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.