For you folks in northeastern and eastern Oklahoma, and the adjacent parts of Arkansas and Missouri, here's the Tulsa webpage showing the Winter Storm Warning and Winter Storm Watch areas.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulsa NWS Map of NE OK & parts of AR & MO

Thanks, Dawn. I've got all of my weather sites up today and I refresh often. I consider here, at the GW Okie board, to be one of "my weather sites" as well. Reading everyone's reports of their local forecasts is helpful in grasping the bigger picture and trying to figure out what will hit where.

I appreciate it.

Diane

We are stocked up on human and animal food brought more firewood into the garage so it will stay dry. I got all the laundry done and the generator is up and ready I did some baking and got the board games out and headlamps and flashlights, batteries made sure the cell phones are all charged. I hate it when I feel like I'm forgetting something. I better dig out more blankets. I got get to Tahlequah to pick my niece up she doesn't want to stay by herself.

Everybody stay safe
Jeana

It is indeed beginning to look like a monster storm.

Robert,

That is a scarey view! Look a what a huge storm it is. I'm worried more about y'all up there than I'm worried about us down here. What are the weather folks telling y'all to expect? Ice? Snow? Lots? A Little?

Jeana, You sound very well prepared! Y'all stay safe too.

Diane, What do your local weathermen say? Ours is saying that the ice will mostly stay north of a line from Ada to Ardmore to roughly Nocona, TX, and I'm south of that line and keeping my fingers crossed. I'm not sure how close our weather guy's line would come to you if it went on from Ada at the same angle. I hope you're on the south of the imaginary line!

So, as of tonight's forecast (and subject to change 100 more times in the next 12-18 hours), Marietta 'should' see lots of rain, very, very little ice beginning Thursday (maybe up to 1/10th of an inch he said) and then rain/snow/sleet on Friday, but not with significant accumulations.

WHAT HAVE WE FORGOTTEN? All we forgot at our house was prescription medication. Had to make a quick run to the pharmacy to get Larry the Cat's antiseizure medication and DH's cholesterol medication refilled. Now we're ready.

I'd say 'let it snow, let it snow, let it snow' but since none of us (except perhaps Diane's kids) are hoping for snow, how about 'let it go, let it go, let it go'.

Diane, If the kids are hoping for snow (and who could blame them--they're kids, after all), I hope y'all got just enough for them to play in and not so much that there's danger and sruff.

Dawn

Ya'll
The picture should update as new satellite images are available.....so those of you looking at this thread 5 years down the line might be confused if you see nothing....

I don't really watch TV, just do Internet and family & neighbors, and everyone seems to be getting prepared. Went to Home Depot in Midwest City this morning at 7:00 a.m. and there was quite the crowd buying salt, extension cords, spare light bulbs, and whatever candles could be found.

In the storm of 2007 I didn't have a candle one, and when I went to the stores every candle in OKC was sold out, so I had friends in New York City, San Francisco, Denver, and Los Angeles FEDEX candles to me. I still have hundreds and hundreds of candles they sent me in care packages (some candles were/are quite fancy, too fancy to burn!)

The markets were humming and churning with people buying food for the storm. Down in Louisiana when a hurricane hits everyone starts a pot of red beans and rice or jambalaya, just to make sure there is warm food in the pot, and I do the same in storms like these. We did it when I lived in the mountains of Colorado and the snow would pile up 1, 2, 3 feet at the door. Anyway, tonight the aroma from the kitchen is wonderful. After a chill-down the soup should be ready tomorrow.

Look forward to everyone's report tomorrow when the storm kicks in!

Robert

P.S. The guinea hens are really upset and can't decide which tree to roost in tonight. Does that count as an indicator of an upcoming storm? (My arthritis seems just fine, no problemo...)

Robert, my arthritis is acting up. Started last night. My elbow really hurts, and my leg, where it was broken once apart of time.

Just a few minutes ago my wind chimes started. Chiming means, north wind. Really loud noise, strong north wind. :)
Strong north wind, means cold draft in the utility room. I already shut that door. :)

I found a few more daffodil bulbs last week, and hurried and planted them today. Hopefully, they will bloom anyway. Also dug out quite a spot of bermuda grass. Sure seemed weird, we are under Severe Winter Storm Warning and it was in the 60's.

It was a GREAT day for laundry. 4 consecutive loads dried on the line.

