Not very bad here, in OKC. Roads are slick, and the TV peeps make to think the world will end unless you went to the store. :)

Moni

North of Grove we had a little sleet but not enough to cover the ground, followed by snow. Not much snow yet. Most of our trees have already lost there leaves so unless it gets much, much worse, we should be OK.

Enough sleet here to cover the ground and still coming. No freezing rain though, 10 miles west of stilwell. My daughter, 10 miles east of Stilwell, said they got a little freezing rain early this morning before the sleet started.

We had only the tiniest amount of barely-there precipitation during the daylight hours, and it was mostly freezing rain. It seemed like a lot of it evaporated before hitting the ground. I broke a layer of ice off the leaf of a holly to see how thick it was right around sunset and it was only about 0.02" thick.

Sleet started falling in late afternoon but still was light. A couple of hours ago it started falling a bit more heavily. It is starting to cover the ground really well. From inside the house looking out, I'd say at least a half-inch has fallen, mostly in the last 2 hours. It might even be closer to an inch.

So far, conditions here are not nearly as bad as we were told to expect, but then there's still a lot of stuff falling and lots more headed our way.

Yeah, it looks like the snow will come in overnight and a couple inches more at a minimum are likely for the Tulsa area. I'm worried about the trees in the southeast OK area and Arkansas because of the rain and the temps in the 20s there.

Yikes! It's so cold I must wear shoes in the kitchen. Mesonet claims 17 degrees. There's about 4 inches of frozen stuff on the ground. And currently still snowing.

Please pray the pecan tree limbs hold up. There's not a darn thing we could do if it hits the roof.

bon

We got a festive amount of sleet, really started coming down hard after dark last night here in Durant. Roads are just a sheet of ice covered with what looks like snow now as well, although it could be sleet pebbles. It is still precipitating out as well. Trees seem to ge doing ok in my yard, i was concerned about our pecan tree, but it has done well so far. It looks like we wil be getting snow/sleet for a bit still. I have seen only one vehicle driving by thus far, we live near the top of a steep hill (paved) and the truck seemed to make it up ok...

By dark, last night we had a little ice on our roads and more on the vegetation. Just about sundown we started into a fairly heavy snowfall of really large, wet snowflakes. By 9 PM the flakes were much smaller and drier. It flurried all night and is continuing, here just 11 miles North of Tahlequah. Presently I'd estimate that we have about 4" of snow on the ground. It's 19 F.

George, who is off work today ;)

Well i live in bixby work in tulsa. about the same in both areas. 2-3 inches of snow on top of 1/4-1/2 inch of sleet/ice with a little more coming. Roads kinda suck but going slow and its fine. This is the first year in the last 10 that I didnt have a 4x4. Front wheel drive is not too bad. There are a bunch of morons driving WAY to fast.

Mike

My thermometer reads 20 degrees on the open porch. The snow started early afternoon yesterday with a layer of sleet early. Big fluffy snow fell fast yesterday then finer snow still coming down steadily now. Stinky dogs were in all night and very surprised when I opened the door and said OUT. I estimate 5 or 6 inches of snow on the ground.

Good morning everyone, Here in Hartshorne we received about 3/4 of sleet then it stopped about midnight. Around daylight it started snowing big wet flakes, and its all sticking.
It looks like we've got about 2" now with more on the way.

No one has drove down my street this morning and it sure looks beautiful out there, and it helps me to get in the Christmas spirit.
I think the only thing to do now is relax and catch up on some reading I've been putting of.
Have a blessed day everyone.
James.

About 4" at our house and still snowing at 8:30am.
Dog and I went out and shoveled and played ball!!
Tried to buy a snow shovel at a garage sale last week and DH said "you won't need it here" Never listen to him again!!:) So I used the shop broom and garden shovel. Got it done!!!

Scott, The trees look really good here since we only had the tiny amount of actual freezing rain. A decent-sized band of sleet is over much of central Love County, dropping sleet both east and west of I-35. That band is, according to local news, dropping sleet on I-35 corridor from Thackerville northward to Ardmore in Carter County.

