Ice

Well, we have had our annual ice storm. At least we hope we have had our only ice storm of the year! We thought it wasn't going to cause us any problems, but Thursday after lunch we lost power. The automatic generator didn't start (dead battery). Fortunately I was home to hook up the tractor generator or we may have had confinement hogs suffocating. Late afternoon, the tractor generator stopped generating power. I called an electrician and my brother called a neighboring farmer that hadn't lost power and asked to borrow his generator. The electrician and the borrowed generator both arrived at about 5:30 and shortly thereafter the power company restored our power. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief!
I have since gotten both of our generators operating, but will they work for the next emergency?

The thick coating of ice on everything can be very picturesque, but also very damaging to the trees and power lines. Our sidewalk is very slick - salt is bad for new concrete, so I have just been sprinkling a little sand on them.

Yesterday, it started warming up. Beware of falling ice! Chunks of ice were falling off of trees and overhead wires all afternoon. Sheets of ice would come careening off of our metal roofed buildings like skiers off of ski jumps. You had to be on guard any time you weren't out in the open.
Even though, the temperature the last week has been much warmer than the previous weeks, the damp, cloudy, windy days feel worse than the very cold, still, sunny days we had then.
Such is winter in central Illinois!

He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?

Psalm 147:17