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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on


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just got back in from taking down all the branches that snapped last night and trimming the ones that were still heavily sagging.  one of the sections that broke off was a large one towards the top so the shape isn't pretty to say the least.  tree's got about half the volume it did 24 hours ago.  25 year old live oak. 

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33 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I'd warm it up ASAP.  It's probably only lightly frozen, which won't crack your pipes.  Get it warmed up and flowing, then wrap it like hell and hope for the best?  

Shit, I dunno.  This one is gonna be a bad one.  I'm just afraid that no matter all of our best efforts, sustained single digit temps will be more than our infrastructure can handle.

Got it warmed up and running. Thanks @Brisketexan  . I'm running it now.  I'm just going to try to re-wrap them and hope for the best.  

 

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Okay so how does this work? Do I leave my faucets continuously dripping 24 hours a day until the next time we get above freezing? Is dripping slowly sufficient or does it need to be a quick drip?

If I haven't turned on my outside faucets in over 2 months do I still need to wrap them? I can't imagine there would be water in them to the point wrapping the outside spigot would do anything 

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If we're talking about cutting some Oaks because they might drop branches and/or topple over, that's perfectly fine. I may have to do it myself this weekend.  Routine pruning of Oaks should be completed by Groundhog Day, but mid-February isn't that ridiculous despite what City of Austin says.  

However, the risk to routine and widespread pruning of Oaks during this cold front is significant.  Yes pruning in extreme heat or extreme cold is perfectly fine.  But what could very much invite Oak Wilt with a passion is what we're gonna see in the next week...in one calendar week...we're gonna go from single digit temps to 70 degrees and sunny in 7 days.  That is a VIP invitation to Oak Wilt, those kinds of extreme temp swings in  compressed timeframe.  Again, cut if you have to...but don't make this weekend "yardwork day" just for the heck of it.  I did 3 days of heavy, heavy pruning over MLK weekend and that's it for me until July or August.  The cold is fine for it (of course the moisture is gonna be a factor), but the temp swing we'll see back up by next weekend is not great for Oak Wilt prevention.  My two cents...

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7 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Well I drove from South Austin out to my place off Fitzhugh/Hamilton Pool to shut down the water well and drain the lines to the house and barn, since nobody is staying there.  The drive down 290 and Fitzhugh wasn't bad at all.  Then I got to my gate.  There was a lot of ice out there. So much that my combination padlock and the gate chain were frozen with a 1/4" of ice on them.  Luckily it had been a 45 minute drive, and I drank a lot of coffee this morning, so I pissed all over that bitch.  Let'er rip, melted the ice, unlocked it and used hand sanitizer.  Success!  Well not so much.  Drove about 150 feet around a curve and this.

spacer.png

So I ended up hiking the last 1/4 mile with my toolbag.  Got shit taken care of at least.  And learned, if your lock is frozen shut, piss on it.

overcome.jpg

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10 minutes ago, Lobo said:

If we're talking about cutting some Oaks because they might drop branches and/or topple over, that's perfectly fine. I may have to do it myself this weekend.  Routine pruning of Oaks should be completed by Groundhog Day, but mid-February isn't that ridiculous despite what City of Austin says.  

However, the risk to routine and widespread pruning of Oaks during this cold front is significant.  Yes pruning in extreme heat or extreme cold is perfectly fine.  But what could very much invite Oak Wilt with a passion is what we're gonna see in the next week...in one calendar week...we're gonna go from single digit temps to 70 degrees and sunny in 7 days.  That is a VIP invitation to Oak Wilt, those kinds of extreme temp swings in  compressed timeframe.  Again, cut if you have to...but don't make this weekend "yardwork day" just for the heck of it.  I did 3 days of heavy, heavy pruning over MLK weekend and that's it for me until July or August.  The cold is fine for it (of course the moisture is gonna be a factor), but the temp swing we'll see back up by next weekend is not great for Oak Wilt prevention.  My two cents...

Regardless, seal the damn wounds if you cut your oak trees. 

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16 minutes ago, Wanker Bob said:

Okay so how does this work? Do I leave my faucets continuously dripping 24 hours a day until the next time we get above freezing? Is dripping slowly sufficient or does it need to be a quick drip?

If I haven't turned on my outside faucets in over 2 months do I still need to wrap them? I can't imagine there would be water in them to the point wrapping the outside spigot would do anything 

Unless you have shutoff valves on the pipes going to your outside spigots, there is water pressure there whether you're using them or not.  Am I actually explaining this? Yes, wrap your spigots!

