Homeless Cat -- Now Spotacus' Legacy
On 18 Dec, a very large cat showed up at our house. It was late and cold, and he looked in the door and made it clear he wanted inside. Well, since we have two cats already and he was a stranger, we...
Forum Discussion
Texas power grid, which is configured for max usage during summer heat, couldn't handle Uri, which gave us the coldest time in my area since 1951. So we lost power Monday morning and didn't get it back until Tuesday morning. That was a mild inconvenience, what with the heavy house insulation and the fireplace. We cooked on our camp stove and used the camp lanterns after dark.
The real trouble is the water company has never insulated any of the well heads, so they froze. No water to the distribution stations, which didn't have power anyway, because the water company has never installed power backups. Then various water lines cracked or broke, because they're shallowly buried (we don't have a frost line to deal with). One of the water towers on the north side of the lake cracked and became a lovely frozen fountain (not our service area).
So we're warm, we can cook, and we're melting snow (we got at least 5") for washing and flushing. If necessary, we'll run it through our camping water filtration/sanitizing system to drink, if we can shovel up enough. It's all gonna melt today and tomorrow. Trouble is this snow was so dry that a gallon of it only makes a couple cups water. When the road clears, we can go to the store, but all the drinking water is already gone.
The water issue may be long term.
Czarny goes outside several times a day, but he can't get off the south porch. He's spending most of his time on top of a cat tower. Occasionally, he runs from window to window, chittering at the mockingbirds who are looking in at him.
Well, time to shovel more snow into the bathtub before it's all gone. Later, y'all.
The real trouble is the water company has never insulated any of the well heads, so they froze. No water to the distribution stations, which didn't have power anyway, because the water company has never installed power backups. Then various water lines cracked or broke, because they're shallowly buried (we don't have a frost line to deal with). One of the water towers on the north side of the lake cracked and became a lovely frozen fountain (not our service area).
So we're warm, we can cook, and we're melting snow (we got at least 5") for washing and flushing. If necessary, we'll run it through our camping water filtration/sanitizing system to drink, if we can shovel up enough. It's all gonna melt today and tomorrow. Trouble is this snow was so dry that a gallon of it only makes a couple cups water. When the road clears, we can go to the store, but all the drinking water is already gone.
The water issue may be long term.
Czarny goes outside several times a day, but he can't get off the south porch. He's spending most of his time on top of a cat tower. Occasionally, he runs from window to window, chittering at the mockingbirds who are looking in at him.
Well, time to shovel more snow into the bathtub before it's all gone. Later, y'all.
