What is your weather like ... today

[Lisak1]

Wow @callingcolleen1 - you really DID have a time of it! How do siblings from the same family turn out so different? My five kids all have different personalities, but their values are all the same. Hopefully that will remain true over time.

P.S. Avoiding talking about the weather. Let's just say "terrible" sums it up. At least the sun is shining...

 

[j.w]

Good to see you back @CountryEscape FINALLY I was just thinking about you the other day and thought you might have found a good man and run off to Bula Bula on your horse or something

 

[callingcolleen1]

You are such a good daughter Colleen, besides being a good pond keeper and gardener and wife. I admire you.

Awe thanks Barb! I try to do my best and it's so nice to have a sweet friend like you!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wow @callingcolleen1 - you really DID have a time of it! How do siblings from the same family turn out so different? My five kids all have different personalities, but their values are all the same. Hopefully that will remain true over time.

P.S. Avoiding talking about the weather. Let's just say "terrible" sums it up. At least the sun is shining...

Everything was fine till about 10 or 12 years ago when they went vegan and tried to force the rest to be vegan and then would not come see my mom cause the house smelled like "flesh" and would not sit down and even eat a home cooked meal with my mom cause everything was "cross contaminated with flesh" and it all went downhill after that. Some Vegans become cult like !
Oh ya, then they blamed me and my brother for my moms dementia and said we were killing her cause we are animal products such as cream, dairy, eggs, meat... It was so bad the both vegans tried to get me fired from my job and of course that did not happen. The one vegan ran up and down the meat isle screaming "its a morgue"

 

[mrsclem]

Colleen, I feel your pain. I have totally cut off contact with my half-sister after my father passed away and she went totally psycho!
We are not as cold as a lot of other areas but wishing now I would have shut down my ponds sooner. Both are completely frozen over but have pond breathers and 100 watt heaters running. The string algae is growing like crazy and the fish are active today. I am concerned that I will lose my 2 150 gallon stock tank filters as the drains were frozen so now the tanks are frozen solid.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Colleen, I feel your pain. I have totally cut off contact with my half-sister after my father passed away and she went totally psycho!
We are not as cold as a lot of other areas but wishing now I would have shut down my ponds sooner. Both are completely frozen over but have pond breathers and 100 watt heaters running. The string algae is growing like crazy and the fish are active today. I am concerned that I will lose my 2 150 gallon stock tank filters as the drains were frozen so now the tanks are frozen solid.

sorry to hear about your stock tank but fish sound like they are fine.
It's too bad the stock tank froze solid as it might be cracked now. If you would have gotten a cheap 1500 watt cattle trough heater it may have prevented the stock tank from freezing solid. I ran my pressure filter all though the extreme cold we had of minus 30 and 40 below and I was not planning to run it all winter, but winter came fast and I was so busy with my mom. 1500 watt heater might cost a bit to run but if you just keep it handy and only use for extreme weather it can prevent a lot of damage to equipment.
Also a cheap plastic cover and warm old blankets (and two fish tank heaters) helped me keep my guppies outside and alive in this extreme winter.

 

[mrsclem]

I have 1500 watt heaters but don't normally use them because of the cost. I normally shut down the ponds at the first sign of ice but the temps this year are so cold, the drain pipes froze with the pumps still running! My fish loads are light in both ponds so will deal with it when the temps come back up. They delivered the 2 new pumps I ordered yesterday to replace the one I dropped and cover any problems with the 2nd one. At least the 100 watt heaters are keeping my camera and underwater lighting cables from being damaged by the ice.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Three hours ago at New Jersey! Stay warm and safe everybody

 

[CountryEscape]

Good to see you back @CountryEscape FINALLY I was just thinking about you the other day and thought you might have found a good man and run off to Bula Bula on your horse or something

JW, I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow morning, for my nephew's wedding which is in I think it's Leavenworth. Will take flight to Wenatchee. Well, on my way back on Monday, Delta changed my flight, so I have only 20 minute layover in Minneapolis. Called to correct that, and they argued with me and I argued back, but thought they were going to put me on early Tues a.m. flight. I was going to get ahold of you, see how far you are from the Seattle airport, and maybe come visit you Monday afternoon! LOL But, they now have me with a 30 minute layover in Seattle ... we shall see if I connect or not. If not, I'll be opting for an early Tues a.m. flight. I'll message you IF that happens. Nope, no guy darn it! Still single, and still looking!!!

 

[addy1]

Nope, no guy darn it! Still single, and still looking!!!

Keep looking! I found my good man by pure accident. Just chatting in a chat room and he said hi! Took a few years to relocate, but he is worth it! And we are still darn happy with each other, met him 10 years ago on 1/28/2017.

 

[Angel]

cold enough i had to bring the snowblower in from the garage to warm it up to start it.

 

[Timothy]

Hey Patti, glad to see you back!
(I can't say much, I sort of took a hiatus myself.....just wasn't much happening around here that was note worthy.)

As to the wx here, I have two heaters in my pond about six feet from each other. Since the snow and extreme cold, they're still working, but living in igloos. They're literally in ice bubbles that you can't even see except at night when their location is marked by a faint pink glow through the snow. It hasn't been above freezing here since before Christmas.

 

[j.w]

@CountryEscape we are quite a ways from the airport at around 70 miles north actually. I go to therapy Monday for my arm injury but free on Tuesday. Looks like you are heading out early Tuesday tho. Next time you are out this way let me know so I won't have any appts in the way. So glad you are back here and hope you stick around. How's your pond and all your critters doing?

Raining but warmer at 46 now and rising to 51 later today.

 

[teeemkay]

I think we made it to 8 degrees today at best. -2 expected tonight, but we're already close to that so I'm thinking it will be lower.

2018 started out with a bang... We had just gone to bed New Year's Eve around 2am when the power went out. Something happened a few blocks over--either a transformer blew or a major wire went down. The last time something like that happened, we didn't have power for almost a day. We couldn't deal with that with sub-zero record lows that night--between the pond icing over and the heat in the house, we had to get the backup generator running. Of course 5 minutes after we got it all set up and got the pond pump plugged in, the power came back on, so we got lucky. I guess it was a good test, though, so we have some sort of idea how quickly the pond ices over in the worst winter conditions. The ice was a little less than 1/4" thick in 2 hours without running water or the de-icer working.

 

[MitchM]

I'm baaaaaaack! So sorry for my very long time away! Just lazy, that's all I can say! I think I needed to have a break, but I'm ready to talk ponds again.
We have been in arctic cold here in south central Illinois, too! Water hydrant by the barn froze up, but not the pump (heat lamps in pump house on top of well), so got heat tape to warm it up and voila, had running water again this morning. Horses were happy with as much water as they wanted again all day long. Had been chopping ice and fishing out the chunks, but that doesn't work when you can't replenish the water supply. Water tank heater in now.
Ponds each have small pumps about 2' below the surface shooting water towards the surface, keeping opening in the ice until about 3 days ago and below 0F temps for 3 nights in a row. UGH! Still running, and moving water, and there is small opening on the ice "cone". Kinda neat! Bog on koi pond still running under the ice, goldfish pond bog was filtering water over the edge with the ice, so had to shut it down.
Puppies in house, other dogs in heater dog kennel. All other outside animals here have shelter, cats have my homemade large insulated tote to stay warm ... and they use it!
Hello to everyone! Catch me up on what I've missed!
Patti

Welcome back, CE!