~~How's The Weather Out Your Way~~

[Turquoise]

So how was everyone's Sunday? Mine sucked Big Time!! :( We got the 2 inches of snow they promised us. Geez, when they promise rain or mild temps that doesn't always happen. So why does the darn snow make sure they didn't lie? I do love snow, but I am ready for all this cold weather to so back to the arctic circle or wherever the stuff goes when it is 115Fin the shade and I am whining I want the snow back!:crycry2:

Thought ya'll needed a few more snow scenes since it doesn't really snow here in Texas much anymore. Back in the 50s & 60s our winters were bad! We would have at least one to two weeks of solid ice with icicles hanging from the roof. We lived on my grandparents farm 10 miles from town and you were not getting out and going any place til it thawed. :sad6:

Here are a few photos of my yard later in the day after it quit snowing. Not a lot of snow in a 2 inch fall, but Jerry went to town (I stayed home like a smart person) and he said it had drifted on the highway in several places and made it hard for the Beetle to get past. Hence the reason I knew better than to go to town.

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[Pinkbirdy]

HA HA ,Im laughing to hard at that !!! Stupid too cold weather here [drivings been horrible]]

[spiritbird]

Love that last one with the rooster. It is raining this am and supposed to change into you know what! Now what is that white stuff called again?:eeeek:

[Debra]

De' that snow is expected to be in my area Thursday and Friday. I think they're calling more for ice/sleet than snow though. Yesterday was just a cold day for us. I stayed inside and baked two kinds of cookies, put a roast in the crock pot, and stuffed bell peppers. What with being sick, all that literally wore me out. Today we woke up to freezing temps and tomorrow morning is supposed to be even colder. Someone please take that wintry weather away from here! We don't want it! I hate the thought of driving to work (crossing a bridge even) in the dark with this stuff on the road. Then getting back out in it in my bus. If I want to get paid, then I have to make it to the bus barn and clock in before they cancel school. Ugh!

[Grey]

Sunny, high of 85, not a cloud in the sky...the way it should be

[Maddy]

Love that last picture! :th_hehe: It was freezing here for most of last week. Saturday had gorgeous weather, and yesterday was SO HOT.

[Honesty]

Great pics De'Andrea :)

Here was me thinking that you just do not get snow in Texas :hehe2: I would love to see some snow at the moment. We have had 3 months of rain and it is getting beyond a joke now!

Just make sure you order plenty of sunshine for me when I come to Texas in October :th_biggrin:

[kendrafitz]

We are in the midst of a snowstorm AGAIN. I am seriously done with winter this year. But the groundhog had other ideas. ;) Kids home from school and it looks like we are getting another big storm this weekend. At least Jef is home to snowplow this time around! ;)

Great pics De'Andrea. I never would have thought Texas would get snow!!

[Turquoise]

Yep, we do get snow at times like this winter, but as you can see it rarely gets very deep. Although Good Friday in 1996 we got 13 inches of snow over night and the area got 22 inches of snow. The temps the day before it snowed was in the 90s. It was so heavy that many store roofs were caving in under the weight since we don't build structures to accommodate so much of the white stuff. By Easter Sunday that year most of the snow was melted from temps back in the 80s. LOL

Debra you can have all this stuff in my yard and then some. LOL I do hope it doesn't get as bad as it sounds like it will for you. Jerry said he heard we are in for more Tue night. We will be back at work by then and I sure don't want to work or drive in it either. As far as I live from work it adds an extra hour to my drive to & from work. That means on days like that I get barely 3 hours of sleep before I'm back up to take the long slow drive again & a 12 hr work night.

George & Maddy~~shame on ya'll for rubbing it in for the rest of us shivering in our jammies in the house!! :)

Wendy, you will be surprised when you come visit Texas. Nope, you won't see cowboys riding down the street on horseback with their side arm strapped to their leg, unless they are having a parade in town. And no you won't find outhouses behind the homes, maybe some port-a-potties. And yes you could encounter temps from as low as -17 to 100+ in Oct!!! :th_LOL: But I will definitely order sunshine & wind when you come down. Sorry, but the wind comes with every type of weather we have! It is just a natural occurrence for us til the middle of summer and it is +115 in the shade & your begging for a breeze. :(

Kendra I think I heard last week or when the last cold front that came through before this one Houston even got snow. it almost never snows in Houston being so close to the gulf. What was it, 27 yrs or something like that since it has snowed in Houston, but it can happen. :th_hehe: We get snow more up in my area cause we are close to the high plains and there is very little to stop the relentless & cold Canadian winds coming down. Most of the tree breaks & natural grasses were taken out in the early part of the 20th century to make more farmland through the plains states and it caused the big dust bowl drought. Now we get the pleasure of the winds and they can be cold!! It just doesn't last long here in Texas when it snows like up your way. :)

[Turquoise]

OK, now this is getting ridiculous. When I started my work night last night at 6:00 pm it was +20° with a wind chill +6°. The winds have not stopped blowing since this last storm system moved in over the weekend.

