Good morning!
10Checking in from Dallas on the eve of “Snowpocalypse 2021”… or maybe call it “The Day Before Tomorrow.” I’m sure there are better titles. The winter storm warning started at 6am I was up at 6:15 and my windows required scraping on my car already but Sunday/Monday are the days to worried about.
How is your morning/weekend going so far?
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Ice storm warning ends tomorrow morning, first ever for here. Fortunately I own about 700 power banks and they’re all charged up.
@sammydog01 If the power goes out, you could take them out of the fridge and stick them in the snow to keep them fresh!
It’s currently -2° (windchill of -21°) and snowing in southern Iowa. Tomorrow’s high is -4° not counting windchill. Windchill warning for tonight through noon on Monday. I might go to town today, but I don’t think we’re going anywhere tomorrow. I do have to open at work on Monday.
Good Morning!!! Snow, extreme cold and a pup that wants to go outside to play
🥶
Stay safe and warm folks!!
A little rainy earlier but a few of my cacti are blooming.
@yakkoTDI Photos?
@sammydog01 Attempt two of uploading.
Here are today’s flowers.
This guy just gets tiny little flowers.
Two more that get small flowers. These guys bloom almost all year. Both need bigger pots.
Each of the white parts will get a yellow flower on this guy. He is getting a new pot soon as he has 7 new growths around the sides that will need space.
This lopsided guy loves his crown of flowers.
The three hanging out the side are all the same plant. Talk about cramped living.
The phallic version of the one above on his way to getting flowers around the tip.
@sammydog01 @yakkoTDI
Ooooh. Succulents and cacti!
Cool!
@yakkoTDI Thank you so much, your plants are amazing!
@sammydog01 @f00l This is just a small selection. I will take some more pictures tomorrow.
@f00l @sammydog01 Took pictures this morning and forgot to upload.
Most of the herd. The two at the bottom right actually belong to a friend. The one in a plastic pot is in his new home. The succulents in the wire basket will be getting a new home. I will be keeping one of each as payment. The two tiered pot in the center are also hers. The bunny ear cactus on the left and the mini cholla on top are propagated from my plants. The Lifesaver Cactus is hers and the source of all the other ones in my collection. It is also larger than when she gave it to me. Still need to fill the fourth pot. It is getting a baby Peanut cactus. See next pic.
Some more of the herd. These sit off to the right of the previous pic. The bigger one is the Peanut cactus which gets some good sized red flowers when it blooms. More Lifesaver Cactus.
This guy sits by himself for now. He is on the left in the next pic. It is one of a few Lifesaver Cactus** I have. They grow fast. This is also from the original plant my friend gave me to care for last year.
From the front. You can see my pots in the background in preparation for some replanting.
Different angle. The phallic one from the above post is on the right just out of shot.
The two in the little pot came out of the same 3" pot as the one behind them in January of 2020. The tall one had to get that pot because he outgrew the last one months ago. No idea why he is growing so much faster.
**Lifesaver Cactus is not a cacti but just a succulent. The flowers do look like Lifesaver candies. It is know as the Huernia Zebrina which I read somewhere translates to Zebra Anus.
@f00l @sammydog01 @yakkoTDI
I Googled that Zebrina cactus and I see why it got the name, but what a cool-looking plant just the same. You really have a green thumb! You must have liked the Meh-rathon saga with the cactus-man protagonist.
Little windy but no complaints.
It is marginally below freezing right now (was colder earlier but in the 20’s) but according to the morning news the world will end shortly. At least around here. There was encouragement of the storming the grocery stores. Toilet paper for those with bidets if the water lines freeze again maybe?
I have complaints…
It’s supposed to drop to -6 by sunrise.
@Kyeh
Ouch.
Ready for Snowpocalypse in the North Texas burbs. Pool equipment has been secured, grocery run done and nice fire tonight
@ironcheftoni You (or whomever owns that house and took the pic) forgot to put the cat chair close by the fire. My cats say fireplaces, heat vents, radiators, etc. are for cats. Humans can wear jackets.
@Kidsandliz I took that photo right after I dragged her off her blanket and heating pad that was in the bedroom. I thought she would share the footstool but no way!
