aljones wrote:

Tried to get his collar off so I could 'expand' it a bit and found that it had gradually worked its way so that it was already at its limit.  Before I brought him home I bought another larger collar (and matching leash) but couldn't find the collar and gave that up as a lost cause - he either ate it or stashed it under something so he could eat it later ... finally found it, on the counter where I left it and of course that was the last place I looked.

I'm still looking for the spare incan of S&B Oriental curry powder that I'm sure I saw in the back of the pantry closet. Husband says - but another one and put it away, that when you will find the other can

Not too much to ask of a puppy. Spider had sit, down, heel and dont chase the horse down by that age. But she had also developed a what do i get out of it attitude.

Im glad its been our nice normal cold. Denver got nailed again. And i get texas issues with heat but seriously why did all those new yorkers who should have known better go out and freeze to death?

A few were making last minute quick runs to the store before the storm was at its height - at least two were recent transplants from warmer climates, one African man trying to get milk for his pregnant wife due next week and the second from north Carolina coming home from work. Some were people with medical emergencies who died in their homes because EMS couldn't get to them. A few heart attacks shoveling snow. One man, who survived with his kids in his car, was a single parent who couldn't afford to pay a sitter overnight for 4 kids so picked them up to take them home. Then there are the homeless...

Stories are heartbreaking. And many are humbling and fill the great with goodness - like the man who got a call from a friend stuck in the snow, EMS couldn't get to home so he went. He got stuck, knocked on 10 houses asking for shelter and all turned him away. In the meantime, he came across 2 other people stranded, have them shelter in his truck. When the truck tran out of gas, he realized realized he was near a school and broke into that for heat, bathrooms and food. He ended up saving almost a dozen people bringing them into the school.

When the front range got hit there were several deaths related to the power outages but you saw parties snd bonfires in the interstate. And im not 100% sure in my particular case what is worse. I have a fire pit rock area and if we lose power and heat i can start a bonfire. Still not sure if bonfire is better then inside with no heat and getting the extra blankets out.

And yeah if it was risk a break in charge or freeze, id break into a school or hunting cabin or vacation home

I wrote a note in the local Terlingua group about the hazards of weather in the northcountry.  It's a yearly event that we'd lose at least one house to a 'chimney fire' that turned into a house fire.  My uncle was the fire chief of the small volunteer fire department and was always cussing the folks who waited till late fall to fire up the stoves full blast and burn themselves out.
'Course the summer fires were okay by us kids, we'd get earn a few dollars "mopping up" the hot spots with an Indian Pack full of water. (( Wait, can I say 'Indian' pack now?? )) 
There were the bad days of heavy lake effect snow that'd come through and eventually a snow plow would find a car that'd gone off the road, buried in a snow bank, that didn't get found until the thaw.  Or if someone knew they were traveling, they were able to follow the road looking for the 'odd bumps' where a car was.

I was really pleasantly surprised that our EMS didn't get called out for any cases of frostbite or worse (but then we haven't had anyone searching the desert for migrants who got lost) nor did we have the fire dept called out - a real surprise considering the temperature and the things folks down here will do to keep warm.  (( BBQ grill in the house is a real dumb move but folks will leave a window cracked and stoke the grill ... ))

Lets see i have seen diy wood stove made out of cambells soup can in an rv that melted the first time it was used. Family was fine rv was total loss. Ive seen people put the outdoor fire pits under a
stove range hood in a living room. Lots of wood stoves that started as steel barrels. Sometimes just steel barrels. For us after 25 hours of no heat last winter i burned brush and some old pines and aspens in my driveway.

And lots of house fires

We've had a couple house fires lately that have killed a few people. Not sure started from anything dumb per se but smoke detectors in the houses didn't work which is what ultimately got the folks killed. Strange design I've noticed for houses in our area is that most only have one detector in the hall and that's it for the whole house. When we lived at the lake normal design was two, one at end of hall and one near kitchen area, though not directly in kitchen since that's a recipe for ending up with people popping the batteries out of them when cooking. We added detectors in our dining room near kitchen and out in the garage when we moved in.

I have a large inverter. If the power goes out for extended period I can run a radiant electric heater off my battery bank I have on the greenhouse and cycle out our car batteries if need be. It won't run anything else but we shouldn't freeze. I guess the new truck could be plugged into to run heaters too. I don't think about it but that's like standard issue setup on the new ford trucks.

Silly puppy! I had a steak for dinner and tend to cut off the grisly edge to 'serve' to the dogs later. I gave A the biggest chunk (since, at the moment, he's the biggest dog ) gave Sky and Zeus a couple of the smaller chunks, gave A another one and then decided that since Sky had been hanging back I'd give the last three - four pieces to her.