So I just checked the temps for our area and it is +15° with a -2° wind chill!!! Not to mention light snow flurries again!!!!! :( I want my normal Texas winters back!!! I have to work out in this way too much for these temps.

And the price of propane is outrageous compared to a couple of months ago. In Nov I had my propane tank which is used solely for heating the house purpose filled. It needed about half the normal amount and I asked how much if it had needed a full load? It would be$350.00 to fill a 200 gal tank. So that lasted til last month and I had them come out to fill my tank full just before I started hearing there was a shortage due to so much use. And along with that shortage came a huge price increase. I imagine price increase! I got the bill for last month's fill up and it is a whopping $475.00 bucks!!! My tank has not increased in size and looks like my pocket book won't either.

[Turquoise]

Ok new temp update since I wrote the previous post. My temps at 4:00 am are +13° and a -9° wind chill !! Not liking this one bit & the snow flurries are getting heavier. Two more hours til I can go home and added time to my drive due to the white stuff! Not to mention less sleep. :(

[Rita]

Hello De'Andrea,

Over here in the Netherlands we have a "soft" winter. It's warmer then normal and we didn't have had any snow yet this winter.

I saw a TV-program in which they showed the benefits of freezing weather though, for housewifes and cleaning.
Things you can not was in your washingmachine (like duvets, (dow) comforters, quilts, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals etc. etc.)
should be hanged up outside.
The freezing temperature kills all the house dust mites.
As you probably know there are millions of house dust mites in every item, so this really using the freezing temperature is a big benefit.

Another advice was filling up glass pots for abour 3/4 (no more because ice takes more space then water!) and put them in the garden to freeze.
They used peanut-butter pots etc. for this with the lid on!
After some hours they placed these pots with ice into the refrigerator. With this "free cold" the refrigerator used a lot less energy!
I had never thought about that.

I realize you don't like cold weather and snow. I don't either. But I hope this cleaning advices do bring you some joy though.

Greetings from the Netherlands,
Rita

[Feathers First Aviary]

We just got our electricity restored after being off for a day and half, not bad considering they were telling us it could take until sunday!! We got a really bad ice storm tuesday night resulting in a half inch of ice covering everything. It was then followed by really heavy winds, the result was broken trees, limbs and poles everywhere! Last I checked there are still over 40,000 people without power just in central pa and there is a state of emergency(first from our governor and then from the pres) declared. We have friends less than a five minute drive from us that still don't have power. This winter has been obnoxious to say the least! Supposed to be getting another storm this weekend although I don't believe this one is expected to be too bad thankfully.

[Debra]

Wow! Thankfully they took out the bad weather from my forecast. It's just very cold right now.

[Feathers First Aviary]

Hello De'Andrea,

Over here in the Netherlands we have a "soft" winter. It's warmer then normal and we didn't have had any snow yet this winter.

I saw a TV-program in which they showed the benefits of freezing weather though, for housewifes and cleaning.
Things you can not was in your washingmachine (like duvets, (dow) comforters, quilts, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals etc. etc.)
should be hanged up outside.
The freezing temperature kills all the house dust mites.
As you probably know there are millions of house dust mites in every item, so this really using the freezing temperature is a big benefit.

Another advice was filling up glass pots for abour 3/4 (no more because ice takes more space then water!) and put them in the garden to freeze.
They used peanut-butter pots etc. for this with the lid on!
After some hours they placed these pots with ice into the refrigerator. With this "free cold" the refrigerator used a lot less energy!
I had never thought about that.

I realize you don't like cold weather and snow. I don't either. But I hope this cleaning advices do bring you some joy though.

