. I hate ice!

I remember 11 days without power.........with the city in-laws living with us because we had a wood stove...........need I say more. Yes, I must....they wouldn't change their pattern of eating even though it meant I had to run kerosene lamps and candles in the dark to feed them. The end result; I had to wash down black soot from all the cabinets....I am sure the walls have a coating too, but I didn't attempt to clean them.

Thank you God, we installed a huge automatic generator that runs off the propane tank the week after that disaster. I told DH, I was too old to live that way (especially with guests!). This wonderful creation comes on weekly and runs 15 minutes to check itself. When the power goes off for a period of time, it come on; goes off when the power is restored. No more sitting out in the cold running the tractor pto powered generator or continually filling the little gas one. It think it is one of life's blessings. The added plus is it will run everything on the farm including the dryer and electric hot water heater and eveything else.

Wow, Dawn, sounds pretty hairy!

Still just rain here. I sure hope the snow reaches us while it's still daylight so the kids can ooh and ahh from the warm, dry greenhouse. It's horribly mucky outside right now.

Diane

Glenda,

I bet it reaches y'all sooner or later.

I've linked the radar so y'all can see the circulation of the snow storm.

Diane,

It is perfectly lovely and wonderful as long as you are inside the house sitting on the sofa with a laptop computer on your lap, drinking a Dr. Pepper, keeping one eye on the computer screen, the other eye on the local TV station, and using your "Mom has eyes in the back of her head" eyes to look out the window at the snow. It's pretty!

Now, if you are one of the erstwhile travelers trying to get anywhere in southern OK, it is a whole different story. If you are one of those people, it doensn't matter where you're trying to go....you are not going to get there. You're going to end up sliding off the road, getting stuck in the mud and waiting a few days to get your vehicle out of the mud because the three towing companies here in our county are completely overworked and have a huge backlog. If you're lucky, a sherriff's deputy will pick you up from your disabled vehicle and drive you to town to (a) a gas station, (b) a local motel or (c) McDonald's.

I hope the snow gets there so your kids can enjoy it. We went out once with our 2-year-old snow angel and she had a ball. Her favorite part was walking in the puddles left by the earlier rainfall. Our son made her a snowball and told her to throw it at me, but she just stood there and held it for the longest time. She's too sweet to throw it at a person, so finally she threw it at the bur oak tree.

The flakes are mostly the really fine tiny ones right now with an occasional larger one and the intensity has really, really, really picked up in the last 10-15 minutes. We don't have whiteout conditions like Lone Grove, but we have a lot of snow falling all of a sudden.

I had to stop and go look at it (with my real eyes, not my mom's eyes in the back of my head) and it is absolutely pouring down snow right now. Maybe that's why they're dispatching emergency workers to handle a new problem every 2 or 3 minutes.

OK, Steve Lanore is doing a weather news break and says the main band of snow is right over I-35. (It is moving your way Diane, slowly but surely but still the radar only shows rain for y'all.)In the Wichita Falls, TX, area, a half-foot has fallen. In Montague County, across the Red River from the western edge of Love County, they've had 8 inches. He isn't saying what we've had so far.

FYI, Steve just said a Blizzard Warning is issued for these conditions: snow, winds at or above 35 mph and visibility less than 1/4 mile.
Dawn

Lots and Lots of snow here. The back door has 5 inches, there are drifts along the fences, and my husband says there is "3 ft drifts" behind the car. Think he might be exagerating, but it is VERY white. Been snowing since the sun came up. Tried to insert photos, but was unsuccessful. Must be missing the obviously. Oh well.

Our dog is half husky. Once he figured out that it wasn't raining, he has decided snow is really awesome. Now if he could just convence us to join him in frolicking and tossing his favorite ball.

mrsfrodo, you have to upload the pictures to someplace online. Like photobucket tinypic etc.

Then you can insert them here.

I use photobucket. If you get yourself set up there, and are ready with more questions, email me. Those sited I mentioned are free.

