I had a fireplace, took it out and put a wood stove in. Replaced the real crappy pipe with a triple wall stainless system. We can actually stay warm without constantly feeding it wood like the fireplace. Wish I had one of those outside furnaces. Heat the house, water and you can even hook it to you're clothes dryer!

 

Looks like a bust here in Chatt town. Supposed to rain today, which will cause some icy spots.....that's just about it.

Everyone else stayed home, so I'm outa here at lunch. It looks pretty nasty in other spots though, so everyone stay warm and safe!

 

Ice and sleet here. No work today.

 

Off for Presidents Day. Tomorrow looks iffy. Lots of ice around Memphis and its only getting colder until after next weekend.

 

Good afternoon to all in Tennessee...stay warm and safe.

 

Good afternoon to you. Wood in the stove and staying home!

 

Wood in the stove,coal oil lamps burning . Power is out . Reminds me of when I was a kid .
My house was built in 1940 . I still have a draw well I can use .
Yall be safe!

 

I agree, everyone stay safe. I have the lamps and stove, city water though. I'm getting a generator this year. At least I can keep the stuff in my fridge and freezer from spoiling then. And use it with my camper.

 

Well, we didn't get all the snow they were call for here on the plateau, but we have had freezing rain all day. About 1pm the power went out, I had some battery backup on the puter so I figured I'd shut down and wait for it to come back on. By 3pm the wife asked about the generator, so I went to the barn and pulled it out and it wouldn't fire. After about 8 pulls, decided to check to see if the plug was fouled.... guess the stepdaughters boyfriend needed one for his 4 wheeler. Luckily I had a spare on the shelf, so by about 4:30 the grandson was pullin it up to the house, while I went to get the two 6 gallon cans of gas I keep in the shop..... one empty, one half full...same culprit I'm sure...did I mention he's GONE!!!
So we got power for now, lights, fridge wood stove is fired up (generator won't run the heat pump) the TV's on and the computers work. If I shut everything else down I can run the well pump long enough to fill the pressure tank. Of course the phone lines are dead cause their battery backups only last about 3 hours, but we can run wifi off the stepdaughter cell phone. And NOW it's snowing.
I won't be able to run the generator all night, so I'll have to run down to the barn again and get the deep cycle battery I have for the winch on the trailer to hook up to my Cpap machine for tonight.
Did I tell y'all I left Buffalo 10 years ago to escape winter weather?

 

Look at what some of the northerners are dealing with. Guess we can call ourselves lucky, huh? I don't feel lucky though. Had to miss work today and my uncle called today and said that he found us some work tomorrow. May not be all day, but I'll take it. Self employment doesn't have snow days!

 

I'm sorry to hear that some of you are getting slammed by the weather. I purchased a generator a few years back from Northern Tool, and have used it a couple times....but they can literally be life savers.

Supposed to get scary cold later this week....y'all stay safe and warm!

 

I've been tracking it, and as we know - it starts at the west end and drifts on over the rest of the state, so I guess I'm the DEW line...

I'm going to put up a picture or two in a few, but first off - Man I had me some fun a little while ago! Those from West TN and the Millington area may know where Martha Millicans store is, I watched a fella in an Econoline get well and truly stuck after not making it up the slight grade to the intersection, and then try to "BURNOUT" his way out of the situation

We didn't get any snow around here, it was ICE from the beginning plastered all over everything. Overnight it froze hard, so guess what the streets are like?

Here's this ol' boy with a stripped out Chateau van, nothing in the back at all, two wheel drive, and summer tires on stock rims just a-spinnin and a-spinnin'...

It doesn't take Bob Bondurant to tell you that if your tires are slipping, you have no friction, and therefore no traction.

After almost twenty minutes dude decides that since he's heavier than me, if he pushed and I DROVE maybe it would help. Half of that idea worked - I didn't let the wheels slip, just barely gave it some pedal and rocked it back until I had a run of about four feet.

Popped it back out onto the road just as pretty as could be, no fuss - no muss.

I think it took me two minutes tops.

WHAT happened next? Last I saw he was spinning those tires all the way right back in the direction he came from.
~ I reckon some folk just cain't be taught...


IN THIS IMAGE: (10 AM today, just a little while ago)
Martha's Store and the Drummonds intersection, one of Clay Millicans old trailers parked next to the store.
The road straight ahead is the way to my house, but you need skates to go there at the moment...

Assist #2 was a post office delivery persons Jeep wagoneer. They went off the edge of the P.O. parking lot, and I helped get it back on the pavement. After that experience, they decided not to deliver mail today!

* The only way to get through that intersection going from left to right is to get a running roll, ignore the stop sign, and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES allow your tires to start slipping
I directed traffic for a few folks, and then went on my way afoot...

(The dollar general and post office are just down the way to the left)

Walking across the "grass" everything underfoot crunched like I was tramping across a big bowl of tortilla chips

Here's one of my yard ornaments yesterday...




Welcome to the midsouth, Y'all! This here is big time cotton country...


PS: According to Mister Al Gore, "GLOBAL WARMING" is a tremendous concern to all of us...




"Yeah, right."


* I think that there is concern that we have let loose "Global Weather Change", and the summer heat is the least of it. In reality, a few volcanic burps around the globe can create far more climate variations than all of our industrial mistakes put together. But yes - there is some cause for awareness. And scientists the world over are in a far better position to determine what is happening than you or I, much less a corrupt or at least very foolish politician

 

We had some snow spit this morning, but it's all melted now. The roads around here are for the most part DRY, so tonight's 5 degrees (not counting wind chill) should only be a concern for exposed pipes. Driving shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Hope everyone is staying bundled up and cozy.

 

Yeah, the ground was "almost" white here this morning, like Mac says "it's mostly gone now"

Talk about a revolting turn of events, my heat pump condenser fan decided it was time to quit ... I got to noticing it seemed like the unit was running waaay too long, so started investigating, I found the condenser fan not turning when the compressor was running.. Well I tried the old grab a stick and give it a nudge trick, nope didn't happen, broke my damn stick!!!

I bundled up to go check things further, found the fan motor would turn but it was tight, got the numbers off of it to search for a new one, none to be had today but it will be here tomorrow...

With the thoughts of paying for electric heat (emergency strip heat) I decided to try and free up the bearings, I soaked it good with PB Blaster and moved it by hand until it freed up, soaked it again and let it sit for awhile.. Turned on the heat pump and it is running like a charm... I hope it lasts until it gets a little warmer!!!!! But I'll have the replacement tomorrow so I can change it when needed, I just want a warmer day!!!!

So, how's your day been?

 

Stayed in most of the day. The good news is that the skies are clear and expected to stay that way overnight, even though we may have some record low temps before the night is over. NO FALLEN TREES!

Saturday may be mixed rain and sleet, dunno.

They say a repeat storm system may be brewing, but too soon to say.