@ironcheftoni Silly you. You are only a servant in her house. Why would she possibly share?
Yep… I’m in Dallas. Gonna snow and get REALLY cold. Someone should tell the weather folks that this is Texas and we don’t do single digit temps with sub-zero wind chills.
I AM worried about the neighborhood cats. I feed them sometimes, and made a tent out of my patio umbrella using tarps so that they can at least get out of the elements, but I have no idea where they go when it gets really cold. I hope they’ll be ok.
@Tadlem43 i wirry about my neighborhood ferals as well. Also my opossums. I’ve been puttin out food for both as well as seed and suet cakes for the birds
@ironcheftoni Yeah… I’ve got a possum, too, that comes up at night and eats my cat’s food. I leave out extra for him/her pretending I don’t know. lol
I hope it will be ok, too. Possums are good at finding logs and places to sleep that are hidden, and they know how to get out of the cold, no matter how cold it is, so I’m not quite as worried about it, but I really am worried about the cats.
One is staying in a little shelter that I made under the ‘tent’ and I think she’s had babies…that I doubt they will make it, if they’re still alive. I’m just letting her nest. Me interfering would just make things worse should she try to move them during this snow and cold.
I’ve done all that I can. I just hope they’re ok.
Thanks for taking care of the little ones. I hope yours are ok, too.
@ironcheftoni @Tadlem43
Did the babies survive?
Those possums can sure get fat eating cat food. When I lived in a house my neighbor feed a feral and the possum came to eat too. That thing was obese and would waddle right up to the cat food. Cat was normal weight.
The ferals I am feeding right now live under a house that is empty so no heat that way. I worry about those 3. The two babies are about 9 mo old and mama is 3 years old. No way to check on them since they city hasn’t plowed or salted (despite having some trucks for both) and they are about 5 miles from me (cats my friend who got burned out was feeding).
@Kidsandliz @Tadlem43 I think so. Another neighbor set up a heated enclosure for the ferals. I hope they took advantage of it.
Two nights ago I saw a opossum and a raccoon and yesterday morning saw tracks that they visited the food. I was without power for about 8 hours yesterday and I’m part of the great spectrum internet outage of 2021.
You sure that fat opossum was not a mama with babies? I love to see little curious noses poke out.
@ironcheftoni @Tadlem43 If it was pregnant then it was a life time gestation LOL
@ironcheftoni @Kidsandliz I don’t know about my babies. I haven’t seen but one of the cats, and that was yesterday morning. I haven’t heard the little baby again. I don’t know if she moved it/them or if they didn’t make it.
I’m really worried about all of them. I keep food out, but they haven’t eaten any of it since yesterday, and I don’t know if that was the cats that ate it or what. The tracks in the snow were covered pretty quickly, and I couldn’t tell what they came from.
I’m ready to see my furbabies.
@ironcheftoni @Tadlem43 I’d be worried too. It doesn’t sound good if no food has been eaten. That will be sad if they didn’t make it. Keep us posted.
I can’t get to where the ones are I feed to check on them. No plowing done. No salt on the roads. Everything is still slick ice.
It’s funny but here in the Great Lakes region it’ll just be a little cold to us. Crazy how the winter is turning the country upside-down winter-wise.
It’s -8°F right now, but the wind hasn’t started up yet, so not too bad.
Maybe time to get out of the midwest and head up to Anchorage, get some sun, warm up a bit.
@G1 There is this little detail in Anchorage of darkness for all but about 5.5 hours a day right now. Now in the summer… but then you can’t stay out in it unless covered up completely or slathered in bug spray as you will be eaten alive by hoards of black flies, no see’ums and mosquitoes.
@mike808 feels colder, just terrible!
@mike808 @tinamarie1974
many fucks have been uttered today
@carl669 @mike808 OMFG
For the fuck count, that was OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!
Stay warm!