Greetings from the Netherlands,
Rita

That's really interesting, I once saw a show and they were saying that you should never, or very rarely wash your jeans in water, they said you should instead freeze them to kill any bacteria. I don't know, that whole idea kind of grosses me out, but then again I usually wear $15 jeans and they end up with bird poop and formula on them daily, I assume this suggestion was for "normal" people that have expensive jeans that they want to really last without thinning or fading :P

[Pinkbirdy]

We just got our electricity restored after being off for a day and half, not bad considering they were telling us it could take until sunday!! We got a really bad ice storm tuesday night resulting in a half inch of ice covering everything. It was then followed by really heavy winds, the result was broken trees, limbs and poles everywhere! Last I checked there are still over 40,000 people without power just in central pa and there is a state of emergency(first from our governor and then from the pres) declared. We have friends less than a five minute drive from us that still don't have power. This winter has been obnoxious to say the least! Supposed to be getting another storm this weekend although I don't believe this one is expected to be too bad thankfully. OH NO Sara , [did it get cold ?] We just had a bad storm [and I was worried about the power going out] I was on the road in it . The only way I could tell if I was on the road was look up at the telephone poles [scary]

[Maddy]

Today it was cold and rainy. Which made our time at Disney quite miserable.

[Feathers First Aviary]

OH NO Sara , [did it get cold ?] We just had a bad storm [and I was worried about the power going out] I was on the road in it . The only way I could tell if I was on the road was look up at the telephone poles [scary]

Luckily it didn't get too cold in the house since we still had the woodstove burnin, but it's in it's own room and really needs the fan running to help circulate the heat. We also normally have an electric heater running in the bird rooms but it only got down to about 62F. We had some awesome friends come bring us a generator around 2am and then we got to plug our fridge, bird heater and fan in. I was really worried about our fish but luckily we only have loaches and pleco's which aren't the most demanding when it comes to o2 levels :) The worst part about losing power here is that our house is built into the hillside so the entire back half of the house, where the birds are, is in the hill and has no windows, so it's literally pitch black in those rooms all day when the power is out. We ran to the store and got some battery operated LED lights and lung them around the two bird rooms and our bedroom(which also has 4 birds), so they could at least see enough to eat and drink, they definitely didn't seem happy about it. You should have heard them all this morning when the power kicked back on and they had their regular lights, I don't think they have ever been that loud!

It was also a bit frustrating, I was supposed to be shipping a bird to alaska today, because of this storm fiasco I only got 2 hours of sleep and woke up late, instead of having the bird at the airport at 11:30 like I had planned(1:32pm departure), I didn't get there until about 12:40 and they wouldn't let him board! I was so mad, the guy was like, you have to be here at least an hour ahead of time.....really, ten minutes....*sigh* so now I get to go back to the airport tomorrow morning :/

[Pinkbirdy]

Wow ,that must have been trying . I bet your birds were singing with happiness.

[Pinkbirdy]

Sara ,hows your goffin doing :)

[spiritbird]

We have sunshine this morning, a rare event this winter. Road was closed off yesterday as men were picking up broken branches and trees that fell in the ice storm.

[Debra]

I feel for you folks with the nasty weather. I'm relieved that we have apparently been spared the ice and snow. Although, we did have about 10 minutes of snow flurries today. Hopefully that will be all we will get.

[Honesty]

We have 100 mile an hour winds forecast for the weekend and torrential rain :( The flooding in the UK this year has been awful! Many homes are under water :(

[tonkatiel]

31 here today (87F)... I want snow :(

[Honesty]

31 here today (87F)... I want snow :(I want your heat Emma :)

[Turquoise]

Oh My Sara you have sure had a time with your weather & electricity. I am pleased to hear you were able to get back up & running soon and didn't lose any birds due to the outage.

I am glad our weather has not been bad enough to break power lines. In past years we have had that much ice build up and break lines. The last time I can remember it getting that bad was back in the mid 1980s and some folks didn't have power for a month due to so much broken lines and the Co-op we belong to couldn't get to all of them for that long. We were lucky and were on lines that were not affected.

I was curious Sara, you mention you were sending a bird to Alaska. I have been trying to find out if birds can be shipped to Alaska and all I could find was Air Alaska will ship birds out to the states. Delta, Continental nor United said they shipped to Alaska in anything I could find. I needed to know so if in a few years I can get my birds shipped up to my son in Fairbanks, AK if we do decide to move up there like he wants us to do. I already told him I would not move unless the birds can go. He told me they could be ferried out of Washington, but I looked into that and parrots are not on the approved list as they are exotics. Only domestic birds can be ferried out like that.

I know the dogs only need a health certificate good for & up to 30 days of travel through Canada, but in searching about parrots going through, it could become a major hassle. I'd rather just ship them by plane and know they are there safely for him to take care of til we get there if we do move. That is not going to happen for at least another 5 yrs or so, but I like to know what I am up against and if I can plan something like that. I knew they have parrots up there & several rescues, so not all those parrots had to be raised in Alaska.

