We have a continental polar air mass coming down from Canada to make Texas cold this week. Last night got down to 25° we are expecting single-digit temperatures by Tuesday.

This is our second day of below freezing temperatures, and we are expecting three or four more days perhaps as far as Wednesday before we get through this. I just now measured 1/4 of an inch of ice buildup on our handrail. The trees are all glistening with 1/4 inch of ice on every branch some of them are breaking. There are reports of widespread power outage because of this although we have done fine so far. It’s reassuring to know that this is a record-breaking episode.

Our tiny house is protecting us very well. We haven’t heat taped our waterlines yet so that is a concern. We are simply not venturing out at all. I had a dental appointment for today we postponed it a couple weeks. Traffic is terrible in this weather Austin and Fort Worths had 40 and hundred car pileups. The freeways have big swooping flyovers that ice quickly. I guess drivers don’t account for that and don’t slow down. The worst time seems to be just as it’s getting icy. The bridges all have warning signs that say “bridges ice early”, but that doesn’t slow anybody. We are just staying home.

20210214 Breaking News:

just as I was about to press the publish button on my blog Judy noticed the water was off. That’s when I got the old time feeling ” I feel a blog coming on”…

Yes, even though we were carefully running a few ounces of water through each tap in the house a couple of times an hour, it was not enough for our totally unprotected water system. The pump suction was frozen and could get no water. The next few hours was like a Keystone Kops movie. Blankets, heating pads, heaters and all were no match for a stiff 10 mile-per-hour Northwind at 25°. That was three days ago we haven’t been above 29° since. They’re talking about 8° tonight and 4° Monday night. We will do without water until the 70° weather returns.

Lessons to be learned:

1. In this part of the country listen to the weatherman/weaterwoman.

2. Insulating pipes dangling under a park model home is very important.

3. Design a water re-circulation loop into the water system based on above ground rainwater collection tanks.

We will recover. All our piping is In Pex tubing, which is supposed to be immune to freezing. We’ll see…

Of course it helps to know that you all are in much the same boat this cold snap is widespread so were not complaining too loudly..