COLD !! COLD !!! COLD !!!

Woke with g-son snuggled to my back this morning as the phone jangled with a "schools closed" due to power outages message early this morning. As I dozed back off silently thanking God that our power was still on I prayed for the folks who are waking up to a cold house this morning.

This was our temperature when I got up. A new record for this day !

A later phone call let me know that #2 son was one of the unlucky ones who did not have power this morning. He turned his gas logs on but without the blower working they did not put off enough heat to keep his house warm. He just lives up the road from us now but his power is on a different circuit than ours.He said it was 49 degrees in his living room by the time the power came back on at 10am after being out for over four hours.
G-son and I kept logs in both our wood stoves and stayed toasty warm and thankfully our power stayed on.
I went outside to do the chores around 9am and by the time I got everything some unfrozen water and feed my face was actually hurting.  Thankfully old Snowball made it through the frigid night and was standing outside against the side of the barn with the sun shining on her old body. I gave her some grain to help warm her up.
I watched all three of the dogs as they romped around and seemed to know also that they needed the bright sunshine to stay warm this morning. Short haired Flash the basset hound came to the door a couple hours later shivering and had to go back in the basement to his crate for awhile but Annie and Sadie the Aussies stayed outside all day. They are all three back inside again tonight as the temperature is supposed to be 8 degrees after a balmy high of 21 this afternoon.
I spent the day doing more cleaning and reading and building Lincoln log structures with g-son today.
Daughter who had frozen water this morning finally got it thawed out and she came by this afternoon to help g-son put together a gingerbread barn I had bought.
They didn't have too much success getting the barn to stay together but g-son enjoyed decorating it anyway.

It's always a good day for g-son when his aunt T comes around !!!
After his dad picked him up and daughter took some old blankets home to wrap around her well cap to help the insulation hubbie put in this morning I wrapped up and headed back outside to do the chores. All the animals seem to be doing well as I made 3 trips up to their pens with fresh warm water today.
This is the coldest weather we have had around here in years freezing some major rivers in the area.
This is the Little Tennessee River  with ice looking like waves.

The Toe River in Spruce Pine is solidly frozen today.

This is Skunkawauken Falls in Columbus NC just south of us.

And just down the road from us and this is where #1 son does alot of his deer hunting in this area. This is the Big Hungry River.

And another unwanted waterfall is from the sixth floor in one of the buildings at Memorial Mission hospital as a broken waterline created this icy mess.

Everyone of the continental U.S. states will have freezing temperatures tomorrow.

And the national snow cover is very large after this storm passed across the country.

As of 11:00 tonight I haven't heard any school change announcement so I guess we are back on a regular schedule tomorrow morning.
Very grateful to God tonight that my family only had a couple small issues this morning and that all is well tonight.  Prayers for all those who were not so lucky.
Good Night and God Bless.