Brrrrr!

We have so much to be thankful for with this cold snap. First, it’s about to end. It’s supposed to be 73° on Saturday.  Second, the ice missed us. All across east Texas, including Beaumont and a lot of the Houston area, roads are icy, schools are closed. In my hometown of Lake Charles, LA, I think the entire place is about shut down with ice on all the bridges and interstates, as well as the Baton Rouge area and probably other areas as well. Those are just the ones I follow on FB. The little town next to us has power out this morning. We haven’t lost power but thank goodness for the fireplace and gas stove. I can’t imagine it being this cold and having no power for the heat or a way to cook a warm breakfast.

In the house Chad is buying, the fireplace needs an insert before he can use it. They’re supposed to close Friday (two more days!!) and he’s taking off next week and one of the things on his schedule is having an insert put in. I told him .. that could probably wait if you have other things to do. He said “I want a back up source of heat in case the power goes out.” I had to smile . . At least something I’ve said through the years seems to have stuck. The house has an electric stove but they do have natural gas heat. The house is built on pier and beam and he said he’ll get a plumber out to run the gas line to the stove so they can have a gas stove. It’s funny, as a parent . . I never stressed specifically to Chad about the importance of a backup heat source, and I don’t think I had a gas stove during his years at our house but for sure I know I didn’t have one from the time he was 9 til we moved here and he was 22 then but he heard me scheming and planning, trying to get a gas stove. Now those two things are important to him. There are several other things that I wish he would have picked up on but . . he’s still young . . maybe some day he will.

This was our temp when I got up this morning. Someone has to go let the chickens out. I’m the only one around for miles and miles so I guess that’s my job this morning.  Once it got daylight, I looked at the weather to see what time it’s going to get above freezing today and . . oops . . it got colder while I was sitting here.

What strikes me as funny is that by about mid-August, we will be about 115° warmer than it is right now. I think I saw yesterday that our record low for this date was 12°. We beat that record!

I kept the chickens inside the coop with the heat on yesterday because it was so cold, but not this cold, but it didn’t warm up much yesterday. Today it’s going to get up to 39°. They’re not happy being kept inside so, I’ll probably wait til it warms up to about 20°, which Accuweather says should happen around 10, and then I’ll go let them out.

Heck, I’m fixing a ham for lunch today and I have to go over to the shop and get it out of the fridge so I guess no matter how I plan my morning, sooner rather than later, I have to go outside. Later sounds better than sooner. I can always whack some of the ham off and heat it in a skillet. Yes . . that’s what I’ll do . . go out at 10, let the chickens out, grab the ham .. one trip will do it.