Good morning!!!!

[IXLR8]

I know it is a first world problem, but I got tired of the power flickering causing the refrigerator and heating system to keep cycling on/off. The refrigerator wasn't getting down to temp, the heating system couldn't keep the house up to temp. Soooo I shut off the main power breaker and fired up the generator. Now I can at least get the house up to temp and have some breakfast, with hot coffee.

Wife headed off this morning to see her kids/grandkids in NC, she had to clear a few branches off the driveway to get out, but nothing major. So that is good news.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
3 degrees with a high of 15 forecast. Temperature has dropped almost 50 degrees in 24 hours.

It was raining until it turned to snow before the wind kicked up.
When I went down the lane in the Carryall, albeit at a brisk pace, when I got to the first 90 degree bend, I spun out like Ricky Bobby, a full 270. I continued at a more reasonable speed and collected the trash and recycling toters.

Most of the day was spent cooking, baking, and puppy proofing the the things we missed. I made a run to HD for some supplies, before everything turned to ice.

Zoe was not a happy camper when we went to bed without her. She whimpered and whined for a long time. It was after midnight until she went to sleep. My phone rang at 3, it was my DIL, her parents had no electricity since noon, and were now worried about the house freezing up. So my son came up and we packed up the little Honda EU2200 and some electrical supplies so I could connect it to their boiler. I got the boiler fired up, but they have a single zone and included a greenhouse. The radiator in the greenhouse froze, an stopped the flow to the rest of the house. We put a kerosene heater in the greenhouse, hopefully it will thaw out the radiator, and nothing burst.

When I got home I figured out what quieted Zoe down. She scaled the castle wall and curled up next to my mothers 17 year old Norwich Terrier that we “inherited” when she passed away. The old dog is deaf and nearly blind, but served as the company she craved. The amazing thing is that the castle wall was a 24” tall wire pen, and Zoe is only 8 weeks old.

Now that I’m up, We will check on the heat situation at DIL’s parents. Worst case is to go get the 150k torpedo heater out of my hangar and bring it over to them.

We had a few short outages her, that were not an issue, generator started right up and carried the load, the Mitsubishi mini split in the shop is doing a great job, it’s still making heat at these low temps.

 

[Rich B1]

Good morning! -1 and has been steady for a couple of hours. up from -8 when we went to bed. No power or gas issues. But the faucet in the barn is being difficult. Have heat on it all night.

Merry Christmas a bit early. We are headed to MD, maybe, for Christmas with my wife’s family. Been 3 years since we have gotten together. I will wave at buckeye and Frits as we drive by. We still may not go depending on some weather related things.

Sorry to hear about your brother Lou.

Everyone stay safe out there!

 

[Buppies]

Gone up to 2 degrees still breezy nice help PopG. House 66 at thermostat 64 where weather station is located not sure up stairs different heat pump, bedroom 72 go figure. Bet pond is frozen this morning

 

[buckeyefarmer]

2° was the low, just hit 4° as the sun is now shining. Going to stay in mid teens today.
Pellet stove ran thru lot more pellets, but it stayed nice and warm. Was worth burning a half bag more. I had cranked up the downstairs geo also, to try to get more heat to rise upstairs.
Upstairs probably ran on aux heat most of the night, but we were warm. My monitor isn’t picking up the aux heat run time for some reason.

Cats fed, now my turn. It is cold in basement, we don’t heat it.

I remember the Boy Scouts going on a backpack hike on AT in PA where 0° F was the high for the day. My son got sick and didn’t go, so I bailed out also, but I did help drive them there. Honestly, I did not have sleeping bag for that cold.

Need to get something for wife’s Bday tomorrow.

 

[Thomas]

5F windchill -11F -16F highs low teens least winds calming down 10-20mph.

Outside chores done E muffin time.

Took quick lookzzz around this morning LOTS of limbs branches clean up come spring.

Plans for today...trip to town for critter food,couple wheel barrow loads wood in basement just in case,watch Giants defeat Vikings kinda putter day.

Enjoy your day all.

