20 Deg.! Idaho Wolves.

It looked cold when I opened the blinds to the screen porch.  The thermometer out there read 32 deg., but we do have all the vinyl up now, so it is enclosed, but it rarely has gone below 40 deg. out there.  So I looked at the local weather station down the street, and it said :

Squirrel Tree Ranch, Willis, Texas (PWS)
20.1 °F, Clear, Windchill:-20 °F, Humidity:-94%, Dew Point:-18 °F, Wind:-0.0 mph, Pressure:-30.29 in.(Steady), Visibility:-10.0 miles, Clouds: -Clear,  Elevation:-245 ft

I couldn't believe it, as they had been saying on the Houston news that Conroe was 24 deg.   But we are higher up than they are.  I guess we are not newsworthy, even though that is the lowest here for several years.
Knowing that it was supposed to go to 25 deg., I tried to do some last minute freeze preparations myself last night, as Ray hasn't been here to help me.  I was already in my nightie and dressing gown when I remembered that the shut off in the garage was still on to the outside faucets and the porch sink.  But I just couldn't budge it, I tried pliers, even a hammer, and I couldn't get it to turn off. 
So I had to turn on the outside lights all around the house, disconnect hoses, which had already been stretched down hill to drain, so I could take off the timers, and cover up the faucets. Then I had to plug in the shed and turn the heat on in there to protect the caulk and paint. I bet that was a sight!  I couldn't feel my hands when I got in.

By 9.00 AM. when Ray arrived this morning, it was 33 deg., so it warmed up fast.

He managed to turn the shut off in the garage, and then planed a drawer in the dog room which had fallen out and wouldn't go back.  We went up my attic to get the heavy shades that I had bought for their bathroom windows, and it felt really cold up there.  My plumbing is all up there, so we stopped up the hole from my attic which overlooks my very tall garage, with foam board insulation.

The contractors had made that hole as they had already built the wall, and then realized that you can't get 4' wide sheets of plywood up the attic stairs.  They had promised to put some plywood down over the ceiling joists, so I could walk up there, just like my late DH and I had done for the first half of the attic.  That hole has come in handy over the years, as if there any 4' wide sheets of paneling or luann to be stored, a tall person stands on the steps to the door, another can grab the 8' end of the sheets of paneling or luann from them, from upstairs.

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2009/11_20_2009_idaho_extends_hunt_into_denning_season.php

"More horrible news from Idaho: most members of Idaho’s Basin Butte wolf pack have been mercilessly slaughtered from a helicopter.
This deadly action is a brutal escalation of the state’s war on wolves.
Please help save the remaining wolves in Idaho and the Greater Yellowstone region.
As most of us prepared for the Thanksgiving holiday, sharpshooters firing from a helicopter carried out the death sentence of the Basin Butte pack -- executing most members of the wolf family, including several 7-8 month-old pups.
This terrible news comes on the heels of Idaho extending its awful wolf hunt into the critical denning season -- even as the state is over half way to its deadly goal of killing 220 wolves.
Pregnant wolf mothers -- typically carrying up to six pups -- can now be targeted for death and any surviving newborn pups could face a slow death by starvation as key family members are killed."

They kill them, re-introduce them, and now they want to kill them again.

It is a sad day