Good Sunday morning everyone! Thank you all for any prayers you prayed for the safety of me and my family. We are glad these back to back winter storms are over. We survived with heat during the daytime and very little water pressure.
We heated just the kitchen and living room, because they are open floor plan, the hall and one bath. We used our gas stove top and a propane Mr Buddy heater from our son’s deer stand and closed off the other doors to the others rooms in the house. We couldn’t use this source of heating while sleeping though because it’s unsafe. Once you opened the frigid bedroom door and made up your mind to enter the bed I told my SIL lying on the cold sheets felt like laying on a slab of ice! Once you did get warm, because we used fleece blankets and quilt you still had that ice cold air to breathe. Brr...🥶
Everyday, I told my husband I hoped we didn’t get sick because we have to take our 2nd vaccine on the 8th.
Two of the kids and 3 of the grandchildren offered us to go stay with them as their electricity was restored. We told them we appreciate the invitation, thanked them but we felt it was more dangerous to get out. My place stayed frozen longer than theirs and it looked like my yards were a sheet of ice. We told them we couldn’t afford to fall and break a hip or anything else. As it turned out it’s a good thing we didn’t leave.
Our electricity was restored yesterday afternoon. However, the night before about 8 pm Richard called. He ask if we were warm. I said yes, we had the portable heater on and 2 stove burners so we hadn’t turned them off to go to bed yet. He said he wished we’d go to their house. Again we thanked but said no, we don’t want to get out and fall.
About maybe 2 minutes later, I told my husband I hear something. My husband listened and said it sounds like water. That day we had started to get better water pressure.
Anyway, he got the flashlight and walked down the hall with me right behind him. My bathroom was flooding! He told me he would have to go to the water meter outside and shut off the water because it was in the wall at the bathtub. I got my flashlight and found my mop and bucket while he got some boots on.
The water was coming in 4 or 5 times faster than I could mop up so I called our son. He didn’t answer, so I called Marsha. Now remember I had just hung up with Richard and we were relaxed and warm.
I told Marsha, “Help us! Our bathroom is flooded!” She said she thought I was joking because she said we know how you are mamma. I had my phone on speaker during this all the while still trying to mop up water and wondering why it was taking hubby so long to shut off.
I said no joke, bring the shop vac to suck up the water!
Ty stayed with Ashley’s kids and Ashley came with Richard and Marsha. Our son came too. The girls sucked up the water, mopped the floor and then went over the floor with a bath towel trying to get it dry enough you didn’t slip down.
Then the kids had an assembly line from the bathroom to a bedroom and started packing up the shelves in the bathroom closet and unloading on the bed.
Thankfully when we built our house, hubby had the forethought to wall our bathroom closet where the plumbing is, so he could easily disassemble shelves and wall to get to plumbing.
The guys proceeded to fix the pipe while the girls and I visited and ate candy-lol-then they went out and turned the water back on at the meter. Hubby said the reason it took so long to get the meter turned off is because it was frozen! He then had to get to the shed and back, without falling on ice, with a pipe wrench to get it turned off. I told him I feared he had fallen, was why it took him so long. It probably wasn’t that long but seemed that way. The water was contained to the bathroom with just a little seeping Uber the wall into one corner of my bedroom. We were able to just soak it up with the mop. We put the portable heater in the bathroom to help dry out and since electricity is restored we are keeping the Electric heater In the bathroom on to be sure it dries well.
Ashley had a broke pipe from her tankless water heater but thankful it was on the outside and they were able to shut it off without losing water to the house. She has another hot water heater, too. Lanie (Granddaughter) has a broken line under her house.
Anyway, I know others had it tougher than us and I have prayed and felt so bad for them. I am thankful we survived the cold nights (12 degrees one night) and thankful my family is safe and I told the guys thankful that our southern, country boys (and girls)know how to get things fixed! Love my family!
Has anyone heard from our Texas Cuties, like mrskiki aka Nan, mariahail, others? Are all of you okay?
Here is my yard in pictures. I picked at Nora about I was mad at Elsa (from frozen movie) freezing my place!
The lineman you see is not my grandson, he may be stork’s son, I don’t know who he is but it could have very well been one of your family members or ours. They guys need respect and appreciation!
Hope you are all well! Stay warm, healthy and know you are loved! ❤️Toogie
Grandson is in AF, and a canine instructor at the base in San Antonio. He said that he had some glitches with the electric, but no real power loss, but having to boil all their water. He has a sweet little family, our first great-grandson, his wife, and another baby on the way in a couple months.
Please stay safe and healthy.
My friend works for 2 doctors. The dr wife has 2 sisters around Houston. Both of them had broken water pipes and one sisters house completely flooded. I don't know if they had left their home or weren't able to turn off the water supply at the meter.
I wish we could hear from our Texas Cuties and any others that weathered these storms. I am sure as soon as they can, they will let us know their condition. Just keep praying they are ok.
Some friend of ours had a huge tree limb go through their roof, landing on their dining room table, during Hurricane Laura. They had their roof replaced and inside refinished. Now during this ice storm, the gutters froze and the weight and melting cause the gutters to pull away and water leaked into their ceiling and walls in the kitchen and living room. All their sheet rock will have to be torn out in the ceiling and walls and the roof fixed again.
When the boil advisory came, she tried to to buy bottled water. She backed out of her drive and was just spinning on the ice. (Seems like she should have known better but remember, these conditions are almost unheard of here.) Anyway, the young neighbors came out and helped her push the vehicle back into the driveway. The shared their bottled water with her that they had. When Jenny went to go back inside the house, she fell.
That same day, during the day, I had opened my upright freezer to get a couple buns and hamburger patties out. I had not opened it or the chest freezer, because I wanted to keep everything as frozen as possible. However, when I opened it my buns were thawed and I could separate my patties easily. As cold as it was you would think they would stay frozen. Not true. (My sister said she had to put the butter back in the fridge because it was freezing on the counter top!)
Richard came to the rescue, by bringing one of his generators, to run my 2 freezers and fridge. We ran the generator until dark then shut it off, because it was going to get below freezing again and that room, like the rest of the house, would have no heat.
When I called my daughter Marsha and sil Richard, to bring the shop vac, I told them come through the back door but stop & crank the generator before they come in, so we could use the shop vac.
This was all done under flashlights, cell phone lights and a Coleman light, my son brought when he came. My son had called before Richard that night wanting us to go to their house. They had electricity and water. He had asked me then what we were doing for lights. I told him we each had a flash light, if we wanted to see each other-lol-
lol- hunting equipment? Guess where my hubby’s heater was? .....Still in the woods in his stand!🙄😩
We never get snow in the tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia, and it is so hot at the moment, so could you send some snow this way!
Here we all have generators, because when we get bad cyclones, our power goes off. One of the really bad cyclones was back in 2006, "Larry", we were without water for 2 days and without power for 3 weeks. I'd had enough of cooking on the BBQ by then, and of course the heat was unbearable!
Stay well, keep safe.