Moni

It's been snowing here in Hartshorne (Eastern Pittsburg county) for about 30 minutes, I/2" on the ground.

A white Christmas, Yeah'
James.

We have between 3 and 6" on the ground here...it is blowing and drifting so much it is hard to tell.

It is very, very, very cold, especially with the raging winds. I-35 has been shut down in both directions near the Red River bridge due to numerous accidents, but I think they are about to get the southbound side open again. It is still snowing and still blowing. Our snow is supposed to end by 10 p.m. or so and I hope the wind goes with it.

So many people are stranded here...many of the vehicles are so far off the road that the tow truck drivers cannot get to them, since heavily saturated clay is like wet concrete. There are abandoned vehicles everywhere. The sherriff's deputies are picking up the people and taking them to gas stations, restaurants, or hotels. The local sherrif's office is trying to find someone willing to open a school or church to set up a shelter, and aren't having much luck---probably because it is Christmas Eve and everyone is either away for the holiday or snowed in anyway. I don't think we can get out of our driveway, much less drive anywhere else, at this point.

Even the paramedics are having transportation issues. One ambulance unit has been buried in mud up to their axles at a very remote rural property. They've been trying a variety of vehicles to pull them out, like tractors, fire trucks, etc. This is the worst storm I have ever seen in my life and it is having far-ranging effects here.

Now, don't y'all blame me for this one.....I was hoping for a white Christmas, but I didn't ask for a white-out or a blizzard or life-threatening wind chills. I just wanted some pretty white fluffy snow flakes.

Poor Ol' Santa Claus may have to leave the eight tiny reindeer at home and fly in a well-heated supersonic aircraft. (Did you notice how cleverly I made this garden-related--LOL---by mentioning 'Supersonic', one of my favorite hybrid tomatoes?)

Merry Christmas from a frozen Love County.

Dawn

I posted on another thread but thought I'd repeat here in case anyone is like me and just does the "hit-n-miss" on the threads when time is crunching.

Dawn - can't believe you've still got service! Yea! Here in NE rural Norman, we've got at least 11 inches, if not more. No, the bosses didn't let me go early even tho' the FAA closed at 11. I was stuck until noon so we drove home in "white-out" conditions. We had to stop many times to beat the ice off the wipers. The drifts were awful. I can't believe how many people were still out there driving. The conditions here are horrible. People are stuck on the highways and having to be rescued by the police and highway patrol. So glad I got home when I did!

We just trapsed to the garage to get frozen green beans out of the freezer for Christmas dinner! So glad and grateful to have homegrown veggies for my holiday meal!

Take care everyone! Stay safe and warm! Merry Christmas!

Paula

Paula,

I am mystified by it too. I think maybe we went straight from rain to sleet pellets with no freezing rain in between. For all the stuff that fell from the sky, as far as I know there have not been any power or internet outages here today. There have been some cell phone issues.

I cannot believe you had to stay that last hour, and am glad you made it home safely.

It is clear here now, and we have moonlight, but still have lots of wind blowing the snow around. The cops and firefighters have just finished a final sweep of the highways and have ferried all the stranded passengers to the shelter in Thackerville or a hotel. All the emergency personnel have had a long, hard day and yet, there's still massive amounts of folks trying to travel from Texas up to Oklahoma and that is all a mess. These people really shouldn't be out in these conditions because it just isn't safe. I understand the desire to make it 'home' for Christmas, but sometimes you have to exercise some common sense and NOT drive into a blizzard. OK, it's been a long day and I need to go to bed because Santa Claus won't visit our house if I am still awake.

Merry Christmas to all.....and to all a good night!

Dawn

I agree Dawn. Sometimes the best thing is to be safely ensconced in a home or motel.

I need to go back to bed. Guess I've gotten used to rising at 3:00 AM for my new job. But I'm off today! We have at least 5" of snow outside the door. Our Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd look like small polar bears playing in the snow!

George
Tahlequah, OK

We got a dusting only but the kids are out there scraping up all of the dust they can to make one very pathetic, precious snowball. LOL

It's cooooold!

