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| Thursday - high temperature of 69* |
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| Saturday - 19* high temperature |
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Sunday, January 7, 2018
It's da Bomb!
This week, we on the East Coast, have been experiencing the weather phenomenon known as a "bomb cyclone." I wasn't familiar with this term, so I looked it up here. Basically, it means that the pressure in a low pressure system falls significantly in a short period of time. The results, at least in our corner of the world, were record low temperatures and a couple of inches of snow.
So far, it has also meant that the girls had 2 snow days and 1 two hour delay. (Are you familiar with the song, "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas?" Well, I'm at the "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again" point!)
The night time/early morning temps have been hovering around 0* to -2* for the past several days, but last night it was down to -6*. We seem to be over the worst, as it was a balmy 23* outside today!
When the temperature gets that low, those of us with "livestock" worry a bit. It's difficult keeping liquid water for the chickens, rabbit & cats when it doesn't even get to 32* during the day. Luckily JP worked Monday through Wednesday at his new job, and has been off for the past 4 days, so he has been able to lug the water to the chickens - a full container weighs about 25 lbs, and I am still on a 20 lb. lifting restriction since my surgery. Otherwise, I have to take 2 trips: one with a half full container, and another with a half full bucket of water to top it off. Sheesh.
We were woken up a little past 2 this morning when the power went out. We are fortunate to have back up heat in the house with our woodstoves, but out of luck when it comes to having accessible water when the power is out. We got a fire started in the woodstove, and discussed the fate of the outside animals after reporting the outage, and went back to bed.
About 30 minutes later, we woke again with all of the smoke alarms in the entire house going off. We ran around with flashlights trying to remove batteries, but only got about 3 removed before they shut off.
After that, we were a bit wired to try sleeping. L, who woke with the smoke alarms wanted a night light. (I worry a bit about J, who seemingly slept through the whole thing!!) We decided to try moving the kitties into the garage, since their heater went off with the power outage. After that chore, we sat on the couch by the fire with the dog for awhile, trying to relax a bit.
We did finally return to bed, and were able to get to sleep. The power came back on around 6:30. Soon after, the smoke alarms from which we removed batteries started chirping low power. ARRRRGH!
We rose late, took liquid water to all of the animals, stoked the wood burner outside, and had a leisurely breakfast. Of course, as soon as JP and I got in the shower and soaped up, the power went out again. Since we have a pressure tank to pressurize the water from our well, we were able to quickly rinse off.
This time it only lasted less than an hour, but once it came back on, we filled several 5 gallon buckets with water, along with all of the back up animal water containers, and stashed them in the extra shower. It reminds me of the winter we moved in here!
JP tells me that the forecast is for 60* on Thursday!
Happy Winter!
So far, it has also meant that the girls had 2 snow days and 1 two hour delay. (Are you familiar with the song, "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas?" Well, I'm at the "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again" point!)
The night time/early morning temps have been hovering around 0* to -2* for the past several days, but last night it was down to -6*. We seem to be over the worst, as it was a balmy 23* outside today!
 |
| JP all suited up to work outside |
When the temperature gets that low, those of us with "livestock" worry a bit. It's difficult keeping liquid water for the chickens, rabbit & cats when it doesn't even get to 32* during the day. Luckily JP worked Monday through Wednesday at his new job, and has been off for the past 4 days, so he has been able to lug the water to the chickens - a full container weighs about 25 lbs, and I am still on a 20 lb. lifting restriction since my surgery. Otherwise, I have to take 2 trips: one with a half full container, and another with a half full bucket of water to top it off. Sheesh.
We were woken up a little past 2 this morning when the power went out. We are fortunate to have back up heat in the house with our woodstoves, but out of luck when it comes to having accessible water when the power is out. We got a fire started in the woodstove, and discussed the fate of the outside animals after reporting the outage, and went back to bed.
About 30 minutes later, we woke again with all of the smoke alarms in the entire house going off. We ran around with flashlights trying to remove batteries, but only got about 3 removed before they shut off.
After that, we were a bit wired to try sleeping. L, who woke with the smoke alarms wanted a night light. (I worry a bit about J, who seemingly slept through the whole thing!!) We decided to try moving the kitties into the garage, since their heater went off with the power outage. After that chore, we sat on the couch by the fire with the dog for awhile, trying to relax a bit.
We did finally return to bed, and were able to get to sleep. The power came back on around 6:30. Soon after, the smoke alarms from which we removed batteries started chirping low power. ARRRRGH!
We rose late, took liquid water to all of the animals, stoked the wood burner outside, and had a leisurely breakfast. Of course, as soon as JP and I got in the shower and soaped up, the power went out again. Since we have a pressure tank to pressurize the water from our well, we were able to quickly rinse off.
This time it only lasted less than an hour, but once it came back on, we filled several 5 gallon buckets with water, along with all of the back up animal water containers, and stashed them in the extra shower. It reminds me of the winter we moved in here!
JP tells me that the forecast is for 60* on Thursday!
Happy Winter!
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