 

[daugen]

Once again Popgadget to the rescue. The amount of folks he helps is remarkable.

my water ditch is of course frozen solid at 4 degrees out. 1.66 rain two days ago had it filled.
Going to bundle up and walk out there to take a pic. Maybe walk out on it. Only a foot deep...
fondly remember going ice skating as a kid here on local canal
now if I fell I might not get up

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Rich, hope travels are smooth. western MD gets a lot of bad weather.

Popgadget to the rescue!!

 

[check]

Good morning everyone! Wow, what a super storm all over Southern Ontario. Made it up here to the cottage on Thursday, before the serious action started.

Plowed the driveway and parking area last night just around dusk, and there has been a good 6 inches or more since then, and it is still snowing. Looks like it’s going to snow all day and into Christmas day.

I will plow here again today, and then I have to tackle the rental property, which is a 500 foot driveway. Will probably have to break out the blower for that one

Many roads and highways were closed because of the storm, and it still continues. And the most dangerous part is the blowing winds and snow squalls between here and Toronto. My daughter was supposed to drive up this morning with her boyfriend, but I’m going to advise her to delay until at least tomorrow. We have had a hundred car pile up on the 401 highway west of Toronto, which is a traditional snowbelt. That was probably caused by snow squalls.

On top of that, it looks like both my wife and I are coming down with something. Coughed a lot last night, and feeling a little bit stuffy. She used a quick test for Covid and it was negative, and I will probably test myself this morning as well.

This could’ve been such a fun adventure if my daughter and her boyfriend had come up Thursday with us. She loves cross country skiing, and loves to shovel off the deck! And I love using my tractor to blow big snow. (All the snow falls to date have been pretty much piddly little things.)

Have a great day everyone, and Merry Christmas to you all!

 

[Thomas]

Try and take it easy both and your bride Check...and if you could don't send us any of that white stuff.

 

[daugen]

Check, feel better.

I was reading about another interesting part of Ontario, mainly due to the nickel mining there.
500 billion dollars worth of nickel mined to date from Sudbury Ontario, where the third largest impact crater on earth
possibly punctured the magma below and blew stuff/ejecta for almost 500 miles. And where the meteor hit, apparently largest concentration
of nickel in the world. All thanks to a meteor 1.85 billion years ago. That's way before anything large occupied the Earth, just amoebas and little squirmy things.
major extinction event and then life started again. We made it thankfully... And Canada is sitting on the riches. I'm glad it's there and not overseas.

sun is coming up, blue sky but not any warmer out. Going to put a lot of layers on and my new warm fuzzy beanie cap and go outside to get some fresh air.
And hopefully some pics. All the birdfeeders were filled yesterday, will be hopping today

 

[m7040]

good morning all and merry early Christmas, Was 1 degree early this morning and has been long time since we had anything like this cold front. We are running the big oil fired furnace in the basement. Will cost some money for sure but convenient. I may switch to wood firing on the furnace but for now it will do. Remember we almost perished when stranded in Montana with frozen gas line but was able to connect gas can on the hood to feed the carb and get out of there.
Water in the gas is something to watch out for.
We did not have any power outages and took a drive around yesterday in the Kubota RTV to look for trees down. Nothing major just branches here and there but a lot of tree shelters down where the stakes broke. Will have to go get a couple of hundred stakes from the Menonite saw mill in PA

Pop is the best neighbor to have and the stories keep coming about helping out!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 46F @ 5:00AM. Partly cloudy. High 58F. Winds light and variable.
Looks like nice weather for the weekend, but rain starts Monday night and lasts through the end of the 10-day.

Hope everyone is staying warm in this horrible weather.

I've got a Coleman stove just like that, KJC, and a modern, propane version, too. I've used the propane version during previous summer power outages, resting it atop the propane stove. With no power, the safety solenoid in the range won't flow any propane.

Refilled the hummingbird feeders yesterday. There are a dozen or so that are wintering here, more than I've ever seen before.

