Here in South Texas this Winter strom is really kicking our butt's down here, we have not gone threw this in almost 10 years in Seguin and its really taking a toll on us Warm Weather Texans.. I dont know how you guys up north do this every year...This is like the winter strom we have in the Rio Grande Valley ( way down South on the Mexican Border) back in the 90's that took out all our Orange Groves/Orchards.. 

Oppps I have the date wrong for the winter ice storm we had it was in the mid 80's.. 

All I know is, is that I will be sooo grateful when we make it through to Friday without incidents!  Had 3 power interruptions in the last hour already. Only a minute or so. But that scares me for tonight and tomorrow. Low tonight is supposed to be 9°F, and tomorrow's 3°.... 
stay warm and safe everyone!

well, apparently Ercot is entertaining rolling outages starting tonight and may continue the over next 48-72 hours... could be anywhere from 10-45 minutes.... guess i'll have to put the buddy heater in the LQ when we go to bed. The tanks are basically empty, but we didn't drain the waterheater because I have a spaceheater in there.... ugh... Is it Friday yet???

Whats giving me so much grief is breaking ice on all the water buckets and trough's out here, my hands get wet and man they start hurting, so have to come in and thaw them out for a while and start all over again, I have gloves on but they get wet, I guess I need to find some water proof gloves, but since we are not suppose to have this kind of weather I dont have any, lol.

I'm with you Cranky I am so done with this and its not even Monday yet!!!! We have all week to get used to this I guess

Oh NO!!!!

Put on some plastic (medical type) gloves under your regular warm gloves to keep your hands from getting wet. 

Southeast corner of Kansas here.  We are like the rest of the country, record setting low temps.  So far electric has stayed on, as long as we don't get ice I think it will stay that way.  I broke down and blanketed two of the horses and I never do that.  Our barn is 45 x 90 with 1/2 of the 45' being open sided on the south but the wind is whipping in under it something fierce, Plus these two are our leanest of the 4.  My other two has stalls that open to their lot so they have a wind break and they are fatter then toads and acting sassy.

Our utility room toilet water line keeps freezing up but thaws out really quick.  I'm trying to find a heat lamp to put under the floor (crawl space) just enough heat to keep it thawed.

Prayers for everyone and all their animals this week.  I'm afraid it is going to be a long week!

This actually works! Just come in from blanketing and feeding our lott and had the nitril gloves under my leather ones, hands are nice and toasty!!

So much fun! Only having 3 decent blankets and 4 horses.... all of them started shivering, so I out them in the barn ( which is only 3-sided with the East side open) with lots of hay and 3 of them with the mid-weight blankets. Nr 4 is wearing a liner under his Back on Track blanket. Hopefully that will be enough for the next couple if days... no where to get another one right now, and I'm not driving anywhere anyway...

But I will be ordering 1 more blanket just in case we get more of this crappy miserable crazy weather!

I have also put plastic shopping bags over my socks before pulling on my muck boots. It helped keep my feet a bit warmer and certainly keeps your feet dry in case your springs a leak -- which has happened to me in the past. 

I used to do that in my tall boots when I was riding English! Now I just wear Merino wool sock in my muck boots. I also have a new pair sitting in the closet (they where on sale...) so if they start to leak I can pop inside and switch over.

Oh my gosh, I would have never though of that, you are so awesome  THANK YOU!!!!! I will do that tomorrow, I just came in and had to thaw OUT AGAIN, Man I'm just not made for this cold, wet stuff, I'll take my South Texas heat over this miss any ole day, lol... 

I feel so bad for cattlemen who have herds to feed in this miserable weather.  My sister knew what she was doing when she moved from Arkansas to the Villages in Florida.  

And with all the breaking of ice so their cattle can get water and thats brutal right there!!! When my father in Law had the Dairy going it was really hard when we had that ice storm back in the mid 80's, 900 plus cows had to be milked in the am and pm (twice a day) thank goodness he had some hard working hands that keep the milking going, I think about these Dairys up north, that have it really rough too.. 

Honestly, there's a definite difference between the cold I know from living in northern ND and Minnesota and here in Texas.  I go to Northern Minnesota at least once a month.  I swear to God, minus 10 up there is more tolerable than 20 degrees down here.  I very rarely wear even a light jacket in Texas.  Nobody is more tolerant of cold than I am, but 22 degrees with wind and sleet was brutal today, even with full winter gear.  Even when it's not raining or windy, cooler temps are more penetrating down here.  
Thankfully, we have a full 150 gal tank of propane, so that can keep the fireplace going for at least 6 days or so if we lose power for any length of time.  I just hope we don't have any busted water lines coming into the place.  

This cold is insane... it's 10 degrees here right now and feels like -5.  Had steady snowfall since about 0800 this morning.  Got into work at 1500 and it's been a dang madhouse.  Wrecks everywhere... I'll be glad once we get above freezing again sometime after Thursday this week. 

I planted some fruit trees week before last so I'm more then sure that they are toast along with my fruit trees that I planted a coupled of months ago. I had no ideal that this was going to happen with this winter storm, out winter has been so mild and I thought that winter was pretty much over, WRONG!!!!! 

I'm making my 5 stay in the barn most of the time.  They hate this.  They pretty much think the barn is for eating/peeing/pooping and then they want out.  I've put tubs of water in each stall, keeping hay in front of them, doubled up their alfalfa pellets, only turning them out if there is no rain/snow coming down.  One was shivering this afternoon so she got a blanket and put up in the barn a little earlier than the rest.  She was stressed still after an hour so I turned her back out.  PROMPTLY, within 5 minutes, she broke a leg stocking stuffer her blanket running and kicking and playing.  "Can't have nothing nice."  LOL.  Keep checking the water troughs and tubs for ice every few hours.

Turned all the faucets on outside, one or two inside, set a small heater up in the LQ, opened the faucets and the cabinet doors, built a teepee over the water well and put spotlights on the well head and the tank pipes, filled the bathtubs up with water so I can still flush a toilet if the electricity goes out.

Feeling pretty good that I've made it two days but the worst is still yet to come so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I would never make it in Montana because I HATE cold weather.

More and more owning a Generac sounds like it could help take the anxiety out of these storms.  