I haven't been outside yet, and I kinda hate to put footprints in the lovely white "snow", but I am about to go out to feed and water the chickens, and put out food and water for the deer, rabbits and song birds.

I was hearing lots of reports last night of power outages in the area SE of us on the TX side of the Red River from Pottsboro to Paris, but haven't heard any news from the OK side of the river. McCurtain County looks like it took a pounding, but haven't heard what sort of trouble all that precip may be causing there.

Dawn

Just actually measured. We have 6" of snow.

George

I have not been outside since yesterday morning. The ground is covered with snow, but I expect it is less than 2 inches. The trees have a pretty good covering of ice and several areas near are without power. but our lights have not even blinked.

Still snowing.

Larry

Still light blowing snow here. We have about 4-5" of sleet and snow combined.

It is right at 16 F today. With no electricity to the greenhouse we took coals from the woodstove out there last night. I guess they helped some, but it is 25 in there right now. Under the sheets that we put over the greens it is 35 so that is good. If only the sun would come out it would warm up in there.

Our border collie mixes took to the doghouse last night. Usually they spend the night just laying around the yard unless it is raining or snowing or blowing cold air out of the north. The cats are shut up in the pumphouse. And the wild birds got warm water to go with their sunflower seed this morn.

I will be making my seed orders today, plus calling some catalog companies to say take my name off your mailing list. I get a few catalogs way out of my price range.

Our snow south of Tulsa is coming to an end now with about 5 inches on top of the half inch of sleet.

We won't be resuming the pecan harvest for at least a couple weeks I guess. No temps above 32 in the next 6-day forecast.

Jerreth and I went out to do chores and found that the snow is still falling pretty heavily. My hat brim was piled high with snow after only 40 minutes outdoors.

Dorothy, our livestock guardian dogs LOVE this weather! They have been alternately frolicking in the snow and...napping in it.

I'm so glad we're stocked with all the essentials and don't need to go out today.

George

Our precipitation looks more impressive when you're indoors looking out than when you are out standing in/on it. To me, it looks like about 2-3" of very hard-packed sleet on top of a thin layer of ice. It is packed down so hard that you only leave very slight footprints in it when you walk across the yard. It kinda reminds me of a skating rink, but not quite as slick.

We had about 2 minutes of big fluffy snow flakes right as the sleet storm was ending. All the precipitation is now well east of us.

Chris drove from Dallas to Marietta this morning and, from the vantage point of driving I-35, he feels like the parts of Love County he saw may have had 4-6", but there was so much drifting caused by the wind that it is hard to be certain.

Tim is snowed in/iced in down in Dallas where he says everything is a mess, though the TXDOT people and their contractor crews have been working hard to keep the roads driveable.

The roads don't seem that bad here, but that could change tonight when anything that isn't dry will refreeze in the bitterly cold temperatures.

I have heard on our local news that there are a lot of power outages in the Bryan County (Durant) area and in the Caddo County area to its east. I believe they got more freezing rain there than we did here because I was watching the radar all day yesterday and last night and could see that they were more in the freezing rain area and our county was right on the dividing line between the sleet area and the freezing rain area.

Scott, I think we are supposed to go above freezing on Wednesday, which right now feels like it is 100 years away.

If anyone here is attempting to drive south on I-35, Chris says that once you get south of Gainesville, TX, the road conditions are significantly better.

Dorothy, I didn't look in the greenhouse because I don't want to know how bad it is.....

Some of those catalog companies that used to be in my price range certainly have increased their prices right out of my range too.

We have tons of wild birds here today and put out all sorts of food for them. They are having a picnic while the cats sit inside and stare out the windows at them. The dogs are like children---out to the back yard to play, then in again, then out, then in. The chicken coops are open so the chickens can go out into their fenced run, but I put their food and water inside, so they are staying inside.

George, The dogs are so adorable and look so perfectly content there in the snow.

I'm dreading the ultra-cold temperatures tonight. We do not often get extremely cold here since we are so far south, but our forecast low is 6 degrees with a forecast wind chill of -7.

Dawn

Woo hoo! As of 12:05 p.m., we have sunshine! It may not last long, but it is nice to see it, even if only for a brief while.

