Stay safe Duke!

Tom Flynn

Duke:

Amen to all you said about getting ready!!! I am very THANKFUL for my Dad, Grandfathers, Uncles, etc. that taught me to pay attention to the weather forecasts and how to get ready for ALL things

We don’t have this kind of weather very often, but I think we made it through pretty good. I had 2 cords of wood stacked up from last year. We had a big Post Oak blow over in the Fall about 100 yards from the house. I had just about finished cutting the “round wood” off of it before the freeze. Thank goodness for that green round wood since it will burn all night long and make the fire easy to get going big in the morning.

The only thing that I really worried about was my water heater. It is tankless and I love it because you get an endless supply of HOT water. But it’s on the outside wall so it can vent. It is on the South side of the house but there is no way to insulate it. We just had to keep a steady dribble of hot water going. The best I can tell, that cost me 30-40 gallons of propane going by the % drop on the big tank.

I have a well so water is not a problem. We never lost power, but I have a generator for just in case. Thank goodness that I didn’t have to use it.

I’m also thankful that we did not get the ice that y’all did. We got about 18” of snow. A breeze came up yesterday and blew all the snow off the trees.

On a sad note, a couple slid off the Lake Fork Bridge Tuesday night and were killed. You would think that everyone would know to stay home, but I don’t know anything else about the circumstances so you just never know. Divers were dispatched and I’m told that the car was in 30 feet of water. Horrible for ALL involved. It gave me nightmares just thinking about it.

Hang in there. As Pappy said, Spring is on the way. I know that Im ready to see some Redbuds blooming!

Coach

This was quite the reaction to the situation.

https://ktxs.com/news/local/colorado-city-mayor-resigns-after-controversial-facebook-post

I didn't get as much ice as Duke, he is higher in elevation than me. I could see the heavier ice as you start up the mountain in front of my house, maybe only 3 or 4 hundred ft. up. Most everything is gone now except the top of the mountain, which is still coated. The mountain is only a little over 3000. ft. There is no homes on this side of the mountain, but there is on the other side. This side is protected for now, I climbed it one time, as you got closer to the top you had to almost get down on all fours to finish. That is where the bears that pass thru usually come from. I am somewhat of a prepper, so I have food for a year, woodstove for heat, Granny's wood cookstove to fix my meals, I probably don't have enough water though. I have solar powered containers to boil water so I can go to the creek, or the river for water to flush. I even have an old coffee pot that you put on the stove.

Sidney,

A few years ago,for two seasons I had to go up on our roof and clear off thigh deep snow,otherwise we would have had some serious problems for sure. The Civic Center in our state's capital had a roof cave in.

Of course,if you build a flat roof on a large building in a heavy snow area,you are just asking for problems.

Wayne

When/How somebody figures out how to be able to get enough water....I'll be interested!! The most important thing to survival, however the most difficult thing to have, when you need it...be able to transport...water is the most important thing, however the most difficult thing to "prep" for!!!...yep you can buy a big container....you will need to maintain it....then, if you have to leave....there you go....water stays....

Copied from Patriot in Texas. #texasstrong. #istandwithtexas
WORD FROM TEXAS:
“I just got off the phone with a friend that runs a county electric co-op. I am not mentioning names or places, because this info could possibly cause problems.
I learned that in the heat of the summer, this well-known electric co-op peaks at 75 megawatts. In this current winter storm they are running at less than 25 megs, one-third of summer peak. This is keeping service for all customers, with 50% to spare.
This morning he was ordered by the feds to shed 25 percent of current production and send it into the pool.
After checking with their natural gas supplier that the co-op uses and has pre-contracted the cubic feet of natural gas needed for its generating plants, he was told that he had been ordered to send their contracted gas down the pipe to south Texas.
Whoever pulls the strings in Biden's Energy Commission failed to authorize adequate gas flow down as far as Brownsville.
Are they just dumber than rocks, or are they trying to punish Texas??? How many unnecessary deaths are going to occur because of this — human and livestock — loss of revenue by businesses, totally unnecessary. This energy crisis is purely political!!!
The Biden Administration is intent on making the entire USA completely green — the end of reliance on hydrocarbons.
They have created an unnecessary energy emergency, killing many people with their orders. Biden has stopped the Keystone Pipeline construction and a couple of others, which would save us from going through this horrible winter scenario once again next summer. And to make it even worse, he is opening up our border for tens of thousands of immigrants to cross into this country, with no background checks or anything.
Governor Abbott is taking measures now to stop this Biden/Harris idiocracy through Texas legislation. We may have to fight it out in court, but we are not going to just accept this Federal nonsense.
Texas can produce enough energy for the entire USA, and some extra to export, at a very reasonable price, if Biden and the Feds will just leave us alone.
Feel free to share this."

30 miles East of downtown Houston is a a town named Mont Belvieu.

Barbers Hill High School is there. We played them for many years.

It is also the site of the LARGEST underground storage facility of Liquid Petroleum Gas in the World. >200 million barrels.

I sure don’t know why they would need to obtain gas from up North.

And here is another source of gas even closer to Brownsville.

https://www.naturalgasintel.com/dorado-natural-gas-discovery-in-south-texas-looks-golden-for-eog/

Thank God that, for now...today, “the other Keystone”, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, has slowed down their destructive, lying, evil to the bone, politically lying backed b.s. construction of that pressurized, 40” gas pipeline crossing my VA mountains all the way to Chesapeake. I live less than 1 mile from where it’s construction over one of the thousands of mountains, hollows, straight up the side crosses the ridge just to go down the next. I’ve watched the mountain wash down into the South Fork of the Roanoke for the years they’ve worked, and for the months now that it’s slowed/stopped....all the time lying, lying, lying, at the state, federal, FERC level re: the construction, the VA jobs that would be created by it..... while living in the “ let ‘em burn” blast-plan zone for any future accidents that they lie about and say “never happen”. The two interactions I had on their construction site was with the out-of-state security guys when I stopped my car on the side of the road to take a couple pics. of the destroyed mountain side. Was
cursingly told to “leave and I couldn’t take no pictures.” To which I laughed, said I’d be gone from the public road side as soon as I took a couple more and suggested that they could always come and take my camera. And I’m a damn friendly guy who’d just said “howdy” to them.
Alright, I’m done now.