Last night down to 18.7°, higher than forecast, so I'm grateful. Went out and brought in a water bowl that the birds use. Had to heat water to melt the ice so I could put fresh water out for them. I miss the hot water from the faucet. Guess I'll have to heat water to for a spit bath again....groan. Remind me again...we ARE still in Texas, aren't we? Seems more like someplace else!

We just got home from DD's. Had to make a grocery run, so we stopped by and took lunch. I didn't realize how bone chilling cold it was out there. Our neighbors e-mailed from NM and asked us to check on their house if the electricity went out. 'Said they left a faucet dripping on the side of the house and the heater set at 60 inside. I walked over this morning and the faucet was no longer dripping, but I could see a blob of ice on the ground under it, so it had been dripping. I'm torn between e-mailing her about it (already alerted them to the water fiasco that wasn't a real problem) and making them worry...or letting it go since there's nothing we can do about it now.
What would you do? I'd want to know...but some would rather not. I remember coming home one Xmas night and the whole side of the next door neighbor's garage was an icy waterfall. The pipes had burst and also flooded the gameroom inside. I called them at the in-laws with the bad news and she said, "Oh well, that's what we pay insurance for...."

I think it depends on why the faucet stopped running.Is it running now? I thought that you leave the faucet running in the house, not outside.

It's frozen, no longer dripping...and the handle won't budge. If I try to open it more, I may break something. I think our neighborhood will have to hire a plumber to go door to door up here. A lot of us are going to have problems.
DH went into the kitchen to get a drink of water out of the frig door. The ice dropped down, but no water. The copper water pipe to the icemaker is frozen. It begins under the sink and snakes all the way around the right side wall to the frig. Just keeping our fingers crossed it thaws without a problem, or that's going to be expensive.

Well, I would tell your neighbor. I am sure she would rather be able to decide what to do. I hope it will all be ok. Be careful. We had that ice since Tuesday. Now it is snowing. (but ice underneath!)

I sent her an e-mail last night, but I haven't heard back. They're either out skiing or on their way home.

It's beautiful and white here. A soft blanket of powdery snow. Just enough for the kids to skid down our steep hill. I was out earlier taking photos. I've had two cups of hot chocolate and am ready to go out again before the sun melts our little bit of snow. Most of our neighbor dogs have never seen snow...and it's so funny watching them...

DH is reading the newspaper online in his chair! No delivery today. He grew up in IL and doesn't understand our excitement over such a little bit of the fluffy stuff!

I bet all the northerners here for the Superbowl are doing the same.

You're right! I hope it clears a bit. I know a lot of businesses are counting on traffic from those football fans.

Just a very light dusting of sleet last night. First day above freezing in several days...felt good! The down side is the water had to be turned off also, after bad leak showed up. Should be fixed tomorrow...if we're lucky. Forecast says about 19° tonight.

Sorry about your leak Linda. Hope you have bottled water until the leak's fixed.

Our neighbors' outside faucet that quit dripping is okay now. I was able to turn the faucet a bit this afternoon and saw a few drops coming out. By late this afternoon, it was really running. The neighbor to the side of them saw the faucet running, called us, and we set it to drip again. The faucet in front of their house had stopped too, and we managed to get it going again. Went inside their house and opened all the faucets in the bathrooms and kitchen to drip.

Unfortunately, another of our dear neighbors is undergoing chemo this week and the faucet near his front door froze. When it thawed this afternoon, water spewed everywhere from the copper pipe. He had to call a plumber and the guy had to chip out the rock wall to repair it. Not what he needed right now.

Our pipe to the ice maker has thawed now and is working just fine. All is well here...until at least Thurs. when another storm may blow in.
Our street...good for sledding, not so great for driving!

The epitome of irony..........the pipe to the ice maker being frozen

We rec'd no snow....but too much frozen precip.....resulting in ice-covered everything........hundreds of accidents throughout the area...including a very serious fatal collison near us....2 killed. Returning from work yesterday morning.....I witnessed on two occasions.....reckless, inconsiderate
&%#$@+#'s passing multiple cars (driving safely).......and they're passing at a high rate of speed....hit the center strip of ice...losing control and endangering other folks...fortunately,...no innocent folks were hit....one ended up sideways across the road (after spinning around 'n round)....the other ended up in the ditch......I'll admit that I laughed...and jeered at them.
We've not experienced any black outs....so everything in the GH is doin' good so far! C'mon Spring!

I'll take snow over ice. We have limestone walks all around the house, and the front walk slopes to the front door. It would have been treacherous going out to get the newspaper early yesterday IF the carrier could have gotten up the hill to deliver it! As long as the snow was on the walks, it was okay. 'But when the sun started going down after the snow had started to melt, it was really slippery going out the front door. There's still ice in the courtyard.

We decided to go out this afternoon...for no other reason than to get out of the house. It was worse than Christmas week! Traffic jams and crowded stores! We didn't last long! The mall near us had a packed parking lot! I guess we weren't the only folks who felt trapped inside yesterday.

Hoops held, doesn't look like I've lost much. Some soggy, brown leaves...more from being dripped on from the ice cold condensation on the plastic. I've learned I can't save them all.

Yep,.....been my experience too,....the damaged ones usually the fartherest removed from the best air circulation....like next to the walls but not touching......those are the ones for me....I TRY to put the most cold tolerant next to the walls....not always the most attentive when rushing to protect as many as you can..like you said.....can't save them all {and.... I need to get out of the habit of too much propagation of any particular plant(s)}

Unfortunately, I'm also cramming things in at the last minute each fall. Not much "placement" thought goes into it until too late. I'm learning, tho. I did have a couple of in-ground hibiscus blooms near the heater.

We got the water back on yesterday, and all is well. Well, one valve is going to have to be replaced, but it can wait. Another front later in the week...nothing in the teens (so far), but possible ice. Speaking of ice...

The Frostweed ice hung around for quite a while (but gone now, of course)!

Great photo! Good to hear the water's back on. I hope we don't have another sustained freeze. i guess I'm spoiled by the mostly sunny weather we have here. I hate when it's gloomy outside.

Ready for another round o' sub-freezin' weather? Was 27 here last night....worst is yet to come....(hopefully....the last)

I'm committed to having a good crop of Okra this year....haven't planted any for a couple of years

I'm getting ready to go outside and take photos of the inside of the hoops. Going to cut off some of the frozen gunk too. We had a halogen bulb burn out on the stand that we use in the ginger pot hoop. Gotta make a trip to HD.
We're going to have freeze tonight with sleet and possible freezing rain.
Okra ! Yum! They cook it on the grill here!

From last week...snow on the hoop over patio off our gameroom.




Everything looks warm and toasty....even had a smoking loon out there when it was in the teens.

Hoop house in snow... Ferns and some tropicals that aren't as cold sensitive...+hibiscus and gingers that are in ground. This one's along the fence line.