Blizzard!! Video Added

[Riverrose28]

I will pray for all of you that are suffering so. We are only expected to get a little sleet and freezing rain from this monster storm, and then heavy rain tomorrow. The paddocks are already muddy, but I'll thank my lucky stars I am not dealing with what you all are going through. When my youngest daughter redid her house a couple of years back I begged her to put in a wood stove, but they didn't, so now if they lose power they need to drive here to keep the kids warm. Hope we don't lose power tonight. We do have a generator and two wood stoves. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Hopfully winter won't last too much longer as this is killing this old woman.

 

[HGFarm]

OMG you guys!!!! Sounds HORRIBLE!!! REO I hope your water comes back on and I hope your poor kitty will be ok??!!! I hope she didnt get frostbite too and will have problems?!!

We are getting a 'cold front' here, dropping from about 62 today to 49 tomorrow- this is in the Phoenix valley but my place is several degrees colder- supposed to be about 20 tonight. This has been a cold winter for us too. Gee, think I'll move to the desert where it's warm. After hearing what you guys are going through though, I will NEVER complain again. Ok, well maybe never.

I just dont know how you all stand it and hope that everyone AND their critters come through this ok!!! I just can't even fathom something like that. Thanks for the video Robin- it was shocking and you could sure see the wind force and I cracked up at the dog playing in it.

 

[MBennettp]

I made it to the farm, it took me nearly an hour to get the three miles. There are stranded and abandoned cars everywhere. I got to the farm and all the animals were fine, The barn kitties were in the middle of the round bale in a pile. I let little Dawn out of her stall and locked Dandy in for the day. If Dandy is loose, Dawn can't stay in the barn. I switched them back this evening. I stayed at the farm until afternoon feeding was done then came home. You cannot see where the road is, I just tried to stay centered between the telephone poles in order to stay on the road, there are drifts everywhere. When I got home, I had to guess where my driveway was and it took me more than one try to get the truck into the driveway. The drifts in the driveway are nearly 3 feet deep. We have had nearly a foot of snow and as I write this, it is 10 degrees with a wind chill of -8. The wind is blowing 28 miles an hour.

I am in for the night but will do it all again tomorrow. It is still spitting snow but most is just blowing snow that fell earlier today.

 

[REO]

Delilah thawed out fine. Took a long time for the ice to come off her tail. A damp hand towel in my kitchen froze. I went to dry my hands and the towel was stiff! And a bowl of water has a thick skim of ice on the counter.

It may take days or a week for the pipes to thaw

And until the plows come through, we're stuck at home. Too bad we didn't go shopping before this hit.

The horses are fine! Hubby was able to drag tarp loads of hay over the snow drifts. He says the drifts are 7 feet in the road. I hope they plow it soon!

Mary, I'm glad you got there and back safe! OMG girl, I worried about you all day!

I wish I knew how Jules is. But she has family near by thank goodness!

I thank God we still have power so far! So the space heater and electric blanket still work.

 

[HGFarm]

REO, what in the world? Tell me that is not all you have for heating there??!! I am glad your kitty is ok so far!!! I was almost crying when I read your post- I just love kitties and just felt horrible.

I hope everyone's critters of all kinds are safe and warm...... I just cant fathom what is happening there. Sure glad I dont live in KS any more!!

 

[REO]

We're fine. There's many people out there worse off. I LOVE kitties to!

We have 7 in the house and some outside cats that I raised. Most of those are in the house too! And some are out in the barn. The dog comes in once in a while. I tell ya, hubby is lucky I don't have all the horses in here too! LOL! (I admit to bringing Pooka in last year)

Yup, this is an old farm house and that's what we have for heat. I'm glad to have it!!!

If we got through last year without power, heat and water for 14 days, we can make it through this!

 

[eagles ring farm]

prayers going out to all of you having such a hard time with this storm

we are suppose to get some freezing rain tonight then just rain tomorrow but tomorrow night temps go down in the teens for a day or so so hoping we don't have ice on the roads to deal with

Be safe everyone and think spring

 

[Minimor]

Here's a tip for doing chores in a snow storm--if you don't already have one, buy a plastic chore sled. They're only around $40 (at least that's the price on them here) and they are just so handy. A small square bale fits quite nicely in this sled (actually the sleds come in different sizes, so even if you have the bigger bales there's a sled that should fit. The sleds pull easily--I use mine year around for feeding, it slides on snow, grass, dirt, mud, whatever--and is quite stable so will pull over snow drifts without tipping. I can't imagine doing chores without my sleds--especially during or right after a snow storm!!!

