My forage pond is full of CNBG, which normally have no problem overwintering. But not when temps get down to 5 F next week. Unfortunately, CNBG are more vulnerable to cold than BG, so...

Think I'm gonna drain the forage pond tomorrow. Fish won't be handled, but of course the sudden change in location will stress them. I'm betting that, despite the extra stress, they will still be better off in the main BOW where they can find much better thermal refuge.

Not happy about this, but I see no good choice.

It's a tough call.

We will have snow over ice for quite a while here in central Indiana. I expect this will result in a partial fish kill in at least one of my three ponds with fish in them. No aeration, so that is how things go. Not brave enough to venture out to try and clean off some of the ice. Its been cold, but the snow fell on weak ice and I know that it acts as an insulator.

anthropic, what are the surface water temps for both ponds?

We've had the hatchery pond temporarily freeze over thick enough to bounce a brick off of, and I don't recall losing any CNBG, or if we did, the numbers were minimal. This round of cold weather will last longer though. As Sunil said, it's a tough call.

If it makes y'all feel any better I will have ice cover and snow for 3 more months.......

The ice cover is the key.. No ice=super cooling water (possible disaster).. Iced over=uniform temps (best case).
anthropic, did you decide not to pump water slowly from bottom of main pond into forage pond??

We don’t get ice except out of the freezer..we probably will Monday though. Its29 our and raining! Go figure

Did I read about a 100 car pile up with deaths? Was it icy or snowy? in Texas? Wow sounds terrible. Every year even Michigan drivers have to relearn how to stay at a safe distance, keep a safe speed and how to maneuver on snow and ice. It takes a little to get your snow driving skills again

That wreck was about 10 miles from me in Fort Worth. Icy roads. I think be it started near the bottom of the hill and when people crested the hill and saw it they couldn't stop. Wrecks went on for 1.5 miles. 5 deaths last i saw.

Looks like we're about 120 miles south, Boerne TX, but on this north side of a hill it's stuck at 30 with sleet and freezing rain, the trees and wood decks are already heavily coated in ice, and I don't trust any of the forecast highs for the next several days (after all, it's now 30, not the forecast 38). Forecast 40 tomorrow, I'll take the under. Our little pond would make its own cloud of fog but the wind blows it away at twenty mph. I thought I had until Saturday morning to disconnect hoses and run faucets, but there I was slipping about this morning on accumulated sleet. I think the forecasts are chasing this arctic blast (like in 1983 and 1989), we now have more freezing rain forecast for tonight and again Saturday and then twenty-four hours of "occasional" snow starting Sunday noon...and more damn freezing rain next Wednesday morning (end of forecast! Is this endless?!) I just hope the forecasts are wrong about spending hours in the teens mid-morning Monday (what a norther blow) and eleven hours in the teens starting Monday evening (whereat all the heat of the earth escapes to space).

Ice is hard to deal with even when you're accustomed to it. You folks down south have my sympathies.

I've seen Houston come to a complete stand still over a dusting of snow. Kinda like a snow-day without the snow. lol But, I guess the northerners think it's silly to stay home with 4-6" of snow like we do here in the mid-west. Augie said it...it's what "you're accustomed to". Like now, we have been with highs in the teens or a bit lower for days and I'm thinking of moving to Texas where its a balmy 30° F.

39 days till spring!

anthropic, it seems like a real gamble to relocate those fish for an event that is uncertain to begin with.

Is there any ways to maybe improve the water quality in the next few days to help the fish make it through in the same pond? Maybe add some salt, lightly?

Frank,
If you think you can drain your pond and all the fish will go through the pipe (not likely, unless the pipe is at least 10" in diameter), go ahead. Odds are high they will perish. Not to belabor a point...those fish should have been harvested and relocated back in November. But, who knew, right?

We lost power at dark and looks like it won’t be restored till late tomorrow. Glad to have a Miller bobcat welding /generator to supply some power to the house and blower in fireplace.... otherwise it be a bit chilly... no clue what going to happen when temps drop to 4 degrees. Having carb icing on machine and it’s only 29-30 degrees.

Thanks for the many constructive comments. Especially from Mr Pondmeister himself!

I guess the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I originally planned to transfer the CNBG into the main BOW and replace them with fingerling trout, which I would feed & fatten up, then release in February to fatten spawning LMB. But the trout arrived a couple of weeks late and had already grown to the point where they were good eating size for bass, so I had them put directly in main pond. We've not had a winter since the pond filled where CNBG couldn't survive in the forage place, so I thought it was pretty safe to keep them there. A bad assumption, as Bob Lusk points out.

Given that I'm in a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation, I think I'll leave things be. Maybe ice will form quickly enough on the forage pond to buffer the worst temp extremes. Unlikely, but I can always hope. It takes a while to refill the forage pond naturally, usually at least six months, so if things don't work out it is probably best to just let them die & get eaten by coons, turtles, water birds, etc. The water will still be there for stocking when it warms.

