Nice Change

The weather here has been pretty spectacular this past week.  Full sunny skies and warm (almost 80) after last weeks Arctic blast.  Today it has turned off gray and wet and will continue through the weekend.  But that's typical for February down here. 

We need the moisture badly.  From what I see in my Bluebonnet patch, we haven't had enough (during October) to have a good crop of them this Spring.  It's been a very nice change after last weeks freezer.  Wildflowers may be scarce this Spring.

The prolonged freeze has done a number on ALL our shrubs and trees.  Every leaf is brown and nasty, even our oak trees.  Our large shrubs that are resistant to cold are also brown and wilted.  I am not too worried about the oaks, I don't think they were permanently hurt.  They will just get an early start on dropping their leaves like they do in the Spring in preparation for the tassels and new growth.   The large shrubs, I am not so sure.  We may be replacing a lot of plants this Spring.  

The pup (Snickers) has really started coming out of his shell.  He has been a lot of fun especially during these COVID and weather shut ins.  It's been two months and he has finally started initiating play with me.  That's a big change as when we got him he seemed not to know how to play.  He still loves 'K' the most, she's his person for sure.  His anxiety when she leaves for errands has decreased.  Still needs a lot of work though.  He has become used to eating in a 'crate.'  WE have a soft sided one so he can ride in the car instead of 'K' holding him constantly.  That will be necessary for any day trips or road trips.  Can you imagine having to hold you dog for the entire trip?  Here are couple of pics of the little guy.

He loves the Granddaughter almost as much as 'K'

This is his waiting for me to make a move pose 

Best guess is he is a Jack Russell mixed with mini-dachshund.  He ain't Aussie pretty but he is pretty cute.  We are considering taking him for basic obedience class.  I have taught some basics before but those were the Aussies I did that with.  They apparently are smart enough to figure it out.  This one needs a little help.  teaching Sit is the easiest thing to teach.  Not with this guy.  Part of the problem is his legs are so short he is already almost on the ground so the things you do to get them to sit is pretty ineffective.  At least that's my story.  

Happy Trails

Snowpacalypse 2021

Saturday the winter storm seems to be finally over.  We have bright sunny skies today.  Temps are only in the 40's and it's pretty windy so you do need a light jacket if you're outside very long.  We finally started getting a trickle of water around 4 pm Friday.  Not enough to be useful and it would stop occasionally. Just enough to tease us.  This morning we had water on all faucets finally but very low pressure.  It's noon now and it seems normal now.  We are on a boil water warning.  I have purged much of the water that may have been in the lines along with the dispenser on the fridge.  'K' risked a shower and it held up.  

I had been worried about the water heater.  The dreaded know it alls on social media were telling everyone to shut off their water heaters so they wouldn't burn up.  I didn't.  It made no sense to me, as long as there was water in it there should be no risk of burning out the element.  But I wasn't positive after reading all the know it alls reasonings.  I won't repeat anything I read but some of it was really strange.  I'm trying to be nice.  Apparently I was correct.  I'll get my shower after I'm through with the brisket on the pit.  I get very smoky when I do that.  

My Mother still has no water.  That is 7 days.  She spent a couple of those days with my cousin.  She is back home and my Brother took her some water.  We will probably do that early next week if she is still out.  I will look into this in the mean time.

Here are a few pics of what it was like here.  I know it's not much compared to other places.  But it was pretty bad when you have no water, many had no power, many ran out of food and the the stores ran out too. 

Click on each to get a better look.  The first two are panoramic so you need to click

                                            Front looking from the street

Back-the little pup (Snickers) loved the snow.  His legs are so short his belly was dragging in the snow.  But he didn't mind at all.  It was fun to watch.

This is why we can't get out-about an inch of ice under the snow and it's about a 10' rise up to the street.

There are a lot more pics but I'll spare you.

Happy Trails

 

And Again! Rant Warning

We are getting more snow as I write this.  Already appears to be about an inch and is supposed to continue into this evening.  Our low was just 26 and it's still that at 11 AM, much better than the 7 of a few days ago.  We are still without water.  Around 33 hours without.  It's an area wide outage not just me.  Apparently lack of power to the pumps and then the above ground lines froze.  Then they blame leaks in folks houses from broken lines to cause even more problems.  I like how they try to deflect blame with that last one.  Very few people in our area have any broken pipes.  Nice try.  I guess they are feeling the wrath of everyone that are upset with the incompetence of the big wigs that make the decisions at those utilities.  However don't blame the guys that come out to restore your power or water, they have no control over the decisions.  They are just everyday working stiffs.  I am thankful for them.

