Preparing for the Freeze

seadoug said:
I know many of you in other states have been going through freezing weather and heavy snow for a few days now. The Iowa Caucus is on the news because it is the coldest weather they have seen in years.

We are going into below-freezing weather here in Dallas starting tonight and lasting until Wednesday. The last time we went through this, lives were lost because the power grid was not sufficient. Our governor now assures us it will be okay. (No comment.)

Anyway, we covered many of our plants with sheets today, wrapped our outdoor faucets and opened our cabinets and let the faucets drip. What are you experiencing, and what have you done to prepare?
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You're wise to prepare living where you are. In Colorado here, I have no sensitive plants outside, mostly pine and spruce trees that are fine in snow and cold weather. We've only had light snow so far, but a couple of days of frigid temps and below zero at night. We disconnect our hoses in the fall, and put the temp in the house up a couple of notches for cold winter spells. Halted my walks with the puppy, he did wear a little coat when outside, but now too frigid. He goes out to potty for a very limited amount of time, still likes to run around and play in the snow we do have, but I keep a watchful eye at take him in often to warm up.
 

seadoug said:
. What are you experiencing, and what have you done to prepare?
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High 26 F today in Mississippi! Low tonight is 13, low tomorrow night is 7 F. Mixed freezing rain, sleet, snow moving in later this evening and will continue to fall overnight.

I've got faucets dripping, and worked yesterday on partially winterizing my Travato ...emptied gray and black waste tanks and ran RV antifreeze through tanks and water pumps. I'm keeping the heat on in it so didn't do a full winterization.
 

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SeaBreeze said:
You're wise to prepare living where you are. In Colorado here, I have no sensitive plants outside, mostly pine and spruce trees that are fine in snow and cold weather. We've only had light snow so far, but a couple of days of frigid temps and below zero at night. We disconnect our hoses in the fall, and put the temp in the house up a couple of notches for cold winter spells. Halted my walks with the puppy, he did wear a little coat when outside, but now too frigid. He goes out to potty for a very limited amount of time, still likes to run around and play in the snow we do have, but I keep a watchful eye at take him in often to warm up.
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I grew up in Colorado. Ten years of that was in the mountains. I recall we did have a few -40-degree mornings! And it was frequently below zero when we walked to school. They never closed schools and many of us that lived in town walked to school. Of course, it was only a few blocks to school. We all knew how to dress for the cold and how to avoid getting frost bite, although as kids we frequently got frost bite on our fingers, toes, and cheeks when we played after school. Then when you go in to warm up your frost bite burns and itches as it thaws out.

I remember those time as the 'best of times'! Seems like today, the moms would be rushing their kids to the emergency room...??!!

I live in the Kansas City area now....it was -11-degrees this morning...when I took our dogs out it reminded me of home....!
 
No prep needed.
Was cold this morning low of 37F. 3mph winds so walking was doable. Cold overnight supposed to be low of 39. Wed. warming in the mid 40's overnight mid 60's during the day.
 
I was thinking that I should make a Walmart+ order, just to be sure that we were stocked up , in case we get hit with the snow and possibly the ice storm that is being predicted for here in northern Alabama. However, Walmart is either swamped with orders, or they are already sending delivery people home; because everything says delivery/pickup in 3+ days !
So, if we are going to stock up, we will need to go to the grocery store ourselves and shop.

I still have a turkey in the freezer that we bought when Kroger had them for 49 cents a lb. We just took that out to thaw and will cook that so we know there will be some kind of ready food that we can eat, should there be extended power outages where we can’t cook anything.
I can live on turkey and dressing for 3-4 days (as long as i have cranberry sauce !), if it comes down to that, and I will probably make a pot of something like Spanish rice , where we can have leftovers, too.

My husband has gone to find propane, and I hope he has better luck than the grocery delivery had. People will undoubtedly be stocking up on that, too. I am getting all the chargeable things charged up, and the little lanterns for light.
It is looking like we won’t be out of this until maybe Thursday .
 
Pinky said:
In the 50's, we lived in Alberta, in an uninsulated converted chicken house. The extreme temps in both summer & winter were very harsh. Somehow, we survived.
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Wow Pinky. You’re a tough one. I remember you speaking about it years ago. I’m glad you survived. I moved to Alberta in the late 70’s. They had good paying jobs back then. We had a basement apartment and I rode the bus to and from work. The winds at those bus stops were bitter cold at times. My eyelids would almost stick together. We are tough cookies. lol
 
Right now it is 10F (-12.2222 C). Pond is frozen over and snow is covering that ice too. We are supposed to stay below freezing for the next three days with single digit temps at night. I have two floodlights going in the well house and cold faucet dripping in bathroom with hot faucet dripping in kitchen. I reinforced the house skirting and sealed any open areas, stocked up on propane, pulled out my emergency lighting and radio, checked the batteries and filled up the kerosine lanterns.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Last night Edmonton Alberta in Canada got -50 temperatures. Thats -50 Celsius AND -50 Fahrenheit since past - 40 Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same.

Here it’s 7 degrees Celsius
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And you somehow maintain quite a diverse collection of plants. I'm sure you know just what you're doing and rarely if ever lose anything to cold. Here it is too tempting to push the envelope because we very often escape unscathed. But we get losses.
 
MarkD said:
And you somehow maintain quite a diverse collection of plants. I'm sure you know just what you're doing and rarely if ever lose anything to cold. Here it is too tempting to push the envelope because we very often escape unscathed. But we get losses.
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I don’t live in Alberta. I’m on the other side of Canada and it was sunny , 45 degrees today
 
Forecast has changed for us to less snow, more freezing rain which means a likely power outage. 🌧️ 🧊:( Looks like I need to go pull out propane heaters and canisters from the storage shed. Also the rocket stove which uses twigs and sticks which I need to gather before precipitation moves in. All solar backup is charged up and the gas generator is in the garage.
 
MarkD said:
And you somehow maintain quite a diverse collection of plants. I'm sure you know just what you're doing and rarely if ever lose anything to cold. Here it is too tempting to push the envelope because we very often escape unscathed. But we get losses.
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We now live in a zone 6
We use to live in a zone 4
It rains here more than anything
Today it was 45 degree Fahrenheit
It was a warm day today especially compared to Alberta
 
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