Diane

We might have got 2", but the wind was blowing about 20 mph, so it drifted quite a bit.
I'm glad we have a white Christmas but realize some may have gotten more then others and my prayers go out to those who where stranded, injured or God forbid to those who may have lost family or friends in accidents caused by the weather.
I just hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did here.
Merry Christmas and may God bless everyone.
James & Betty.

It is a beautiful white Christmas here with maybe about 5 to 7" of snow at the most, although of course there are drifts that are a couple of feet deep in places. It is especially beautiful if you are inside and snug and warm and are just looking out the window at it all.

We have a lot of stranded travelers and more continue to wreck and strand themselves even as I am typing this. Our emergency personnel don't have time to enjoy Christmas today. For the stranded travelers in shelters and hotel rooms here, this probably is not going to be remembered as their favorite Christmas. I hope they all will be able to make it to their intended destination in a couple of days.....they are unlikely to go anyplace today.

At our house, the grandchild is inside playing with her new toys, and the two big kids (her parents) are out playing in the snow.

I had enough snow and cold to last me a while when I was out feeding all the animals, domestic and wild, this morning.

Tim is stranded in Dallas after working all night. We're hoping he'll be able to come home on Sunday. Right now all the roadways between here and there are very bad, are not likely to clear and are expected to refreeze tonight and Saturday night.

Last night we actually had skies clear, so we had the moonlight glistening on the snow.....but I am over all that white Christmas nonsense now and ready for it to thaw and melt.

Me too, Dawn. MEEEE TOOOO! The plow truck came by here about an hour ago. We saw him yesterday also.

Seriously, we are NEVER going to sing "I'm dreaming of a White ....Christmas...." ever again. It's outlawed at our place.

Paula

It is now Saturday morning and the roads in our county have refrozen into a solid sheet of ice.

DS made a valiant attempt to get out of Love County to go to work this morning and now has a car in a ditch and a truck stuck at the bottom of a sloping driveway. Needless to say, he won't make it down to Dallas today.

DH got off work in Dallas at 5 a.m. and is stubbornly attempting to drive home as I am typing this. Did I mention he is as stubborn as a mule? He thinks he'll make it home just fine because he grew up in Pennsylvania and knows how to drive on snow. However, everything here tried to melt late yesterday afternoon and then refroze into a solid sheet of ice on the roadways. He is as stubborn as a mule. I think he can make it from Dallas to Denton, but don't know about the interstate after that. Yesterday it was still really, really bad between Denton and the Oklahoma state line. Did I mention he is as stubborn as a mule and is driving a 6-month-old car that I'd sure hate to see him wreck?

Paula, LOL I know how you feel. The snow is so beautiful, especially with colored Christmas lights reflecting onto it, but it certainly is not worth the danger/hassle. Our highway medians and shoulders are a sea of abandoned vehicles. I am sure it is the same elsewhere in Oklahoma.

The big kids (son and daughter-in-law) played in the snow a bit and took our granddaughter out a couple of times, but she got cold pretty fast and came back inside.

The dogs loved playing in it. The cats were miserable. The birds and bunnies and deer were frantically eating every scrap of birdseed and deer corn they could find. I only ventured outside to take care of the animals and to shovel all the snow off the porch steps so it wouldn't refreeze overnight and become treacherous.

At 4 a.m. the thermometer on our porch was showing 14 degrees and the thermometer on DS's car-stuck-in-the-ditch was showing 12 degrees he said when he called me. Our mesonet station is acting up and is showing we got 0 inches of snowfall. LOL I guess they'll come back later and guesstimate an amount for us, but in our yard it seems like it was about 5 to 7 inches.

I hope next week's snow misses our entire state.

My vehicle, by the way, has not left the garage since the snow started falling and I intend to leave it there until the snow/ice melts away.

Dawn

Unbelievable! We got 14.1" of snow in OKC. Things are really at a stand-still until the plows get things a bit under control. News report says the City has hired a bunch of private/contract folks to plow roads.