I have become a little more informed about our power grid.  It is run by a semi private organization called ERCOT.  The folks that run it are appointed by the Governor and legislature.  None of those folks are from or live in Texas (I read this but can't verify).  That really irks me.  They have been catching a lot of flak due to their mismanagement, and rightly so, of the power grid.  Someone's heads should roll.  But we will see what our failure of a Governor will do about it.  He has called for an investigation..by the legislature.  SMH.  More deflecting?

There has been some blame on this power fiasco placed on the green energy.  All those windmills out in West Texas have failed, they are frozen.  The solar farms too have failed there is no sun.  While the power they supply is only a part of the power we get, some say this failure lies entirely at the feet of green energy.  Yes they deserve some blame but not all.  While I am not opposed to developing alternate energy to 'supplement' our power supply, to rely on it to the point that when it fails folks are without power for days is just not right.  The blame should fall at the feet of our governor and the legislature.  Let me explain why briefly.

Our State has spent 19 billion dollars on the green energy industry in the last 15 years.  The last few legislative sessions here in Texas has seen bills filed to improve our weak power grid to avoid just what we are experiencing.  3.5 million Texans without power.  Every time these bills come up they go nowhere and nothing was done to strengthen our power grid.  Yet you can be sure the green energy industry got theirs.  Do the math.  Failed leadership from the governor for promoting green energy over power grid upgrades/stability.  Failed legislators that voted to promote green energy over the power grid upgrades.  Did they get their pockets lined?  I don't know.  I read this: "19th century technology at 21st century prices" is what we get with green energy.  And like you would suspect, older technology has failed.

Plenty of blame to go around.  How are you going to vote next time?  You can add this failure onto the pandemic failure.  Now the vaccine is having issues even getting it distributed.  If you need the second dose, good luck with that.  They are having even bigger issue getting that out there.  This list could go on and on so I will stop.  

So how's your day going?

Happy Trails

Make It Stop!!

Wow.  Things are pretty strange here with this weather.  We are frozen in.  I mean we can't actually leave if we needed to due to all the ice.  It hasn't snowed any more but we had freezing rain last night.  We woke up to no water.  It's only 33* this morning so I don't think any of my pipes are frozen.  It's been as low as 7* and we never lost water.  The utility that serves our area is the same that serves the entire area of San Antonio.  They have been having problems with water supply to homes all over the county.  Their equipment is apparently freezing up along with power being out to their pumps.  I'm hoping it's something on their end and not mine.  Strange that it happens now that it is warmer.  I managed to get out to the meter and shut off the supply line there.  I couldn't get my shut off cover open.  They say if you have no water to shut it off at the meter to prevent any breaks later.  I have never heard this before but I did it.  

If you live in Texas you are aware of the power problems we are having.  In short we they are geared up for peak power usage during the summer when everyone demands AC.  During the winter they actually shut down some power plants.  I guess it takes a while to get them powered up because there are a lot of folks that have been without power a long time.  They are also having rolling blackouts to help conserve power.  Somehow we have not been hit with any of those forced blackouts.  My Mother had been without power  and we couldn't get to her.  My cousin that lives nearby managed to drive over and bring her home with her.  But she didn't have power either.  They now have power as of this morning.  Power will be the next be issue/controversy with our lawmakers.  They are already catching 'heat.'  See what I did there?  We have one of those nest thermostats and the local utility has some access to it and they lower the setting for a couple hours to help save power during critical need times.  They have it lowered right now this morning.  We are trying to do our part.  I can override it if necessary.

Now they tell us more snow tonight.  Really?  I still have a couple inches on the ground.  Hopefully this 'warmer' temp will melt a lot of it and some of the ice before we get more but then the melt will probably freeze again.  We have been better off than most folks.  At least we don't have to be in line at the grocery store like I have been seeing.  It could be worse.  Keep warm, Keep safe.

Happy frozen Trials

It's COLD!!