I've read several articles about sunspot cycles that predicted the 2020s/2030s would be colder. Maybe I should have paid more attention & stocked accordingly. Even in my main BOW, Florida LMB might not make it. Hopefully the F1s and NLMB will be okay.

Why not drain the forage pond and the fish into the lake and after this is all over with go back and pump water back into the forage pond? Pump at least enough water into the forage pond to start the next plan. I would not think it would be necessary to pump the forage pond full considering we are coming up on our rainy season.

The last time I saw it get this cold was back in or around 82 when the Red River froze over around Shreveport all the way up to the dam at Lake Texhoma and huge chunks of ice were floating down the river a few days after the freeze.

IMO, You're over thinking this. Fish live under ice just fine. Stressing them during that period is as hard on you, as it is on the fish ; )

The GBH aren't happy as the coves in the big pond are already frozen over, and it's spreading out from the banks. We're supposed to hit -2 degrees Tuesday morning, so we've got that to look forward to.

We've got the house and hydrants ready for the cold, and spent yesterday afternoon getting the chicken coop and goat shed ready. We have carbon fiber heaters for them, so they should be fine.

I saw this morning that the wind chills in Texas are the same as in Ohio. I feel for you guys.

Thanks for the reminder. It has been a long time since we have had such a long span of no thaws. My garden pond is locked solid, and the aeration line froze shut from icy condensation inside. I need to toss the electric pond water heater in there to open it up.

Twenty inches over four days is current prediction. Sheesh.

Going to break the record for low temp here on Monday - projected 9 degrees with 77% chance of snow.

We haven't been above 13 in 10 days, low single digits at night with exception of last 2 nights at -4 and -6.. Forecast is -20 for low tomorrow night with -4 as the high.

How cold is it you ask? its so cold here I seen a couple politicians with their hands in their own pockets.

LOL!!!!!!

I thought we was going to get off easy this year, but not anymore!

The River Thames has frozen over for the first time in nearly sixty years. It's cold in Europe, too.

During the Little Ice age they had ice fairs on the Thames. Hope we do not get that cold again.

Bring kids to bus stop this week, -26.this is the real temp. Happened twice this week and for 10 days it has not got above 4 for daytime high. Most days didn’t get above -5 for a high. After Monday it will start to warm up, finally.

We have had a foot of snow on the ground for three weeks as powder, that is rare. The pond ice is thicker than my drill bit of 8 inches, and we look to get at least 18 inches of snow this week from two storms. A real winter for once!

Maybe this is the way to get the koi out of the big pond, as cool as they are, they muck stuff up.

I'm in north Texas. Pretty sure the pond will freeze solid tonight and tomorrow. Will the channel and blue catfish die?

nah, all the fish will survive just fine, with the exception (maybe) of Threadfin Shad and a few CNBG. We get ice on the ponds/lakes for months at a time and the cats survive. A week or so is nothing to them.

The pond won't freeze solid, here with weeks of below freezing temps there is only 6" ice on the pond. Still a lot of liquid water beneath the surface.

Here's what I expect to happen:

While it's important how cold it gets, the most important factor to killing fish is how fast it gets there. When southern ponds were in the low 50's midweek last week, and drop to 35 in a few days, especially shallow ponds, expect coppernose bluegills and Florida bass to die. Even today, here at LL,2, the Swimming Pond still isn't frozen. We've been below freezing now since Wednesday, and that pond is still 80% open. It's 11 degrees and snowing here, on the way to single digits. Not supposed to be above freezing again until Thursday. For us, that's a long time.

I expect threadfin shad to die in all lakes as far south as San Antonio...even the biggest public lakes except power plant lakes. In private waters, I expect to see some of the biggest Florida bass die due to how cold it is getting...how fast. I expect to see coppernose bluegills die as well. When they get really cold, fast, they'll sink to the bottom, lay on their sides and slow down so much they quit breathing. Then, they die.

I also expect to see gizzard shad die in lakes where they are overcrowded, in shallow, muddy areas. All the rest of the fish should hunker down and be fine. Catfish will be okay, F1 bass, native bluegills, and native species will be fine. As soon as this event passes, I'd go take a look at your ponds and see what you can see.

We're right next to Lake Texoma, 90,000 acre lake with substantial depths. Threadfins will all die in that lake as well. Agencies need to be prepared to restock them next spring, if they can find them.

For our environment, this is about as harsh as it can get.

Thanks esshup. That's reassuring. I'll be busy full time keeping the birds and rescue pigs as warm as possible.
11 degrees now with low tomorrow of -1 degree F.

And thanks Bob Lusk.

Dang, I didn't think you could extirpate the threadfins on a BOW the size of Lake Texoma at that latitude!

A state agency (such as Texas entities) that has operations far to the south should still be able to get threadfins to restock in the spring. I am worried about the states where the species kill events extend past their southern borders. That may result in restocking situations that cannot easily be rectified.

