December Ice Storm of 2007

I can’t even call this the Ice Storm of 2007. It’s like a Blue Moon.
This is the 2nd ice storm of 2007.
This is a picture of behind my sister Anne’s house in Southern Missouri, taken in January 2007. She called it “Day After Tomorrow”. She said they had about an inch of ice on every thing. It makes for a beautiful picture but is miserable to live through. They were without power for over a week. My sister Lucy, my brother Sam and my parents were also without power for the same time but since they have a private well with an electric pump, they were also with out water. Just imagine no lights, heat or water for over a week.

In 2002 we here in Oklahoma had a bad ice storm. The rain kept coming for about 2 days. We were woken up in the night to what sounded like gun shots. It was our trees breaking. We lost 4 big old trees that year. We were without power for 10 days. I have really learned to be grateful for light.

Well the ice came this year early Sunday morning December 9, 2007. With the concern for people having to drive on the ice all church services were cancelled for the day. On Monday most schools in the state were closed because of the ice. Well not Oklahoma State University. My son Kit had his 1st final at 8:00 AM Monday morning. So we headed out an hour and 15 minutes early. We drove 35 to 45 miles an hour all the way to Stillwater. He did make it to his test on time but a 35 minute trip took us one hour. I took my camera with me because I knew there would be some great shots.

Well we didn’t get as much ice as I was fearing. Oklahoma City and Tulsa were hit much worse then we were. They still have places out of power a week latter. We got about 3/8 inch of ice and no power outages or tree damage. We were very blessed. They are saying this is the worst ice storm so far in the State, but I think it is because it hit the biggest cities in the state and more people have been left with out power for longer.

The following are a few of the pictures I took on the way home that day from Stillwater.

We stopped for Lunch at Arby's. Ice is covering every thing. Pretty but treacherous. I have a BIG bruse on my tush to prove it. (I also have new boots)

As a quilter I have always thought of the color of ice as blue. But after my first ice storm I learned that ice is the color things with a touch of silver. Looking out across this wheat field winter ice must always have green in it.

Some one went off the road. You can't tell from this angle that the SUV is at the bottom of a 45 degree drop off. It took my husband Brad a few minutes to realize that the SUV didn't cause the earth to crack but that it is a sky pond with a small stream running from it.

This tree has been a favorite for years. It has always been the best shaped tree winter or summer. The branch that is hanging down was caused by the 2002 ice storm. Before that storm this was a most perfectly formed tree.

This is a wonderful old stone house not far from the perfect tree. I don't know how old it is. No one has lived in it as long as I've lived in Oklahoma. Notice no windows or door. One day one of my kids and I got brave enough to go have a look inside it. Well the cows had been living in it. The floor is completely rotted out. I have always thought it would be a wonderful house to gut and redo. Great stone work.

Here is my kids car. the ice is about 3/8 inch thick. The other cars we thawed out twice on Sunday so they were not so bad on Monday when we had to go to work.

Close up of our grass. You can see we did have green grass before the ice came. Not any more. We now have snow. It snowed yesterday so we are officially into winter. Hopefully it will only last a few months. That’s the nice thing about living farther south. We'll have bad weather for a few weeks then it will warm up and then get cold again but usually by mid February we are starting to get Spring like weather.

The icicles do help to get us in the Holiday mood. I have been looking at some big realistic looking icicles that you can hang on your house but didn't want to pay what the store was asking for them. Well Mother Nature helped my out and I didn't need to buy any.