Snow has stopped for now and we have a total of 5 and 1/2 inches, which includes 3/4 inches of sleet.

It's 21 degrees outside now, and look like it'll be the middle of next week before it gets above freezing, so we'll just have to wait it out.
James.

Snow? Check.
Ice? Check.

We have several inches of snow, maybe 5-6 although I haven't actually measured it, I can see the depth on the picnic table. My garden, which hasn't been cleaned, is covered with birds looking for food. Our snow is almost like powder and when I threw bread crumbs out the back door for the birds, it sunk about 4 inches into the snow. I think I have a small amount of cracked corn that I can also put out but I will have to clean a spot for it or it will just fall through the snow.

I would say we had about 4 inches of fluffy snow in OKC. VERY easy to shovel...yay! Driving home last night was dangerous because of all the idiots on the road. I stayed home today. I enjoyed the solitude, cookin, FBing, ect, but I think I will be ready to get out and mingle tomorrow.

I realize I'm a bit out of place (NW Arkansas near Fayetteville), but I had a house in Chelsea for 12 years...so it's habit to come here :)
We have about six inches of white stuff, about 1-2 of which is sleet (aggregate at this time...not melted together.
Me and other garden friends are worried about the low temperatures and hope the snow insulation prevents loss of plants (evergreen and maybe a little zone denial). Of course in the scheme of things, the plants are less important than being warm and safe during this weather. We had no significant icing on trees, so we're good in that aspect.

Well, school was out, and thus, I had a day off. I did venture out and shoveled snow.

out front

{{gwi:1140284}}

out back

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Not sure, if I can survive a day of "just house cleaning". :)

Moni

NW Arkansas counts :) you are always welcome! I have plants in pots I forgot to bring in...I am sure they are toast now!

Larry is in Arkansas near Ft Smith and Helen is in SW Missouri, so of course you're welcome here.
8 here this morning. 19 in the greenhouse, but still only 30 degrees under the sheets protecting the plants, so they should be ok, especially if the sun comes out at all today. Doesn't take much sun to warm it up in there.

I always have plans to do things in the house on really cold days, but somehow it takes a lot longer to get them done than it should.

Welcome dbarron

We had a forecast low of 6 for last night but only went down to 13. We are up to a toasty warm 19 degrees already this morning.

dBarron, You're not at all out of place. We always enjoy hearing from anyone/everyone and have several forum members who don't live in OK. I'm glad you're here with us today. Hopefully the snow/sleet will insulate your plants well enough that they will survive.

Moni, I only clean house when I am bored....and I am bored today but I am not that bored. I cleaned house yesterday, so other than mopping up the sleet and mud brought indoors by feet and paws, I don't really have any cleaning to do today.

Lisa, Ooops. I always forget to bring in something in pots too when the weather turns bad, but this time Tim and I moved them all several days ahead of the previous ice storm a week or two back and I just left them in the greenhouse. I haven't peeked inside the greenhouse today, but yesterday everything looked fine. Last night was cold enough that I don't think everything will look fine today.

Dorothy, I always have a mental list of things to do on bad weather days, but sometimes I just don't want to do them, so I ignore the list in my head.

I-35 TRAFFIC ALERT: For anyone here who knows anyone trying to travel on I-35, either southbound or northbound, south of the Red River, you should know that miles of the interstate are completely shut down between Denton, TX, and Sanger, TX. Not only is the highway a slippery mess with several inches of ice covering it, but it also is blocked by abandoned vehicles. Many people were stuck in their vehicles near Sanger for 10-12 hours yesterday. Some of them moved a quarter-mile or less in that 10-12 hours. The prospect of bitter cold temperatures caused folks to finally abandon their cars and trucks and leave them in the middle of the interstate while they sought shelter from the cold overnight temperatures. Thus, even if someone thinks they are a good enough driver to creep and crawl down icy I-35 in TX, they cannot get through that area because of all the parked cars and trucks. When I hear that roadway has been reopened, I'll let y'all know. I hope anyone traveling up from Texas for Bedlam made that journey before the interstate shut down near Sanger.

