Sunday 3 PM. It's rained lightly enough to get everything very wet and now it's getting icy out there the temperature having dropped to 30˚. The little birds are having ariel battles over the cylindrical bird feeder with it's new birdseed which is almost empty for the second time today; goldfinches, sparrows, house finches, titmice, pine siskins; the other bird feeder with it's heavy sunflower seed content has cardinals and robins and the overflow of small birds from the other one. And handful of grackles have shown up and after emptying the pan of corn and peanuts for the squirrels one will swoop in to the bigger bird feeder and scatter all the little birds which are back quick enough. I'm not seeing the white wing doves or chickadees though.
Sunday 10 PM, 22˚. Some white stuff on the ground, sleet we think.
Marc went out and turned the water off, I took the electric heater with me to bed as my room is the farthest from the heat/AC and colder than the rest of the house.
Monday 8 AM, 16˚. Marc turned the water back on from the meter and we have water in the upper part of the house. The water lines to the little bathroom are in the attic and those lines are frozen. Good thing we replaced all those old water lines with PEX after the flood. They won't break.
Monday 8:30 AM, 16˚. Filled the bird feeders again, birdbaths frozen solid, turtle pond frozen over except for one small circle where water from the filter pours back in. I hope Big Mama is OK, I imagine she's hunkered down by the pump which generates some heat.
Monday 9:30 AM, still 16˚. Sun starting to come out. Bundled up, sweater on the dog and took her out to take care of business since she absolutely refused to go out yesterday and walked around the yard. She took care of her business trying not to touch that white stuff while she walked across the yard. Completely forgot about the star of India gardenia which I could have moved into the garage so I hope it survives. It's one of the plants I moved from the city house.
The buddha is unperturbed.
Monday 11 AM, accuweather says 17˚ but TV says 21˚. Filled the cylindrical bird feeder again. The sun continues to peek in and out. Lots of people in the surrounding areas are without power but we're good so far. Still no water in the little bathroom.
Monday 12:30 PM, 22˚. At least a dozen little birds have flown into the glass of the back door so far. They've almost emptied the cylinder bird feeder again though a lot is on the ground. I can fill it up one more time and I think that might be it and I'm not going out on those icy streets to get more. All kinds of wrecks and pile ups are happening out there. I've been taking videos of the birds mobbing the bird feeders but they don't seem to really show the madhouse.
I don't care for Blogger's new video insertion tool because the video is too small (or at least I haven't figured out how to insert it larger). Anyway, if you want to see a big version where you can actually see what's going on here's the link to youtube.
Checked with the grandgirls, Jade and Autumn (San Antonio and Austin) have power, Robin (Houston) does not. My son (Houston) does. My daughter here has power but no water. Friend Gene (Hockley) is holding his own with power going off and on.
Monday 2 PM, 21˚ (real feel 5˚). The dog insisted on going out. She walked all around, trotted down the street, I think headed over to check on my sister and the boys, but changed her mind when I didn't follow. The birds have knocked so much seed out of that bird feeder I'm not filling it again until they eat what's on the ground.
Monday 3 PM, 21˚. The dog and I are headed for the couch, blanket, and book.
Supposed to be even colder tonight, down to 11˚.
It is not supposed to last long but i do feel worry over
ReplyDeleteBig Mama. Our snow is melting quickly. It really was a beautiful two days!
It does look crazy icy cold there. Love the calm Buddha and all the birds. So kind of you to keep them fed through this cold spell. I hope things warm up soon and all the critters and humans stay safe warm. Take care there.
ReplyDeleteWe are having sporadic rolling power outages. Some stay off for 15 minutes some 45 some 12.. It's really 18F right now. The airport weather station says 26. I got my doctor's appointment moved to Thursday because there is no way I am taking a chance on slipping and falling on ice. Stay warm, darlin.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting, I've been wondering how it was going all day. Stay warm, carry on.
ReplyDeleteOur temps are in minus category and we have been getting alerts about not using power, one electric company turning off every other hour to conserve energy. We have a wood stove, so not too worried. I am ready to move south!
ReplyDeleteOh, Ellen! I hope you can just hang tight and that the power stays on and that you are all warm. Our birds have been flocking like that around the feeder too which makes me wonder if the weather predictions are accurate. I sure am thinking of you.
ReplyDeleteSuch blessing you still have power. Let's hope it stays on. And the birds are clearly on high alert for fuel, too.
ReplyDeleteKeep warm. Please check in as you can.
You might as well be in Ohio, except a big dump is headed our way, so better Texas. It's business as usual here. The usual weather.
ReplyDeleteI think about your plants and am so sorry. Thanks for feeding the birds.
Graepel maybe that first pic. Polar Vortex is a new tradition.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to imaginew your (to me) tropical garden with snow, so now I know. It's the same shit as here.
ReplyDeleteOur birds prefer to pick feed off the ground in winter, there is probably a clever explanation to it, but they make a mess first and spread it far and wide and then pick in peace. I also feed them with fat in the winter especially when the frost stays on, you can make it yourself https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/diy/how-to-make-fat-cakes-for-birds/
I hope this cold spell is over soon, I can just about imagine how disgusting it all is for everyone, dog included. Stay warm and pretend you don't mind.
I cannot imagine 11 degrees. Not in the South. Those birds are really packing on the calories, aren't they? Hope the gardenia pulls through.
ReplyDeleteOh -- a tip on the video. I usually don't use Blogger's tool. I copy the embed code from YouTube and put that in my post in "HTML view" mode, and adjust the size (usually knocking it up 50 points both horizontally and vertically). When I switch back to "Compose view" mode, the video box shows up in the post. Hope that helps!
Deletethanks for the tip. I did try embedding the code from youtube into the compose function but it didn't turn into the video after I published, just stayed the code. next time I'll try embedding it in HTML view.
DeleteI'm getting cold just reading this! I have friends in the Dallas area who've been without power for over 24 hours now (I think - the last post from them was 12 hours ago).
ReplyDeleteI love how Minnie must have thought that it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, so she decided to go out again. But she's wrong, right? It IS as bad as she thought it would be :)
You folks really got the worst of it. I am so sad watching all the power outages and even a tornado!
ReplyDeleteJust love watching the birds feeding and quarreling among themselves... such fun!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem has been the loss of Verizon. Usually, when the electricity goes out and I lose wifi, my iPad switches automatically to Verizon, and on I go. Now? Not so much. I couldn't connect today when the power was out, and now I can't make or receive aclls, or access my voice mail. I think I read that they're having problems with loss of electricity, too. I went to Randalls today, and heard people griping about it over there, so I know it's not just me. Of course there's no way to contact anyone at Verizon to inquire.
ReplyDeleteIt's been really, really bad for some people in Austin and Houston. I've had occasional outages, but no longer than two hours. So far I've still got water, and when the power came on late this afternoon I fixed some chili and had a hot shower after the water heated up. Now, I'm just going to do what I can online, and if it goes out again, I'll go to bed and start over in the morning. What a mess -- but the birds are happy with me for keeping them well supplied with food.
I should write a descriptive post about how we all are dressing these days.
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly the birds savior. Will the bird food store deliver?
I still have a bag of general songbird mix that should last til it warms up.
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