80AcresOnline

The cold front that hit central Texas between midnight and dawn Thursday certainly did change things…yeah, we’d had that 15 degree down-spike back in December, and some other overnights in the 20s (good for knocking the ticks back) but this was a serious Arctic blast like we used to get every winter 30 years ago and haven’t had for the past decade.  Of course we wrapped pipes in advance, put on the hose bib foam-thingies, blocked the air vents under the house, all the usual things you do.

Sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t….yup, that’s a pipe that burst–not where it’s sawed off, but at an elbow just underground. Read the rest of this entry »

Ice on the lily pond this morning–very clear, very cold last night.  The birds all look bigger, as  they’re all fluffed out.  One of the white-wings tried armpitting a blue jay while feeding on the ground, and the blue jay took offense.  Come on, dove: look at the relative beak size.  And there were three jays…you’re outnumbered.

Red oak leaves against the cold blue sky–gorgeous.

Self in multiple layers against the cold and wind–not so gorgeous.  Horses and the cat grow nice dense winter coats (as do the wild critters) but humans aren’t so lucky.   (Though the shedding problem if we did–ugh!)