We are certainly not prepared for this amount of snow. Drifts are really bad and people trying to help others dig out their vehicles are getting stuck again. Number of highway rescues is 360. This has broken all records since records began. Who would have thought this storm would produce this much snow?

No way am I going anywhere in this stuff.

Susan

Susan - I don't blame you. We didn't go to any family Christmas celebrations yesterday. I was so bummed. But today as soon as it melts some, DH & I are going to the southside for Christmas with daughters & grandkids. Even tho' in-laws are next door, we just stayed inside. Who wants to walk in a foot of snow just to see "inlaws"? LOL

We have 11" @ our place here north Lake Thunderbird. I think Franklin Road is pretty clear (compared to Thursday on our way home!) so we're going to brave it. Gotta stop for some milk, birdseed & deer corn too, ya know? the essentials!

Dawn - keep us posted on DH's trip? Our local KOCO has a live blog I've been reading since Thursday. Most everyone who's come up from or gone to Texas says the Texas side is good now and only icy in spots on the OK side. Of course, the Arbuckles are still a danger, but doable if you take it slow. I'm praying Tim doesn't hurt himself or that 6-mo. old car!!!

Paula

Dawn I know your concern. I got to where I wouldn't let me Mother know when I went out as she worries herself sick. But she knows if it is bad and I don't answer the phone I'm out. So let my stepdad know. We have cell phones, a good radio system, 24 hr operators to check on us, a 4 wheel drive tractor with a scoop and also snow mobiles so we are about as prepared as you can be. And it a person stays in the their vehicle are normally ok. The few close calls I remember is when someone decides to take off on foot. With blowing snow a hundred yards can be like 2 miles. I know you won't rest till Tim makes it home. I will pray for traveling mercies for him.

Many of you now know why i don't seen the beauty in snow that others do. Stay warm and in the house till it improves. I'm heading out to do chores. Have a great day. Jay

Tim made it home safely although, of course, road conditions made it a really long, slow drive. He said the roads in Texas were mostly clear and he didn't have trouble with ice on the roads until he got to Oklahoma. The worst roads are the ones the last couple of miles before you reach our house. So, the 6-month-old car survived the trip home, but 'she' is still mad at Tim for risking her life and paint job that way. LOL

Erika's truck is no longer stuck in the driveway, but Chris' truck is still in the ditch. A couple of guys from the VFD are going to help him get it out of there this afternoon. If they can't do it with their heavy duty 4WD trucks, they'll use one of the 5-ton brush trucks.

Susan, Y'all had such an incredible amount of snow. It is unbelieveable. I cannot imagine the chaos on the roadways there as they worsened with the snowfall. I know it was insane here and we had, at most, half of what y'all had.

Paula, Tim said the roads in Texas were great but here in Love County they worsened pretty quickly once he was off the interstate. I-35 is fine in the Thackerville area, he said, and I assume it is fine further north because I do not hear the local cops and firefighters pulling people out of ditches like they were all day long and well into the evening last night. The heavy traffic and late afternoon sun must have melted most everything off the interstate.

A friend of ours stopped by the house earlier and said he'd been to Gainesville at mid-morning and only our part of Love County was still icy....remember we're in a low-lying area between I-35 and the Red River and apparently we are not thawing out as quickly as folks on higher/more exposed ground.

I haven't heard anything about the Davis/Paul's Valley area today but I assume the interstate is reopened and passable because there's tons of traffic coming into our county from the north and they have to be coming from somewhere.

Jay, I'm glad y'all have a lot of safe vehicles so you can do your job the safest way possible. Tim made it home and I was so relieved.

Stay warm doing chores. As I was doing mine this morning, I was thinking that those animals better appreciate me out wading through snow and ice to bring them food and water. LOL

I am staying inside the rest of the day until it is time to put up the animals for the night.

