It was very foggy yesterday, January 11th, when I snapped this shot of a White Ibis sitting in the top of our neighbor’s tree. I thought it turned out pretty good. As most of us know, the entire country right now is facing some kind of serious weather. There seems to be storms and weather changes affecting most Americans this week, and that includes us, here in Southeast Texas.

Here is a shot of our weather screen from January 8th. It was windy but very warm for a January day. This morning, the 12th, it’s still windy but only 58 degrees F. And worse is yet to come. We’re supposed to have some really cold temperatures in the next few days. Today I’m going to climb under the house and check the plumbing to see if anything needs to be done. Texas homes are not built for seriously cold weather and sometimes the water pipes are exposed. A couple years ago the state had a really deep freeze and many homes had frozen pipes. Last winter, our furnace went out in the house in Minnesota while we were in Texas, and we had to have ALL the plumbing replaced. I don’t want to have to go through that again.

So, it’s under the house I go. We may need to get some foam insulation for the pipes. I haven’t paid much attention to them since we bought the house because the weather here is generally not much of a consideration when it comes to that. But a cold artic front is on the way, bringing below zero temperature to places like Montana. By the time it reaches Texas it will have warmed considerably, but the temps could still be as low as the teens by the time it gets here.

Bugs

Here’s another nightmare inducing photo for you. This is a Giant Leaf Footed Bug. Barb found it crawling on one of our vines the other day. I looked it up and found that it’s harmless to humans, but just look at this thing! Bugs give me the creeps. You might ask why we moved to a warm weather climate where bugs like this thrive. Not only bugs, but alligators, poisonous snakes, and more bugs like poisonous spiders and scorpions. And fire ants. Well, it’s kind of a tradeoff. You get the beautiful weather, and the gulf shores only an hour away. There are times like yesterday when you can be outside in shorts and a tee shirt in January. This helps make up for the fact that there are things here that can kill you. It’s a choice you have to make to get the nice weather. Nice weather most of the time, anyway. We’re about to have several days of cold. That’s the way it goes.

The Greenhouse

We have to prepare in other ways for the coming cold. The greenhouse is a major consideration. We have all our outdoor plants crammed in there now and the heater is ready to go. For days when the morning temps are in the 30’s, the heater is set to keep the temperature about 10 degrees warmer than outside. However, it’s supposed to get down to the low 20’s, maybe even the teens, so we’ll have to keep it warmer in there. It should be alright as long as we don’t have a power outage. Unfortunately, Texas is known for power outages. The Texas power grid is a regular topic of conversation here. For some reason, the Texas power grid isn’t connected to the rest of the United States. Something about independence or whatever. And sometimes during really cold or hot weather, the grid just can’t keep up. What this means is if the Texas power grid goes down, we can’t get help from other states. No connecting power from other states comes into Texas. That’s why we’re the LONE Star state! Going it alone can have its drawbacks.

Here’s another shot of White Ibis. They show up when we have enough rain to leave standing water in yards. They come to eat grubs and other bugs that are easy to get at when the ground softens up. We’ve also had large groups of Great-Tailed Grackles. It kind of reminds you of that Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds”. A couple hundred black birds sitting on the fences, the power lines, and in the trees. They swoop down in a large group and feed on bugs and seeds and then all fly up and fill the sky for a minute. And when the water dries up, they’re gone.

So, bring on the cold, I guess. We’ll be alright. We’re hardy Minnesotans. We’ve handled far worse temperatures than this. It’s just that we came to Texas hoping we wouldn’t have to do this anymore. A lot of people in this area have palm trees in their yards and it’s just hard to imagine cold weather with palm trees. But it is what it is, and we’ll survive!