On the Oklahoma side of the Red River, I-35 and the state highways in Love County largely were drivable yesterday as long as folks drove slowly and carefully. The ODOT workers worked long and hard with the snowplows and sand trucks to keep our major highways open and as safe as possible here. Of course there were some folks who slid off the roadways into ditches, but not nearly as many as in previous ice storms. I think most people here stayed home and didn't venture out.

The only real trouble I heard about on I-35 in Love County yesterday was when traffic back-up from wrecks in Gainesville, TX, backed up all the way to at least the 6 mile marker in the southbound lanes of I-35 in OK. That back-up lasted for several hours yesterday afternoon/evening.

From watching local news, I know that Hwy 75 in Sherman is also a huge mess, though perhaps not as bad as I-35 is near Sanger. If you're in OK, you should stay here! (grin)

We have friends who had planned a weekend of Christmas shopping in Dallas and they are, instead, at home in Oklahoma.

Tim is iced in at work, but planned ahead for that, reserved a room at the main fire station, and took a suitcase with enough clothing to last a week. Freezing rain has turned the DFW metro area into a huge mess. I certainly would rather be here than there.

Now, I guess we can sit and wait for the next round of freezing precip to arrive. It won't hurt my feelings if it misses our place this time.

Dawm

"Some Mesonet wind sensors in parts of Oklahoma may be impacted by frozen precipitation (snow or ice). This may cause the wind chill temperatures we report on our maps to be warmer than expected."

They predicted 3 degree low temps for overnight. They read it at 2 degrees. I keep crying with gratitude that the wind is down. Otherwise we'd all be hunkered around the stove. We're warm, but it's a tad drafty in our house for these temps below freezing.

Is it too late to say I'm sorry? I know I wanted winter precipitation... but I was expecting something normal. Oh wait... it's Oklahoma.

dupe

This post was edited by ChickenCoupe on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 19:17

Jerreth tried to get out and go to Tahlequah this morning. The road in front of our house is good. But the hills on either way to town are impassible. We're so glad we have what we need for a while, without having to go anywhere!

Bon, I hear you about being grateful that there is little or no wind.

George

George, we're in the same situation with hills as you and Jerreth are except that we have to go down hills from our place and you have to go up. Either way, we're stuck.

Some good news: the forecast I saw a few hours ago showed lows only into the teens (instead of around 5 degrees that had been predicted yesterday) for Mon-Tues. That makes a big difference as far as getting water to livestock.

Pic on the right is this year. I'm grateful it was not like 2011 :)

We have a sloping driveway that is hard to navigate in icy weather, so once ice is falling, we just stay home.

Our weather improved drastically today, getting warmer than forecast (forecast was for 30-31 and we hit 37-38). It was sunny and ice started melting. Of course, now we are back below freezing so the ice is refreezing. We had a light dusting of snow this morning that was falling while I was outside taking care of the animals. Had it been rain, it likely would have amounted only to a "trace" of precipitation.

Roads in Love County are pretty decent, especially on the highways where ODOT workers have done a great job, working almost nonstop day and night, to keep the roads as clear as possible. Between sanding and snowplowing they have made it possible for traffic to move pretty well as long as people drive at a speed that is resonable for the amount of ice that is on the roadways.

Tim made it home after being iced-in in Dallas. It took him 5 hours and 6 minutes to make his usual commute, but he made it home before the roads began refreezing. The highways down there are a mess with lots of cobblestone ice, so I was just glad he made it home safely.

I hope we all get lots of sunshine and warmer temperatures the next couple of days so all this ice, snow and sleet can melt and go away.

It sure seems early in the winter to be having frozen and freezing precip.

Dawn

I'm glad Tim made it home safely. Truly, this is early. The kids having been satisfied, I hope we don't see much more below-freezing temps. We're not above it, yet.

Oh mah gollies. Slept in late until 7:30 this morning. Worst morning to do so. Seriously COLDcolor=blue> toes this morning. Temp raised +11° in the last 3 hours.

Usually, we're turning up the fire no later than 5. Whew

It was chilly here this morning, Bon. The weather must perplex the NWS. They had forecast that our low would be 12 degrees, but then they raised it to 16 degrees, which sounded a lot better to me. So, what happened? At our house we went down to 13 degrees (brrr!) and at our mesonet station it went down to 10 degrees. That is too cold for early December!

