The Wind Storm passed.....
 

And I just now got internet back.

We're okay. The barn is okay. The goats are okay. The chickens are okay. No one was hurt. Everyone is fine.

But the wind blew the roof OFF of my cousin's house (she lives on our property), so we have her pets and her over here. She is, quite naturally, terribly upset, and it was also terrifying for her.

We're going out now, that the rain has stopped, to see what we an do about the roof. I called Mom and told her we were going to be late, and to go ahead and start dinner....I'll finish it up when I get there.

At least it was a roof. We can fix a roof.

WOW,what a way to start christmas day.Glad to hear that no people or animals were hurt.We too had a strong storm go through earlier this morning,thank goodness,no damage.Merry Christmas to you and yours

Oh my I'm glad everyone is okay. How scary for her. We are getting that wind now.

Glad you are ok and survived. What a way to spend Christmas! Your Mom was probably very worried.

WOW! Glad all is ok, except the roof. We had wind and rain in the wee hours, but nothing, not even a cool down, now.

Holy cow! What a Christmas morning. I'm so glad everyone is okay.

The storm isn't here in northern Arkansas yet, though the wind is blowing hard and temps are falling fast. John had to work at the group home today, so we're hoping he gets home before the blizzard hits.

Sue

What a relief no-one was hurt. But I bet that was a terrifying experience for her!
Despite that, Merry Christmas Caliann to you and your family, all safe and sound thank goodness. Hope the turkey was still warm for you when you all got in....

~laughs~ It was ham. No one in my family likes turkey. LOL

Wind is still going, and now the temps have dropped considerably. The goats are VERY upset at this turn of events and are crying their heads off, "MooooOOOOooooMM! Make it stoooOOOoooOOOooop!"

Next year at this time, I am hoping to have a better insulated house. :rolleyes:

I hope everyone is snuggled in deep, surviving the winds, blizzards, or whatever yuo may have in your area, and digesting a hearty X-mas dinner.

Oh, and for ya'll's amusement: my mother accused me of wishing for a windstorm to get out of cooking X-mas dinner, since it was my turn. :teehee:

What a terrible thing to happen anytime but even worse on Christmas day! So thankful everyone is OK though other than all shaken up. Good thing your there to help your cousin out. Hope your Christmas is ending better than it started & the storm has passed.

~smiles~ It did end better than it started. My poor cousin was in an awful mood, and finally my mother and I asked her if she wanted to stay living out here, or if she would be happier living in town. She said, "I doesn't matter, I can't afford either."

My mother and I answered in stereo, "We didn't ASK you if you could *afford* it; we ASKED you where you will be HAPPIEST!"

That kind of shocked her out of her fear and gloom.

Tomorrow, we're going to tack down what is left of her roof, and my mother is coming out to access the damage. Then we are hitching up the trailer and heading to the lumber mill. Oh, as you can surmise, she said she prefers living out here with us, so we are going to fix her house for her.

We ended the evening playing a rousing game of "Cards Against Humanity", in which my cousin won. :)

We had a similar storm today here in Tyler. Started the morning with hail and high winds, then tornados in the area, then flood warnings. This afternoon things cooled rapidly and now we have a coating of snow. Only in Texas can you get so many kinds of weather in one day. Surprised we didn't have a hurricane too. Merry Christmas and sorry about the roof.

LOL Too true, Plantman! I started i shorts this morning, then jeans and windbreaker, then rainsuit.......right now I am in every layer of fuzzy stuff I can find, and it is about time for me to face the music and go out to do the 8 p.m. milking.

Barn-house....definitely need a barn-house.

We had wind and rain early, then mid-70s, which was unfortunately normal for our part of Texas. Then warm wind all day until 5:30 and the temperature PLUMMETED. It's down to 40 now. I headed toward the barn to milk and didn't make it to the corner of the house before coming back in for insulated coveralls and earmuffs and a hat.

The youngest goats (eight month old doeling and wether) were totally goofy, running, and leaping, and acting like they had never experienced weather like this. OH! Yeah. They have never experienced weather like this. :D

Thank goodness you are all OK! Hopefully the weather holds out so you can finish what you need to and enjoy the new year :)

I had to tack the tarp over the hoop house back down, sure glad it wasn't MY roof came off! Your cousin is lucky to have you to help her.

Still windy and cold here! Hope the wind stops soon.

DREADED going out to milk tonight...but decided to prepare. Our large heater is keeping my *small* bedroom at a balmy, 48*.

So, layer of thermals, then layer of flannels, then jeans and sweatshirt, then fleeces top and bottom, then down jacket and gloves. I looked like a baby-blue, abominable snow Caliann.

