Winter has returned

[oldandslow]

Everything outside is covered with ice this morning. Forecast is for this mess to stick around through Thursday. At least it's supposed to get above freezing enough each day that it may not break my remaining two trees at the house. I don't really mind the icy weather. It's just the cleanup when it gets heavy enough to break down the tress.

Quite a few years ago I had the largest desert willow I have ever seen and then we had a few days of ice. I left the four largest limbs, cutting them off about head high, to see if it would grow back. It has and might even be a little larger. I would hate to see it broken down again. I don't know if I'm up to the task of cutting up and hauling off all the mess from it and a very large elm close to it plus five smaller ones out in the pasture again. Given enough time I suppose I could get it done though. 

[ironglow]

 Glad to see your desert willow is growing back.  I at first  pictured a different willow, on8e more like the willows we have around here.
  Our willow is 5a larger tree, often called a weeping willow, because of the way the limbs droop under summer foliage.
  Since the weeping willow motif suggests grief, after 1800 when more folks could afford it, gravestones carried a weeping willow motif, perhaps more than any other.

  A few pics..

[oldandslow]

A desert willow is different as the limbs don't droop and with some moisture it blooms with pretty pink flowers regularly. They don't get very big either. Mine is close to 27-28 feet tall now and just as big around as it is tall. It's wood is soft  though and easily broken. Another willow that is a popular shade tree here is a globe willow. They grow fast and get much larger than a desert willow with thicker foliage and limbs that don't droop.

[phalanx]

It’s downright cold out there. Our dogs are getting into the shop through a doggie door. The wife’s little Taco Dog stays in the kitchen, with her short hair she wouldn't live very long out there.

[Dee]

7 degrees feedin cattle this mornin. It's warmed up to 13 degrees now. Been spittin a real dry snow for 2 days.

[ironglow]

  Our willows get large, probably 70-80 feet, but they don't provide us any pretty flowers.  The wood is used for many things, including withes for wicker ware, making cricket bats, back in "old Blighty"..

 ...And also.. since some willow twigs are virtually hollow..you could also make willow whistles of them.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSrXDZdwihU

[phalanx]

7 degrees feedin cattle this mornin. It's warmed up to 13 degrees now. Been spittin a real dry snow for 2 days.

Your neck of the woods has issued an ice warning out on the roads. Lubbock has shut down the loop around it.

[oldandslow]

It's supposed to be sunny and warmed up to 35 degrees right now according to the NWS. Huh, it's made it to 25 degrees by my thermometer, NWS says 23, and the visibility is about a quarter of a mile. I am out the door shortly to FINALLY see the pain management guy I would prefer to stay inside but after waiting over 8 months I am not about to miss this appointment. Yes, I explored other options. All of them required at least 200 mile round trips and a long wait to get in. I'll brave the slick road as it's just 4 miles. Slow and easy does it.

Dee, you need to gather up some help and fix that barbwire fence north of you. It might help a little with the temperature. 

[Bob Riebe]

The official" weather forecasting up here is a cluster F, when they say high of 15 it gets to 20, when the say high of 20, it struggles to hit 15.

Two below right now, with a slight breeze and very sunny.; foreast is for a high of 9 tomorrow so it will probably not get above zero.

[gypsyman]

Really mixed up here in Ohio. Was pretty mild until the cold snap at Christmas. Back to mild, last week we had a another cold front, snow, freezing rain, level 2 snow warnings in several counties. Drove south to Cincinnati area for a gun show Friday. Went from blowing snow to 40+ sunny in 160 miles. All wknd it was 45+ and sunny, now I'm back to 20 degree's and cloudy. Throw another log into the fireplace insert and call it good!

[Lloyd Smale]

-8 here this morning. that said were probably about the warmest withing a 150 miles because lake superior hasnt froze over and it keeps us along the shore 2-10 degrees warmer then inland areas.

[oldandslow]

No ice on the roads yesterday or today. Everything above ground level is covered with ice. No broken limbs so far and only light fog this morning. 21 degrees.

[ironglow]

  A "different" weather pattern this year.  Folks to the south of us..about the Mason~Dixon and below, seem to be getting a tougher weather than we, excluding the storm back around Christmas.
 
   Of course, 7 feet in one dump, can make up for some lesser snowfalls.  Joe, a friend at church who looks forward to winter and riding snow machine trails, is very disappointed..

  You can't ride a snowmobile in seven feet of fresh snow, and we have only had a couple or three feet altogether since then.

[phalanx]

Haven’t seen the Sun for several days now.  It feels like its Colder than the dark side of the moon outside. 

[Bob Riebe]

Bright but cloudy 7 degrees Eleven A.M.

It is  - supposed to hit the 40s, late next week, I pray it does not, but at that, this coming weekend was supposed to be in the 30s but now is down to the mid-twenties.
I do not want any melting until it is a steady thing, not, up-down, up-down, up-down temperatures.

[Ranger99]

Poor elderly lady across the way
called yesterday and asked if I
had a snow blower.
I had to ask her twice to make
sure she said what she said.
I told her, maam, that's a sheet of
solid wet ice,  not snow.
She was about to go look for the
newspaper and I had to convince
her to not step outside and try to
get up and down the steps.
I took a garden hoe and chopped
through the ice and found her
newspaper and took her a hamburger
and some chips for supper.
Her and her family migrated from the
northeast some years back and
still haven't assimilated to the state
after all these decades.

Snow blower.  . . . .