I think I'll entertain myself by visiting the website belonging to the recently re-born Gleckler Seedmen Co. Jay, have you been there yet? I know a lot of folks from TV were instrumental in sending Adam Gleckler the seeds to help him 'revive' some old varieties. I'm almost afraid to go to the website for fear that I'll feel compelled to order yet more tomato seeds. And, that reminds me, more seed catalogs have arrived! So, I can entertain myself all day.

Dawn

Dawn,
I've been to it. Haven't looked it all over yet. There has already been a feud over at GW about it. Seems it is Christmas season and internet gardening feuds are in full force. Why I enjoy this site so much. After visiting as many other sites as I have in the past this one is a rarity. I'm gradually cutting down on the forums and chat sites I visit. Should of long ago. I know he had to change the name on the Cherokee Purple as it grew out as a PL. So now listed as Spudakee I think. We all make mistakes and need to be understanding of that. In time I feel he will get it lined out and it will be a good site.

Glad Tim made it home safely. If you had been riding with me a few times in the last 25 years in a blizzard and snow you or the vehicle wouldn't of been too happy. I remember around ten years ago we had around 10 inches I believe and wind and cold low teens. On a Sunday right after Christmas. I got called out to help my helper. We were barely able to make it in 4WD's and the roads would blow closed behind us. The helper radioed and said there was a lady in a car that needed help and he wold wait on me once he got to the pavement. I stopped. She was raised west of my plant but a young teacher in Guymon,OK. Her Dad pulled her to the main road and headed her east in a little car. Around 15 miles of dirt road before the pavement. Had on the light pants ladies wear and she wanted me to pull her to the highway. I said you know I might break something and I'm not supposed to be pulling private vehicles. She wasn't about to leave it. So I hooked on and pulled her about 3 miles. By the time we got to the pavement under the engine was packed so full of snow the fan couldn't turn and the car was hot. I will say she stood out in the cold anytime I did with me telling her to get inside. I followed her to Elkhart. A friend told me later she made it fine. The whole 3 miles I was thinking I would have to buy a car. So I've been there and done that. Again someone heading out without being prepared. I taught my boy to be prepared in the winter when I taught him to drive. Going over to my mother's the other night I took all my winter clothes. So many assume they will always have a warm running vehicle.
Enjoy your family this afternoon. Jay

Jay,

I was aware of the feud. Why are such things necessary? Why can't everyone else get along as well as we do here? I feel like y'all are my gardening family and I don't want to fight or feud or even exchange cross words with anyone.

That was so good of you to help out that young woman. There's no telling how long she might have been stranded out there if you hadn't come along.

It has warmed up nicely and the snow is melting away. Good riddance....we enjoyed watching the snow fall but we're enjoying watching it melt even more.

Dawn

No melting here. Our temp is 30 degrees with 35 forecast for Monday then cold again that night, so it is not looking good here. We are taking a break from our "Mexican Train" game so that DH can handle a phone call. We just eat and play games.

What feud on GW do we speak of? Gonna check out the Gleckler's site.

I have ordered a few seeds this week, including milkweed species - speciosa, purpurescens, viridis, viridifolia, etc., a couple of tree seeds, e.g., sassafras, sweet gum, and a few nectar flowers. Plan to winter sow whenever I can get to Walmart of HD for potting soil. Will start prepping soda bottles tomorrow.

Am trying to make do with bird food. Took a hammer to some cat food and spread that on the top of the snow outside. Also plan to make some more "dough balls" (peanut butter, corn meal, chopped apples, a bit of bacon grease and molasses) for the suet feeder. Also will pop popcorn (plain, no additives). Best I can do until I can get some BOSS and suet ingredients.

Don't know what to do about my walkway right now. I am not able to clear it. Maybe an angel will come my way in the very near future! Heehee! My house faces North, so it will take awhile for the snow to melt since it gets no sun between house and out about 10' from the house. Can't find my boots, dag nabbit!

My daughter tried to get out of her driveway this morning and got stuck. She will try again tomorrow so maybe we can make it to the store. The front of her house faces south, so she should get some meltdown at least.