Out I go. Normally, only one doe is in the milk stall at a time, but I wanted two things:

1. The girls to eat as much concentrate as their rumens could hold, to provide them with warmth.
2. To get out of there quickly, it's freaking COLD!

So, I arranged a bucket of feed and a tie-up in the corner of the milking stall. When I finished milking a doe out, she went off the stand and to the corner to munch at her leisure, and then the next girl came in, with me finishing up little chores between milking so everyone had plenty of time to eat.

I brought the bottles with me. Milk went from the milk pail directly into the bottles, and the babies got ALL of it...over double what they normally get.

Finished up milking in about half the time I normally do (I might use this system more often....or maybe I was encouraged by cold?) Gave them a 5 gallon bucket of hot water, the non-milkers a feeder of concentrate (which they don't normally get, so they feel treated), and hurried inside.

Finished cleaning up, went into my bedroom and stripped off some layers...with the realization of, "Hey! The only cold things on my are my ears and nose! I did good!"

Looked at the temp on the heater, and it reads a balmy 49*.

That's okay, because I can just strip down to the jeans, get them off, put the fleeces back on and I am as toasty as toasty can get, right?

Do that, snuggle under the covers with my laptop, and realize, "OOOHHHH, itchy!"

I did not have the foresight when applying all of these layer to *remove* my bra.

I considered the itchy. I considered the temperature.

~sighs~ To heck with it, I am sleeping in my bra.

Glad everybody's ok down there. Lot of cold wind up here today, but the sleet/snow went around. I gave our goats more straw bedding, and the heated water bucket seems to be working well, so the goats all were staying close to shelter all day.

Glad your all ok were about to get a storm today that's gonna drop 6-24inches of snow (the weather people don't even know how much)

And the wind is already here I hate it when we get wind snow mix cause it drifts bad here

Maybe you will luck out and the weather people are totally wrong like they were at our house. We were suppose to get 2 to 5 inches then 1 to 6 then trace to 2 inches and nothing not even a snow flake lol.

How scary for you all! Hopefully you have a really boringly uneventful New Years.

We've had bad wind here but nothing like that. We've been in the negative teens. Brrr. Today it has decided to warm up enough to snow again. We're at about 20 inches and it's coming down hard. At least when it's snowing I can usually get internet. I don't know why my internet goes out when it gets cold or rainy. I'm ready for spring already.

Same here, andabigmac. My satellite can take wind, it can even take the snow and freezing ice we had 2 years back. Overcast skies are no problem.

But if ONE DROP of rain falls on it, out goes the internet. :rolleyes:

The satellite dish is a lot like a goat. :D

I played tug-of-war with a roof today.....and WON!

Well, with the help of DH, cousin, and a tractor pushing on the other side!

I Love it when it's 40 & 49 degree's. Don't need a hat & just a lined flannel shirt & I'm good but the wind is what gets me!
Hope you get your cousins house fixed up soon & the wind dies down for you.

The wind died down, we got the roof back up, but we're wondering about the house.

I have another house on the property that is the same size, although a bit older. I use it for storage. It needs some work....would have to be completely re-wired, the floors re-done, new insulation. However, structurally, it is in MUCH better shape than my cousin's house. The roof is absolutely solid, no problems with structural supports, no leaks, etc.

We just re-did my cousin's floors year before last.

I am thinking of getting a storage shed for my cousin's stuff, moving her in with me, then cannibalizing the place she lives in now and putting it in the other huose. I would still need to pay to get the thing re-wired, but everything else we could do ourselves.

Then, just give her the other house and tear down the one she is currently in.

My mom is thinking we can fix her roof, but honestly, I think it is done. Mom also suggested a pole-barn type roof over....but honestly, I think that is a lot of expense to go through to protect a house that, IMNSHO, would be better off as a scrap heap...especially since I have another house, the same size, that is structurally sound.

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

Dontcha just love those mother-daughter moments. When you realised you are no longer turning into your mother, the transformation is in fact complete.
My parents were here for Christmas and got a few of those jaw-sagging stares from my Dad. I even have to tell him first thing that its Ani, not Mum, when I phone him.

:pound: I used to hate the thought of "turning into my mother". Now I simply accept it as fact. LOL

We even *voted* the same during the last election. Compared after we got out of the booths, and we had voted for the exact same candidates clean down to locals.

My DH once said, after a particularly exasperating day for him building stuff for her, "I hope you don't turn into your mom."

I just stared at him a moment and said, "The time to make THAT wish was 20 years ago; you are far too late."