A lot of ice was melted today, but it started refreezing even before sunset, so the schools here in our county cancelled classes for tomorrow. That's four days the kids have missed here--Friday, Monday, Tuesday and now Wednesday. We usually don't even have that many snow days built into the school calendar, so somewhere along the way---either at spring break or in May, they'll have to make up some of those days

Our highways were mostly clear and dry, but the side roads, especially where the pavement is shaded all day by trees, are still just a sheet of ice. It is like there is one step forward with ice melting during the day and then one or two steps back when it refreezes at night.

We made it up to 38 degrees today and it felt great. Actually, I am surprised at how good it did feel as I went outside without a coat and felt fine. I wasn't outside for long without a coat though because the packed-down sleet is just too slippery and I didn't want to slip, fall and break a bone. I fed the birds and hurried right back inside.

I am completely over winter already and just counting the days until spring.

Dawn

Yesterday was the first 'normal" day where we could bundle up and go outside and feel comfortable. And it finally started melting. We have been unbearably cold. Temperatures didn't rise above freezing until today and it seemed to struggle to get there under full sun.

After reading what Scott posted I'm dreading the rest of the winter.

I believe we went through almost 2/3rds of one cord of cedar in just the last week. He only brought in two cords and that was a huge score.

We'll need to find a warm spell and get more to last the winter. Hopefully, we'll find something besides fast-burning cedar. I have a good indication of how flammable it is, now. And the bark... wow... lights up faster than lint!

Bon,
My professional firefighter son and husband are horrified that y'all burn cedar inside your house. I told them that I am sure you are using cedar that has been well-aged and dried out, because fresh cedar is filled with a resinous sap that can cause the limbs to explode, sending burning sap flying through the air. (This is one reason wildfires in cedar-filled areas spread so incredibly fast....that burning resinous sap spreads fire further faster.)

About 25 years ago, the vice president of the corporation I worked for suffered severe burns to his hand especially, but also to his arms and face when burning cedar exploded and the hot, resinous sap flew the air and landed on him. His recovery was very long and painful and left scars, and I've been cautious around cedar every since.

There, now that I have told you how horrified we are every time you mention burning cedar indoors, I won't mention it again, but I hope you keep a fire extinguisher handy and a thick wool blanket that you could use to smother a spot fire if a log explodes and sends burning sap flying.

Everyone here in our community is just sick over the death of a long-time resident and physician who has served this county for, I suppose, his entire adult life. Dr. Vergil Smith was struck by a vehicle and killed while in the process of retrieving his mail from his rural roadside mailbox on Monday evening. He was just a day or two away from his 83rd birthday. I cannot even put into words what an immense loss his death is for this community, for his family, his friends, and his patients. Due to the longevity of his medical practice, he had served as the family doctor for several generations of some families here. He truly was the father of medicine here in this county, and his tragic death has hit everyone here so very hard. This is not the sort of thing you ever envision happening when snow, sleet or ice is in the forecast, and it serves as a reminder to us all that we need to be extra careful and extra cautious during bad weather.....and, even when we are, sometimes terrible accidents still occur.

If it is possible for the heart and soul of an entire community to be torn into shreds, ours truly is. Everyone here is just devastated. I am SO over enjoying the pretty white snow this year because we have been forced to remember that it carries ugly side effects as well.

Dawn

Dawn, that is just terrible and I am sorry for the loss in your community. That's a tragic, tragic event.

My heart dropped. I'm saddened to hear about Dr. Smith. And now I'm mad about it.

Dawn, I don't take anything you write as criticism but wisdom. I did not know this about cedar. Now I do. That being said, I haven't heard much popping but rarely and it seems normal. I suppose if it were not aged, it would be popping like mad since we've burned so much of it. (Now that I'm thinking about it, I bet Bill knew about the cedar issue before he got it.)

Rest easy, though. It's an old sturdy but small heavy cast-iron enclosed stove. It even has a surface on top to place a pan, but that requires temperatures higher than I can tolerate. The iron surface is smooth and without any visible cracks.