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

We sure didn't get anything like they predicted - thank goodness! Others sure have it worse, like Miss Robin for one. And that poor kitty!

Hey Robin, they even mentioned the OK snow on St. Louis metro news!!!

We only got the ice, no snow yet, although they're saying it will come during the night. We ended up with 1" of real ice, then about 2" of ice pellets on top of that. Maybe more. It was pretty easy to deal with until the evening feeding when the pellets had compacted and it was like a skating rink!

And then Rhythm and Ravey thought it would be fun to sneak passed me and have a good run in the backyard! I was ready to KILL thme!

They were doing that "I'm on the run" thing with tails in the air, all prancy. God, I was ticked! I posted pics on facebook and one was of my coat by the time I came in. It was covered in a layer of cracked ice!

So glad Puddin and Butter are locked up. The other horses have decided maybe it's time to stay inside also. It's getting down to about 5 degrees now with about 30mph winds.

Be safe everyone! Hope somebody hears from Jules soon.

But yes, she does have lots of family close and they all have HUGE generators. I know Spirit HATES the cold. He's probably not a happy camper right now.

 

[stormy]

I am stuck in Nebraska on a business trip, flights all cancelled yesterday into Michigan...rescheduled for today but they keep sending me delay notices. Am very worried about my Dad doing the chores, I know the girl I hired to help won't be able to get there, a foot and a half of snow!!

Oh my gosh...great news, my helper arrived!! I can't believe she braved the roads!! She is my HERO!!!!

 

[cretahillsgal]

Hey guys! I am doing fine.

Was just stuck at home all day yesterday. But I am back to work this morning and on the net!

We did not get it nearly as bad as the central and NE part of OK did. We have drifts, but the snow is so dry that it blows off of everything unless there is something there to stop it. Only bad part here is the cold and the wind. I didn't have any gloves and when I went out to feed and check on everyone, I was not able to feel my hands after about 3 minutes. But so far out temps here are staying in the positive. It was 4 degrees here this morning.

The animals are all doing great here. Even Spirit seems fine with it.

Only ones who are being dramatic are my 2 pregnant goats. I have had to carry their water and feed to them because the don't want to get up out of their warm hay nests to eat. LOL

So far we have not lost power or heat. But we only got a tiny bit of sleet then snow.

Robin you guys try stay warm. Bring Pooka in the house and snuggle up to him you have to. It is soooo much colder this time than it was last year.

 

[REO]

Oh Jules! I'm SO glad to hear you're OK!

It's not windy today YIPPEE! It's 13 below today.

We only had a few gal water saved and didn't go shopping. We can't get out. The road is covered with 4' snow with 7' drifts. Solid. I hope they plow it soon! We have no water but have power! So we're hunkered down in the living room with the heater. This is causing hubby to use up his vacation days, since he can't get in to work. Maybe they'll clear the road soon before we run out of hay and food.

Thank God this year we didn't have 7 cars & trucks stuck or crashed in front of our house.

They avoided our road this time. In front of our house is a dip where all the snow ends up.

We're ok and I hope everyone else is too!

 

[wildoak]

It is bitterly cold here, but we haven't had the ice you have further north. We are getting rolling blackouts, but so far the power has come back within 20 minutes or so every time - that I can handle. It's just getting water to the horses that does me in, don't know how you all deal with winters & livestock! We are only up to about 20* midday today and will be back down in the low teens tonight with snow in the forecast for Thursday/Friday. If we can hang on though, it is supposed to be back to the 60's on Saturday!! I'm ready for it, and will not complain quite so much about the hot summers from now on.

Jan

 

[MBennettp]

It is 3 degrees here this morning. The roads are horrible. My car won't go on the roads, the snow is deeper than the hood so I am very thankful for the truck. The horses are all fine with plenty of hay but it is sure cold feeding. We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow and it isn't going to get as warm as they were originally predicting this wekend. I guess we won't be moving this weekend.