Bob:

A local lake has Gizzards in it. It's eutrophic, but has a max depth of 29', average of about 12'. Very few if any Gizzards die over the winter, at least there are very few that are floating in the Spring.

There will be a demand for shad and lmb along with cnbg soon. I am thinking some of our local suppliers will be making trips to Florida soon for these fish prior to the spawn.

There aren't any fish farms in Arkansas that are open this week, well, maybe Friday they said.

Big pond officially froze over this morning. The closest part with the snow dust froze the night before last. Another 5" is forecasted for tonight, so the whole pond should be covered in snow tomorrow morning.

-2 when I woke up this morning, and right now it's a balmy 21 degrees.

Lovinliving said his heat pump had an error code this morning and wasn't working. Too cold outside to suck heat from it he said. AND he doesn't have an electric grid backup heat strip.....

I think plumbers will be super busy for the next month or so all over the south central USA.

The diesel shops around here are loaded with work right now.
They said it would be two or three days before they could get mine inside to work on it.

I've owned this truck for 12 years and never had any cold weather trouble with it until now.

We have a Mitsubishi mini-split heat pump in Mrs. Augie's sun rooom. I shut it off three
days ago. Main furnace is outdoor wood boiler with propane backup, so we're not in
danger of freezing inside the house.

I think a lot of my BG are hybrids between northern strain and CNBG. Wonder how they will fare?

Can some of you guys from Texas explain to me why your power companies have to shut off power during this cold spell? I heard some windmills froze but it has to be more than that. I know schools and some businesses in North Dakota had their power turned off to help with the rolling blackouts in Texas. Do you guys rely on renewable energy too much and that’s what is causing this?

Unfortunately, Texas decided to go big time renewables with wind turbines in the western part of the state. Wind supplies 23 percent of electricity now, displacing reliable coal and nuclear generation. Of course, freezing rain, snow, and cold hammered both windmills and solar. To be fair, some gas turbines also shut down due to cold.

I blame climate change paranoia, frankly. Renewables have a long history of being expensive & unreliable, both in Europe and California. CO2 models predicted temps to keep on warming, especially in winter, so nobody thought much of what could happen if they didn't. Just my two cents.

Tracy, speaking only for myself, I'd prefer BG and F1 or Northern LMB now. They can survive heat AND cold, unlike CNBG & Fla LMB. Might prefer GSH to TFS, too. If we are entering a cooling climate phase, GSH will overwinter.

I agree with Frank when it comes to wind turbines and solar power not being reliable when compared to our texas coal/natural gas-powered energy plants. Rolling outages occur all the time when using the politically correct means of energy. Our coal-fired plants were changed over or supplemented with a Natural gas combination 20+ years back and met with all the regulations. Plans are to shut down a couple of more of those types of plants in the next year or two. But after this disaster, there will be a few heads roll. And now we are going to hear more about climate change "roll eyes". This same type of weather i went through about 40 yrs ago so for me it is just cyclical and always has been. Look at who came up with climate change, it's the same guy that said he invented the internet, Once again follow the money.

Frank, I have been leaning toward golden shiners over Thread fins since my die-off last year. The problem is they have not made it either. But they did feed my lmb for a short time

Golden shiners didn't make it either? Sheesh.

Many Fossil power plants underwent a conversion in their boilers to burn Natural Gas instead of Coal.

During extreme weather period such as now, the supply of Natural Gas is prioritized first to the home owner, and then second, or even third, to the power plants. If then don't have Natural Gas, then they can't create electricity.

It's also important for John & Jane Q. Public to understand that for whatever 'renewable' energy source (wind, solar) exists to provide power under a contract to a city/state, there has to be a 100% fossil back up for when there is no wind or sun. Otherwise, no city or state would ink a contract for power 'sometimes.' Well, maybe California....

edit: I see TGW and anthropic covered the Natural Gas/Coal issue.

Sometimes we just have to laugh at it all or you could get depressed after spending the kid's inheritance and then something comes along through Mother Nature that just kicks my butt. Once again, you might be on to something Frank, There are benefits to Northern LMB over FLMB from, what I have seen at my pond. They are easier to catch on rod and reel, they grow fast when feed trained and they tolerate these twice in a lifetime southern cold weather freeze's we see every 40 yr's or so. However, the possibility of catching a 25lb lmb only exists when growing FLMB.

I am trying to figure out what would make the windmills quit in a scenario like this, we have been having strong winds, blowing snow and unbelievable wind chills, I would have thought the wind mills would have been whirring like a box fan. don't get me wrong, I think they are a huge unsightly joke and will never produce the amount of energy that they took to build and maintain but if you cant depend on them in a wind storm it makes the whole theory look like an even bigger waste.

Easy for me to figure out! They are made in China.

