Good Morning All. Cloudy skies and 25°, waiting on that elusive wintry mix, that never hit here yesterday. It blasted the Dallas / Ft Worth metro area big time yesterday and got as close as 30 miles from me. Right now it's snowing in the northern part of my county, 20 miles away, but the sleet/ice is split, with a large area to both the east and west. Right now it's also missing the DFW area. This is me in the circle.
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Maybe we'll get lucky again today, maybe not. Everything here including the road out front is covered with a thin sheet of ice that is the result of Monday's "thundersleet" storm. Still not expected to get above freezing until around noonish Thursday, so the road here will still be iced over. I may however venture the mile and a quarter down to the mailbox and back this morning, to get the mail. Vehicles don't appear to be having any issues on either of the roads bordering my property, but they are going real slow.
I don't really mind being iced in and we are always fully prepared for it. The wood supply for heating is adequate and dry under the top layer. The propane tank (for cooking) is 70% full which actually will last until 2024 at normal usage rates. Electrical power is a concern, but we never have lost power for more than 4-5 hours in the 42 years that we have been here. Probably just jinxed that! The thing that bothers me the most is that this is the fourth day in a row of no sunshine, and it won't improve until Friday. Well, I don't like it below 40° either!
The local ABC TV affiliate actually pre-empted "The View" yesterday for weather. My wife was laughing.
I did venture out for a few things yesterday, besides bringing in wood. Minor stuff like taking rubbish to the dumpster, depositing the vegetable trimmings into the compost and burning the burn trash. Made two trips to the train shed for some extended stays out there.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I just continued with the structure cleaning along the north wall. Jessica's Salon and Ken's Hobbies were next in line, both are Smalltown USA kits.
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Derry's Pub is next, it's a Walther's kit called Village Pizza that no longer is.
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Next to that is another Smalltown USA structure on the corner representing a furniture store.
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Over on the Ethanol refinery side of the layout, I made an extra-long grain unloading shed from more Pikestuff wall components where four grain hoppers can be unloaded at once.
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I'll be connecting the unloading shed with the grain silos once the final plan is agreed on.
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At the other end of the complex, I just added downspouts to the part of the building I completed the other day.
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I need to finalize the fit and layout on this end before I start with the rest of the ground cover. Note the cooling tower to the left, courtesy
Tom O, who also provided the second-hand fermentation tanks that I upgraded.
Nothing to comment on this morning, so here is a plug for my home state. Today is
National Texas Day.
Everybody have a great day and stay warm.