What a week–actually TEN days–we have had!
As I’m sure many of you have seen on the news, Texas has been impacted by an historic snow and ice event. Here in Austin, we’ve had five winter storms roll through in 10 days, leaving behind:
- half an inch of ice
- eight inches of snow
- topped by ANOTHER half inch of ice
Barli and Tiki loved the snow (although not the ice which was so slippery we had to miss all dog walks one day because of fear of falling. Even their dog booties were slipping and sliding.)
I think everything could have handled the eight inches of snow (even though the total snowfall for Austin for 2000-2020 was just over four inches)–but the ice and extremely cold temperatures played havoc on electrical and water systems.
At our house we reached about 0 degrees one night–which unfortunately was the same day and night we were without power. We spent the night on the floor in front of our wood stove which put out enough heat to keep us from getting too, too cold–although ice did form inside our bathroom windows!
In all, we spent about a little over two days without power; every time it came back on for a bit, I ran to the office to print postage for our Pawzaar orders in case we were able to get out and make a post office run.
Unfortunately, the roads were closed (and we were unable to even get my car to the top of our drive until a kind neighbor came and towed me out Saturday!)
Fortunately today we have thawed and on Monday shipping will resume as normal!
I wish everything else was going to return to normal as fast as our shipping schedule. We’ve been without water for a week now; we have a well so we’re still unsure if there might also be damage to the well plumbing.
Even so, we’re far luckier than most area residents. We have large cisterns filled with water; those are now thawing out, and we’re able to draw water from those.
Our little above the ground pool is going to get more sunshine this summer!
Tree damage has been really substantial, both around the house and in the woods. I took a walk with Barli and Tiki on our dog walking trails this morning…and stopped counting at 40 broken or downed trees.
All in all, we’re very lucky that the damage is not on our house, though; so many people had flooded homes from busted pipes–not to mention the people who lost their lives from the extreme temperatures in their own homes.
Today we are thawing out and enjoying some much-needed sunshine. And this afternoon we spotted this little wildflower beneath what was once my clothesline (pulled down by another downed tree). This little fellow hung on beneath all that ice and snow, just waiting. It’s proof that, yes, spring will come.
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