A burn from flying sap is possible but that window of opportunity is smaller than an open-faced fire pit. The dimensions are even more narrow. I think the door opening is .. like ... 8" wide x 18" high with only about 10" clearance for log width. It tickles me because that stove gets Bill's lazy goat. He must cut those logs no greater than 18" in length and split them down to fit. He has a keen eye for dimensions. He gets my goat by splitting them down to 1/32nd or to 1/8th of an inch of the width of the opening. They get stuck on the 2" flap (door latch). It forces me to concentrate just exactly how that log is going in, because with each log Bill readily knows there may be only one way. It's frustrating but his mind is brilliant this way. He's being lazy, though. Even though the fit may be exacting and frustrating (to me, not him) he knows a further split isn't necessary. lol

Sometimes, though, it's better to keep things simple and with a wider tolerance. Okay, I'm thinking "idiot proof", but hey.. not the sharpest tool in the shed. Maybe that's why my back is bad and his isn't. And he's probably trying to get the greater mass for the slower burns.

We're always on top of this stove. Unless I'm in the tiny bathroom or uncomfortable bedroom, it's within my peripheral vision. It joins us for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It watches me as I work on the computer. It stares at me while I'm washing dishes, too. I get sick of it until my toes feel like ice cycles.

I'm not happy with the pipe. Your husband would be appalled. Poverty is always appalling at some point. But it's visible from the back door and it's a simple setup. Between the dogs, the rabbits, the stray animals, the garden and lawn chores and kids, it's constantly watched. I'll watch it even closer, now. I'm keen to the debris coming out of the pipe and I did notice materials of concern while burning this cedar wondering what was different about cedar. I fashioned an emergency water supply (outside and the hose can be run indoors too. Tiny place.)

We've saved the remainder of other wood (oak, I think) to burn long and slow at night. Almost out.

The fire department is only a few yards away. They finally moved in to what looks like the Taj Mahal compared to the rest of the city. I'd rather avoid the need and have a friendly chat. Poverty sucks, but one need not be stupid. Paying attention can mean life or death. I guess that comes full circle to the last part of your post.

Okay, I'm mad again.

bon

Mia, Thank you so much for the kind words. Dr. Smith had practiced medicine here in this county for 50 years. There are just no words to explain how important he was to everyone here. He was not only a fine physician, but a well-respected much-beloved leader in our community. Today I believe we will have the largest and most well-attended funeral ever held in this county as everyone comes together to celebrate the life of this remarkable person.

Bon, I want to be mad, but instead I find myself trying to look at the situation that occurred as a tragic accident and I truly have compassion for the gentleman who hit him. A couple of years ago, a young girl suffered fatal injuries in an accident involving a miniature train here. It would have been understandable if her parents had shown anger and bitterness toward the gentleman who was driving that miniature train, but they didn't. They showered him with compassion, forgiveness and love instead of anger and bitterness. Their example of such grace and wisdom in the midst of such a terrible tragedy reminded me that we can choose how we react to tragedy, and they chose to react in the most incredibly loving way possible. I believe their actions set an example the rest of us here in this community will try to emulate for the rest of our lives, and even now at this time of such heart-wrenching grief, I hope we all remember that the person driving the vehicle that hit Dr. Smith surely deserves compassion and forgiveness as well. Was I angry when I thought of the senselessness of the accident? Sure, but you cannot dwell on that anger and you have to let it go. For this community to heal from this tragedy, we have to focus, I think, on how Dr. Smith lived, not how he died, and we need to celebrate everything he meant to everybody here for so many decades. It is hard when a community sees one of its true heroes pass away, but this community will get through this.

People here in Love County take seriously the fact that 'love' is a part of our name, and I know this will sound silly, but it is true. Every single person I've ever met here will do anything and everything in their power to help someone else, whether it is someone they know or just a stranger passing through town. It is what makes living here so special. People here in this county do not have an "us" or "them" mentality. As a community, we have a family mentality, that everyone here is our family and we all have to love and take care of each other. It is simply the most amazing place to live. We live in and with love for everyone here every day. I think of our community, no pun intended, as love in action every day.

