Well at around 1:30AM a storm began coming in. We had thunder and lightning. This morning we woke up to 34 degrees. That was the same temperature we had at 3:30AM, I had woken up and checked the weather station.
It’s been a slow drop in temperature since. It’s now 12:30PM, just half past noon and the temperature is down to 26. It’s just been a slow slide down.
One thing we did this morning was put more bird seed out. We have a large feeder, on a two hook shepherds hook. It’s situated so we can see it from the dining/eating area of the house. We also have two smaller dish type feeds on railings. This morning I added seed to the two smaller dishes, and partially filled a plant pot saucer with seed, it has a low lip and is about 10″ in diameter (right now with a brick in the middle). I put it on the floor of the patio, again situated so we can easily watch it.
Even though we do have squirrels, right now with the cold we have a lot of birds outside on the feeders. The patio is covered, probably about 11×10 feet squarish. My dogs small water bowl currently has a small amount of water in it. Hopefully it doesn’t freeze over, but there’s not much water in it.
We are currently forecast for freezing rain, ice (could be 1/4-1/2 inch), for the weekend. Basically, if you don’t have to go outside, don’t. Don’t go out for a drive, put a coat and maybe booties on your dog before walking, cover your plants, pipes, etc. Right now I even have water dripping in a bathroom so I don’t have to worry about it later. It’s done. Call me paranoid, I’m okay with that. I’ve been called a Girl Scout. I’ll wear that badge proudly if it keeps me from getting house damage, or other winter problems.
One concern I do have is that this weather has as I recall usually shown up in February. If I’m right about that, it’s a bit early. So will we have more cold weather this year? Will we have more coming in February? Is it a long winter ahead? Is this going to be it, and we’re done with winter weather here in Central Texas?
Who knows?