Ice Storm ??

Yesterday, we were glued to our TV watching the news regarding the approaching WINTER WEATHER. For our area, here in the "deep south", the predictions were for sleet and/or freezing rain. For those of you that may not know.... for us "Southerners", the words SNOW and ICE bring about panic!!

Freezing rain is the worst because that is what causes ICE STORMS!! The trees can not handle the weight of the ice and the branches BREAK! Then, this causes power outages due to the branches falling on power lines.

The news & weather channel had us all thinking that this was the BIG ONE and we needed to be prepared. So... we David spent the day yesterday preparing our home for what MIGHT happen.

He stacked firewood near the door.
He cleaned and filled my antique oil lamps with fresh oil.
He prepared meals for us to have on hand.
He turned up the pool pump so that the pool would not freeze.

I was quite lazy yesterday, but I did get a few things done to "prepare", as well.

I ran the dishwasher so that we would have clean dishes.
I did some laundry.
I made sure my phone was charged.

This morning... I woke up about 5:30am and ran walked hurried to the window to see what kind of "accumulation" we had. Of course, it was dark and I couldn't see anything. It wasn't until I opened the back door and turned the back light on to let the dogs out, that I realized that it was SLEETING! I could "sort of " see that the ground was "white", but not totally covered. I'd have to wait until daylight to really see.

Here's some photos that I took once I COULD SEE! I am not sure if we can really call it an "Ice Storm" or not. What do you think?? ....

The first thing that I noticed was these streaks of ice that had formed on the screen of my screened porch.

The pine trees are what we worry about the most. They are weak.

Icicles on the grill. 

I like this shot of the grill!

And this one!

Care to have a seat??

This looks like snow, but it's really sleet!

My girls are excited that their college closed for the day. We are just being lazy, together and watching the trees as they blow in the cold wind! YIKES!! I don't think the temps are going to rise enough to melt all this stuff, so I have a feeling that we will be home again tomorrow because the roads will be more dangerous. YAY! .... I guess.

At least we have power..... for now!