Moni in Edmond

One of the neighbors says that an old Native American predictor of weather is the Persimmon seed. After the seed has dried, you slice it open. If the shape found inside the seed reflects a knife shape you will get bitter cold (enough to slice it with a knife, metaphorically speaking), a spoon shape, you will get snow, (indicates a "shoveling" of snow), and a fork shape means fair weather. She said they tried it and the seed shape reflected a spoon, or snow. Now, I don'r put a lot of faith in the persimmon, but it is fun to hear the old folklore surrounding weather, such as the coloration of the woolly worm, large numbers of spider webs and crickets, etc.

Has anyone heard of these tradition? I had heard of the woolly worm colors predicting weather, but not the others. Do you have any folklore to share? I find it fascinating. I know there is the groundhog, and Scarlet Pimpernel, the poor man's weathervane plant, but am always interested in others.

I am think I'm ready for whatever. Seems like whenever we are prepared for storms, they don't happen. So, maybe we will get lucky, huh.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Weather Predictors

Robert,

I bet the stores there today were just insanely busy.

When our guineas couldn't settle down at night, it often was because of the wind or a predator in the woods. They were in a locked chicken coop though, but they still made a racket all night long on those nights when they felt unsettled. Sometimes I never could figure out what had them all riled up on those nights. Maybe your guineas 'sense' the change in the weather that is coming.

I made a big pot of beans today. It is one of our 'bad weather' traditions.

Moni, Tell Arthur to go away and leave you alone! I guess the racket from the wind chimes means the front is nearing y'all?

It was still 60 degrees here on our front porch at 8 p.m. and has been an odd day weatherwise. I did laundry too, but inside....the wind here would have blown it away outside.

Susan, About the only old folklore type things I put much faith in relates to planting.....like don't plant your corn until the white oak leaves are the size of a mouse's ear. Those sorts of folklore seem fairly reliable. Even more reliable, I think, based on what I've seen here is the behavior of the birds (eating non-stop as a severe cold front approaches) and the coats of the dogs and cats (thicker and fluffier in a year with a bad winter).

The coyotes get all the persimmons off our persimmon trees every year and you can tell it because the coyote scat is full of persimmon seeds. I'm not going to dig through coyote scat to check out the persimmon seeds, so I'll take your word on that one. : )

One of my 'old farmer' neighbors told me about 10 years ago that the native pecans are the most reliable trees in terms of not leafing out too early. He told me that I should wait for the native pecan trees to leaf out and then plant my warm-season crops and I won't have to worry about them freezing. Does it work? More or less. It has worked 8 out of 10 years, making the native pecan trees more reliable than pretty much anything else like 'average last frost dates', etc.

Our weather has been peculiar today....started out cloudy and windy and was very slow to warm up. Once it warmed up late in the day, it seems to have no desire to cool off. Odd, odd, odd.

For those of you not watching The Weather Channel, they are beating the 'gloom and doom' drums now and talking major ice event and crippling ice. One of them this afternoon said something like "If you are traveling to Oklahoma City on Thursday, we recommend that you not travel to Oklahoma City on Thursday". Gov. Henry has declared a state of emergency for all 77 counties, which is important because it allows certain emergency resources to begin rolling into place. It also paves the way after the event for FEMA-reimbursement of certain storm-related expenses if FEMA deems the storm big enough/bad enough to quality as a major disaster type thing.

At this stage, I don't suppose we'll all be sitting here tomorrow night talking to one another and chuckling about the big storm that fizzled out before it arrived?

Everyone stay safe and warm and, when the storm is over and it is all behind us, be sure to log on to GW if you have power/internet service and let us know you're OK.

Oh, and one more thing, if your trees and shrubs take a huge beating from the storm and suffer lots of breakage, don't get in a panic and immediately cut them down. Trees can withstand a certain degree of damage, and often they can withstand more damage than we think and can recover and regrow much more quickly that we expect them to.

Dawn

P.S. Patrick Burke from the Norman NWS Office is being interviewed on The Weather Channel right now. In response to their questions, he named SW OK as the key area where ice is expected to be a huge issue....roughly from the Lawton area to OKC and he expects both ice on power lines/tree limbs and wind around 20-30 mph to cause lots of power outages. So, all y'all in that area, I hope you're ready.