I just told my husband that wearing surgical gloves under my regular gloves was the best idea ever.  Even at 25 below zero, my hands stay toasty.  Plus the gloves come on and off easier, when you need more flexibility.   I can get hands wet and stick them right back into the gloves.  I don't go out without them.

We are sending prayers for all those affected by this unseasonable bitter cold.  Even when you are set up for cold, this late in the season is brutal on babies. 

That is so true, Many prayers going out to these men and women that have to fight this bitter cold weather. 

We woke up to almost 4 inches of snow this morning, this is really a rare event for us, and causing alot of problems for us warm/hot weather folks.. 

We have made it up to a balmy 3 degrees here in NE Oklahoma. About 4 inches of snow on the ground with predictions of more to come tomorrow and Wednesday.  Not supposed to get above freezing till Friday or Saturday.  A water hose and a few buckets are thawing in the shower.  Pushing the manure cart is a workout.  I am so over this event.

I posted this to my FB page....

"PSA for the day ....... I must, once again, chastise my generous "Northern" friends ....... KEEP your crappy weather .... we do not NEED nor do we WANT the blizzard conditions with SIX degree temps .... COME GET IT and TAKE IT BACK ...... PULEEEEEEZE!!!!"

Of course, all I got from my friends was laughter ...... wind chills were below zero..... I moved south...why? The weather radio just went off a few minutes ago and we are to expect another 6-10" Wed thru Thursday. I REALLY do feel for those of you who have NEVER experienced this type of weather ..... stay safe and stay as warm as you can ...... 

We had power last night after 2 full days of none... only for it to shut off again at 5am this morning... still without... and not likely that it will be coming back any time soon.  Luckily I filled the bathtub last night with water so we have been watering our animals every few hours with that. You can't find a single space heater or candle in town... every single generator is gone... I ordered one online in hope that it MIGHT get on the truck today or tomorrow,  but just got notice it won't be delivered till probably Monday at the earliest. We are doing the best we can with what we have and that's it. Thankfully I had stocked up on a ton of bottled water, we have plenty of that and we ventured to town to get fuel and more propane for our generator in our LQ .. its been sustaining us thru all this and I'm definitely blessed to have that. We cooked some sausage wraps earlier on our grill... but looks like supper will be cereal or bagels... perhaps a sandwich!  We are more fortunate than some that have absolutely no heat or generators..... shelves were completely bare at Walmart.. we went in for antifreeze... I hope and pray we get power back on this evening...but its probably unlikely. ... I have 44 chicks in my lq shower at the moment... it was out of pure desperation .... its warmer in there than in our home. First night of no power our house got down to 42... tonight is projected to be in the single digits... 

i saw texas  my nephew in austin no power   they  have nothing  .   

i so  feel for them

Been thinking about you! Glad you are hanging in there, but sure hope the power comes back on soon!

My heart goes out to the National Guardsmen needlessly patroling the Capitol Bldg.  They have jobs and responsibilities to their families at home but can't go home.  Must protect Nancy.

Since you ALWAYS have to turn every thread into a IGNORANT poiltical statement ..... how about feeling sorry for those National Guard that are deployed in TX/AR, etc to help those CITIZENS !!!! 

I'm with everybody else I"m so over with this weather too.My body is so tired and sore from walking threw this iced over snow to feed, the breaking the ice on water troughs 3 times a day took a toll on my shoulders and wrist, I had to bring out the man power (Andy) LOL, Andy hes been helping me now to break ice, he had to get out the Ax to get to the water, in all my life (63 years of it now), I have never seen this, this is just a crazy winter, here I thought it was about over then we are hit with this.. I hope that everybody is staying safe, we are suppost to get more wet weather on top of this, Ice freezing on Ice..  

I really feel for you guys that don't have the experience with this kind of weather. Ours here in AR has not been good either .....-1 degree this morning and 5 or 6" of snow on the ground and more to come BUT ..... we have the experience to handle it. Our house has always been weather proofed etc because of that experience. I am just, for once, happy that we don't have any horses (or outside animals) left to take care of and no where to go ... I can throw cat food out the door .... LOL

I'm dreading to go outside to feed now I feed my horses tons of hay to keep them happy, so I dont have to get out there to feed untill Im ready and with them having all that hay I can really take my time on getting out there. But not looking forward to getting in all that cold.. 

Back in the 80's we went 11 days with temps at 16 degrees or lower and had ice everywhere several inches thick. The bay even froze over and all the stock tanks. The ducks feet froze in the ponds and deer were sliding all over the tanks. This was in Alice and Corpus Christi area. The only horse whose water I didn't have to break was my barrel horse that was raised in Nebraska. He kept a small muzzle size hole in the water bucket from icing over. Power lines were snapping and trees falling from the weight of the ice. Then it happened again in 89. Not quite as long a time, but my husband spent all night every night at the plant in the pipe racks. He HATES it when it goes below 60. Lol. People laughed at us when we built our house with a good wood burning fireplace. We did it because we remembered those couple of winters. No laughter now! 
I have been praying for all of y'all without power, having to break ice for your cattle and calving in this brutal cold. We have been lucky, 19 actual degrees is as low as we have been and yesterday we hit 33 for a couple hours. 

Only you NJJ would change a kind thought to the military into an insult to them.  How very liberal of you.  You are incredibly rude.

LOL ....

And this is what you said on the thread about a political forum:

"I post on political threads but they have become increasingly nasty, with personal attacks on BOTH sides, and beyond just discussing the issues .... and NO, Scott ...... that is NOT the way that those threads should go."

Then you turn around and excoriate Frodo, calling her remark "ignorant".  You are fixated on attacking others because they attack others.  In other words, in the course of a heated exchange, you make nasty personal attacks on others who make nasty personal attacks.  I don't know what's more screwy, you or this weather we've been having.  It almost seems like life to you is a never ending "Rubiks Cube".  

These political threads can just bring out the worst in us all sometimes.. And this Darn FREAKING cold weather tickes me off...I'm tired of being cold..Dang it!!!! I want my water to stop freezing too...

I dreaded this storm - breaking ice and making sure the horses are taken care of.  I never dreamed we'd be without electricity and heat!!  

WTH is wrong here in the state of Texas that people have no heat in 0* weather?  It's ridiculous!!

