What is your weather like ... today

[CountryEscape]

Well, y'all, I was definitely in the DEEP FREEZE. Sunday night around 7 I lost power. Temps were ... well I can't even remember for sure, but that day (Sunday) we were in blizzard conditions. Started out with lots of snow, 6-8" of the heavy stuff, then all hell broke loose. Winds picked up, with snow continuing. Says Effingham got 12.2" of snow by the time it ended sometime on Monday late morning. The winds were whipping so hard that the snow looked like it was going UP at times! Temps plummeted to -15F air temp, and -35-40 wind chills. That was during the time period I was out of power, too. I went to bed, read my Ipod touch for a while, then snuggled in for the night, added extra covers. Dogs all inside. Temp in house got down to 40 by morning, got one kerosene heater going right away, the other one wanted to smoke, so had to burn it off outside, clean it and restart it about 90 minutes later. Thank goodness it worked eventually. House never got above 49 all day yesterday with both of them going. You will see from pics my "redneck" way of keeping the wind out of my house. Front door and bedroom windows facing west never had such air leaks ever before, just at the bottom of the door, but it was awful. The towels and blankets helped a LOT! This is the only pic that would upload. Have no idea, as they looked like they completely upload, then it says "this upload failed"?????

Dogs and Grace were happy to be inside, snuggling with each other and me when I cuddled up on the couch with my new Goldfish book my son got me for Christmas. Nothing better to warm your feet than another warm body, even if it is an animal! :blueflower:

 

[shakaho]

It's up to 45F now. It dropped to 32F early this morning as the cold front went through.

 

[addy1]

burr CE glad you stayed safe and snuggled in.

We are at 8 right now at home, dropped to zero with -17 chill factor.

 

[koiguy1969]

 

[CountryEscape]

Ok, got a few more pics to upload, then got a "crash report". Thinking it has to do with too much snow on my receiver on the roof!
I finally got a pic of a REAL sun dog, and this was in my backyard yesterday morning. Temps were about -15F, sun was foggy looking, but the sun dog was almost as bright at the sun! This side turned out the best!

My heat source yesterday until power came back on at 5. Kept house almost 50 degrees.

My hero! Neighbor came with his BIG ASS John Deere dual tractor and blade. See how the tractor is on an angle? That's the drift he was up on getting my drive plowed to the barn, so I can get my truck out of there! What an angel he is. Going to do something really nice for him, just not sure what yet. Maybe gift certificate for eating out!

 

[CountryEscape]

When the power went out, my two heaters were in the two ponds, had been since Saturday before the snow and then arctic blast hit. They did a good job, but once thepower went out, have no clue if they are working, or ruined now. They are both under probably 5-6" of ice. The tank heater in the horse's water trough melted a small hole in the ice, but it was the floating type. The floating heater in the koi pond is no where to be seen, so it's under the ice. Will find out in a few days if they quit or are still working. I unplugged everything else, as very likely ice got down deep enough to have shut off the free flowing water to the skimmer, and didn't want to cause problems in the bog. The good thing is the goldfish pond is "blanketed" with a 3' tall drift going down the length of the pond! Very strange it took that route, but maybe a blessing in disguise. We shall see.

 

[CountryEscape]

Third time's the charm, right?
My heat on Monday. Power went off at 7 p.m. Sunday night, and didn't want to run the heaters at night while I tried to sleep. House was 40 degrees Monday morning (5:30 a.m.) when I got the first one started, and about 42 by the time I got the second one cleaned and started, as it was smoking initially, had to burn off the carbon, and clean the wick! Got house up to almost 50 before the power came back on at 5 p.m. Kept them both in living room, in front of aquariums, as basement was at least as warm as main level.

Dogs and Grace snuggled with me on the couch, under 2 blankets, while I read in my new Goldfish book highly recommended by Dave54 on this site! Great reading, and extremely informative. When one dog is not warm enough, pile up on another!

And, I was so afraid of the outcome of these fish. First one is an Archer fish, from my brackish water tank. Even though he laid upside down lkike this for most of the afternoon, he came around when the power came back on. Same with the angel. I held each of them upright to get them acclimated to the correct posture, then eventually they stayed that way. Whew! Did lose 2 fat puffers in the brackish tank, and the 2 tetras in tropical tank. Cory cats and plecos seemed none the worse for wear, as well as a long finned tetra. The 2 smaller tetras were something like Bloodheart or something like that, red tail with black dots.

We got oceans and wave upon wave of snow! Thought this looked cool, like an ocean of waves across the field from my house.

 

[addy1]

I currently have approximately 2-foot maybe just 1 foot open hole in the big pond, the small ponds, inches, I can see the bubbles coming up, can't see how big the hole is.
They will melt on, saturday we will be at 51f

 

[j.w]

Yikes some of you are in the deep freeze for sure! I feel for you all. Nothing that extreme here, just mid 40's and rain. CE so sorry about the aquarium fish as they seem to be taking it the hardest! Guess we won't know about your pond fish till it thaws. Hope they are ok tho. You need a generator even if just for the aquarium and a few side things in case your power goes out again.
Addy at least you have warm temps coming to your ponds soon and still a hole open.

 

[Tula]

My pond, pretty much frozen over. The aerator and de -icer are keeping small areas open….glad I'm using both, as I've not had a pond in these cold temps before. Kim

 

[dieselplower]

Temps have been near or below 0 for a couple days. Wind chill in the - 30's. I plowed the last storm for about 16 hours. The one foot plus of snow and heavy winds have covered the hole in the ice in my pond, however, there is still a hold in the ice under the snow and I can hear the water flowing. I bet its actually warmer under there now!

 

[addy1]

jw not worried about the pond at all, now if frozen solid for weeks, months, yep then worried.

 

[CountryEscape]

I was afraid to leave the aerator pump going. It wasn't frozen, it kicked right back on, but with a solid sheet of ice 3-6" thick, I just saw that as creating a huge bubble under the ice, which is firmly attached to the sides of the pond. Didn't want any ice lifting going on out there, and then a big crash, so opted to unplug it. Probably could have left the bog pump turned on, but again, not certain that the water didn't freeze deeper, and if there was no way for the water to get back to the pond .... Plus, with a 3' drift going the length of the goldfish pond, no way to know if it was running under all of that or not. It was running just fine before the power went off, but after that, all bets are off, and I'm not taking any chances. Ho hum .... so much for leaving everything running all winter! Temps are going up here, too, above freezing morning and night pretty much Thurs. on, but that doesn't do a thing for the ice, unless it's sunny and really warm. That thick of ice is going to hang around for quite a while, even in 50 degree temps. Yuck yuck yuck ... I'm more concerned with the drifts melting at this point. :blueflower: Getting tired of walking all the way around them. Soooo tempting to take the shortest route, but then I'm stepping into snow that is going almost to top of my legs, which makes it really hard to "high step" that high! LOL
Good news! The pump that feeds the horse's water trough did not freeze! I'm so proud of my son's skills in building me a new well housing. No more frigid air getting under the well top, and insulated better, plus the heat lamps were on until power went off, so off for 22 hours, and still enough warmth from them, and from the ground below, kept it from freezing. I'm super excited not to have to deal with getting yet another pump replaced. The new housing was best money spent!

 

[mtpond]

Snowing with a temp of 23.8F.

 

[mrsclem]

A wonderful 8 again this morning! Hoping the wind has died down today. Hubby and I got a chance to try out our new work coats from Tractor Supply. TOO WARM!!!
Both ponds have 2-3' of open water with 100 + 1500w heaters on. Going to try to turn heaters off tomorrow and restart at least one pump in each pond. Stay safe and warm everybody!