Held the plate down for her and Avalanche reaches in, grabs the plate and heads to the other side of the room. What he "forgot" was that when you jerk a plate away all the contents pretty much drop. So he had a plate with lots of flavor and Sky and Zeus got the leftovers.

Some times I just have to laugh --- even though Avalanche really does know better than to grab something from me.

I've never really been one to let them have anything from a plate. If they get any level of leftovers it goes in their bowl at the next feeding. Kye does like that aspect of kenzi being diabetic since she can't have fat chunks anymore.

With me it really depends. I use paper plates to conserve our precious water (and because I'm just lazy.) If it's something that sloppy it goes in their bowls; if it's something that I'm aiming to give to just one of the monsters, I tend to let them eat from my plate since I can, generally, make sure the one I'm intending to get it does.

My grandmother (and my aunt) would have a fit when their husbands put their plates on the floor for the dogs. Their responses were invariably "You're going to let them have it anyway and anyway, it makes washing the plates that much easier."

I'm finding I'm having to watch the youngest monster, he's gotten to the point that he can almost reach the counter top. Doesn't mean that he won't swipe something off if I've left it near the edge and am not there to watch it. That's gonna stop SOON!

I've always been able to leave things and not worry about them. Avalanche and Sky have not surfed (at least not more than once!) My last lab ... well, I had a friend over; broiled a couple of steaks and set them on the coffee table when I went back into the kitchen. "Aren't you concerned she'll take them?" Not in the least. When we went back to the living room, Kalah was setting about 6-8 feet away ... looking at them but I don't think it would have crossed her mind that she could have them. Takes time and some effort but it's worth it in the long run ... for all of us. And of course she got the scraps.

We let the dogs lick the plates. And the pots and pans. If there's any amount of fat, I wipe most of it up with paper towel before giving the dishes to them. They then clean my pans through and it keeps crap out of my septic system. Down side is I feel compelled to always use the sani cycle on my dishwasher which, now that our old, super cheap electric contract has ended is gonna cost. I am not liking what our new rates are looking like but when I see that son number one is paying .28 KwH and CT and and ME of about the same, ours doesn't seem quite so bad now. But I'm a lot more stingy with the electric baseboard these days.

Maybe having Archer for the end of the week. He is my counter surfer. Butter it's his specialty

Must be a desert thing. We use paper plates and so do alot of people here, all about the water conservation. Spider is a horrible counter surfer.

And mine get random things by hand but not off plates or out of the pots and pans. One of two things happens. One there is a dog argument or two someone walkes away with said plate/pan and it is retrieved with teeth marks in in.

It's 31° and it's been 31 for most of yesterday and I'm tired of winter!!!  We've had an ice warning from last evening through tomorrow morning.

Predicted high today is 41 ... which is what it was yesterday and never got above freezing ... at least my porch never thawed.

Avalanche and Zeus wanted out, I let them out and they stood on the ice for a few minutes and said "LET ME IN!!!  My snow dogs want nothing to do with cold weather (acclimation??) and my GSD will go out, do a fast dump and want back in.

Living on the generator, not enough sun to keep the batteries up ... I hate winter!!!!

ETA:  At 0800 it was 31°, at 1000 it's 31, at 1130 it's 31 ... this does not bode well for a warmer day ... all the desert vegetation is covered with ice, my kitchen window is covered in ice, my patio doors set back far enough that they only have ice drops on them.  What bugs me is that I'm going to have to go into town later today to get gasoline for the generator and I do NOT like ice roads and we've been subfreezing long enough that they're not clearing!

11:30 I can't get into my jeep, it's covered in about 1/2 inch of ice ...

Drive carefully, Al. Videos from Texas yesterday looked like bumper cars at the carnival!

Cold here, as well but we at least can expect it and are prepared for it. Fridays high is predicted only to be 8⁰ with and overnight low of -2⁰. So we'll have the stoves cranking, the electric blanket on and dripping three upstairs faucets. Me, too, as far as ready for spring!

I could probably make it into town, if the Jeep thaws! I'm less concerned about the road conditions since I'd be doing 30-40 as opposed to the normal speed limit of 75, it's the people down here who have no idea how to steer a vehicle on ice (any slippery)

I'm beginning to feel like I'm in the north country, one faucet (at the end of the line) set to a slow stream, a pot on the stove over a low fire to keep some moisture in the air which also helps make it feel warmer.

Predicted low for tonight is 37 and it still hasn't gotten above 31 ... our high is normally about 1500 (3:00 PM) but I don't think we're gonna make it.