We got our power back on a few hours ago but most likely it won't last much longer. We noticed a lot of oncor boom trucks and work trucks heading out of our little town on our way back from getting more fuel.. my husband's nephew is a lineman for oncor and he said oncor is not allowing the line crews back into the small towns for now, they must go and service the bigger city now... which most have power already.. pretty much all the businesses are firing on all cylinders.. the city of belton is firing up the huge expo center this evening as a warm center.... makes a bunch of sense doesn't it??? NOT! I'm telling yall, us rural folks are fed up my whole town was without power for 6 days .... SIX days!!!  couldn't get any help out here, no answers, no time line, no nothing.... our pipes are froze .... we borrowed a generator to use on our well so we could get water to the animals.... we know the linemen that were working out here were doing the best they could for our small town... we appreciate their work and their time 1000% .... but something isn't making sense and we are all talking about it here... for now,  our power is on but very weak .... we are hoping our pipes don't bust ... we don't run any lights our appliances are unplugged and our heat is set to 58 to try to thaw out .... I don't expect it'll be on much longer though... 

Thats crazy about the power, this is 2021 this should be happening at all, but who know this weather was going to be this bad.  My youngest son Lives in the City of Seguin and their power has been off and on all threw this mess, my oldest son is in San Marcos and same thing but they have been going without power longer and he lives in the city too.. Us (hubby and I) live in the rual area of Seguin about 12 miles out and we have NOT lost our power once, its been perfect, but we live on a different power plant then what powers the citys and other areas.. Now the water lines now thats a different story, but we have a water well and have been babying it all threw this with heat lamps and heaters. 

Here is a few pictures from Monday, never have I seen this much snow here... And its still on the ground, but it started to melt just a little bit this afternoon but still have it..

It's awful... we are trying to remain positive but it's getting rough to do.  Seeing the photos and seeing the stories on the news of so many without power yet downtown areas and buildings are lit up like the 4th of July! What gives???? Last story I saw was out of Waco... entire neighborhoods black but the McClane stadium is lit up top to bottom. People are angry and not staying silent about it! We are all suffering and our animals are stressed beyond... I'm finding dozens of dead or dying little birds in my barn fighting with my chickens for food we put out... its heartbreaking.... I think I've cried more the last few days than I have in the last year! It's so cold, I can't help my animals stay warm, only offer what I can ... they look so stressed, I can't offer a warm meal either ... we had to put down our beloved family cat last night too... she was old.... and blind in 1 eye with the other starting to cloud over.. she began having seizures late last night and just struggling to eat and breathe ... we made the decision and my husband had to take care of her.. I just felt so horrible it had to be that way ... just broke our hearts. So use to seeing her laying on the couch in her spot.... it just feels sad now. I know warmer days are ahead for us and much needed relief. 

The snow literally blocked our front door, we couldn't get out that way ... our entire front porch was covered up to our knees with snow ... it was insane to see that much here. I look at this snow and I still think it's beautiful but we need our electricity to truly enjoy it! 

I am so sorry that you and your family are going threw all this mess. And so very sorry about your cat, what stinking timing for this to happen. I think these power break downs should not be happening period.. Same thing in San Antoino, they are having serious power outage's but the big city buldings been having power and the main power plant company that are shutting down power to do the power rolling overs (Cant remember the name for this) had their buliding all lit up big time every floor was lit up and I think its a 12 story or more building, lots and lots of people are very unset about this.. It was all over the news today and was showing how lit up the building was.. they had the spokes person on for this power company and when asked about this and showed him the pictures of the building lit up he didnt have many words to say and that he would look into it. It sucks that the Tax payers are the ones having to do the suffering. 

It was -21° when I got off work this morning. I left work tonight and it's a whopping 0 and feels decent! That's just crazy to me. It was 0 when I left for work tonight as well and my chickens were outside pecking around. They haven't come out for a couple days. The horses have access to the barn but they've been hanging out outside. All I have to say is thank God my tank heaters have kept up. At the hospital I work at our floor is all negative airflow for covid and it was 60° in some patient rooms! There was ice on the windows. I don't ever remember real temps here being this low. 

Heat wave this morning.  It's 8 degrees.  Spring is just around the corner?   

I forgot all about the San Antoino Stock Show and Rodeo in all this mess, I saw that they canceled the Rodeo untill this mess is behind us, I think that they got in 3 or 4 days of the Rodeo before the Freezing weather got started. I hope they stay safe since all the ropers and barrel racers, streer dogers were hauling in and out with their rigs, 

MORE snow (already have 5-6") .... but a "heat wave" .... we are up to 26 degrees .... whooo-hoooo !!!! Since there were NO tracks in our yard or drive-way since Sunday, the neighbor's son stopped in to check on us and to see if we needed anything from the grocery store .... we have GREAT neighbors!

I really do feel bad for you all that have never experienced this kind of weather before. This kind of weather is not for the weak of heart .....STAY SAFE ......

We are up to 36 now and things are starting to melt, We didnt have to break any ice today, Yi-pee!!!!

But tonight more precipitation is suppose to move in and some more snow, but I dont think it will be anything near what we got sunday night, just more really sloppy weather for us.

I feel guilty!! Here in SO CAL, its sunny and 71 with low 80s coming by the weekend. You all can come visit!

You guys are the warmest place in the whole Untited States, if this crazy weather didnt hit us we would have been right behind y'all. 

Hope that you'll check in with us, been thinking about you and the family

We were blessed with power last night and up until about noon today and it shut off again. We never could get our pipes to let loose... they are frozen solid. But we were happy with the heat in the house. It's getting dark, and cold in the house.. once again... looks like we will be back into the LQ again tonight. So glad it's an option... we haul water to the animals directly from the well throughout the day... we have so much ice, it's insane! My kiddos are trying to make the best of it.. they built a snowman in the arena and are having fun patrolling for injured birds, they bring them in the trailer and put them in front of the space heater and then set them free... they fly off so I guess it's working lol! Bless their little hearts. I was able to make a big pot of red beans and rice we can reheat with the propane fish fryer we got... so we can have a warm meal tonight. Our whole town is out again last I heard they were working on a line that had snapped and crippled our town so just maybe they'll get it repaired and we will be back in business... fingers crossed! It wasn't as cold as it has been today but still it just goes right thru you when you walk outside. We have enough fuel for 2 more days in our generator for our trailer and we do have plenty of propane to get us thru, I believe.. plenty of food and water and food for our animals... we are very fortunate... I have people risking the roads to come buy eggs from us because stores are sold out ... I'm glad I can serve our community as such ... throughout all this crazy cold my chickens are still providing us lots of eggs! 

