Conditions have worsened as the day progressed. We had heavy rain all night and steady throughout the day. The temperatures began falling quickly as the cold front moved in and we have ice on everything above ground level at dark.

We kept the feeders full for the birds who were at them all day preparing for the bad weather they instinctively knew was coming……they are excellent at letting us know about weather changes. Rocky and I tried to coax Napoleon into our garage to no avail. He is one bedraggled bird, let me tell you. He is wet to the skin, I’m sure. Rocky had fixed a rubberized tarp over his old International Pick-Up bed but for some reason Napoleon sat on our fence 5 feet away from the shelter and endured the rain.

I’m very worried about the bad night approaching. The pine trees are heavy with ice and hanging already, the ground is saturated from the heavy rains and wind is supposed to pick up as high as 25 miles-per-hour. This doesn’t bode well for the pines which are the backbone of the landscaping of our yard. We planted them from seedlings 35 years ago and they are like family to me. I realize it is not a crisis point but something I would miss terribly.

Springfield, MO has thousands out of power….the weather got to them first. We are 80 miles east directly in the path of what has passed over them. I am expecting to be out of power sometime during the night or tomorrow……if so, we will get through it.

Rocky is packed and ready to go if it’s possible. Nashville is expected to receive the weather that is passing us so the event may be called off from there or Rocky’s coach and team-members may call off going. Morning will tell us a lot of things so for now, I’m going to fix something to eat and keep glued to the TV reports. It may be our last hot meal for a few days……other than being at Becky’s.

I’ll keep you posted when morning comes……..

Until then,
Essentially Esther