Dodging the Bullet

This time we were lucky. Forty miles and a few degrees kept us from getting the ice that has devastated many counties across Oklahoma, Missouri and Iowa. I sure feel for those who are in the midst of it, and hope they can get their power restored quickly. I'm also very thankful that we did not have to experience our second catastrophic ice storm of the year! Once was enough--thank you. In the top picture you can see how we were delicately balanced on the edge of ice and rain. It was cold enough that the rain was freezing to the trees and fences, but warm enough that it didn't freeze on the ground. A shift of a few degrees..... You can also see the trees that still bear the damage from the January Ice Storm. Many of them have sheared off limbs and tops and it will take several years for them to overcome that damage. The stump with sprouts at the right was my twenty year old Mulberry tree, before it shattered to the ground in January. In an aside note the Mulberry provided some much appreciated green treats for the sheep during the summer drought. It consistently pushed up sprouts of six of seven foot. I would lop them off for the sheepies and a few weeks later--more treats had grown!

Snow is forecast for this weekend, but so far we've only gotten a skiff of ice and snow. They were calling for up to ten inches, but have since revised that to a couple of inches. Now I'm really worried! ;-)