And I'm heading back to the covers ... at least I can keep toasty there.

Covers a good place to be.

Oh, our thermometer isn't broken ... it's finally made it all the way to 32°

Since I've had a small stream of water running for something like 36-48 hours, I have a small lake out back -- more like a small skating rink but I don't have any skates!  (( the septic doesn't have a leach field, it flows out onto the ground a ways back of the house. ))

From my front porch today:



Okay, actually I lie ... those were taken through the window and those are either puppytrack or ice on the window.

... and I broke a pipe somewhere's  ... my house pump started cycling every couple of minutes.  Oh this is fun!!!!!

---

ETA:  It's now 17:30 and we have not managed to get above 32°  It's predicted that our low for the night will be 37, it's gonna have to warm up quick 'cause the sun's (what sun, I haven't seen it today!) about to go behind the mountains and it's not going to be heating anything.

We've consistently been lower than the forecast calls for - but that's been as long as I've been following the weather. Currently 15⁰ at 8:24 PM. Tomorrow a brief semi be warmup to 34⁰ than hell freezes over: 2⁰ Thursday night, 10⁰ Friday, -2⁰ Friday night than "warming" up to 21⁰ on Saturday.

Sigh. It is, after all, early February in upstate New York...

Let me enumerate the reasons I left upstate NY.
1)  Cold
2)  Snow
3) Slippery Roads
4) Roads drifted car deep in snow

Er, did I forget to mention COLD?  Anything lower than 60 is COLD to me now!

You have my sympathy @Amymeme,  I hope it warms up to spring real soon.  I have gotten so tired of 20 -> 80 -> 20 -> 65 .... get cold, stay cold till it warms up again or better yet, just stay warm!!

Welp. Sunday forecast 41⁰, miss 40s middle of next week.

I too am tired of the cold. I said something the other day in passing to my husband about it being a typical february for cold and then realized that it wasn't even february yet. This has been a long winter and it's not really even begun here.

So how's it going in Texas - any warmer today? We had the coolest temps in years last 24 hours but rapidly coming back up to a week of daytime 40s. Weird - down to 13⁰ last night and it seems anonymous. Yet 20 years ago it was common to have multiple rounds of several days of single digit highs and overnight lows well into the minus teens. Now it is exceedingly rare to go below zero.

We're gradually warming up, it's supposed to hit 60 today ... warmer but still not warm to me!

I've been watching those temps that are going through up there.  My cousin, according to Wunderground, woke up to real temps of -40.  Now I don't mind cool (I lie!) but that's a bit too cool for my blood.

I'm with you on the 'several days of single digits'  I remember my seniour year of high school (just a bit more than 20 years) when we had strings of -20 and no highs!
The winter before I came down here I was teaching at a trade school in Syracuse.  There was a bank in town that had a temperature display on a big 'digital' board -- for a long time it just read 0.  Finally called the bank out of curiosity who told me that the display would not display temps below 0 and it'd been 'stuck' there for the better part of 60 days.  I left after a spring storm dropped 6' of snow the following winter!

We got a lot of rain out of that front so I'm waiting for it to dry up (and maybe get nicely warm) before I tackle my water pipe - again.

Welp. Revised forecast: still low 40s tomorrow but high today only 18⁰, low of 17⁰ tonight than warming. House is cold soaked, takes awhile to store heat in the walls again. A nice sunny day should do it but clouds set on early today.

Zeus is in time out again.  Avalanche puts him in his place ... Zeus sounds like he's being killed ... but 6 minutes later Zeus is back badgering him again.  Sky stays on the couch, trying to stay out of his way, it even works sometimes.

I know it's going to take time for him to become less of a puppy ... that's assuming that he makes it that far.  All three of us, at different times, would be glad to find him a new home ... then he relaxes and becomes sociable.

Too many things going on that I'm not happy with.  Took Sky out for a walk and as soon as she saw the leash she was ready to go.  Got in a good walk out back but with Zeus tailing along it wasn't a fun walk.  I haven't yet, but I'm thinking about putting him on her lead off the porch when I take her out -- don't know how he'd react to being restrained where he can't see me (though he does okay in his crate.)

"Stay" is a work in great progress ... for some reason I can't get it through to him.

Growse .......!!!!

ETA: Now I know he's crated at night but why won't he at least bark at the <ex deleted> mouse who comes in and chew holes in things?

Poor baby, he keeps going to the door so I let him out; then he comes back in and darts to the door like he's going back out. He almost lost the tip of his nose doing that today ... it's a good thing I'm not one of those folks who slam (sliding) doors.

Silly baby is not so small any more. He's about as big a Sky and won't even try to walk under Avalanche any more.