The reason I ask is close to where I live is a large coal plant which is going to be shut down soon and a natural gas plant Putin it’s place. Over the last couple years 1000’s of acres of solar farms have been put u. And our governer wants to be 100% fossil fuel free by2050. This scares the hell out of me. With our winters people will die if the power goes out. I guess a backup generator will be standard equipment now

Downrigger, I assume you are talking about a Xcel Energy (former NSP) site?

If so, which plant is it?

Yes that’s the one

Yeah, but those will be rural people who probably don't vote DFL anyway.

Ice on the blades makes the windmills quit.

I was a power engineer for over 30 years. I think we need to build some new nuclear plants. Turn some of those COE reservoirs into "hot lakes" in the winter. Good fishing year round.

Augie, if it's a no start issue with the truck, dump a bottle of 911 in the tank. IIRC 16 oz treats 50 gal. If you haven't been servicing your fuel filter/water separator on a consistent basis, it could be water in the fuel, or just summer diesel that is gelling up. I can run summer fuel all winter long if I treat it with an anti-gelling additive. Maybe dump some anti-gel additive in the fuel tank too.

If you can get a torpedo heater and point it towards the front of the truck, and cover the truck and torpedo heater with a few moving blankest or at minimum a blue tarp, once the truck temp gets up above freezing I'll bet it'll start. Be careful if you do that, make sure the tarp/blanket doesn't catch on fire or that the heater is too close to the truck to distort or melt plastic.

FWIW I understand the power is cheap in TX since there has been no implementation onto a nationwide grid, and no contingencies and regulations for events like these. It is capitalism rearing its head how to get the cheapest solution to maximize profit with little regulation.

For example: for additional cost you can somewhat weather-proof windmills with heaters to keep ice from accumulating. If you don't do that, and you detect ice on them, you have to shut them down or it will fling shards of ice at very lethal speeds. So it costs money to put on and maintain the heaters. There is no regulation forcing them to do so in TX.

Also natural gas is pumped via electric to the power stations, which is more efficient, cheaper, and less polluting than using a natural gas engine to pump the natural gas (a small amount of NG is used for pumping). But when the electric goes out, how do you pump the gas to the electric? You hope that a plant nearby is still running to get gas to the other plant. Multiple stations go down? Good luck.

How do you spur the coal economy as a politician? You blame all of these problems on green energy, when you should be blaming it on lack of preparedness and regulation.

It was worse than a no-start. It cracked right off no problem. Then it started fogging blue smoke out the exhaust. Looked like a tanker fire in my driveway.
That cleared up after a few minutes. I let it warm up and took off for town. Made it about a mile. Restarted once. Made it halfway back to the house.
Had it towed to a buddy's shop. Thawed it out over night. Crankcase was full of diesel. Drained it, changed the filter, filled it with fresh oil and it started right
up with no smoke. He drove it across town to the diesel specialist without further problems. So most likely it was just a stuck injector nozzle.

edit: Put 20 gallons in on Saturday, added half a bottle of Power Service treatment, which should have been good for 50 gallons down to -10. The 15 gallons
that were already in the tank had also been treated. I think it may have actually been colder than -10. Pops got his little Massey out the same day to move snow.
It started right up, warmed up, then gelled when he started working it. The fuel in that thing was well-treated and should have been plenty good down to -10.

Wife and I talked it over yesterday. We (she, really, and I didn't argue the point) decided that after 19 years and 245k miles we probably have gotten most of the
good out of that one and it's time to get a new one. So I've been shopping for new trucks today. I don't really need a diesel truck these days, so I'm going
to get a new Ram 2500 with the 6.4 Hemi. I've never purchased a brand new vehicle, so I reckon I'm due. Lately I'm only putting 6-7k miles/yr on the truck, so
with any good luck I won't ever have to buy another one unless I just want to.

Capitalism works well when there's real competition, not so well when there's not. In the case of Texas, renewables like wind & solar get subsidies from both the state & federal government that other plants do not. On top of that, renewables are not required to pay for sufficient batteries, nor back up power plants needed to cover when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine -- or freezing rain & snow. Thus, unsubsidized & unfavored nuclear or fossil fuel plants cannot compete and are closing down.

The disaster is not in the least surprising, as intermittent sources of energy have always ended being costly & destabilizing to the grid when they become a large factor. True in Europe, California, and now Texas.

Thus ends my comments on the subject.

We had no power for 3 days. Spent it at my daughters house. Power outage was/is massive. D/FW Airport shut down and stranded a lot of people. Hotel and motel owners made out real well.

Home now. No place like home.

When things thaw out I will head to my place at Bowie 60 miles North. Even though I do my best to winterize prior to freezes, I can’t blow 100% of the water out of the water lines under my trailer house. Under pinning doesn’t help. I expect to do some plumbing repair when it warms up enough to go there.

So sorry to hear about power loss & plumbing issues, Dave. We have a mobile home in Harrison County and were spared the worst in terms of power. Kept water running, so hope to avoid plumbing issues, but we can't reach it now with the roads the way they are.