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13 minutes ago, Lobo said:

If we're talking about cutting some Oaks because they might drop branches and/or topple over, that's perfectly fine. I may have to do it myself this weekend.  Routine pruning of Oaks should be completed by Groundhog Day, but mid-February isn't that ridiculous despite what City of Austin says.  

However, the risk to routine and widespread pruning of Oaks during this cold front is significant.  Yes pruning in extreme heat or extreme cold is perfectly fine.  But what could very much invite Oak Wilt with a passion is what we're gonna see in the next week...in one calendar week...we're gonna go from single digit temps to 70 degrees and sunny in 7 days.  That is a VIP invitation to Oak Wilt, those kinds of extreme temp swings in  compressed timeframe.  Again, cut if you have to...but don't make this weekend "yardwork day" just for the heck of it.  I did 3 days of heavy, heavy pruning over MLK weekend and that's it for me until July or August.  The cold is fine for it (of course the moisture is gonna be a factor), but the temp swing we'll see back up by next weekend is not great for Oak Wilt prevention.  My two cents...

that makes sense. my oak is just a couple of years old in a newish neighborhood. it's a bit of a mess, but you have convinced me to leave it for later and stay inside, warm, drinking beer. posrep.

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2 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

that makes sense. my oak is just a couple of years old in a newish neighborhood. it's a bit of a mess, but you have convinced me to leave it for later and stay inside, warm, drinking beer. posrep.

I initially glanced at this and saw "just a couple of years old in a jewish neighborhood" and I thought HE'S GONNA PRUNE IT!

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19 minutes ago, Lobo said:

If we're talking about cutting some Oaks because they might drop branches and/or topple over, that's perfectly fine. I may have to do it myself this weekend.  Routine pruning of Oaks should be completed by Groundhog Day, but mid-February isn't that ridiculous despite what City of Austin says.  

However, the risk to routine and widespread pruning of Oaks during this cold front is significant.  Yes pruning in extreme he at or extreme cold is perfectly fine.  But what could very much invite Oak Wilt with a passion is what we're gonna see in the next week...in one calendar week...we're gonna go from single digit temps to 70 degrees and sunny in 7 days.  That is a VIP invitation to Oak Wilt, those kinds of extreme temp swings in  compressed timeframe.  Again, cut if you have to...but don't make this weekend "yardwork day" just for the heck of it.  I did 3 days of heavy, heavy pruning over MLK weekend and that's it for me until July or August.  The cold is fine for it (of course the moisture is gonna be a factor), but the temp swing we'll see back up by next weekend is not great for Oak Wilt prevention.  My two cents...

Help me understand this. Are you saying the beetles that can spread the wilt will be back in action as soon as it warms up? I always thought it was best to prune in extreme temps because the beetles were in active. Doesn't seem like the beetles are going to rebound quickly from a week long hard ass freeze, but I no expert.

 

And yes, seal those cuts!

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2 minutes ago, Steel Shank said:

Help me understand this. Are you saying the beetles that can spread the wilt will be back in action as soon as it warms up? I always thought it was best to prune in extreme temps because the beetles were in active. Doesn't seem like the beetles are going to rebound quickly from a week long hard ass freeze, but I no expert.

 

And yes, seal those cuts!

The hard cold will probably wipe them out, but arborists tell me that extreme temps swings with pruning, in compressed timeframes are just rough on the tree, even aside from the Oak Wilt.  Of course, when he told me this last...it was in the midst of a 30 to 90 degree swing.  We're talking 10 to 70 this week, so still 60 degree uptick but  so much more shocking on the cold end so maybe it's a slightly different scenario for the beetles.  

But yeah, spray the cuts liberally even if you're just doing it for safety purposes.  Then spray the can into a faucet cover and huff vigorously.  Oh wait, that was last year.  

 

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1 minute ago, Lobo said:

The hard cold will probably wipe them out, but arborists tell me that extreme temps swings with pruning, in compressed timeframes are just rough on the tree, even aside from the Oak Wilt.  Of course, when he told me this last...it was in the midst of a 30 to 90 degree swing.  We're talking 10 to 70 this week, so still 60 degree uptick but  so much more shocking on the cold end so maybe it's a slightly different scenario for the beetles.  

But yeah, spray the cuts liberally even if you're just doing it for safety purposes.  Then spray the can into a faucet cover and huff vigorously.  Oh wait, that was last year.  

 

Ah, got it. Thanks for the info. That's good to know. 

Now, I'm off to huff.

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1 hour ago, LABEVO said:

Terrible advice. Has nothing about stocking up on booze and smoking bbq

Those are understood -- and best left off official risk management pieces. 😄

 

55 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Got it warmed up and running. Thanks @Brisketexan  . I'm running it now.  I'm just going to try to re-wrap them and hope for the best.  