The cats and I are snuggled up in the living room watching NCIS for now and thankful to be snug, warm, with food, a home, electricity, and a computer so I can make contact with the outside world! LOL!

Dawn, so glad Tim made it okay.

Jay, sounds like you have every piece of equipment you could possibly utilize in a time of disaster!

Seed shopping and digital camera shopping on the Internet are consuming my time right now, too. Trying to figure out what I want/need in a digital that won't break my bank. Not so interested in high megapixel since it is not likely I will be blowing up larger images. Rather have more optical zoom for photographing my birds and butterflies along with stabilizing factor and other features. Am considering Olympus, but this needs to be a separate thread so will hush up.

Glad everyone is safe and secure!

Susan

Susan,

Let's just say that at places where tomatoes are the main topic of discussion, there are rounds of continuous sniping and oneupmanship between a handful of people and it can get a little old to folks who prefer peace and harmony. I don't want to name any names. If you go to the Tomato Forum and read the current thread about Gleckler's you'll see what Jay and I are referring to, and it isn't just here at GW but also at TV and idig and other sites. I just wish everyone could be nice and get along in the tomato world.

I think the birds here finally got enough to eat and, of course, it has warmed up a lot. There was a lot less bird traffic this afternoon than previously.

We laid in a good supply of seed just before the storm arrived and I'm glad we did because the wild critters have been hungry.

I haven't been out on the roads but have spoken to those that have and most of the heavily traveled roads here have cleared of pretty well today....but not the one where Chris slid into the ditch. It is shaded by trees along Fred's fenceline and it always holds ice and snow longest.

I hope your daughter can get out of her driveway tomorrow. Our driveway is gravel and is 300' lomg and has a bit of a slope to it, and it is much better today than yesterday but it sure is muddy and it still has some big puddles that refreeze at night. You can get up and down the driveway OK during the day, but then at night it is much more slippery. We got up to almost 40 degrees today and had lots and lots of snowmelt going on but there's still plenty left in the grassy areas.

I haven't left the house since Wed. and have a tiny bit of cabin fever which is silly.....it isn't that there is anywhere I want to/need to go, but just the idea that if I wanted to go somewhere right now, the ice/snow would make it a bit messier and more difficult than usual

The chickens are irritated. They do not seem to care much for the snow and have mostly stayed indoors even though the coop doors are open all day (but locked closed at night). I hope the snow in the fenced-in run melts tomorrow so they can go outside and play.

Now that we've had snow can we just skip the rest of winter and go straight to spring? Wouldn't that be nice!

Dawn

Susan,

Ooops. I meant to link this because the thread about Gleckler's at the Tomato Forum doesn't actually have Gleckler's in the subject line.

I suspect at least one of the more inflammatory posts on the link may be removed by GW Administrators anytime now since it includes unkind name-calling. I don't know why it is not possible to keep things civil.

I've been to the Gleckler's website, which is linked in the thread I linked below, twice now and it is very interesting. There are some tomatoes there I've never seen offered anywhere, but of course there are quite a few that our Tomato King (Jay) already has because when it comes to tomato varieties, he is "the man".

Dawn

Dawn, well I have to comment that I'm not surprised at the source of the problem. Always has been Trouble with a capital "T". Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, leaving the premises.

There is a funny "intentional or not" spelling of a certain name LOL!

Yes, I hope DD gets her car out tomorrow so I can go get a battery for my car. This not being able to get out will start to get old real fast. I just need to know that I at least have the ability to get out, even if it's not practical, you know? I can relate to how those chickens feel!

Where do you get your bird seed? I have heard it is better to buy in bulk, but that's not entirely easy for me to haul large amounts/bags of seeds, so I usually get it at PetsMart.

Susan

Dawn and Susan that is just the tip of the ice berg. Seems the time of the year that should be the merriest and instead most are feuding. Why I've left two sites and about to leave another. I'm surprised that some of the posts have been up for a few days. May need to put a rating on the sites if the language gets any worse. That is all I will say here.

