January Deep Freeze

We have been in a deep freeze now for a couple of days. Last night was the coldest night we have had in 2 years. With the wind chill factor it was anywhere from -35 to -50 below zero. Today we are going to be below zero all day. When I brought Zach out to the bus stop in front of the house (which,thankfully,is just to the left of the trees in the picture)the thermometer on our screen porch read 3 degrees. We have plastic on our screen windows,so I assume if there was no plastic it would've read colder. And of course,the wind chill was not taken into consideration. Our neighbor said it was -12 at their house. Our poor bus driver,Audrey,was having a bad morning. Her bus wouldn't start,so she had to use another one. The heater in that bus wasn't working properly,and the stop sign that swings out when she is picking up kids wasn't working.Plus,she had a double run on top of it. Bless her heart.

We have heat tape on the eaves in front of the house. Last  year we had an ice dam,which damaged the ceiling in the kitchen (which we will be replacing this year).We have loooong icicles hanging off all areas of the roof,not just where the heat tape is.The sunlight shining through them is pretty.

Brother B checked on our chickens and turkeys,and all are doing fine so far. I was worried a bit about them,but so far, so good. Our furnace is giving us an issue this AM. We set the thermostat at 70 overnight,and when we got up it was 64 degrees. Our oil tank is outside,so we need to buy a kerosene mix to prevent it from congealing,but in bitter cold like this,it can still freeze up.It's also a used furnace. So it's either (1)the mix has congealed,making it too thick to use,or (2)we may need a new starter. Either way,we have our wood stove,so things are starting to warm up nicely.

The cold virus is working it's way through the house. I still have a cough,the sniffles,and feel tired. Brother B has the same thing. Now Rick is sick,with a fever,cough,stuffy nose,etc. We all have awful chest congestion.You should hear all the gacking and hacking! We have started calling each other "Lunger",after the movie "Tombstone."Thankfully Zach has not come down with it. Hopefully he won't. From what others who have had this have told me,it takes weeks to get over it.Lovely.

I have been enjoying the photos of flowers and gardens from my blogging friends in warm climates. How lovely to see such happy photos! It makes me feel warm here in our frozen little world.