Glad to hear that you guys are doing all right, at least after tomorrow things will start looking up for everyone, cant wait for a temp of 45 thats going to feel so good and we wont have to layer our clothes anymore, the bad weather will be ending by late tomorrow.. 

I was surprised to see that my chickens are still laying too!!! 

I just cant believe that theres a food shortage again, our HEB is sold out on most everything, shelves are bare again, the lines to the fast food places are just crazy, went into town to get fuel and oh my gosh the lines for fast food.. WOW!!!!!

Now I know why the lines at the fast food places are so long, more then half of the city of Seguin is still without power, this is just so not right..

I saw footage on the news this morning of so many in Texas waiting in long lines at grocery stores and even waiting in line for water at a park hydrant.  It was heart wrenching.  No power, can't keep their families warm.

On the local, there was a story from Eureka KS where a couple who raise cattle were desperately trying to save newborn calves.  They had lost five and one was in trouble.  On the bright side, we are definitely in a warming trend.

And now the fuel as in gas and diesel are running out here, this weather is really taking a toll.. I just cant believe that we are in this kind of shape, this is 2021 not the early 1900's..People cant even keep their children warm now. 

And on top of all this mess its snowing here again, but I dont think it will be as bad as it was at the first of the week.  

1 of the issues I feel is, is that we have become spoilt over the last couple of decades.
Of course our houses are not built for these extreme cold temps, and a lot don't have fireplaces or wood stoves anymore. So these are issues that will always keep popping up when extreme weather hits.

Maybe it's because I've always been a planner.... not a full blown prepper, but I always have enough food for animals and humans to get through a couple of weeks. And once I use something it gets replaced as soon as possible.  

I know there will always be events we can't plan for, but every time something like this happens (be it like this last week, or a hurricane or some other natural disaster) I try to look at what we've done, and what I can fix to make sure the next time I will be prepared a little better. 

Just how I look at it.

Anyway, tomorrow we should be in the + again, so lets hope this will soon become a distant memory without too many lives and or properties lost. 

Waiting outside HEB. Not cold to me in upper 20's, and snowing but mass panic and hysteria.  

It's been a real learning experience down here. 

We lost power early Monday morning and got it back early Tuesday morning, only for it to be hit or miss Tuesday and Wednesday.  Most of our fridge contents spoiled. The first day we lost power we put them in a cooler on the porch. The second time, the power went out when we were asleep and I didn't get to them in time. We lost water early Monday morning as well since its powered by the well. We had buckets filled and bottled water ready, but I could have/ should have had even more. 

My husband and I have been working this whole time, and we were both gone when our main water line broke. Thankfully it broke to the outside of the house. Had it cracked another inch toward the house, the entire house would have flooded because it was gushing water for hours while we were gone.  It took going to five different hardware stores to get all the pieces we needed for the repair, but we were able to get water back to the house late last night. Last night was the first night we had both water and power since Sunday.  I finally got to wash my hair Wednesday after idk, 4 days? 

I will be so glad when this whole weather ordeal is over. We have had it rough but so many of my friends and neighbors have had it worse than me. Thankfully the one broodmare who was due on 2/14 at my moms has carried over due like she normally does. 

We are all good here in my part of the world but seeing and hearing about all of this is heart wrenching!  Like someone else said in these times things like this shouldn't be happening.  I realize that this is a very rare weather event but still you'd think they would have some kind of a backup plan in place by now.

My thoughts and Prayers are going out to all that are fighting this mess

Worse than this happened in '83/84 and again in 1989. We lost power due to heavy ice, but we always had water. And the power wasn't off as long. Here in South Texas ( King Ranch/ Corpus Christi)we were 11 days at 11 degrees or less. It rained and sleeted, no snow. Ice several inches thick. The Corpus Christi bay froze over as did all the stock tanks. My husband had to break ice with the backhoe do cattle and wildlife could get water. Still didn't have the problems with electricity or panic buying like we are seeing now. I want an explanation. 

So now we have an idea what life is like in Venezuela.

Scott where is this at?

HEB, Bastrop.  I couldn't get in yesterday or the day before because they closed the doors early, so I went in this morning and got in, but as you can see most things were severely picked over.  Very little meat.  No bread.  No eggs.  No Milk. No produce.  Hel! they even ran out of salt!  

People will never learn....the panic buyers. My brother law has a friend in Elgin.. he told us this morning in their small town, the Dollar General was open, the shelves are scarce.. he was standing in a aisle looking for something to eat.. there was 6 cans of beans left, he said he picked up 1 can and someone came up behind him, REACHED AROUND him and took the 5 remaining cans right in front of him... could you imagine!!! People are nuts... our dollar general is open but they are only allowing a few customers in at a time. They are very limited on supply. It's sad... we don't need to go to the store, thankfully,  we stock up typically once a month anyway on canned goods, dry goods and freeze breads, etc etc... Things are thawing out, roads are ice still though I'd say maybe 60% of folks out here got their power back and for those who don't,  neighbors are cooking and sharing hot meals, folks with good 4x4 trucks are making fuel and propane runs for everyone who can't go. Our community has been kicking butt! On our way back in this morning,  we noticed a truck off into a ditch... an old gentleman was trying to get to town for coffee.. he slid off the road. We went home and got our tractor and went to pull him out ... we weren't successful because there is so much ICE .. but I went back home and made him a huge thermos full of hot coffee.. we are all trying to help each other as much as possible out here.. the roads are dangerous,  and looks like we are in for another hard freeze this evening. I pray we hold power but I know we will be ok either way. We saw a pack of 7 large coyotes too, it was eerie, they were headed towards a pasture that had cows n calves so we called that hand that works for that outfit and they hauled butt out that way .. its just crazy around here. I had to drive our pickup back and I'll be the first to admit, I don't know how to drive in this stuff.. I almost slid off the road trying to get back onto our place... talk about a very helpless feeling.. I got stopped just in time before going over into the ditch.. scared me to death! I told my husband I'm done, not going anywhere in this . Driving extra slow too.... with this much ice, it doesn't seem to matter. 

