afternoon february 6 - january ice storm tennessee

 I took an afternoon walk at 2 pm, as well - and it was getting better - the creek was roaring with all the runoff - but we're still wondering if it is better to wait until the entire day has had time to clear things.  We aren't at the point where anything is critical, we're just 'out of most things' and finding other things to use, instead.  We have water and power, and Mark has been doing okay with his extra heaters.

 

  

this is still a skating rink down to our house from grandma's mailbox

then it gets pretty clear, up until this point 

 

just past the 800 house 

looking back at the 800 house from the 600 hill

climbing up the 600 hill

at the top of the 600 (911 address points) hill, looking down towards another 90 degree corner, which then goes further down to another 90 degree corner, and then up and down a big hill

 

Do we want to try to get out and then have to get back in with supplies that are going to take us hours to collect, and may or may not be easy to find in the first place?  If everyone else is getting out, as well, the stores may be hard hit and if we have to wait too long anywhere - it will be too late as it will refreeze tonight - it might be a fools' errand to try today, because we are so far from town.

 

The postmaster wants me delivering packages tomorrow, and my office boss said I could come anytime during the weekend and work extra to try to catch up on physical papers. 

 

february 6 - january ice storm tennessee

 I went out at 8 am to see what the weather was like - and how much melting might or might not have happened.  I didn't even go up to the mailbox yesterday, it never melted enough to warrant - and the mail also didn't run to us yesterday, from what I saw.  They already posted in the announcements that they won't run the garbage trucks this week.  It might get up to 50 today, but it said 36 yesterday and it never got up to even 32 before 2 pm in the afternoon.  With the sun setting at 4:30 to 5, we need more than that to melt.

long shadow 

at the top of our drive it is glare ice all the way down the slope but it was white 'zamboni' ice the other day so at least we can see some of it has been moving and the thickness has gone down

this is that big crackly loud ATV (mark says Gator type machine) that ran by the other morning - Mark asks why I would photograph it, I said because that is what I am doing right now, photographing and waiting for the melt

the other hillside on the other side of our driveway - it is a very long way down there but the top has cleared in the sun

skating rink ice looking towards the sun - at least we have sun today, it had been overcast for several of the days when we could have moved some of this frozen liquid off 

looking down between the two ridges

so much is in shadow nearly all the day here between the trees that we are lucky when the sun can melt some

yeast bread

 

I found a recipe that looked similar to what I had on hand - World's easiest yeast bread  I didn't follow the recipe exactly because of what I had on hand - 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour, 1.5 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tbsp dark brown sugar, 1 tbsp of white granulated sugar, 1 tsp of normal iodized table salt, mixed that all together, heated up the 1.5 cups of water it asked for, poured a 4 year out of date yeast packet over the dry ingredients and 1 more tbsp of granulated sugar, and then poured the water on it and mixed, rose for three hours in a 63 degree kitchen, then followed the rest of the instructions about putting onto parchment paper lightly floured, preheating covered Corelle type pot in oven to 450 degrees, put whole thing with parchment paper included into pot, baking covered for 30 minutes, uncovered for 12 minutes, waiting 10 minutes to cut.

Ate it with the soup I made this morning, which was one can of crowder peas with aqua faba included, most of a large frozen sweet potato that was too much for the pan last month so it just went in the freezer and was a bit freezer burnt by now but still souped up really nice, and yellow summer squash along with some maple chipolte seasoning - all well blended after the sweet potato chunks were soft enough

 

and the process:

 at one hour

 

 at two hours - I put it on a pottery stoneware plate that I heated up 25-40 seconds in the microwave a few times along the process, since there wasn't a way to move it to a warmer area

 

and at the three hour mark, before I floured the parchment paper and then scraped it onto it, made it a ball and lightly slid flour over the top of the ball

 It went in looking like this

 

 when I took the lid off after a half hour

 when it came out of the oven and I transferred it immediately to the pottery stoneware plate on the counter, then waited the ten minutes and sliced it (first picture)

 

melted and refroze - january ice storm tennessee - february 4

 

Charlotte and Melody (goat) had discussions with me this morning about the ice still outside, and about food stores.  I am increasingly glad we went for that extra animal feed run last week and bought extra bags while we were there.  And Esme found that gallon of milk, and I keep weird things in the cabinets that I will eat even though they may be time-intensive and I don't do them often.  We had filled ALL of our propane tanks in the days leading up to the storm, standing in line for an hour on the last one (which was when everyone else decided it was time to fill), and still ran out before this ice was done, so that is on our 'to be better prepared' list - another 40 gallon tank to keep full.

They've declared a state of emergency, closed the schools for the same full two weeks I've been iced in, and I do know we're not the only ones - although much of the towns and main highways are clear, there are a lot of people asking for help and also a lot of people getting themselves and rescuers in trouble on the road trying to drive in these conditions. 

It melted some a couple of the 40 degree days and only reformed into harder and tougher ice during the cold overnight temperatures.  It got up to maybe 36 today, and maybe 38 tomorrow.  We still feel lucky to have the electricity fixed (after that outage last Sunday) and the water pipes working.  Although I will admit : my feet are so cold, I've done double socks and slippers and a wool rug under my feet, and been able to work at my desk.   Esme is wrapped up in hoodies and blankets in her room, which is well-insulated and next to the house furnace.  Mark is sitting next to a wellhouse heater just to stay warm enough for his lungs - and I did bump the whole house heat up some.  Our elderly animals are enjoying the heat lamp he set up.  At dinner we pile up under some covers and are watching a criminal investigation show again for a few hours before bedtime.  All of our chickens are winter-type breeds and they are doing quite well, although not laying any eggs (understandable).

