The Good Day All Thread

Melody, I don't know how much heat the old stove insert would provide without power. It uses a fan to distribute heat.

I've been lobbying for a generator for YEARS now. No "I told you so" was said, but the topic did come up again.

I was not a lot of snow. The bigger problem is other drivers who are not adapted to snow driving. When you are stopped at an intersection and someone comes sliding towards you from behind or doing donuts in an intersection, it's hard to know what to do. Or someone is riding a bicycle in the middle of your lane, going up hill so you cant see to pass. I tell myself, it's inexperience, or maybe they don't have other options.

I left the faucets dripping fast, opened the cabinets, closed the curtains. It might be a couple of days before I can return, so the house might be in bad shape. Or not.

My neighbor was going to try to tough it out, then went to their son's house in town. She told me the roads were much worse when she left.

 

It isn’t clear from your posting here— did you have to evacuate your home, mate? It must be getting bad there. What is your living conditions? Please do stay in touch if you can. Folks here might worry for you.

Update: oh…excuse me, I had missed your last posting on the preceding page. I see that you guys are safe at the in-laws. That is a relief. Still, it would be great to hear from you periodically during this weather emergency.

Mind how you go.

 

Good Sunday morning all. Currently -6°C and mostly cloudy with strong winds.
We made it through 3 separate wind/snow storms this weekend driving home from competitions and today we get to stay home.
DD didn't place on the podium this weekend, but she did have new 'personal best' scores and had fun and thats what matters.
Today we catch up on laundry and cleaning and also I need to pamper the pooch. He was so upset with me when we finally got home late last night. He's already had his walk and now hes warming up by the woodstove. Poor pup has such a tough life haha
Have a great day all

 

The predicted arctic front arrived, and as my husband predicted, the power went out. He had prepared for it with the solar lumens placed strategically around the house, extra blankets for the bed, water trickling from faucets, and the kitchen cabinet doors open. We lose power frequently, so we know the routine! Fortunately the power came back on at 5:45 a.m. and has stayed on. Trusting souls that we are, I have a thermos filled with coffee and another of soup "just in case."
Not much going on today except keeping warm and heating soup. When the power stays off we ask neighbors to come over and huddle around the wood burning stove with us, and I try to heat some soup on the coals. We have had neighbors show up with a can or two of soup!
Hope you and yours stay warm and happy today. Come on springtime!

 

Netty— I think your daughter can be well proud of her personal best. It is a score that some under-rate; however, it is an important step to the podium. It was great news to hear. You know we like skating over here.

Marlin—Burrrrr. It sounds so cold there. Great that neighbours can come to you in these cold times of need. Who wouldn’t be happy with hot soup. Do you also serve bratwurst or some sort of sausage with that? Oh, I am a big fan of neighbourliness. We here say that a good neighbour is better than a distant friend…but you knew that, right.

 

I know the feeling. The hens we had in Texas were the same. I would drive into the driveway after work or picking my granddaughter up from school and they were so cute, running up to us as if to say, "You're home, you're home!"

 

Back home now.

The power company has an app showing where outages exist. That was very handy.

I tried to choose a route I thought least likely to have problems. I worry less about the road than about the other drivers.

There were several massive trees down. Kind of sad about that.

The house was fine. It was very nice to drive past it and see the lights were on. No pipes were frozen.

The hens and ducks were all OK.

This year: I will buy a power generator. There is probably a run on them now, so I will wait a bit.

 

We were very fortunate we did not loose power. Knock on wood. Lost power three times last week due to 60mph winds.
Large areas of north western Oregon was shut down from this last Artic Blast due to trees downed, power outages and ice.The Portland airport already had issues considering the door incident fell off the airplane while in the air and turned around back to the airport a few days ago. Can’t imagine sitting in the airplane with extreme cold temps while flying. No one was hurt thank goodness.
Thousands are backed up at the airport between the weather and the door incident. The plane models were all taken out of survice left thousands stranded .

I struggle with the dogs letting them out very long at -6 degrees. Some want to play in the snow and pic ice chunks up and throw in the air. Others just want back inside. Every time the door is opened sends chills down my spine.

El Niño has brought the PNW colder temperatures in 30 years . Just thank goodness for the trusty lil wood burning stove it really warms up the house during power outages. Easy to cook on too.

Incredibly this uncharacteristically cold weather has been through out the whole country. I worry about the homeless and pray that many will have a warm safe place to go. It breaks my heart . The homeless in Portland has grown to epic proportions and this cold weather isn’t over yet.

 

Good to hear you are back home, Daniel…and with no broken pipes. Good that the animals were fine.

 

Daniel, good to hear from you. I was worrying a bit about you.
Pac, your dogs are certainly well cared for! Letting them out for a bit helps them blow off steam and makes the house more peaceful (experience gained in upstate NY). Check their pads please for ice balls. I kept a bucket of warm water handy to dunk our dog's feet in when he came in from frolicking in the snow.
Our cat hasn't been out in two days. It was 18 degrees yesterday, and she insisted she wanted out, so the door was opened for her. She felt the blast of cold air and decided indoors was much better than outdoors.
Amazingly, the power stayed on last night, despite light rain that froze on everything it touched. We are anticipating another outage. The power company has issued a "voluntary conservation" notice so if the power goes off, they can blame the customers--"You didn't conserve!"
Guess I'll get off the computer and "conserve". Hope you all have a good day!

 

Good Monday morning all. Currently -15°C and sunny! Yes, sunny! I can't think of the last time we saw sunshine! Colder temperatures are the price we pay for sunshine, and I'm fine with that today. Our -15°C is more seasonal for us than its been, so its finally starting to feel like winter.
Cleaning to do today. My decluttering efforts continue, but I'm having trouble staying focused. As long as I get a little bit done each day I'll be happy.
Have a great day all

 

The reports of the power outages is so disconcerting. How does that work? What fails, the power lines, the power stations something else?

 

Sjoerd, the outages are caused by several things--a car hitting a power pole, lines being downed by ice or fallen trees, or poor or nonexistent maintenance. There is a national grid that states belong to (except Texas) that can be tapped into to provide power if the local or state cannot. When the extreme cold and snow and ice hit us in 2021, about 200 people died due to carbon monoxide poisoning (sitting in a garage with the vehicle motor running so they could get warm) or simply because they were in an uninsulated home with no heat of any kind. The ex-governor, Rick Perry, said that Texans were willing to be a "little chilly" to keep the government out of our business. During the four day freeze, he was in Oklahoma which is on the national grid. Rick has been noticeably silent since then.

 

Astounding news, Jane.
If I were a Texan, I wouldn’t be cold, I would be flaming hot with crossness.
The grid business aside, some of those other factors could have been corrected it seems.
Your remarks about what Perry had to say— don’t just love it when others make decisions about someone else’s situation.

 

It’s to cold -22 and just chillin.