Wow, this is just nuts. I hav'ent been in our HEB in Seguin, but I have heard its getting pretty bare, or it may look like the one in Bastrop by now.. I'm  pretty stocked up on the things we need. Have a freezer full of meats, veggies.. If you and Carol lived closer I would give you a couple dozen of eggs, my chickens are still laying..Have you checked your Dollar Generals, I know lots of people forget about them.. 

This is what happens in a natural disaster. Trucks can't get in to restock and people panic knowing this. Plus, our HEB was having to throw out spoiled food due to power loss. I got that info from an employee. 

Has your area been getting snow too? I cant believe that its still snowing here, this is just unheard of..

I heard a description on TV as parts of Texas looking like a third world country.  Now I can see why.  Every resource in the country should be focused on these areas without power and no one should be without food or heat for their families.  We're better than that.

This is my road.... not even recognizable 

I went to the HEB in Tomball and it was sparse in some areas but well stocked in others. 

This is the first time in my life I have been having to pick frozen mud mixed with ice out of my horses feet, I had my mini pony walking on balls of packed ice and my gelding with front shoes having balled up ice and frozen mud, I could not believe how hard this was to pick out. I was so worried about a bowed tendon on my gelding because of the ice that balled up on his front feet.

Brutal is a perfect word to describe it. Honestly the snow and cold temps were rough those first couple of days and I felt so terrible for the animals but the ice....THE ICE. Things had been harder but manageble until then. I went out yesterday to try to get some horses that are tuned out to get underneath an open spot in our barn. I threw hay out for them and they came up. I was pulling ice from their manes and tails and they were shivering. I wanted to shut the gate to make them stay in for their own good. I even went and grabbed some halters but they wouldn't let me catch them. I gave more hay and returned inside only for that very part of our barn to collapse completely minutes later. Thank god it didn't injure any of the horses that are stalled. My SUV is stranded in my driveway because I moved it out from my carport in an attempt to avoid the same fate as our barn..  the snow got sloshy and froze back hard..  roads and stores are closed, we were without power, water and cell service until earlier. I truly felt stranded and a little low on positivity. We've been through lots of hurricanes and tornadoes here but this is a whole different set of problems. Power is back today and we hope this stuff melts some tomorrow so we can get to town for supplies and begin cleaning up. Even though it feels a little hopeless, there's always so much to be thankful for. You guys be safe out there and if there is anything you need I hope you'll post. 

We got ice and a trace of snow, but we did have roads closed and highways due to icing on the overpasses and bridges. We have had rolling power outages and very little water pressure all week starting last Sunday. 

Use a claw hammer to knock off the ice on their feet.

For the "short" term .... After you clean out your horses hooves, apply a thick layer of vaseline or spray them with something like "Pam". 

Same here. Rural area.  Grocery store and Dollar Store food shelves and freezers have been empty - totally - for several days.  Gas stations have been sold out for days, too.  Our high today should hit 33.  We are so excited!!!

Bye Bye freezing cold/weather dont let the door hit you in the butt on the way out!!!!! We are so over you!!!

Media-induced frenzy.

I would not call this a Media induced frenzy, it was real life, for us.. I dont think the media has any thing to do with this.. We were not expecting this crazy weather at all.. No trucks could get in to restock.. Now its great that the weather is going to get back to normal..We can all breath a sign of relief now for our animals,live stock and us.. 

I just don't get these empty stores... am I really so old-fashioned that I always have food in the house?
Growing up my mom always had enough canned and dry stuff in the pantry to keep us going for a week or 2 at least. if something got moved from the pantry to the kitchen and got used it was replenished the next trip to the store. And that is what I still do to this day.

Yes we might be out of milk, fruit and fresh vegetables. But with the water, canned and dry stuff on top of a full freezer we can make it a month easily between the 2 of us. 
And I understand things being expensive. But a can or 2 of soup and veggies extra every time you go to the store isn't so bad. 
May need to get storebrand stuff instead of the big brands but it will keep you going when need be.... 

Edited because I can't spell apparently...

In regards to a media induced frenzy, that would be Labor Day 2017 when Houston got TOTALLY FLOODED, and in the DFW area fuel became unobtainable for real!

I lived that nightmare!

I agree. YEARS ago, living in Western Kansas for 2+ years taught me the lesson but I have always had a good supply of groceries and frozen food. I usually only shop about 1 or 2 times a month. I do realize that some people have so much debt that they live paycheck to paycheck and don't think that they can buy more than needed for a couple of days. 

Thankfully, the weather seems to be turning around down south ......  

Same here Cranky and NJJ, when we shop for grocery's we always buy extra of most things, so we are petty stocked up on alot, and we have a freezer full of vegies and meat so if we had to we could live off of what we already have for months.. but there is so many that do live from paycheck to paycheck... 

But I did run out of my Rootbeer and Cream Soda and could not get to town to buy more and that really sucked, lol..

I hope I can get some today I really love my Rootbeer and cream soda!!!!

We had power overnight and it was awesome! It's out again now though.... ugh.... but yeah... on the food deal... we typically always have our pantry and freezers extremely well stocked. We could easily survive on it for 3-4 weeks with a family of 5. I'm not going anywhere near a grocery store until late next week.  We did ride to town to get more horse feed and fuel ... God, I hope we don't have to get back in that trailer tonight... 

i just read in texas  you all have variable power otions?  that people  are seeing that normal pay 660.00  now have a power bill pf 10000.00  yes 10k

how is that possable  they were several  was thousands  ?

  i keep dried milk on hand to use  soup ice cream  gravy  no to drink that stuff is grooss

All the photos of the HEB in Bastrop, Tx is reminiscent of The Cold War in Soviet Russia! Or in current times, it would be Venezula!