The road to the farm has one lane open and so far everybody is being patient and taking turns going down it. The road right in front of the farm is pretty clear.

I am going to try to get to work today.

Everybody stay safe out there and drive carefully.

 

[cretahillsgal]

Yup, now they are saying that we will get another round early next week. I sure hope that it thaws out a little before then, cause I'm sick of carrying water. It took me 2 hours to get everyone watered last night. And that was with the help of hubby. Why oh why did I not get my stock tank heaters hooked up before all this!

 

[REO]

Hubby still has not been to work. Our road was solid 4-5 feet deep with 7 foot drifts on the sides. They came and plowed it off. Good thing because we were out of hay. He was able to dig out the end of the driveway (that the plows blocked) and go get a few small bales. That won't last but he can't go get a big bale because he can't get to our barn to unload it if he did. We still don't have water. We have a well and OLD pipes that are already cracked and broken. I hope that when (if) they ever thaw, that more are not broken.

All we can do right now is put snow a little at a time into the horse waters.

It's cold in our house and even the cat water in the kitchen is frozen solid.

It was below 15 last night but is a bit warmer tonight! All the way up to 20 degrees!

The horses go around the 5' drifts but are still past their knees in snow.

But you know what? Last year was worse! I THANK GOD we kept our power this time! The space heater in the living room is a life saver!

They say it'll snow Mon, Tues & Wed too.

PFFFFT!

This has been an extra hard Winter on so many people! We went without water and power for 14 days last year and I'm thankful that this Winter (so far) has not been bad at all compared to last.

Stay safe everyone!

 

[Sonya]

REO...our pipes froze last week when it was -17 (that didn't include wind chill)...we had to have the whole house repiped, insurance paid for it all but my deductible so be sure and check into that.

Tip for those who do have lots of snow up on your roof...get it off around your furnace chimney/stack. I'm not talking about to keep your roofs from collapsing (which is a concern too), but if enough snow piles up around your stack, your furnace will quit and will not restart until it is clear (learned the hard way). Everyone stay warm...I am sick of winter!

They finally plowed us out yesterday, so I am back to work.

 

[Magic]

It's just getting water to the horses that does me in, don't know how you all deal with winters & livestock!

When you live in a place that has very cold winters every year, you tend to prepare well for it.

All but our full size horses have automatic waterers with heaters (big boys have the heaters too) and the pipes to the auto waterers have heat tape on them to keep them from freezing. The one thing we really need is a heavy-duty generator, since our well is run by electricity, so no power, no water. Thankfully our power very rarely goes out, but it's best to be prepared.

I hope that all of you affected by this massive storm are doing ok! Robin, BRRR!!!

 

[REO]

We've been shoveling snow into the horse waters (since we don't have water) so the tank heaters can melt it.

Karrel says it's supposed to be 40 tomorrow so I'm hoping we thaw out.

Be nice to wash dishes (did *I* say that??) and do laundry.

 

[Performancemini]

Hi All- we made it through. Rockford IL got 18-22" approximately. The horses were totally in for 3 days for us. We let them out in pairs to wander while we cleaned stalls. We were lucky to keep our power on. Our neighbors-god bless them-came over the next day with their tractor and big backhoe with buckets and plowed us out and dug paths to the pasture gates. Unfortuneately they were too big to dig out the opening in the pastures. We hand shoveled those drifts away some and now the horses have gotten out for exercise. At least they are like kids and loved the snow and drifts. Our quiet 36.5" mare went crazy happy and ran and leaped drifts (2.5-3' ones, not the 4 and 5' ones) like deer! The weanling colt was introduced to my Mom's A gelding and is making a super pest of himself battering the gelding with his front hoofs and teeth. I never thought that gelding could have THAT much patience-you would think it was HIS colt! More snow this next week-hopefully not much (any is too much now-right?). Then back in the deep freeze! Will winter never end???? (then I can complain about summer's 90 and + heat!). Hang in there everyone! I know we made out better than some of the states. And my crazy son DID go out the next day with his friend to SNOWBOARD in Galena IL, 2 hours away!!(and that rode was closed-so they took the backroads which were probably worse!!-AAAAGGGGGH!!!).