Susan,

I really enjoy hearing things like this, fun stories to pass on... My daughter loves to look out at my sister's maple tree to see if it is going to rain. (Not really a story, but just the same it is fun!) When the leaves are turned over she loves to show her cousins and they guess how long it will be until it starts to rain, and how much rain we will get.

Laura

We're all ready here, although I'm praying this one fizzles out. The news reports I've seen say we shouldn't start seeing freezing rain here until mid to late afternoon. That will continue as the temps drop and it will change to snow in the early hours of Friday morn. I hope to heck the FAA closes and I don't have to slide to work, but my law firm will probably remain open. =( danged lawyers.....

Most everyone I know is prepared...and thinks it's for naught. The grocery stores have been busy for 2 days. There are lines at the gas pumps from South OKC all the way thru Norman. We're stocked with 2 lg. propane tanks, the Coleman stove and fuel (I don't care what the weather is, I'm NOT starting my mornings without my coffee), new batteries in the flashlights, the generator has been tested and we have gas for that, we've got 15 gallons of water stored & ready along with bottled drinking water, all the laundry is done and the sheets are clean too! Couldn't have done it without my "househusband". One of the times I'm kinda glad he doesn't have a job right now. He's got it all down to a science. He's going over to the in-laws tomorrow to spread icemelt on their steps. Lord knows we don't need one of them to fall and break a hip.

I saw the persimmons in early December...and they have a spoon in them....we have a couple of trees out here. Do I believe that folklore? You betcha! Rumor has it my blood line contributed 1/4 native american to me...some line of cherakawa (sp?) or something like that. Explains a lot.

Thanks for the radar image, Robert! I don't think you're far from me so I look forward to your updates.

Everyone stay warm and AWARE! Maybe we'll all still be here tomorrow nite!

Paula

Good Morning, Y'all!

I don't know if any of you will be able to get on-line today, but I am online so-far though that may not last long. Out here in the rural boonies I fondly call the outback of Oklahoma, even the wireless internet service goes out in heavy rain and the satellite TV and dial-up internet aren't much better---but maybe y'all don't have those issues in the larger cities.

The storm looks like a big blue monster on the radar Robert linked last night and it looks like it is here.

Way down here in southern OK, I wasn't worried about our part of the state last night because our local meteorologist said to expect maybe 1/10" of freezing rain, and our temperature was still 58 degrees at midnight, and 43 degrees at seven a.m. this morning, so all we have so far is rain. However, the NWS cancelled our Winter Weather Watch and did not include us in the Winter Weather Advisory and that scares me, because when they say 'nothing' much is going to happen here, then something big usually happens. I hope they didn't just jinx our county and the other counties in far southcentral through southeastern OK that currently have no watches or warnings.

I'm watching your weather a lot more closely than I'm watching mine since we are not expected to drop below freezing until late tonight.

Y'all be careful and stay safe and warm.

I've linked the radar that I use most often down here to watch the rain, etc. move up into OK from Texas.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Radar

Dawn, it has started to rain here. Not sure, if it is actually rain, or sleet. Looking out, I see wet, but not solid wet yet.

When I got up, it was still dry, and I hurried, got dressed and went out for a walk. Figured, I better, who knows when I can do the next one.

I got back just in time, before the sprinkles started. It was 31 when I got up (6:45), and it's now 29.

Moni

Yes, here in northeast OKC it has started. The rain is turning to ice instantly on the car and trees.

" The guinea hens are really upset and can't decide which tree to roost in tonight. Does that count as an indicator of an upcoming storm?"

Back around 2002 we were living in NJ and had guineas. One of our buffs decided to perch outside, in a tree, at about 40', just as the winter's worst ice & snow storm it. The wind blew for three days and he wouldn't come down. I kept expecting him to just topple out of the tree, dead. Finally, the sun came out. But he still wouldn't come down; just cussed the snow in guinea fowl language. Finally, I had the idea of shoveling a "landing strip" for him. He was afraid of the snow, as he probably struggled with depth perception with it. Once I shoveled him a landing strip, he flew down and walked into the chicken coop, for a bite to eat. I still have fond memories of that particular bird. We nick named him "Screecher Creature."

The university here is shutting down at noon today and won't open again until Monday. I won't be working tomorrow.

Jerreth and I are more prepared that ever. Though, there is never an end to all one can do, if given time. I'd like to stake some of my little fruit trees, just to support them if the ice gets too heavy.

