I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Wild, Wacky, Weather Award
Wow. Michigan gets some crazy weather at times, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a weekend with such wild, wacky weather like this one! With rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow, I think Michigan is deserving of a major Award.
Yesterday morning I woke to snow. It snowed and snowed all day. This morning I woke to freezing rain/sleet. It has freezing rained and sleeted all day.
The Sheriff Departments in the region are warning people not to travel unless they absolutely have to and a local County Road Commission posted on FB:
Today brings an interesting mix of winter weather – rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow. We are running everything that has drifted. If a road is passable and protected from drifting, we will skip it till tomorrow. Here is the problem….freezing rain on a nicely plowed road could end up being much slipperier than with snow on it. Biggest problem right now is wind and drifting. This weather is forecast to continue through the night. Night shift is still working, concentrating on state highways and main county roads.
One county emergency department that is known for its sense of humor, posted on their FB page:
There are a lot of people asking how the roads are, And here is the update. If your road ends in the following, it’s bad:
Rd.
St.
Ave.
Pkwy
Blvd
Pvt
Way
Rdg
Hwy
Pl
Ln
Dr
Ct
Trail
Circle
Trace
Terrace
Commons
Center
Run
Row
Bluff
Hills
Pass
North/South/East/West
Our power went out at about 2 a.m. last night. EJ got out of bed and turned our propane heater back on so we stayed as snug as a bug in a rug. The power was restored about 8 a.m. this morning–and shortly after that we got our Internet connection back. The most difficult thing about having no power first thing in the morning is not being able to make coffee or take a shower. So as soon as the power came back on, I quickly made the coffee and took a shower, and then began a load of laundry–trying to get all the things done that require electricity, just in case. With all this freezing rain, we are aware that we could lose our power again at any time. We feel thankful that we only lost our power for a few hours–not days or weeks.
EJ went out this afternoon and snow-blowed some of the driveway. It was a miserable job because of the rain/sleet and the wet heavy snow on the ground. It really hurt his back. Poor guy. Usually I would have taken my turn with the snow-blower, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage it this time.
EJ read that people are reporting seeing bears on the move, which means they are waking from hibernation. Normally we would put away the bird feeders at this time so they don’t attract the very hungry bears, but EJ also read that the birds are struggling during this weekend’s storm, so we are risking the bears and keeping the feeders filled. The birds are enjoying it…and the deer.
The deer looked rather wet and miserable. I saw one little deer with icicles hanging from its mouth. Poor thing.
This post took a long time to write because Hannah Joy (aka Hannah Banana) wanted me to play with her NOW, and then she wanted to go outside NOW. I tried to ignore her but she pokes her head around my laptop. If I ignore her, she touches the screen with her nose. My laptop has a touch screen so when her nose touches the screen, my work is messed up. When I finally gave up and walked with her to the door, I told her that, unlike her, Danny was a polite and patient dog. Hannah didn’t care. She is so irrepressible. We do love her!
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Good luck to you – we just got the freezing rain this morning. It was very pretty, but still … so dangerous and many people lost power as well, not sure when they will be restored. This weather is crazy.
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I’m telling myself that Spring has to arrive some day! I hope you have power? Be careful on the ice!
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I lucked out and have power, but I was following the local crime sites on Facebook and many in this city have no power, including two people one street over, but on a different grid. Still 290,000 Michiganders without power as of the 10:00 p.m. news. Our ice has now gone, hopefully not to resurface in the a.m. I’ll take out the garbage and scoot right back in the house. I felt so sorry for those deer and the one with the icicles. Be careful of the bears! (Worse than spiders!)
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I’m glad you have power and are keeping safe. I’m sorry for all the people still without power! I think we are supposed to have snow through Wednesday. I’m hoping the morning commute is safe for all those who have to drive to work–like EJ!
Right now I think spiders are scarier than bears because they invade my “space” while I’ve never seen a bear on our property. But if I actually see a bear, I will totally freak out. LOL.
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Thank you TJ and I hope you’ve seen the last of your power outage(s) as well. One was bad enough for you, but two of them … this afternoon I got a “robo” phonecall from DTE and I’m assuming that is because I am in between the two streets that lost power that I mentioned yesterday. So, I listened to what she had to say and it was a fairly long message … at least a minute long and it said that by tonight, everyone will know the status of getting their power back on and everyone will be restored hopefully by Tuesday night and by Wednesday for sure. That is a long time, even with the linemen in from other states to help. I heard on WWJ this morning that this cold weather will be in place at least until the end of April. Wow! I wonder what the long-range weather is for Summer … I’ve not heard anything yet.
I had a big centipede in the kitchen last week … sitting next to my moccasins that I use to go downstairs in … I switch before I open the door that separates the kitchen from the cellarway and always keep it closed to keep it warmer in the kitchen. I started doing that when I had my canary to keep him warmer. I opened the door when I came back from walking and it was sitting next to my moccasins on this side of the door … the fact that I have a small blanket wedged under the door, so no bugs can come up from downstairs freaked me out – I always shut the door right away when I go thru it. So, that was the day it was so warm … all this rain will bring in the bugs for sure. I’d have a heart attack if I saw a bear … that’s for sure.
Did you see the article on Facebook and/or in the news last week about the restaurant that serves a tarantula cooked on top of a hamburger. This restaurant is into cooked exotic bugs on their burgers – no thanks.
The look of it was scary/bad enough.
http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/04/13/tarantula-burger-special-sold-at-north-carolina-restaurant-has-legs.html
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I really love reading your comments. But forgive me if I do NOT look at the link of the tarantula burger. {Shudder.} I wish you a bug-free life!
My hubby said our area got 12-18 inches of snow…and more is expected tonight. He parked at the bottom of our driveway and walked up to the house to make sure he can get out tomorrow morning when he goes to work.
I feel fortunate that we only lost power for a few hours. We seem to get power restored very quickly up here even though we live in the country. I feel sorry for people who are without it for days.
Take care, Linda!
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Thanks TJ – you take care too. Happily, you do not have regular PT appointments to get to during this wintry weather. No, don’t look at that picture – why would people do a hamburger with a tarantula on it is beyond me – ugh and shudder. When I leave the kitchen to go into the cellarway and/or downstairs, I scan each wall before proceeding. Otherwise I have to have a plan of action and a lot of hyperventilating. Take care going to get that mail … keep that hand healing up TJ.
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I totally understand your careful scanning for bugs!!!!! JJ has sometimes said that he might get a pet tarantula or a snake. I tell him that if he does, I will never, ever, not EVER visit him!
I am very thankful that I don’t have to go anywhere in this weather. I would be very nervous! I am safe in my house on my hill. 🙂
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I have to go to the dentist tomorrow – always go to hygienist mid-April and mid-October. Tonight we might have an inch or so of snow. Luckily I can walk, but hopefully not icy … at least it is at 9:00 a.m. and they are saying snow will just be on lawns only like we had one day last week or the week before when we had an inch of snow. It is just 1 1/3 mile each way but really?!
I have scanned like that for years and the basement is paneled in dark wood and a light green tile floor, but most of it is covered with dark-colored rugs that used to be upstairs and relegated to downstairs when we got wall-to-wall carpeting years ago. At least the laundry room is just painted and the light-colored floor, so I can scan the entire room in a few seconds and determine it is safe to proceed. Tell JJ to get a puppy since he can have a nice pal like Hannah. No, not a tarantula. We had someone bring one to school years ago. Someone was horsing around and opened the top of the terrarium and it escaped … no one would go back to their seats until it was found.
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