I know, it's a lot colder everywhere else.  But you have to take into consideration that we aren't used to this type cold and we don't want to be.  The thing is, starting today it is going to get much colder for the next couple days.  Where I live it may get into the single digits.  I have only seen that once in my lifetime in this part of the State.  That was back in the winter of '89 I believe.  We had eight straight days of temps below freezing.  We reached single digits multiple times.  Officially we got down to 0* one morning.  We live a bit North of there and at a little higher elevation, I read -2 on my thermometer then.  That was way to cold for this Texian.  We don't even have clothes for that type of weather.  The only thing good about that was we didn't have any precipitation with the cold as so often happens here.  If you want to see a circus just mix freezing temps and moisture and it is a clown show.  No one here knows how to drive on ice or snow.  Now that we have so many transplants from elsewhere lately there may now be a few that do know how.  But they take their lives in their hands if they get on the road with a native.  

As I write this, it is now 25* down four from this morning.  It hasn't been above freezing sine sometime Friday.  Not sure what they are predicting now as it changes every few hours.  I am sure it will be in the teens before morning.  We have a light mist falling at the moment and a coating of ice on everything.  My driveway has a considerable slope up to the street.  If we had to leave for some emergency....well we wouldn't be able to leave in either of our vehicles.  It will be like that until sometime Wednesday and I write this Sunday at noon.  

Yes, it's cold.  They are predicting some areas may hit 0* in the next two days.  That would be farther into the Hill Country than us, at least I hope it's not us.  They are saying we will get snow on top of the freezing rain and sleet today.  I have never heard them say snow is a sure thing here, but they are this time.  One thing I am thankful for is this doesn't really last all that long and it doesn't happen very often.

Due to all the preps we make and the china flu we have plenty on hand.

Happy Trails

Two Years Old

This past Friday was our youngest Granddaughters second birthday.  She is just now old enough to understand presents.  That was very evident at Christmas.  She loves opening presents and is so animated everyone will stop what they are doing and watch her. 

Due to the china flu the party was restricted to just family.  Just Son #1 & #2 and their families.  No other little rugrats for her to play with but having her two cousins, that she adores, is plenty.  The party was at our home as we have more room for the kids to get out and play.  The food was brought to the party so there was very little prep for us.  That is pretty much the best way to have a party IMO.  Less work and less fuss.

We have a bunch of birthdays in February.  There is the youngest Granddaughter's as mentioned.  Next is Son #1's on the Ninth.  Then comes the Grandson on the 11th.  Next is 'K's' and she shares that with our oldest Granddaughter on the 21st.  Then I bring up the rear on the 27th.  Lots of presents $$.  We used the Granddaughters birthday to give gifts to Son#1 and the Grandson since they are so close in date.  I had made a wallet for the Grandson so he could hold all the money he made working his small jobs.  He really seemed to like it, since I put a few more $$ inside it.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of it or of any at the party.  

Happy Trails

 

Monday Update

It's still pretty quiet around here.  We did go see my Mother Saturday.  It had been well over a month since either of us had been to see her.  Covid was part of the reason, with her being exposed and a remote possibility we had been through one of the boys family.  She doesn't seem to understand what quarantine means.  Even though earlier in this mess she would stay home and have groceries delivered and avoid any social contact outside her home.  Now that she was exposed we found out she was going and doing as if nothing had changed.  Her explanation shows she doesn't really understand what quarantine means or she just refuses to do it any more.  We didn't discuss it, we heard about it.  I don't know, I try not to discuss these things with her as it seems to distress her more than is good for either of us.  Visiting is hard for me and I know my visits are hard on her.  Having 'K' that will visit with her without me is a blessing for us both.  I don't deserve this woman.  

I think I have decided to forego the garden this year.  It has been less than successful the last two years.  This year I will let it lie and try to get it back in shape for Spring the following year.  It needs to have more soil/compost added and some major weeding.  Not having a pick-up, even my small Ranger, makes it near impossible for me to get the needed compost.  I only need a 1/2 yard and the Ranger handled that perfectly.  The hauling fee for that much compost would far out strip the cost of the compost itself.  About the only way to do that is by buying bagged compost.  I can easily fit 10-20 bags in the Explorer.  My back may be the final decision maker.  Not sure what I will do.  Maybe I will just do away with the garden entirely.  

Happy Trails