Still no power here.  It's not as cold as it was but it's still cold. You can't get an answer from Oncor about anything. I stayed in the house last night and it's 47 in here now. Thankful the sun is out again today. I've called, texted,  messaged, used the app and I get nowhere. They say less than 18k people in this area are still without power ... lucky me huh..  the roads were good yesterday. My ex husband,  will not come get the kids ... he's had power and water this entire time.. I listened to my daughter call him twice since this started over a week ago... he always has some lame excuse as to why he can't come get her and Jacob. She was basically begging him last night and I overheard him telling her she needed to give him more notice he can't just drop everything and come to our little town to pick them up. I'd say it's unbelievable what he's done, but it s not unbelievable.... he's an ex for a reason.  He's a grade A "you know what" hole...  He also made a comment to her about that's how living in a double wide treats ya... yes we live in a trailer house but you know what, it's ours, we make it a home and we have lots of good memories here with lots of love ... she was crying when she hung up.the phone last night.  Truth is, the kids are better off with us... we are resourceful, we know what to do to stay warm and fix problems .... my kids have been warm, and no one is hungry. He infuriates me... I wouldn't go stay at his house no matter what! I just really hope they get our power up today. The grocery stores are empty still... fast food places are few and far between and if they are open it's typically 20-30 cars deep.... if so many still have power and they bought up all the groceries why are so many in line for food at this point???? It makes no sense to me. 

I was prepared. 

Never went to the grocery store or feed store thru the whole event. 

Frenzy buying and hoarding is medie induced. 

well media and dumbassedness 

In reality your POS Ex just burned a bridge with his children! They (especially Your Daughter) will never forget this episode!

I dropped the ball and turned to NBC this morning where they promised coverage of the crisis in Texas and how we could help.    #1 priority..... bashing Ted Cruz for taking his kids to Mexico.  I gave up.

that's the easy way to take the focus away from Coumo and define a narrative 

Newsmax is going to talk about the winter storms impacts on Texas if you are still interested in about 5 min and its 8:56 now.. 

Oncor finally got back to me with, what I hope was a real person this time... they sent a message via Facebook messenger saying they are aware of our outage, there are now approximately 130 people in our immediate area without power and they are working on it, best case scenario will be Sunday. Sigh.... ok.. Sunday it is.... I need to pull up my boots and go on, like we have been ... I will take the kids to town and try to find them a hot meal or some donuts or something.. most everything should be open by now in the city .. 

Going there.  

I have stated throughout this weather event:

"Fire every gosh****ed politican and bureacrat anywhere near remotely involved with this mess!"

And then there are words applicable to this situation.............."FAILED LEADERSHIP".

My husband use to be a high voltage lineman, he's pretty schooled on power lines and what they are supposed to look like and good at spotting the issue. He's been driving around checking stuff out and knows which lines feed us around here. He told me he hasn't seen a single issue as to what would be causing us to be without power still. He did see one problem earlier but he said they had actually repaired that one last night. That doesn't mean there definitely isn't one somewhere where he can't easily see without going deep into those pastures but from the looks of it all, we should be running. So I don't know what is going on! I'm starting to worry we won't get any power this evening again. It gives me anxiety. The later it gets the less likely we will get it back. We have lotscof great people in our community that have offered their homes to us... I greatly appreciate that but we just can't leave with all our animals here depending on us. So thankful the sun is shining bright and everything has pretty much melted off 

Thats just NUTS!!!! If we were not so darn animal crazy there would not be much of a problem with the issues you are having, but when we got animals now thats another deal, we wont leave them behind no matter what, they are just very dependent on us.. 

Yeah I'm not leaving my animals... they've got only us to depend on. I go out every few hours and refill waters, feed and check everyone over.. plus my 49 chicks that are completely dependent on us ... trying to keep them warm enough is a task without electricity.. I wish my hens wanted to be good mamas but they don't.. right now they are focused on keeping warm and eating. My dogs, I have 5, they all pile up on the couch with us.. it keeps us warm... they are confused as it is... I couldn't imagine leaving them alone in this freezing house at night... no way. 

We STILL do not have power. We were told we would be up yesterday several times by oncor. My husband drove around yesterday until he found a group of workers for oncor... he asked them what the problem was for our area getting electricity.  He was told they needed to fix a neutral over off the highway and we'd be up... that's typically an easy fix, less than 30 minutes. So we waited ... he drove by where they said it needed repairs.. the repair was done yet we still have no power. Late last night an oncor truck pulled up to our house. He was trying to find out why we didn't have power still.... but he told my husband he wasn't even given a grid of our area so he was kind of just shooting in the dark. I'm so disgusted at this point the way this has been handled. Those of us out in rural part are the only ones without power and we can't get an answer from anyone.  Ice is all melted roads are good sun is out.... there is no excuse anymore 

All I can say is WOW.. Most of the times when we lost Power its becasue a drunk hit a power pole on our road or one of our Transformers blew a fuse... 

Hope that your power is restored for GOOD today.. How are you keeping all those chicks warm? 

I moved the older chicks to our back living room in a large water tub... they huddle together and we put a blanket over the barrel. Its all I know to do.. so far they've been ok. Because there's so many ... now my chicks that hatched during the beginning of the outage, there is only 5 of them. I put them in a box with a heat plate and they have been in the bathroom of our living quarters this entire time.  We lost 2 hens outside so far... and that's a lot less than I had anticipated. We've been living off of donuts last few days because that's all we can get! I have plenty of food but no way of cooking it right now. We are trying to conserve as much propane for heat in the evenings and fuel for our generator on the trailer and for the well. You go to town and there is a line 30-40 cars deep at every single drive thru ... we tried to call in a pizza and they are all out of dough... DOH!  It's just crazy.  ... you can't get squat right now, anywhere.  I still am wondering how all the stores are bare and a very large amount of folks with power and those who never lost it are going out and clogging up the drive thru fast food places????!!! So in my town, we are in the outskirts and are on our own well... the town folks have little to no water, but power... they are asking everyone to stop with laundry, and other unnecessary water usage because it's caused a shortage. We have plenty of water, thankfully,  just no power! I've called oncor again,  sent messages, smoke signals whatever I can and I'm getting zero responses. I know we aren't the only ones without but this is so extreme.... each hour that passes with no power I feel less like we will get our power back on today ... same as it has been for the last 10 days now. I'm trying to stay busy because if I sit for too long I start getting depressed. I can walk my poor horse who's been cooped up for days up and down our driveway but it's like trying to fly a 1200lb kite, he's feeling it! It's so muddy and under water in our pastures and the fence isn't on so I don't want him to go thru it being a dummy ... that's all I need is my horse running down the road in all this. We are cleaning up outside what we can, moving all the downed trees and branches to the burn pile.. my husband has got to return to work tomorrow.. I think we've capped off and repaired all the water pipes that busted but I just don't even want to think about being out here without him and still not having power. I did it alone with the kids the first 2 nights and it was rough. I contacted our stare rep too and surprised he got back to me immediately saying to send our address and his office will contact oncor on our behalf to try to get us back sooner... the very least our generator we ordered should be in to lowes tomorrow but who knows... I know they are back logged on everything just like everyone else. We are almost out of kerosene too for our lanterns in the house and lord knows you can't find any of that anywhere either. Feels like we are in our own little world out here and it's not in a good way! People are working,  shopping, I see posts on Facebook of normal life happening but it's so far from normal for us out here lol! 

