You are so right, our temp of 40. at the moment, will keep ours at rain,
until the temps drop tonight to -1. Then we will see a mix of ice and
snow, probably only an inch or two, leaving perilous driving conditions
for Mon. morn.:eek:

Still snowing. Drifts on back patio look to be about two and a half feet. Wind is picking up and power outages are being reported. Praying that I keep my power.

I am already feeling the effects of the weather in my legs and back.:mad:

It does sound like you are in the thick of it Barb.
Hoping and praying that you keep your power too. Also that your legs and back settle down. The cold winter winds are the worst. Its like it blows the cold right down into the bones, even when you are inside.

What is your forecast for the next 24 hours Barb?

How about your area Sally? What's your forecast for the next 24 yours? Worried about you two :hug:.

With love, Erika

Sally and Barb,

Do you each have a cell phone? And is it charged? Maybe charge it up just in case the power goes out so you can call someone for help.

We have a gas oven so that keeps working even if the power goes out. You ladies are in my thoughts tonight as well. :hug: :hug:

Yes I have a cell and try to keep it charged. I also have a reg. telephone
line that works if the power goes out, unless the phone lines also go out.
I have given my numbers to a few people here, if they still have them?:D

Thanks for your concern. :grouphug:
BTW, does anyone have Ann's number? We still haven't heard from her.

Not snowing here in east central Iowa but the temp is already -11, on its way to -21. High temp tomorrow expected to be -8. There's been a stray cat living in one of our sheds. I'm going to check on it tomorrow. No idea what I'll do if it needs help. :(

I'm so concerned about the power going out. There's no precipitation but 25 mph winds in subzero temps can break branches almost as bad as ice. We have a generator but BF never started it up this fall to ready it for winter. Two small electric heaters won't keep the house warm anyway.

Wiz, Barb, Sally...hoping you don't lose power!

About those palmetto bugs - try putting out saucers of a boric acid/sugar mix. I lived in the south Louisiana swamp for a year and learned that trick. Worked for me.

Well our overnight snow never materialized, it rained instead. Good, or bad, who knows. Rainy streets can turn to ice as soon as it stats the deep freeze. The nice 30* temperatures very quickly dropped to one digits with a high wind. So I think our wind chill is a warm -14 F. It will get lower. I would say we are all set to stay in but our grandkids ate us out of house and home. My poor husband doesn't have an ounce of milk in the house to have with his Christmas chocolate. Poor baby. I just said suck it up until I realized that I am almost out of yogurt. That is my bedtime snack! Yikes. Hopefully we can get to the store tomorrow afternoon at it's warmest. We have never minded getting out in the weather. We both worked in a hospital and you HAVE to go to work. The hospital never closes for snow days or any kind of weather. We never missed one day or late for work. And it drives DH crazy if he can't get a car out and run it for awhile, just to make sure the battery is OK.

Sparky,

The animal rescue that I got Ziggy from figured out a way to help keep strays warm in our cold winters up here. They are feeding and caring for around 24 of them out at our local dump. They have been given access to a large building that is used to recycle cardboard and that protects the cats from the wind and snow. Both inside and outside of that there are some cardboard box scraps as well as individual shelters set up so that they can get inside of a small area to keep warm.

Those shelters are fairly easy to put together. The shelter uses plastic Vary-kennels, but also plain cardboard boxes to construct them. They put towels/blankets inside of a small box or a small kennel (with the door taken off) and then put that inside of a bigger one. Between the two, they stuff insulation and/or wads of newspaper and then cover the whole business, including the front where the doors are, with cardboard, blankets and plastic for the ones that are outside.
Then they run a tube fashioned from a sheet of cardboard or use a "Big-0" pipe that is 8-10 inch diameter and around 2 feet long from the doors of the shelter to the outside.

They put cat-nip, dry cat food and meat jerky in the pipe to encourage the cats to go inside it.
Those shelters have worked beautifully, and even when our temperature here goes down to -30 (not unusual), the cats don't get frost-bite on their ears or paws.

Last month they found a raven with a broken leg in one of the shelters during a "sweep" when they block off the pipes to collect the cats for their vet check/spay and vaccination program. He was healing up just fine on is own so they put some extra food with fat in it near his shelter and left him alone. He has since moved out but comes to beg for food every day when they go to feed and water the cats :).

If you have some cardboard boxes, you might try to put something like that together for the stray in your shed.

With love, Erika

Cat peering out from the safety and warmth of his winter hiding place.

With love, Erika

It's going to be 24 for a high today......with winds up to 35 mph. Here in Georgia we are just not used to or equipped to deal with this kind of frigid cold.

I "redecorated" my garage and now have an emergency cat cave. I put some heavy duty cardboard boxes around with towels and blankets inside and some water and food. I opened my garage door about 8-10 inches so the cats could access the inside. It's still cold but at least the wind is kept to a minimum. The food was gone when I went out to check so somebody has been in there eating. They still have the barn and the igloo but this is just another option for them. I worry so about them. :(

I saw the extended forecast and next Sat/Sun it will be rainy but highs in the low 60's!! What the what!!!! :rolleyes: