Cold in Texas!!!!

Who would have thought it gets cold in Texas, I mean its way down there in the southern part of the US, right?  Yeah I know wishful thinking lol.

When I went home last weekend it got pretty cold at the homestead.  Now keep in mind that we are located just below the 'freeze' line that stretches across the area.  Yes I know it can still get cold down there but not into the single digits normally, not including win chill ugh.

We found out we have some work to do re-insulating some water lines.  Thankfully they didn't break, but we spent the whole day with a heater trying to thaw them back out.  This happened in the newly remodeled section of the house where the new bathroom was plumbed in.  We do have a section of wall on the outside that needs some new siding put up, so I plan on pulling down the old siding so I can get to the water lines to make sure they are well insulated first.  In that spot is where the water comes into the house, and to the hot water heater.  Having a spot between one to two inches on the outside that is exposed to that wonderful wind did us in I believe.

Another thing that I needed to do was fix the security lights we have on the poles outside.  They are your normal pole lights that come on at night.  Well the first problem is that I didn't have a ladder that could quite reach all the way, unless I put it in the tail gate of the pickup.  The other is that the light in front is not right on the pole but out about 3 feet from the pole.  I started to go up, but after looking it over, thought better not to without any type of fall protection harness to protect me since I would end up like the picture above.  I'm sure our cats would make the same comment too knowing those furballs lol.

My father in law was able to bring over a bigger ladder after I had to go back to Oklahoma for work and reach a pole that was a little lower with the light right on it. (we have 3 total in the yard)  I'm glad he didn't try the other one.  I think we are going to call the electric company and see what they would charge to make a service call to put in the other one.  If the charge isn't too bad I'll gladly pay to let them do it safely.  I'll admit, I'm not relishing the idea of getting up that monster lol.

The kids are very happy to be back in their old school, and the better half is glad to be back in her house.  Now to build that list of  "honey do's" for the year so we can figure out what needs to be done.  The only other major thing I have to do is look into putting in an amplifier for our cell phones.  The service for ATT in that area sucks although they say its fine.  I can get a few bars outside but inside the house the signal drops too much.  One I located is about 220 from Wilson and it looks like the best bet so far so we'll see.