Susan I hope your daughter can get out soon. I know how it feels to know you couldn't go anywhere if you needed too. Yes that is one thing about our company as they require us to be out in the weather they equip us well. And at my station I have an large emergency generator and we keep the cabinets stocked with food. And being that we are a natural gas transmission company we have plenty of it too burn and keep warm with. Getting to and from many times is the risky part. I've had new hands though go out and dress like it was 50 instead of zero. Guess that is what doing it for 35 years has taught me. Jay

Susan, I figured you wouldn't really be surprised. It never seems to end although it is not yet what I'd call an everyday occurrence either.

I am excited Gleckler's is back....they carried many wonderful varieties back in the day.

I get my bird seed at Tractor Supply Company. I don't know if y'all have any of those in OKC, but their prices (at least here where we live) are better than those at the big box stores, and I think that is true of all farm supply stores/feed stores. I buy everything in 50 lb. bags if they come in bags that large, or 25-lb bags if that's the largest size available.

Jay, I just don't know what is wrong with all those folks lately but there is a lot of crankiness, and you are correct--I didn't link one of the worst threads because I wanted to focus on Gleckler's so folks would know that it is back in business again. If some of us here started misbehaving in that way, I bet the others here would pretty much say "stop it" and, hopefully, the offending party would rethink their behavior. Maybe it is the clashing of too many oversized egoes over at those places.

I'm thinking some of the offensive statements will disappear as soon as the staff is back from their holiday break.

Dawn

I don't think that iVillage is as good at monitoring negative comments as the guy who ran the forums before them was.

I wonder why the iVillage folks here don't see a commonality there??? Too much to keep track of probably. I recall my mom saying to me, "just because all the kids jump off a cliff, are you going to as well?" LOL! I have visions of Jim Jones' followers and the Moonies! Not to offend anyone's religion or anything, but the mindset. There are a lot of vulnerable people out there that are influenced in negative ways, though and I hate to see it happen. I can only be responsible for me and my actions, and take responsibility for them and not consistently blame others. Too bad.

I have been combing thru tomato seed sites looking for the "perfect" tomato - I think I will find it between them and the folks here.

I know we have some Farm Supply stores here and will check them out for bird seed. Thanks for the tip!

Susan

Susan,

That's probably true, but I have seen some negative comments at the Harvest Forum removed in the last couple of months although that removal might have been the result of a written complaint to the site administrators. Spike was very proactive in that area when he owned GW. I think certain people get away with a lot of negativity because they have a strong following on at least one forum or because they have authored books. I don't think that's necessarily a good policy though. Everyone should be held to the same standard of civility.

You're welcome. I love TSC and every other farm store we have here. Clearly I'm a farmer at heart. I can wander around in a farm store endlessly. Take me to a mall, though, and I go straight to the store to get whatever it is I'm looking for and then I head straight back out to the car....no endless wandering there. LOL

Dawn

Don't even hint a critism of our highest political leader or you will be threatened with removal in a heartbeat.

For real?

Ooooh, so sorry fearless leaders! I meant no harm.

Dawn, I found a couple of feed stores I am going to try out once the roads are clear anyway.

I made dough balls for the birds yesterday since I used the last of my seed yesterday as well.

DD is going to come get me today for an adventure in shopping Walmart under adverse conditions LOL!

Susan

Susan,

Our biggest adventure is just getting out of the driveway. For the last four nights, including last night, our overnight lows have dropped to 16, 14, 16 and 16 degrees. So, all afternoon long the snow and ice melt and form huge puddles in the driveway and then at night they refreeze into what is essentially a 300-foot long skating rink. It takes that refrozen ice/snowmelt half a day to start melting again and then it forms huge puddles that refreeze again. Once you start driving down our driveway, you can't use the brakes or you'll slide and it is nerve-wracking.

We have it good compared to many though, and I am not complaining, just saying that snow falling is pretty and after it falls it then is an unwelcome guest that just won't leave!