We out of power and water and no reprieve from below freezing conditions . I don’t think that we have ever had over two weeks that never got above 27. Yesterday we had freezing rain all night and morning causing trees to fall . Sounded like gun shots all around. Mother Nature is really pissed

Unlike a lot of people around here ,I am pro wind. Not because it is any better than other types of power, but because it helps out the community and the farmer that is getting paid to have it on his land. Seems like everyone blames wind for the shortages of electricity. Maybe for wind to work you need many wind farms spread out all over the country. So when one farm has no wind the other farm a 100 miles away would. Also needs to be backed up by natural gas, because that is the fastest type of production to start up over coal or nuclear. I wonder the rolling shutdowns are for 1 to 2 hours, if you are out for days it is probably do to trees that have never seen ice for many years. Oil is well subsidized why else would you shut down your wells. The government pays you not to run. Same with grain farmers, they pay you to leave some of your ground idle. That way they control how much is around and there for the price. Hey in 20 years when our president wants the country to be on electric cars. We will have all kinds of petroleum run electric generators. They would be able to start up and shut down really quick.

I'm pretty sure that once this weather event passes, the after action report will show that there's plenty of blame to spread around. Plenty.

So, what did you learn from this, and how would you prepare differently if you knew it could happen again?

We hit -3 degrees, and the big pond is iced over and has aprox 8" of snow on it, but we actually came out of as well as could be expected. We have a propane fireplace and cook stove, so we had heat, and could cook, even during our multiple rolling blackouts. I will up my propane bottle size when the roads clear, and the propane truck can safely get on the roads. I had our propane company build a hose kit so I can fill our small propane bottles, and I'll get them to make another one long enough to run the generator at our house. I put a 3 fuel carb on it last fall, and it could run for days if needed. We had plenty of candles, clean fuel old school Dietz lanterns, and Streamlight LED lanterns. The LED lanterns worked great, and I'll get a few more of those. On low, they last 11 days, and they're the safest of the other options. Food, fuel, bottled water, and winterization of the chicken coop and goat shed, were all handled before the super cold weather hit. Those were the best decisions we made.

Plans here in Tx are to shut down some more if not all the power plants that are natural gas/coal-fired. I think it is a bad call. But not much I can do about it I do know we are the largest in the world when it comes to natural gas reserves and it is cheap and clean-burning. Leaves little footprint after it is set online. Way less than a huge windmill that is an eyesore as far as I am concerned. It also supplies a large workforce with high-paying jobs. And we are not buying from China who wants to take over the world economy. And no nucular plants where we store waste for a lifetime that will or can destroy every living thing around it. Solar power and battery storage are way too expensive and until we can do a better job on reducing cost and improvements in our batteries we should not make it a requirement in our lives. Ok, I am through with this because it gets me upset when I think of the politics of it all.

there are a lot of problems that will happen in a weather event like this. IMO It isn't cost effective to plan for these rare events. If so we would all have basements and better heat sources here in Texas, instead we have waterlines buried 12-14" deep and heat pumps which are EXTREMELY inefficient at these temps, and no real backup heat sources. Everyone will jump up and down and point fingers for a few weeks. I'm sure they will pass regs that will cost us more money in the short run,. 30 or 40 years when it happens again, and everyone and all the equipment is different than it is today, many of us will even be dead and gone, and the people running things will be shocked that this could happen.

That was a funny post BrianL

Al sounds like you got it covered!

This has not been a fun week, because we are novices @ this.

Rolling blackouts at home since Monday.
40 mins of power, then 40 mins of no power.
Certainly better than a solid blackout.
Even when power was up no internet and no TV.
No frozen/broken pipes that we know of yet
Hate to hear about your pipes Dave.
Worried about pool with 2 inches of ice surface.
Last night we sat in a cold, dark house with no power for 7 hours.

Office power out all day Monday,
rolling blackouts Tues, power off 2 hours Wed
And today full power all day!

Office Yesterday - We are not used to this in Dallas


Maybe the first time I've seen a snow-plow in NE Texas (Wills Point)


Pond Frozen in background:


Good Size Yote in Snow:

I guess I dont understand how much ice it would take to deactivate those windmills, with the wind chills we had around here I figured them things would whirring like a box fan in August, I can see where there may be some ice shards falling off but hell they are in the middle of nowhere, not like they in town or something, just stay the heck away from them for a couple days. just thinking out loud here.

FWIW that larger windmills have tips that can go supersonic speeds. That flings ice off possibly miles away, and up into air space where planes prefer to have no obstacles.

Near me in Cohocton, NY there is a large wind farm. Usually about 25% of them have the breaks on due to over-production of electric. Those things are monsters (and small compared to the ones they put in oceans), but you get a sense of scale when they sit up on top of a large hill, and the top half of the blades are in the clouds. Those tips are traveling from 3000' of elevation to 3500' in seconds.

Look up Cohocton, NY windmill images.