[spiritbird]

It is snow.wing again. The ground just cannot seem to say a natural color. The doe and her yearling keep coming to the bird feeder. I can see what must be the hoofs of her fawn to be born yet. She is getting so heavy and hungry. Been feeding her cracked corn and praying none of my neighbors complain.

[ShellyBorg]

Its raining in the WEST! It will not be enough to stop the drought but every little bit helps!

[Pinkbirdy]

Another storm due tonight:tmsmakesme: . If my kids have any more school off [ Im going to go out of my mind ]

[Turquoise]

Still cold here in North West Central Texas! Weatherman said it would be colder today and tomorrow. Maybe more snow, but not an absolute. So looks like when I get back to work on Wed night it will be another cold night outside again! :(

Yesterday (Sunday) was supposed to be nice and sunny. We had heavy fog in the morning hours til about noon and the temps never got more than the mid 40sF. I so want my normal Texas winter back!!

[Debra]

I'm with you on that De'! We had nice temps yesterday, but today we're struggling to keep mid to upper 30'sF. It's drizzling too. Cold front is supposed to come through today turning the drizzle into freezing rain/sleet. This means that the roads are going to get icy tonight. This weather is supposed to last until Wednesday morning. I'm not looking forward to getting up tomorrow morning and going to work. :th_nervous1:

[spiritbird]

The weather people say we may be in for the worst one yet Wed into Thurs. When it is going to quit?

[Debra]

Jerry went out and looked my brother's very small generator over and was able to get it started. We went after work today to get some extra gas for it. It's only big enough to handle one heater. That's all I need -- just something in the bird room. I can take the three in the living room and squeeze them into the bird room to keep them all warm if it comes down to that. I must remember to thank him for storing that here. lol

[Turquoise]

Hope it doesn't get that bad for you Debra and Dianne. Let's hope no one has their electricity go off with this new blast. :th_hug8:

Losing power when I'm at work is my biggest fear in winter for my birds. I have no one to call on to come turn on the heater which will go off too. The darn thermostat on it is run by electricity attached to the heater. It shuts it completely off and has to be physically turned on again. This particular heater can't be turned on with a low flame. It only runs on high til it gets to the desired temp on the thermostat. If turned on by hand and left on all night it would overheat the house and use all my propane in one day. Plus my remote wore out on the burner button that sets it to auto and when the batteries came loose it reset to off. I called the company to order another, but the guy told me it was too old (9 yrs only) and the remote can no longer be replaced. I messed with it for two weeks and finally poked the burner wiring spot with scissor tips and got it back to auto. (Pheww!) Now I hold my breath that the batteries hold out til warm weather as it comes on on auto again. We will be changing this heater out for a wall heater with a separate thermostat not affected by a power outage this coming fall. :)

We are supposed to have temps in the teens again til Wed and then it is going to be back in the 70s the rest of the week. We did have a little ice today and very slick highways. I stayed home all weekend and today. Tomorrow is supposed to be worse! :(

[Debra]

We didn't get the ice they were predicting last night. They are predicting it for this afternoon also, but the skies just don't look bad at all. I'm betting we won't see anything. Thank goodness! This high humidity, however, is playing havoc with my asthma.

[spiritbird]

Deb I hope things are calm there. We are expecting 10 - 12 inches of white stuff tonight and tomorrow. Power loss being a major concern for bird people I called the emergeny hopsital where I take my birds (routine and grooming visits too) to inquire if they will keep Chipper and Daisy if we have an extended power outage. To my surprise they said they could as the hospital has a large generator for power. That is a big relief.

[Debra]

Things are pretty good here now that the sun is out and temps are warming. They say we'll get to around 40 today which will help things immensely. Roads were clear by the time I went in to work thankfully. Kids were rowdy because they were wide awake for a change. :th_LOL:

[kendrafitz]

Hope you don't lose power Dianne! Glad that your emergency vet will take your babies if you do. Stay safe and warm.

[spiritbird]

It is 7:30 am here in Md. and where I love there is snow over 1 ft. already and it keeps on coming. This is a major storm and I hope everyone is safe. Praying for power to stay on. :th_omg:

[kendrafitz]

8:45 am in NJ. Supposed to go until tomorrow early am. The only bright spot is it may turn to rain this afternoon before turning back to snow. Hoping maybe some will melt? As long as it doesn't turn to ice...

1919

[Debra]

Oh, I hope you all are safe and keep your electricity on. Dianne, if you lose power, will you be able to get out to take Chipper and Daisy to the vet's office?