 

The hair dryer trick worked like a charm. Putting a 90 mins or so of water in the pool and then drying and wrapping that bitch up like a MF.

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14 minutes ago, Wanker Bob said:

Well that's an unfortunate design. 

The valve on a conventional spigot is right there by the handle.  And there's water right behind that.  Depending on how the pipe is arranged (straight into ground or into conditioned space), that "column" of water is susceptible to freezing and bursting the pipe.

Frost free puts the valve several inches from the spigot handle so it protrudes back into conditioned space or at least behind insulation, so that column of water is less susceptible to freezing.

I went ahead and wrapped them anyway.

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9 minutes ago, Steel Shank said:

Ah, got it. Thanks for the info. That's good to know. 

Now, I'm off to huff.

The bigger thing is, if you're pruning you control the cut and can make it clean and seal it (or not) and it will heal pretty quick.   Limbs breaking because of ice aren't clean wounds, and tend to attract the beetles when it warms back up.  Pruning is not as bad as it's been sold to be.  Breaking limbs are worse. 

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I feel like such a pussy. I was at the welding shop that does my contract work, and my client from Red Deer, Alberta called. I told him we may only get to work on his project for a day or two next week because of the cold and icy weather. He just laughed, and said he would go broke if he only worked the winter schedule we do. It was -44 degrees fahrenheit at his shop, and they were chugging along just fine.

CHIEF 

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Your crawl space should be good to go.  It's these Texas attics made of papier-mache' I'm worried about.  

Also, C-Man...thanks for that document.  Simple stuff like running your highest elevated faucet/shower and then also any outboard faucets/toilets/showers.  Bathrooms in the middle of the house and probably those on Southern walls should be okay (except for probably the coldest parts of Monday).  I like how that's from AIG though.  Imagine if they had cared as much about underwriting CMB's in 2008 as they did about winterizing your plumbing...how different America would be right now?  ;) 

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1 minute ago, Lobo said:

Your crawl space should be good to go.  It's these Texas attics made of papier-mache' I'm worried about.  

Also, C-Man...thanks for that document.  Simple stuff like running your highest elevated faucet/shower and then also any outboard faucets/toilets/showers.  Bathrooms in the middle of the house and probably those on Southern walls should be okay (except for probably the coldest parts of Monday).  I like how that's from AIG though.  Imagine if they had cared as much about underwriting CMB's in 2008 as they did about winterizing your plumbing...how different America would be right now?  ;) 

Foamed attic here.  Toasty up there.

Thanks for the reassurance, not many people are saying positive things.

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2 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Your crawl space should be good to go.  It's these Texas attics made of papier-mache' I'm worried about.  

Also, C-Man...thanks for that document.  Simple stuff like running your highest elevated faucet/shower and then also any outboard faucets/toilets/showers.  Bathrooms in the middle of the house and probably those on Southern walls should be okay (except for probably the coldest parts of Monday).  I like how that's from AIG though.  Imagine if they had cared as much about underwriting CMB's in 2008 as they did about winterizing your plumbing...how different America would be right now?  ;) 

Not to thread derail, it wasn't the insurance side of AIG that clusterfucked everything in 2008. It was the shitheels playing around in the markets with everybody's premiums. They rebranded the insurance arm as Chartis until the stink of 2008 wore off enough to go back to AIG name.

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1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

Got it warmed up and running. Thanks @Brisketexan  . I'm running it now.  I'm just going to try to re-wrap them and hope for the best.  

 

Same thing just happened to me this afternoon.  My one outside faucet that backs up to the house was fine...but the one that backs up to the garage was frozen (both covered).

So I busted out a spaceheater to put up to the wall in the garage and my wife's hairdryer to point at the faucet, got it unfrozen, wrapped it with insulation, and covered it up again.

I feel this is going to be a battle against nature for the next 5-6 days...and nature has more reinforcements that I do.☹️

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5 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Not to thread derail, it wasn't the insurance side of AIG that clusterfucked everything in 2008. It was the shitheels playing around in the markets with everybody's premiums. They rebranded the insurance arm as Chartis until the stink of 2008 wore off enough to go back to AIG name.

i know, but my sardonic comment wouldn't have worked if I broke down the divisions of the company.  I just saw AIG logo and thought, "this one-pager is longer than their securities compliance binder."  I think of "Chartis" every time I see our Shart thread on this site.  I know they say it like "Chart", but I pronounce it like "Shart" because that's what AIG does.  They shart the bed.  