Want to devalue your property? Either you or a neighbor get one installed.

It is my understanding that the blades can’t be recycled and wind up in their own landfills.

I believe there is pros and cons on all sides. Coal plants have their issues same as nuclear. Same goes for solar and windmills. They just put up like 150 windmills right outside of the town I live in. I think they are pretty cool to look at. How many coal miners have lost their lives? How many nuclear accidents has there been? Solar and windmills still have a cost problem but are getting better. I think there is a need for all of them just ask people in texas about it. We should use all of are resources. Im no professional just mine own opinion here.

The solar farms can fry birds that accidentally fly into the concentrated sunlight, and the windmills can cut up birds that fly in the path of the blades. Just need to put a shake and bake factory nearby to eliminate waste

Last remnant of a crappy week.

Where's your auger and ice rigs?

I left my ice rig with you when we were at Nate's, and Sprkplug has the sharpest auger blades in the world. You'd think he would bring it down here for me. Depending on how tonight goes, I may try to ice fish for a CNBG tomorrow morning. That would be a first and last for me.

6"+ ice.

Wow. It hit 40 degrees now and I can see about half of my lawn. In a couple of days i will head to the country to see what kind of issues have developed there. Although I winterize everything it is impossible to blow all the water out of the lines on my poor white trash trailer house. That means go under it and start finding busted water lines. I just hope the well house is OK. I drain everything there and put in a small electric heater but sometimes we get a power outage that can get expensive.

I do not know what will become of my fish. My farm ponds were frozen over and my grass lessor was coming over daily to break ice for the cattle.

Back home during this winter storm we would get power for 1-2 hours then be down for 9-12 hours.

I have one Honda EU2000i here at the house and it was working well but I needed just a little bit more power. The wife and I ran out to the farm and picked up the Honda 2k companion genset and cabled the two together. We had lights, two HVAC units, TV's, internet, fridge, freezer, microwave, toaster, etc.

One hiccup in my emergency planning was my 1 y/o diesel truck that didn't want to start at 0 degrees. After waiting until afternoon temps rose to a balmy 19 degrees and giving the fuel tank a good shot of diesel 911 it kicked off. I have owned diesel trucks for 20 years and never had a problem with gelling.

Second thing I could improve is having a way to cook inside and not on the outdoor grill.....Burrrr. I have a plan for that going forward.

A new set of blades on the Laser Augers will make shaved ice. Watch it if the HSB are still swimming, a neighbor had a rod n reel go down the hole faster than he could grab it and it was in a rod holder on the ice next to where he was sitting.

Black on ice is very slimming for you, Al.

I was expecting flip flops and shorts.

It was reported yesterday that the Texas windmills produced 40% less energy than they were supposed to do after installation. In other words, we paid for something that did almost half of what they were supposed to do. This was not in the storm but shortly after they were installed. It is like buying a truck that is supposed to get 20 mpg but after driving it you get 12 mpg. This came from Governor Perry. He also reported if we went with GreenNew Deal we would be in worse shape. Not only was he Governer of Texas but also was over the
US dept of energy. So I am guessing he knows his stuff.

All the outside Topias froze over solid. More than half of the big pond froze over. Little pond mostly froze over. I haven't seen that much ice since College.


The real question is what should we expect going forward this season? Should we expect a die-off? How about our vegetation, any issues to expect there?


Finally, what about the Biotics on the bottom and in the water column. Anything we should be looking for with them?

Brian, is that drone footage or did you do a flyover?

Brian - Were you aerating during the ice formation? Any idea what the water temps were in the area? that did not freeze. Do you have threadfin?

You guys may be sweating it for nothing, up north here we have ice for weeks every yr, actually weve had less this yr then most, sure we have a fish kill every once in a while but if there are a few left over for breeding stock, remember the yoy will have less predators in this scenario, granted your Florida strain LMB and your coppernose BG may have had a harder time surviving but I think you will be ok. sadly tho ya'll did get a taste of what some of us go thru on a pretty regular bases, sans the power outages and such, that's like adding insult to injury, salt on a wound if you will. Good Luck everybody!
Our fearless leader has declared Texas a disastor area so maybe you will be able to get the gubmint to restock your lakes.

Frank,
I have flown over, but this time it was the drone's turn.

Bill,
I do not aerate in the winter here. The only temps I got were on the surface. Both mornings, there was a skin on nearly all of the big pond. 0C or really close to it. In the afternoon, the warn side, NW exposures, added a few degrees and that was it. Next morning, an ice skin was back, it was gone after several hours of sunlight. Where the springs enter the pond did not freeze as expected. The ducks were happy to find the spring water and rafted up there by the hundreds. Several geese were walking on the ice Sunday morning.

No threadfin.

I am really not worried, I just thought it might be a great time to talk about events like these and what we can expect good and bad. I expect some plans to die-off and others to take advantage of the nutrients. I doubt my fish had any issues as there is a large deep section for refuge.