Last night while we were eating dinner, our firefighters got paged out to a housefire...the 2nd one here in the last 5 or 6 days, the third one in the last month and the 4th one since November 1st. That's a lot of housefires for a county as thinly populated as ours, and I feel for the families who have had their homes damaged or destroyed. Their situation reminds me that a little ice on the ground is just an inconvenience, and not a tragedy, in the overall scheme of things.

I'm going to make suet this afternoon.

I hope y'all have fun on your shopping experience and be careful on the ice.....you don't want to hurt your back!

Next year if I start hoping for a white Christmas, I want y'all to slap me upside the head and remind me "been there, done that, and it was a mess". OK?

Dawn

Dawn, my GD is convinced that since she asked Santa for snow in her letter, he granted her singular request! LOL! Kids are so sweet and innocent about everything! Too bad they grow up to become jaded adults heehee. They glory in the smallest things that we adults take for granted. I wouldn't take her joy away for nuttin. So, I pretend to be grateful for the snow when I am grateful that she gets to enjoy.

You should advertise and sell tickets to Dawn's Ice Skating Rink! Scary to be on ice. Talk about giving up control, shiver!

Susan

Susan,

That is so cute! I'm glad she thinks Santa answered her request because kids only believe in Santa for a relatively few years. It is really fun for us while Santa still "exists" for them.

I am not liking the ice too much. It is easier to stay inside the house than to slide down the driveway. Walking down to the mailbox on Saturday was a major expedition. LOL

I need to start winter sowing or something because I'm getting cabin fever and spring fever really, really bad. I guess in the next day or two, I'll winter sow purple coneflowers and hollyhocks and kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate and whatever other flower seeds I have that need cold stratification.

Dawn

We drove to Columbus, Kansas today for a funeral and the roads were OK. There was snow everywhere except the highway tho. There was a little snow pack here and there and lots of wet spots where melted snow was coming across the road, but that is expected. I was glad we could get home before it started to freeze again though. We picked up a long screw somewhere and had a flat tire in the cemetery. My DH got the tire off then a man that was there to set the top on the vault pulled in behind us and finished the job. We were lucky enough to get to a tire shop that was open and got it fixed quickly just one hour before they closed. That was the first flat tire we had ever had on this car so we were reading the book to see where to put the jack, etc. I carry those foil bags from Sam's that keep your food cold and DH said he was sure glad I had them since he put them on the ice to kneel on and kept from getting his suit wet. Bad day for a flat.

I was hoping they would be wrong and I would not get a white Christmas,but we did! I work for the school system and I really needed to do somethings on my little mini farm, but God I guess thought I should take a break.

Tulsacityfarmer,

Apparently God thought we needed for our gravel driveway to turn into a river of mud because that's what we have now. Since the ground to its immediate south is at a higher elevation, water will be seeping out of that property and onto/into the river of mud for days. Once the driveway is dry enough for heavy equipment, Elvis is going to put down new gravel and probably some new base material. He looked at our driveway yesterday and was astounded at its rapid deterioration since the snow started falling here earlier this month. Elvis put in our driveway in 1998 and this will be the first time he's come back to work on it since then (I think), so the original driveway has had a pretty good run.

Will your land there at the minifarm dry out enough for you to get anything done before school is back in session?

I just enjoyed my first and hopefully last white Christmas and have decided that having a white Christmas is highly overrated.

Most of the snow finished melting today with only smallish patches left in spots that are heavily shaded. I don't miss the snow one single bit.

Dawn

Well, I'm just going to figure God wanted me to spend this time off with family. God is always right you know!

He is always right and I consider family time to be very precious. Still, it is a shame that you didn't get your gardening work done. I am sure you'll manage to squeeze in some time to work on the ground if it ever dries out.

I've been watching the forecast and it seems like the cold weather is just going to keep coming in waves. I hate to complain about moisture because our end of the state is so often excessively dry. Still, I hope we have more sunny days to dry things up. Today I noticed the Red River is up and running pretty full and fast for this time of year.