Speaking of that, shitting for the next few days is going to be markedly more uncomfortable due to my master bath wash closet facing Northeast and even with the door open to the main bathroom, it struggles to stay above 55 degrees.  And there's not enough room in there for me, my bowel movement, and a space heater.  One of the three of us is gonna have to go! 

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6 minutes ago, Mileslong said:

It’s so damn cold, I drove by a Churches Chicken this morning and there was line of chickens outside waiting to get in so they could get IN the deep fryer...

I read this in Steven Wright's voice and laughed damn hard.

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59 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Well I drove from South Austin out to my place off Fitzhugh/Hamilton Pool to shut down the water well and drain the lines to the house and barn, since nobody is staying there.  The drive down 290 and Fitzhugh wasn't bad at all.  Then I got to my gate.  There was a lot of ice out there. So much that my combination padlock and the gate chain were frozen with a 1/4" of ice on them.  Luckily it had been a 45 minute drive, and I drank a lot of coffee this morning, so I pissed all over that bitch.  Let'er rip, melted the ice, unlocked it and used hand sanitizer.  Success!  Well not so much.  Drove about 150 feet around a curve and this.

spacer.png

So I ended up hiking the last 1/4 mile with my toolbag.  Got shit taken care of at least.  And learned, if your lock is frozen shut, piss on it.

If ya catch another mule kickin in your stall, man ya got to tear it down.  

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If we're talking about cutting some Oaks because they might drop branches and/or topple over, that's perfectly fine. I may have to do it myself this weekend.  Routine pruning of Oaks should be completed by Groundhog Day, but mid-February isn't that ridiculous despite what City of Austin says.  
However, the risk to routine and widespread pruning of Oaks during this cold front is significant.  Yes pruning in extreme heat or extreme cold is perfectly fine.  But what could very much invite Oak Wilt with a passion is what we're gonna see in the next week...in one calendar week...we're gonna go from single digit temps to 70 degrees and sunny in 7 days.  That is a VIP invitation to Oak Wilt, those kinds of extreme temp swings in  compressed timeframe.  Again, cut if you have to...but don't make this weekend "yardwork day" just for the heck of it.  I did 3 days of heavy, heavy pruning over MLK weekend and that's it for me until July or August.  The cold is fine for it (of course the moisture is gonna be a factor), but the temp swing we'll see back up by next weekend is not great for Oak Wilt prevention.  My two cents...
I actually stop pruning mid January every year. I like to be cautious because we always seem to have stretches of earn weather at the end of January or beginning of Feb. Especially this year. I actually wasn't able to get to this tree before I stopped and that's why it was the only one that had branches break.

Two of the limbs were pretty big (1 ft circumference), vertical, and high up (> 20 ft high). They both broke incompletely so that they tore the bark a good few feet away from the remaining branch on one and a foot away on the other. I managed to get them down but haven't decided how I'm going to take the remaining parts. It's a mess.
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2 hours ago, Post Oak said:

Advice Needed-

Just went to check my exterior north facing faucet and it's frozen. Should I try to warm it up or just leave it wrapped?

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

I'd warm it up ASAP.  It's probably only lightly frozen, which won't crack your pipes.  Get it warmed up and flowing, then wrap it like hell and hope for the best?  

Shit, I dunno.  This one is gonna be a bad one.  I'm just afraid that no matter all of our best efforts, sustained single digit temps will be more than our infrastructure can handle.

1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

Got it warmed up and running. Thanks @Brisketexan  . I'm running it now.  I'm just going to try to re-wrap them and hope for the best.  

 

The best weapon you can have is a 1,500 watt hair dryer. 

I scored the last 2 pieces of insulation at Home DePoors.  Felt like the last guy on the ark in the worst movie ever made, 2012.

Also, I haven't checked my (very wrapped) hose bibs since I wrapped them yesterday, but not too worried.  28°-30° won't freeze them too far in.  I plan to do a series of 2-3 rewraps between now and Tuesday.  That hair dryer's going to get more use than it has the past 15 years.

Wife reports HEB shopping at Bee Cave is typical mass hysteria right now.  I'm sure it's like that everywhere.  People shooting people over cheese, others walking over them, kicking them out of the way to get to the bacon.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

The best weapon you can have is a 1,500 watt hair dryer. 

I scored the last 2 pieces of insulation at Home DePoors.  Felt like the last guy on the ark in the worst movie ever made, 2012.

Also, I haven't checked my (very wrapped) hose bibs since I wrapped them yesterday, but not too worried.  28°-30° won't freeze them too far in.  I plan to do a series of 2-3 rewraps between now and Tuesday.  That hair dryer's going to get more use than it has the past 15 years.

