We never expected to have a deep snow weather event all the way down here in Southeast Alabama. We have had light snow before but not often and many years apart. We have never had a snow storm like this.
It has been very cold!
Our daughter lives in Pensacola Florida and this was even a bigger shock! They have never had anything like this.
Here in the south we are not equipped for this kind of cold. Our cities do not have road equipment to clear snow, it brings us to a standstill.
Many people wear flip flops and very little cold weather clothing so it is difficult to stay warm for something unknown as this.
Another picture from our daughters house.
This is a four lane road in front of our house. You cannot see the curb and this all turned into ice the next day.
This became a slippery mess and like I said, no snow plows here. It just took time to melt and enough traffic to break it up. But our city closed all roads in the city for two and half days. State and county roads were closed all over the southeast.
Charles and I were prepared because we prepare for hurricanes but not snow storms. None of us down here own a snow shovel.
We drained our pipes to our house and turned off the breaker to the hot water heater for 4 days. We used our composting toilet and we drew up water in every kind of container we had before we drained our pipes. We did not want to take a chance on the expense of plumbing repairs. We heated our water on the stove for washing dishes and washbowl baths.
Our house has a crawl space so it is up above the ground so our pipes can burst easier. Our temps kept dropping down into the low 20s to the teens.
Albert the herb garden duck continued to keep a look out for us.
Our experimental winter garden was truly challenged. Surprisingly most of the plants have survived. Everything was and still is under frost cover and snow. The turnips made it, the strawberry plants, the kale, the thyme, the Egyptian onions, potato onions, shallots, parsley, sage, lavender are all still thriving. Only the peas took a hit from the cold. I am pleased to know that these things can handle cold as they have under frost cover.
our little dogs Bernadette and Elizabeth have never seen snow. Elizabeth is 14 years old now and she did not want anything to do with the snow. Bernadette turned into a goof ball and ran all through the snow.
This is day five and most of the snow has melted. I took this picture this afternoon and Albert is starting to emerge from the snow. Albert hasn't said a lot about his experience, I do not know which he prefers, a hurricane adventure or a snow adventure but one thing for sure, life is an adventure even if you are just a metal duck in a garden.
We have one more night to dip below freezing and then a warm up. We have been wearing three layers of clothing including socks. For what I have heard those of you that are in summer right now are having some very high temperatures as we have been completely opposite with cold. I still think that bundling up to get warm is better than finding it difficult to stay cool.
What do you do to stay warm in the cold or cool in the heat? Tell us up in the forum, would love to hear what you say. Grandma Donna