28 right now and people are freaking. It is supposed to go down to 9 Monday night and 18 Tuesday night. Those are temps this place so rarely sees that people are convinced they will freeze to death in their houses. Makes me worry about the 3 ferals I am feeding at the house that burned down. They don’t have fur for 9 or 18 degrees, the house they live under is empty so no heat from that. And no way to get under it to even put a blanket. The hole they go through barely fits my arm with a full large plastic glass of cat food (I dump some under the house to keep it dry and to keep possums and coons out of it)
And it is supposed to snow a bit today (claims snowing now - nope nothing I see and the ground is still too warm for it to stick long, if at all) and more on Monday. I think the last time it snowed here was 12 years ago.
And the most humorous part of all of this is NO SNOW DAYS for the kids at school due to zoom. There are going to be some pissed off kids when that hits home as there have been, in the past, cancelled school days with even a remote threat of ice/sleet.
@Kidsandliz The ferals will be fine. They’ll get to a non-windy spot and curl up.
Do NOT worry about them, and do NOT put yourself in danger trying to give them more comfort!
What you describe as their living arrangement is PUURRFECT for them to be comfortable.
@G1 I hope so as they are short haired and it is going to be about 25-30 degrees colder than it has been so obviously much colder than what they are used to or have fur adapted to. I dumped extra food under the house so that they wouldn’t run short of food during the cold snap and then be trying to keep warm on an empty stomach. I had been feeding them every 6 days (weaning them off depending on being fed - they have been fed their entire lives - mama is about 3, babies won’t be 1 until May), down from, initially, every other day, then every 3 days, etc.
@G1 @Kidsandliz With all due respect, now isn’t the time to wean them. They need a lot more food now to keep up their energy and keep warm. They metabolize really fast in cold weather.
I keep my food for them under my make-shift ‘tent’ for them, but I also keep some out so they can grab it if the tent scares them…they aren’t used to the noise it makes when the wind blows.
I hope yours will be ok.
@G1 @Tadlem43 I was originally feeding them every other day, then every 3 days then every 3-4 days (it is usually in the 60’s around through early December and then 50’s-sometimes 70’s) working my way to once every 5-6 days while leaves were still on the trees and it was in the 60’s -70’s. Then I stayed at that. When it is colder I give them more food more frequently. This spring, once the leaves are on the trees, etc. I will start up again cutting back so that eventually late spring/early summer I won’t be feeding them at all.
I dump about 12-15 cups of food at a time (for 3 cats) so that there is enough for them and any mice that get into it. I went the day before it was to get really cold and dumped 20 cups of food for them (there are a few other cats in the neighborhood so who knows if they also eat this food).
The times I see them they look healthy. Clearly they see me at times when I don’t see them or the babies (maybe 5 mo old) wouldn’t know who I was and associate me with food. The very first time I saw them they were with their mama (after the house burned down) and I fed them where they were gathered. They saw me do that so certainly associated me with food that time…
They also meow at me while staring at me if they happen to be around when I come to feed (the times are erratic that I go except never after dark as it is in some of the worst part of the ghetto).
Three weeks ago one of the babies was in the street. I called out to it. It turned its head and then meowed once at me, then took off at top speed to where I feed them. Another time one was in the driveway and was meowing at me over and over. As soon as I was half way up the driveway it ran under the house. I could hear it chowing down as I was dumping food under the house. Both times they looked to be appropriate weight and behaved like energetic cats so something is going right at least.
At the end of the street is a stream so they have plenty to drink. It’s the deep south here so it isn’t going to freeze.
@G1 @Kidsandliz Good for you! Thanks for caring for them.
Here in Dallas we don’t get this kind of weather too often, so the animals aren’t used to it. I hope your AND mine make it through this.
@G1 @Tadlem43 I am south of you. That is why I am worried about the temps too. If I could figure out how to get a tunnel type covered cat bed in there and have it land right side up, away from where the food lands, I’d do it.
@G1 @Kidsandliz Can you push a blanket or towels under there? If you can get something down there, they will build their own nest. Even straw (not hay…hay is wetter), dry pine straw, etc.
@G1 @Tadlem43 Maybe. I can certainly try. I have a ratty fleece twin blanket I could try to shove down the hole. All I eve see my cats do though is burrow under, not build and so getting it to be in a pile such that they can have layers to hide in will be tough. Not to mention trying to get it out of the way from where the food lands. (It will land right where the food lands which could be an issue.) Problem is coupled with I can’t see anything under there, only hear food drop. Right now can’t go anywhere as there is an inch of ice and sleet on the roads, it is sleeting right now, and this area doesn’t have much in the way of salt trucks, etc.