Hang in there want2.  This all sounds so awful.  Here my anxiety level was triggered mostly by fear of what happened to you.  It was miserable but we never lost power and our heroic little heater in the wellhouse never failed us.

I saw on FOX this morning a young man who was being charged a $7000 electricity bill.  I thought this was just an oddball mistake but they added some peoples bank accounts were being cleaned out where they had electronic withdrawal.  This makes no sense to me.

So we have been out riding around this morning trying to find someone ANYONE with oncor to tell them about some lines that have been down for DAYS over behind us... although those shouldn't be affecting us... we found a group of linemen and my husband got out to go talk to them and they walked away from him without saying a word ... wouldn't even look at him.  You know, I understand they are busy .. but the guy that showed up last night didn't know JACK about our area ... when my husband was working as a lineman and out on storm like these guys are, he said he would always talk to people and try to give them a little reassurance they are working their way around... we've been thru hell out here and we consider these guys heros for trying to help us and when they can just straight up ignore someone.... wow..... that's heartbreaking... 

Update!! We were almost home and an Oncor truck was in front of our drive ....it was my husband's cousin, son..  he's a lineman. He was stopping by to check on our area.. I wanted to cry when I saw his smiling face in the big ol truck!!! In fact I did cry. He said they are working around us all day today ... his crew isn't working our feed but they were just told that they can't fix anything else till they get us hot. Oh thank you Jesus!!! He told us crews from. Waco are here too, it's all hands on deck ... I pray we get on soon!!! Its 68 degrees out right now but we are supposed to be down into the 30s this evening... I hope we get on today... but just knowing these guys are on it feels much better now.  Especially him..

HAPPY TEARS!!! WE ARE ON!!  I scared the beeegeeezus! Out of my boys and the dog ... we were sitting at the kitchen table and in the corner of my eye I saw the oven clock begin to blink.. we had everything else turned off and unplugged.. I screamed POWER my boys jumped up and the dog jumped up. Oh my gosh I'm so happy right now ... 

I can see the HAPPY DANCE now ..... I have been keeping up with your troubles ......It is amazing that you can keep your sanity through it all ..... THUMBS UP !!!!!!

I cried .... a lot .... but in secret lol! I didn't want my kids to see me losing it... its amazing how having electricity changes you and how it changes you when you don't have it!!  10 days of severe inconvenience.... now the clean up ... a lot of folks have it way worse... still many without water in town that are on city water and many homes with severe damage from bursting pipes ... we had 2 and they were in the barn and one on the side of our house that was pretty easy to fix.. my sister in laws house pipes busted all the way around... every single one. Fortunately her husband is a master plumber (ironically) so they will be ok WHEN they can actually find the parts they need to fix it... the stores around here are even out of the glue you need for pipe repair.  We got the last few bags of shavings today from tsc ... they are literally out of EVERYTHING.  I'm just so happy to be doing laundry and I'm looking forward to a hot shower later ... we got all those stinky chicks moved back to the barn where they belong! Not gonna lie, I'm still nervous we will lose power again but I believe all the repairs have been made ... I believe I see that everyone is back with power in our town.. 

i feel for  you all  been there not fun     just an  idea  get a coleman camp stove..  and keep  it  we had no pwer for a week i cooked on made coffee

it was alife saver  and the little bottlee last a long time

Yes! Soon as our stores get restocked I'm going into prepper mode .. my generator will be in tomorrow and then I'm starting to shop for a wood stove to put in our home ... I need to restock our bottled water supply, thank goodness we had an abundance from grabbing 2 to 3 cases each time we went to town over the last several months.  Food needs to be restocked too. Batteries, candles, kerosene and more wicks! Definitely getting a propane grill. Charcoal, extra dog/cat food/chicken/horse and we always buy 200-300 bales of hay each year anyway. Think I'll start buying an extra 100-150  to cover unexpected events ... You can't even find a single hay cube or bale of hay around here right now either, glad we had plenty. I've got to set down and start making a list to build on. 

I'm thinking the Military have been delivering supplys to the Houston and Louisiana areas, Military helicopters have been flying over, this morining I saw about 3 flying Houston way and a few more coming back from the Louisiana way, not sure but every time we have a crisis the Military fly over alot delivering supplys to hard hit areas. 

Still out of power at my place. We had a generator, and it was running our chicken pen (daughter has county show in a couple of weeks).  We stayed in the horse trailer for a few days until I could get another generator for the house.  The new generator will run everything except the big stuff like the central heat, dryer, etc.  So not too bad, but still have not seen any crews anywhere near our house.  Hope everyone is ok.  If you are in East Texas and need anything, I will try my best to help.