Spent most of yesterday taking apart another brush pile, limbing the trees, and stacking the logs. The slash went on the burn pile, which stayed lit all day. I'm hoping there are enough coals left this morning that it'll fire up again without any help from me. I need to refill some propane bottles this morning, then it's back to limbing and stacking. Probably need to fuel up the tractor today as well.

Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas weekend...

 

[m7040]

Check, feel better.

I was reading about another interesting part of Ontario, mainly due to the nickel mining there.
500 billion dollars worth of nickel mined to date from Sudbury Ontario, where the third largest impact crater on earth
possibly punctured the magma below and blew stuff/ejecta for almost 500 miles. And where the meteor hit, apparently largest concentration
of nickel in the world. All thanks to a meteor 1.85 billion years ago. That's way before anything large occupied the Earth, just amoebas and little squirmy things.
major extinction event and then life started again. We made it thankfully... And Canada is sitting on the riches. I'm glad it's there and not overseas.

sun is coming up, blue sky but not any warmer out. Going to put a lot of layers on and my new warm fuzzy beanie cap and go outside to get some fresh air.
And hopefully some pics. All the birdfeeders were filled yesterday, will be hopping today

Drew, the Greenland ice is melting fast and there maybe undiscovered riches to be found. A lot of mining companies are active and partnering with local companies.

What is underneath Greenland's ice?


In 2018, an international team of scientists announced a startling discovery: Buried beneath the thick ice of the Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland is an impact crater 31 kilometers wide—not as big as the crater from the dinosaur-killing impact 66 million years ago, but perhaps still big enough to mess with the ...

 

[ronjhall]

Drank both cups of coffee hours ago. 2° with light snow this morning. Heading to 18° with more light snow and 30+mph winds. Was without internet access until a few minutes ago. A couple blips is power. But not enough to start generator.
Went out to barn to hook up heater to tractor. Decided that there was no need to plow snow. Just cleared walkway to house and garage with shovel. Easy job.
Doing Christmas Eve with son and family.
I think I have mouse problem under control. Have not had any traps go off in over a week. Did refresh peanut on the traps.

Everyone stay well and safe.

Have a great Christmas Eve.

Good Morning All.

 

[daugen]

my walkabout was shortlived. 7 outside and was almost immediately chilled.
Met with frozen screen door.
walked out to edge of ice, looked to be about an inch thick. One more night of this cold and tomorrow it's probably safely walkable.
got my mail and scurried back inside.
First tried to straighten flag, part was up on roof.
I pulled and pulled and it was simply frozen to roof. Maybe later today if it gets some sun

 

[gstrom99]

50 mph winds (for the last 3 days) let up somewhat. We only got about 3" of snow, but BOY did it blow!!! Only 20 mph this morning, and temp up to -4. Power stayed on. Wood stove struggled to keep up. Merry Christmas to all. Stay safe, if you have/want to travel.

 

[pennwalk]

4F when I got up 10F now. Pretty brisk out. I picked up a few sticks in the front yard but decided that the rest can wait.

Youngest daughter made it into Philly from Seattle. Sounds like an icy mess out there when she left. Alaska airlines offered her $1100 to fly next week instead. I can't figure that out. Nice to have the family together.

I hope you are all warm and safe.

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

Don, One of the neighbors at the farm uses coal as aux heat. He has a shed in the back yard that they deliver to but I think you can buy it in bags.

Chris

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all and Merry Christmas Eve!
Low was a nice 23°, dew point is -25.6° ---- no chance of precip with that! No wind except for light breezes.

Hope everyone is able to tolerate the cold temps / snow / freezing rain. Sounds nasty for sure! Stay safe out there!

KP went well, the infamous homemade pierogies are done! Tough job for the wifey, but mmmm, mmm, good! Ham has defrosted, so ready to go tomorrow.

Wifey would like some fried chicken for dinner tonight.... not set in stone yet, maybe some Chinese take out instead.

Son and 2 GS's will be over later evening and then again tomorrow. We will do videochat with the rest of the family tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a chance for last minute prep and has a peaceful day!