@G1 @Tadlem43 Meant to say the babies were about 5 mo when I first started feeding them in Oct so now about 9 mo old.
@G1 @Kidsandliz When you can, even if it lands on the food, they’ll move it to get to the food. I wish you could see in there. They may be doing better than you think! I hope so!
I saw one of mine this morning. There are about 8 that come around at different times. I hope they’re ok. I guess time will tell.
@G1 @Tadlem43 A pile of 8 sleeping on each other will likely keep the entire pile warm. Or at least I hope so.
Weather Channel says shit’s really supposed to hit the fan two days before the day after tomorrow
@JvB
Well, I see on the news that many of you in the deep south are now in the midst of
deep snow and freezing temperatures. Power outages, too … hope you’re staying safe. 🥶
@Targaryen
/giphy You OK?
Know folks around town that were without power all day & were planning to move to a hotel for the night (at least). One family said the temp inside their house had dipped to 48F.
So we got about a foot or so of snow and it is 20 something with a windchill of less. Assigned training at work today- how to protect myself from heat related illnesses. I work a retail job that I need to wear layers to not freeze because the doors are flapping.
@speediedelivery Maybe they are planning for you to have a heat related illness because you are going to crawl into whatever space the heat blows out of while being bundled up for ice cold weather?
Hello from Kansas. It’s cold and I’m grumpy. The weekend was full of frozen drain pipes to the washer. Ended up with water all over the floor twice. It’s been below freezing since last Monday with snow being pretty steady. The first week it only had a little accumulation. Then Sunday we got a quite a bit. No idea how much, but they started plowing streets at 6 am and continued until 7 pm. I work in public utilities so we spent all day Monday taking phone calls about power outages. We weren’t shutting anyone off, but Evergy announced they were going to be doing outages and that is where we got our power from. Luckily as of yesterday we are in a safe zone for power supply/comsumption.
Of course it’s been snowing again since late last night. Yesterday morning was -18. Everything seemed fine until 6pm when I had no water. My pipes are frozen. I’ve got a small space heater under the house but it’s not thawing them. I really need a shower and the ability to flush. I dug the snow of my water meter pit to make sure it wasn’t spinning last night. It wasn’t, so that’s good, we have PEX to feed the house, but the line that comes from the meter into the basement is steel and is probably frozen under the kitchen.I put a space heater under there last night, blew the circuit a few minutes later. Plugged it in to a different outlet and it’s still going, but everything is still frozen. It’s dry in the basement and crawl spaces though, so nothing is broken. I had the water dept. check the meter this morning since we have a lot of calls of meters being frozen. Nope, I couldn’t get that lucky.
I’ve lost my owl beanie somewhere in the cluster of last night. They said we were only supposed to get 2 inches. HAHAHAHA I brushed 3-4 inches off my car this morning. Then nearly got stuck trying to leave the house. It’s still coming down pretty heavily too. I really just want to shower and flush the toilet. It’s not forecast to get above freezing until Saturday so I need to get something done, I can’t wait that long.
Oh and my husband works and lives in W OK during the week. He’s dealing with rolling blackouts. And apparently unable to charge his phone since I haven’t gotten ahold of him since 6pm yesterday. Unless there is some cell blackouts out there I haven’t heard about. I am so done with winter at this pont. I think I was done when we had an ice storm in October though TBH.
@remo28
That sounds very unfun. Sympathies.
@remo28 That so sucks. My sympathies.
Buy your hubby some meh/morningsave/sidedeal… power banks for when/if this happens again. Some of them are even decent which is surprising considering this is meh.
We’ve had no water since yesterday morning and water pressure too low to flush for a full day prior to that (think thin trickle most of that time with intermittent nothing, then evolving to nothing. Apt building so who knows if we have frozen pipes again in addition to the entire city’s problem with the main water distribution center, or just the city problem.). Anyway back to my point: get a grocery bag. Put used TP in that. Toilet will eventually stink due to not being able to flush, but at least when you can finally flush it, a ton of TP won’t clog up the line and cause it to overflow.