I am also lucky I've been able to work from home a little and actually help out with some things that needed to be remembered and/or done at work.  I've been allowed to log a little time on that.  I know I will have stacks of things to do when I can get in - buckle down and power through those physical paper things that I could not get done this week not being there. 

I took a few more walks out today, with the last one being a full two mile walk with the camera and took a couple of videos as well that I posted on FB.  It is still ice out there - even where it melted yesterday, it has refroze.  Just look at that garbage can - with the sun on it and some melting it is now sitting in a hole in the ice berm.

 

in order : our hill going up into our driveway 

 

looking back at our drive from Grandma's house and mailbox 

looking out at the next neighbor's house past Grandma's

Looking down the hill into the intersection with the county road

This is the only place you can see some road, because the neighbor ground the wheels on his very large 4 wheel drive truck on one of the slushy times 

 

 

down and around the first corner 

looking up at this side of the double 'S' hill, there was the sound of water running all the way down into the gullies there - and the sides of the road are clearing up some, which means another couple of days of melting it will maybe be passable (for those who don't have a huge 4 wheel drive truck) - but I think that the neighbors, too, got out at the slush time with that truck and haven't been back in since the melt - and that their relative with the baby had left at the beginning of the storm and is wisely staying in town.

Mark had me looking for the yeast today, which we have some but it is four years out of date.  I made a box of jell-O.  We still have food for dinners that everyone would want for a few days, Mark says 'because we're weird, cook from scratch AND keep a lot of stuff in the freezer / cupboards' - having pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, peanut protein powder, making pea soup and onigiri and a variety of other things, yes, that's about right, but he is still thinking I might try to make some other bread experiment with Esme tomorrow.

On languages?  I'm studying Turkish on one platform and have kicked into the high grammar Japanese on the other and some Lithuanian practice here and there.  I'm listening to Japanese cartoons and French.

experimental cookies with hazelnuts

 I made an experimental alteration on the peanut butter cookies, and it turned out half alright.  Will have to try that recipe again when we have more eggs.  I used the last one doing this, as Mark had requested more cookie and wanted me to use the nuts for more energy.

This recipe either needs more flour or less butter, or some balance between the two fixed.

 

1 stick softened butter (I'm thinking 3/4 stick now, in retrospect would have been better) 

probably 1/4 cup of cashew butter, softened with the butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

 

1/4 cup of granulated white sugar, ground to a nut butter with a quarter cup to a half cup of whole hazelnuts and about the same ofa black walnuts he found in the freezer, it came out to be about 1 cup total 

 in a separate bowl : 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt

mixed the nut mixture and the flour mixture into the wet mixture half and half until it was fully combined, even added a bit more flour to the end, because it still felt too wet... but not enough apparently

 

 

350 degree oven preheated, baked on parchment paper (MUST) on metal pan

10 minute cook, then pull out and transferred sheet immediately to a cool surface, because it needed that  

they crisped up a bit but were very buttery and greasy - put them in layers of wax paper on a plate, taste very good 

 

the beginning of the melt - ice storm tennessee january 2026

 

 

 

 It is February 3rd, and the ice has begun to fall off the roofs, but the road is still covered in it.  Yesterday, at the peak of the temperature, an hour before dusk, some bits of the road were slushy.  Other areas, mostly in shadow, were still as slick as the bottom of an enameled bathtub.  Today, at 9:30 am, no bit of the roads are slushy, yet.   And today is overcast, where yesterday had sun.  It is forecasted to rain a bit this afternoon, as well - we will see what happens.  I loaded the propane tanks into the car, and a box of salt and a couple of bottles of water.

I walked out to the 600 hill again, which is halfway to the highway from us, about two miles there and back.  I saw a blood trail where something, perhaps a deer, had crossed the road.  My hound went nose-down into the woods and followed it a bit, and came back to tell me it how it smelled.  I worried about her last night, when she went out at 1 am and didn't return until after 4.  I told her she almost had me planning missing posters with all the melting and falling ice and slick gullies etc, and the coyotes howling and foxes arguing that ring out over the hills.  The geese and turkeys have been loud - and I heard a woodpecker when I was out there this morning.  I saw a murmuration of starlings at the highest point of the hill.  I did not see enough melting to go get in my car and try the hill.  I barely saw any road at all anywhere, only where the one neighbor has had his monster truck in and out to check on his relative and then struggled getting it back up the hill to his house.

 I feel trapped and that perhaps I should be brave and just go for it - but I've also been down in the ditch in a much worse situation than I had been earlier in the morning, for trying such a thing.  And that time it was very difficult to get anyone to  come out and help even the next day - they heard where, and said 'no, not in this weather.'

Mark says 'don't go down the mountain until you know you can get back up it.'  Yes.  The only good thing about that is if these roads become clear, we can be certain almost everywhere else is.  Yes.  He has been cold all night (66 degrees) which is less than he can usually afford with his breathing condition.  We had a wellhouse heater and a heat lamp in there to bring it up to 69 yesterday, but for safety's sake had turned it off and turned the house heat up for the night.  With the propane, we keep it at 72 for him usually.

So, *blow air up forehead*  I'll get my walking in and go back out there again after another few hours.  Sat down and drew a hungry heron looking at a fish in the water before I set out this time. (below) with a bit of gold wishing in the corner for the sun to shine a bit more on this ice and melt it.