I do feel better about y'all burning cedar knowing it is inside a cast iron stove. I assume such a stove would contain the sap and not allow it to escape. It is good to know the fire department is nearby and that they have a good, sturdy building. I know from experience that it takes years of planning and fund-raising to get a fire station like that funded and built, whether the department is a professional one or a volunteer one. It took us three years to get our fire station built, and a few more years to get the entire interior of it finished to our satisfaction. Unfortunately, until you have an official fire station building, your department cannot apply for government grants (which are hard to get anyway because so many departments need them and competition to earn one is fierce) and you surely cannot easily get a loan either. You really aren't a fire department without a station, as far as governmental grant-funding organizations are concerned. Looking back, I am amazed we ever were able to scrape up enough funding to build our station (which is huge and beautiful to us but not fancy). We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Sam Noble Foundation, based in Ardmore, which gave us a significant grant that paid for a good-sized portion of our fire station. We wouldn't have this station that allows us to serve our community within their generosity.

Tim said to tell you that the ash from cedar is sort of sticky like creosote and builds up in the stovepipe, so y'all need to keep an eye on it and clean it out as needed during the winter season! We just don't want a terrible tragedy to happen to y'all.

Dawn

Tell Tim that's good to know. As it exists we replace all the pipes every year. Bill leaves it up or out in the weather and they become easily worn. (We put the stove away off-season because our house is so tiny) Not terribly expensive, anyway.

They built the fire station right along with the new police department building appropriately calling it the "safety station". As I recall, when inquiring when they were moving in, I received disgruntled responses. I think the city held them up. (Not surprised, there.) I know the police department is corporate owned. I also know our fire department is highly esteemed. Hopefully, they worked out a mutual arrangement that benefits everyone.

With exception given to my dogs' ears, I'm very happy they're near by.

We haven't even visited yet! In fact, sounds like something we should do with a break in this weather. I've been waiting to get my big compost bin set up. I plan on asking them for their coffee grounds and such. LOL!

Well, now, my doityourself handyman husband and I are concerned about your pipe that needs to be replaced every year. If it is a single layer metal pipe there is a danger that it could transfer too much heat to the wooden structure of your house. The product that we have used for over 40 years is double wall chimney pipe with insulation sandwiched between the layers. It is more expensive, but once installed through the roof of your house it lasts for many many years. We're still using the one we installed in our old trailer 30 years ago. If I am misunderstanding your situation, I apologize.
I certainly don't mean to be critical either.

Is okay. :)

Not sure how much description I should add LOL The flu is running through the wall where a window once existed. We use Bakelite for fire-rated materials. Of greater concern is the rating of the materials under and surrounding the stove. What exists is not sufficient. For free and cheap materials brick or stone comes to mind, but the floors cannot handle further weight without requiring reinforcing the sub floors and foundation. More money. I'm thinking some type of metal, not sure.

It sounds like your flue setup is safe. Dh says check on Greyboard at a building supply for wall protection. It is used to build firewalls between apts. We have a 5x5 manufactured floor board that is not very heavy, but we've had it so long I wouldn't be surprised if it has asbestos in it. In a place where I chipped it, it has a spongy texture. We once built a floor board of ceramic floor tile, but that was not really cheap and it wasn't removable being glued to the subfloor. My brother built one on a piece of plywood that was removable. It was heavy but not as heavy as brick or stone, being thin. The floor isn't as much of a concern as the walls if you keep a good layer of insulating ash on the bottom of the stove. But I do hope you can find something for the walls. You used to be able to buy thin metal floor boards that could also be used on the walls. My grandfather had one under his stove for many many years and nothing on the walls except wallpaper. I doubt that they are available now though that these things are so regulated. And I do apologize for poking my nose in your business but as my grandfather used to say, "Fire is a good servant, but a bad master."

Thanks! Your grandfather was spot-on. I hadn't thought of fashioning a temporary floor in such a fashion. It's given me thoughts. Part of the difficulty is where it's at and limited space. Anything permanent is just horribly wrong..
The stove is so little, it won't take a whole lot. thank goodness