What a CRAZY week!!!! My office was closed for a week, but I was already planning on using PTO and staying home. That had to be the coldest I have ever been. -15* with windchill and temps were below zero for a few days. I did not know what that kind of cold felt like and NEVER want to experience it again. The barn water froze Thurs (2/11) I hauled water and headed to work. Ended up getting rear ended by an illegal with no ID and didnt speak english. Totalled her car but my truck came out with a bent hitch. I found her radiator cap in the bed of my truck....... Friday went to work and let them know if the roads were iced Monday, I wouldnt be in. Hauled water from the house all weekend to the barn and prepared for the storm. Sunday night we ended up with 4-6" of powdery wonderful snow. I liked it for about an hour and said ok Im over it. Tucked horses in with extra hay and went to bed. On monday my husband decided he was needed more at work than at our house and spent 4-6 hrs a day commuting. Except for tues when he had 2 flats and stayed the night. I was hauling warm water to the horses every 4 hrs from the house. Tues night I get a call from a friend, who told me that water was being turned off at midnight. I rushed to fill up as much as I could. Good thing I did. Went from full water pressure at midnight to NO water at 12:15. Called the water company the next morning and they lied. Lied and continue to lie..... Our pond froze about 4-6" all the way across. Its about an 1/2 sn acre so it was neat to see. I ended up having to use the fire in a metal barrel trick to melt it enough I could chop the ice. Thats been the animals source of water since wed. I did not know it was possible to be as sore as I was come thurs. Friday we started to thaw. I left out house for the first time in a week and went to a friends place up the road for adult conversation. You can only talk to your dogs for so long before you just need human interaction!!!!! I do not want to lift a full water bucket or chop ice again for a LONG time!!!!!

As of this morning (2/22) we still have no water. I called again this morning and was told we should. Ummmm no we dont..... 

A few things I am thankful for....

My horses came through it with no problems. I know its because I hauled warm water and gave Gut Check every day. They all gained extra weight in the week of standing around eating hay 24/7.
We never lost power. I was prepared with my generator if I needed it though.
The weekend before we went grocery shopping and stocked up on meat, veggies and other stuff. Good thing cuz Walmart was picked clean sat!!!! 
We werent in the RV through all of this!!!!! 
My dogs LOVED the weather. The cows, not so much. Horses played and had fun in the snow. Everyones 1st time to ever see snow like this. We are from SE TX but live 45 min south of Dallas now. 
The frozen pond was something Ive never seen before. I played with the dogs on it. Dont worry, I stayed on the shallow end...... 
Im so blessed to have an actual barn this year. First time in 15 years! Ive made do throughout the years. 

It was crazy but I learned I am a bad @ss when crap gets tough. I was not on speaking terms with my husband for a few days for abandoning me when I needed him. Thankfully for great friends that checked on me throughout it all. We could have been a lot worse off but I tried to prepare best I could. Give me 115* weather ANY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So you had to deal with this along, while reading this I thought you were single and having to deal with this then got to the bottom and read that you are married and still did this alone. I say shame on your husband. 

OH TRUST ME.... That and much much more was said during the week. I know he loves me in his way, BUT I seriously contemplated the D word a few times. Theres alot more to it but thats just the newest WTF moment Ive had with being married...... If it wasnt for my friends motivating me, I wouldnt have made it. I dont want the cows. That was his venture and they are for ag. But I dont like taking care of them. The 5 horses are my problem. And I didnt mind taking care of them so much. But cows are a whole nother ball game!!! I pray we do not ever get that cold again. Texas just ain't built for it!!!!! 

As I am reading all of the responses I can't help but think it is kind of amazing what livestock can endure. 

I know that with a big change in temps from last week colic is a concern for many. Are you guys doing anything different to help with that?

I gave my horse a dose of zesterra every day and he seemed to pull thru just fine. I also didn't feed as much grain but added unlimited hay with a few flakes of alfalfa twice a day ...I walked him as much as I could until the ice came ... he's out basking in the sun in his mud pen right now but he looks pretty good. Now my chickens on the other hand... I've lost another 3 and have several that are sick... you see, the HUNDREDS of wild birds that sought refuge in our barn and coops and were eating from the chicken feeders and drinking thawed water carry a terrible respiratory disease called mycoplasma.. its highly contagious and will kill. I'm struggling to treat all my chickens right now with an antibiotic that will basically keep them from dying but they will be life long carriers of the disease and will spread it as long as they live.  I can treat it but sadly some won't respond to the meds. Some will die regardless... also I'm going to battle mites ... those wild birds carry mites something fierce... my chickens couldn't dust in ice and snow.. we did our best to lay down DE and lime for them inside the coops where it was dry ... I will be treating with liquid pour on ivermectin to control the mites... its daunting and messy but it has to be done.. mites will kill a chicken in a hurry if you don't catch it. I hear lots of sneezes and see lots of watery eyes and just crud ... I'm going to lose a lot, I already know. The good news is, they can recover if they are strong, I've added extra herbal stuff to try to help immune systems... the disease doesn't affect the eggs and the antibiotics do not carry over to eggs so zero withdrawal time... I've done my homework on this a whole ago! So I kinda know what to do and thankfully have the medication on hand. 

Ours are on pastures about 22-23 hours of the day. They only come in to eat breakfast and diner. I did keep them in when the snow started to freeze over because I didn't want to have anyone getting hurt because it got real slick out there!

I haven't blanketed in over 6 years, but when they started shivering (barn is only 3 sided so the wind still came through) I gave them a blanket. They had hay in front of them 24 hrs eventhough I kept them in. (good thing we got 40+ bales the week before...)

The only thing extra we did was add hot water to their tanks 3 times a day, and add hot water to their Cubeits cubes morning and evening. Normally they only get cubes at night and Renew Gold in the morning, but I wanted to give them a warm soup for breakfast also.

We had 1 mare that got a bit of a tummy ache, so pulled her hay at that point, gave her a tube of Immediate response and kept an eye on her. After 30 mins she started to perk up and had good gut sounds on both sides. So she got her hay back and was fine after that.

I'm thinking to my self, if your husband didnt bother to help you during this crisis when he knew you were alone and trying to take care of your horses during all this mess, why would he bother to help with cattle, seems to me you would be taking care of the cattle to. And this would really be a hard case if anything happens again with cattle added to the mix here. Man SHAME ON HIM!!!

 I just added more hay, added more alfalfa cubes along with their normal feedings, made sure the round bales didnt get low for the horses in the back pasture and the donkeys in the front pasture made sure the goats had plenty to eat, the only thing that was different for me was keeping that ice broke, and finally my Husband had to take over on the taking care of the water, the ice was just to thick in the mornings for me to break, after that first breaking then I could do the rest of keeping the ice broke during the day. But I didnt give anybody anything for colic, never have in the past. The heat during the summer is what worrys me, and thats when I watch them better during the HOT days of summer.. And my Chickens they did just fine, except for one of the young rooster he got a bit of frost bite on his comb..And the hens were still laying threw all this mess, so had plenty of eggs for us and a few friends.