BTW, I was going to get grass carp delivered Saturday, but that was put on hold due to weather.

Oh, and no to flip flops, ice augers, and fishing where I can't cast with both hands.

Brian, I remember an interesting PB article about climate change, warning of torrid summer temps ahead and advising pondmeisters how to prepare. What I don't remember seeing is an article about the possibility of cooling, warning of bitter cold winters and advising pondmeisters how to prepare.

Some of the preparation for extreme weather, hot or cold, wet or dry, could be standardized. For instance, deeper is better in most cases. But stocking plans should also be scrutinized. I myself got caught thinking my CNBG in the forage pond would overwinter just fine...

Frank,

If you left your CNBG is the forage pond, it will be interesting to see how many die-off. I bet it's less than you think. I'm even willing to guess way less than you think.

I agree there is certain things we can count on, but with the variety of our ponds, the answer is going to be " It Depends".

The bitter cold here in Misery has moderated over the past couple or three days. Relief is on the way for you guys down south.

Awesome pic Brian!

Not that it matters, but I fed the CNBG in my hatchery pond this afternoon. They seemed to have cared less about Snowvid. Either that, or they have a very short memory.

They were probably just glad to get the masks off.....

From your mouth to God's ear, Brian. I'm not optimistic, but until I can get down to the forage pond there's no way to know for sure. At least I didn't see any vultures, which I definitely did see the last time we had a fish kill.

Hunger is a very large motivator !

Anthropic, and others. I went out again today, and my CNBG were coming to the surface and eating at near summer numbers. I hand fed in 2 different locations in my hatchery pond, and both groups ate aggressively. FHM's were out and about near the shoreline. I also hand fed at both feeder locations on our big pond, and the results were the same. I left the feeder on the dam with large CNBG still feeding. As the food disappeared, they starting coming to the dock for more handouts. In short, I think we're all ok.

I will not be stocking native BG or non-Florida LMB. Magic 8 ball says we will have 90+ degree water temps every year, but we're not likely to have another Snowvid event like last week in our lifetime. I'm not recommending any plan, or giving advice, I'm just saying that I'm personally staying on the course I'm already on.

That's good news. I suppose everybody's ice is all gone?

Now the gas/diesel prices have jumped a bunch here, saying it is because of the cold in Texas......

So glad to hear your fish weathered the Big Chill! I suspect some of my CNBG and Florida LMB in the main pond survived, though that's not proven. Forage pond CNBG are a different matter due to lack of thermal refuge, but who knows.

Hope your strategy pays off, and I admire your determination.

My fish are back feeding well again too. Also seeing minnows in the shallow grass on shorelines! I caught 3 cnbg yeasterday and they were all about 9 inch and fat. Have seen no floaters so I think we are good! For now.

That's good to hear.

That sounds like a normal result - and good to hear. I hope the un-normal weather we had does not lead to many un-normal results.

So Saturday's NWS forecast was finally hitting the future actuals with single digit lows. I can't recall when (Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon) the power started showing up for three minutes...falling to thirty seconds...then gone for the duration until Thursday morning. Up to that point (knowledge from 1989) I had all pumps running (well pump frequently to feed streaming outside spigots (I'd wrapped those with heat tracing in 89) and some inside faucets with north wall piping, koi pond and big pond and the swimming pool heat pump heater. Everything froze solid. Ten feet from the fireplace it was 43 degrees. Next Thursday the power comes back, getting to 46 F outside, the well thaws out unknown, and we get to see everything that's leaking after about five minutes. Meanwhile the well is almost uncontrollable (the control box and pressure switch were scorched). Copper pipes crossing the attic that I had no idea existed burst in several places. We are replacing those spans with PEX (connecting back to existing copper where we can't reach). First though we fixed many pipes and capped some for the time being...hot showers and no more melting snow!. I've ordered a half dozen "Freeze Misers" from Amazon ($150) for that next cold event that may come in my afterlife. Ha ha.

I've come to realize that a little 5 kW Honda generator could have saved the well and the plumbing: Flip the well breaker when the power got crappy, wire a 220 plug to the contacts in the control box, fire up the generator. In lieu of a whole home generator (like a fifty kW commercial), I'd rather winterize, blow the water out of the pipes, shut off the power, leave for the Bahamas for a week.

Ole Billy Gates claims this was an event of climate change...look at the daily recorded weather history...there's over a hundred years of it.

I hit a 2 second test throw yesterday and it was ignored. But, I'm further North than you guys.

We had minor ice as far as power lines...really no ice load. My uncle, a few miles out of Fredericksburg, was without power until yesterday, twelve days. They had live oaks falling over from ice.