Wife reports HEB shopping at Bee Cave is typical mass hysteria right now.  I'm sure it's like that everywhere.  People shooting people over cheese, others walking over them, kicking them out of the way to get to the bacon.

 

 

Was the HD out of the heater cables?

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9 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

I actually stop pruning mid January every year. I like to be cautious because we always seem to have stretches of earn weather at the end of January or beginning of Feb. Especially this year. I actually wasn't able to get to this tree before I stopped and that's why it was the only one that had branches break.

Two of the limbs were pretty big (1 ft circumference), vertical, and high up (> 20 ft high). They both broke incompletely so that they tore the bark a good few feet away from the remaining branch on one and a foot away on the other. I managed to get them down but haven't decided how I'm going to take the remaining parts. It's a mess.

Had a similar situation this year.  Cut like a madman over MLK weekend.  Had a very densely packed bundle about 20'x8'x8'.  Took the city of austin truck about 15 minutes to collect it all even with their industrial equipment.  Then about a week goes by and I start to notice that in the fog and fatigue of all that pruning, I had several incomplete cuts or limb stumps left way too long.  By absolute dumb luck, right before they predicted this cold front, two week later I went out and manually sawed 'em all off nice and clean and sprayed on a really nice day at the very end of January.  So glad I did that, because I'd be out there this weekend cutting them in the freezing rain before they snapped and fell onto the house and probably bust ass off the icy ladder or something.  

All that to say, I got a feeling something's gonna snap and we're all gonna be outside cutting shit against our will to keep it from cracking the roof or a car

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6 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

If ya catch another mule kickin in your stall, man ya got to tear it down.  

After it thaws out, I gotta go back out there, get my tractor battery out of the house where it's been sitting comfortably, install it and go push all that shit out of the way with the loader.  Hopefully that old diesel block survives Monday.  I've already had to replace a couple freeze plugs on it years ago.

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Another handy-dandy tip is change your HVAC filters if you haven't in awhile.  We think of 'em mostly during A/C months, but allowing a good flow of air thru them warms up your casa faster (blowers blow faster) and uses less 'lecktrickticy.

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1 minute ago, phdhorn said:

Didn't look.  But I have a nice couple of sets of C9 incandescent lights that I can use in a pinch. Plus if I burn the entire house down using them, that fire will be nice and warm!

They had them at the front of the store with the other freeze prep items yesterday mornining. 

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Just now, Anastasis said:

They had them at the front of the store with the other freeze prep items yesterday mornining. 

Actually I think I did see a few of 'em left, but things were going fast in the "PROTECT USEF GONA GITT KOLLD!!!" section they drag out front.  Give you an idea of how fast the insulation went, when I went into the store, I stopped by the box, said oh it's half full, store's not all that crowded, no problem, don't want to lug those long things around.  Must have had 20-25 of them in there.

Go over and get some other crap, go back, 2 left.  About 8 minutes went by.  21 year old store girl who really didn't know shit and was chattin' it up with her co-worker BFF nevertheless said "I'm pretty sure" they're the last ones.  I'll take her word for it to make me feel better.

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3 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

Didn't look.  But I have a nice couple of sets of C9 incandescent lights that I can use in a pinch. Plus if I burn the entire house down using them, that fire will be nice and warm!

If C9's can do that, imagine the kind of heat I can generate with this box of C4 I found in my dad's storage shed.  I'm gonna toss some on the fireplace tonight and see what's what.  Shit!  your posts did remind though, I should have picked up extra air filters at Home Depot the other day and I forgot.  I usually change the last one out at Christmas/NYE and then re-stock for the year for both units at the outset of Spring.  But should have changed them out today.  FUCK!  Well, I'll probably need more whiskey or wine tomorrow or Monday so I'll stop off over there.  I don't know why the one on Brodie Lane seems so far away sometimes.

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1 minute ago, Lobo said:

If C9's can do that, imagine the kind of heat I can generate with this box of C4 I found in my dad's storage shed.  I'm gonna toss some on the fireplace tonight and see what's what.  Shit!  your posts did remind though, I should have picked up extra air filters at Home Depot the other day and I forgot.  I usually change the last one out at Christmas/NYE and then re-stock for the year for both units at the outset of Spring.  But should have changed them out today.  FUCK!  Well, I'll probably need more whiskey or wine tomorrow or Monday so I'll stop off over there.  I don't know why the one on Brodie Lane seems so far away sometimes.

There are plenty o' filters at Bee Cave.  No one's thunkin bout those in the midst of their UFC-style rumble to get any kind of pipe wrap or insulation.  Tarps were all gone, too.

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