It seems the fish are actually happy, sometimes striking for a pellet as it is hitting the water. They don't fear me standing above the pond several feet, they line up for food instead! No dead fish, none have floated, yet. I got too many northern-Florida cross bass last spring, so I put four of them into a 1,000 gallon koi pond, no more than two feet deep. That froze down to about a foot, and, it leaked about four inches normally over several days. There are also some CNBGs in this koi pond...and one large goldfish. So far, after the freeze, I've seen only the bass and guppy minnows...the bass seem to be paired, a large and a small...they were no longer afraid of me as I stood there tossing individual pellets where the two pairs were located. They ate each pellet as though they were married...one would just sit there looking at it and the other would grab it...now your turn darling, that's what I saw, I swear!

At the big pond, with a mercury pond light, the last two nights, the two giant channels and their two smaller kin routinely cruise through, expecting more pellets to scarf...there again are the golden shiners, running clockwise around the light, maybe twenty of them, the remains of two seven pound infusions, each spring of the last two years (one is about six inches long!). Early dark, the large bluegill will line up just out of the light (faint shadows), expecting more pellets also. Never yet have I seen a predator bass or hybrid striper shoot by the light to grab a bite. Some of the bass (the new cross bred and the hybrid stripers) were feed trained, where are they at night? There be bait swimming peacefully around a light, why not eat some?

I think I was lucky that, prior to the cold event, the weather was warm for several days and I could run the aerators, the seven falls river and the fountain with only the thought that I was getting heat into the pond...had no clue yet of what was to descend upon us...but I ended up with relatively warm and well oxygenated water before the ice over.

We were swamped with migrating birds (lots of robins), eating seed like crazy (no robins), and our own resident mocking bird, redbirds and a few humming birds. All were frantic for liquid water! The hawks would occasionally cruise through.

Great report, Dan!

I'm in the camp that anthropic's forage pond will be a pleasant surprise.

That 43 degrees 10' from the fire is some wrong feces though!!! Crazy!

Jim Carrey voice: So you're saying there's a chance...

Of course, I have no idea, but I have been shocked at what kind of fish have survived through various bad scenarios in my neighborhood pond.

Spring's here, and I'm just curious how your trees did. We lost some Crepe Myrtles, and sadly, one massive old oak, but other than that, the trees did fine. I have seen lots of pines that got hit hard, and have not seen any bamboo that survived.

Al, our trees did fine. Mostly pine, they are packed fairly close together which may have helped. Really fortunate that we had no tree nor fish kill, even in forage pond.

Lost all the Indian Hawthorns and a Loquat tree here at the house in town. Haven't noticed any dead trees at the farm but there are a lot dead pine trees in the area.

I lost a crepe myrtle and a live oak. Also some type of hedge shrub. A great many of the crepe myrtle are dead around here.

Our Boston ferns and elephant ear plants died. Azaleas suffered, but making a comeback. Redbuds weren't affected that we could see.

All of our large established trees survived at our house in town and at the farm (in Kansas). Of course, they are used to a few days of 0F almost every winter. I think 0F to -15F is less of a shock than you guys got in Texas where the trees are not adapted to temperatures well below 32F.

I hope my 1-2 year-old trees out at the farm survived. My new plantings always green out much later than the large trees (regardless of species). I saw buds last weekend, but I feel much better when the leaves pop!

The American Plums have already bloomed in the country, and the Sand Hill Plums are just about to bloom. I did get snowed on while working in western Kansas on Friday. I think our trees are adapted to "crazy" conditions in the winter and spring.

We are supposed to have a low of around 25 on Tuesday night with a high on Wednesday of 36.... Depending on who you listen to, we could have 1" or 5" of snow on the ground Wed morning. Glad I am not stocking Tilapia for a while yet.......

Low in mid 30s on Tuesday in east Texas. Trout loving it, glad I haven't stocked TFS or TP yet.

All of my bamboo did survive but my sago palms look like Hell. Sometimes they gradually come back. Peaches,figs,roses,and azaleas all have come back!! Yaaaay!

Lost lots of shrubs. And, surprisingly, some St Augustine grass

That's right Dave. Me too. Including some ornamental trees.

We have a crepe myrtle here in western PA, that looks like it died every spring, but in actuality, it's just a late bloomer.

It's an irritating plant as it exists right next to where I park my car, and it frequently impedes the drivers side door.

If you sneak up from behind with your loppers, you can usually prune a few of the offending branches before the crepe myrtle knows you are there.

When a crepe myrtle is pruned (all its top limbs cut off) the pruner is called a crepe murderer.

Crape murder is a term credited to a 1997 article in Southern Living magazine that refers to the needless late fall and winter practice of cutting crapemyrtles down to stubs. Why Crape Murder? Many people commit crape murder because they think it promotes better blooms in the coming year.
Crape Murder - Southern Living Plants
southernlivingplants.com/planting-care/crape-murder/

At a previous home we let one go un-pruned and it grew as high as the top of the 2 story house next door. Very health plant with good blooms in wet years. At this residence we prune them to keep them in the space. Fortunately they came through the big freeze unfazed.

Sunil, shame on you. Maybe you need a more agile chauffeur.