Since Christmas we've been doing a lot of cooking on our wood stove. Jerreth even bakes bread on the top, by inverting a roasting pan over the bread and setting the bread pan on a trivet.

George
Tahlequah, OK

"Diane, What do your local weathermen say?"

I don't watch TV so not a clue, other than a friend telling me they're doing the sky is falling thing.

Our NOAA forecast was looking pretty good last night, saying mostly rain. This morning, not so good. I even posted it on my blog this morning. LOL

Diane

Here is a link that might be useful: Today's entry, top of the page

Moni, I'm glad you got outside for your walk while you still could.

Robert, That doesn't sound good. Freezing rain is the worst case scenario and quickly brings to mind the prolonged monster ice storm of 2007. I hope y'all fare as well as possible given the weather conditions there.

George, I miss my guineas but I probably won't have them again until we can build them a large fenced run with a hoophouse type roof to keep them in. After losing all of them to the cougars/coyotes/bobcats last year, it just doesn't make sense to ever let them free-range again. There's still a very large predator in our yard and woods....it visited 4 times yesterday (as evidenced by hysterical barking from the fenced dogyard, hysterical cats on the front porch clawing at the door to come in, and hysterical chickens in their well-fenced and predator-proof coops and chicken runs). Whatever it is, it seems larger than the typical coyote but I've only seen it in the dark and haven't made it out to the porch in time to see it in daylight when the animals start getting excited. Our guineas added such pleasure to our lives and I really miss their company.

I'm glad you and Jerreth are prepared and particularly glad you have the wood stove. What do you know--y'all are likely to have an ice storm and you're going to be home this time so Jerreth won't have to handle it all alone. : )

I hope all the little trees make it because ice can be so hard on them.

I think this cold weather is too late for my fruit trees. After all these January days of highs in the 60s/low 70s and lows in the 50s/40s, my plum tree blossoms are showing petal color though they haven't begun to open yet. This brief cold spell may slow down those flowers, but they're going to bloom in February again for the third straight year and we won't have a plum crop.

Heavy icing is reported in the Lawton and Altus areas of SW OK and I suspect the icing has made it far enough north to reach Tomatoman Billy's place. Bill, if you see this, stay safe. There's some reports of Thundersnow (my favorite kind of snow) west of Oklahoma and there's severe thunderstorms in southwest Texas with a chance of tornadoes.

I know some of you likely will start experiencing power problems as the icing conditions. I hope the ice turns to snow before the power lines and trees reach the breaking point. Even if we lose communication with one another later today or tonight, I'll be hoping all of you remain safe and warm and sustain as little damage as possible to your homes and plants.

Dawn

I don't want to jinx us. So will knock on wood. So far nothing here. They were saying it would hit at 11 last night. Then 2-3 am, then 6 am, then 9 am, then 11 am and now noon or later. From looking at the radars and satellites unless it moves straight north and a little NW or builds up more to the west we may get lucky and just get brushed. Nothing yet. I just hope everyone can stay warm and safe. Jay

Just got home after taking Jess to the ER again this morning about 5 am. Of course, it wasn't doing anything then, except the temps were dropping and the wind had increased since last night.

By the time we left at about 8 am, the car was coated in ice and I struggled in my little wool jacket to scrape the windshields enough so that we could navigate safely until the heat kicked in. Scraped again after we left CVS for meds. Ice increased over that time, but streets still clear.

But, it did come in earlier than they anticipated (wasn't supposed to start until around noon).

Now it is switching to sleet (very good), but we still have a high risk of losing power. The guy finally got my heat fixed about 30 minutes ago, so maybe I can enjoy it for awhile.

Ice predictions are back up to between 1/2" to 1", and expected snow accumulations may increase to more than 2-4". Continuous news is now on all 3 major stations. Kenna is out of school today and tomorrow.

We have plans set now in the event of lost power, with 2 or 3 people depending on who loses power. Our neighbor across the street has a gas heater and grill that we can go to, and my daughter's friend and her family will have fireplace going in event we need to stay with them, too. So we shall be fine.

Will check in as I can as long as we have power and hope and pray you all are safe, too.

Roads are reported as slick and hazardous now in Ellis, County, up by Woodward, so anyone in that direction, please be safe.

Susan

Jay,

I hope that you didn't just jinx y'all. They jinxed us by dropping all our watches and warnings and telling us we'd have a rainy day and maybe ice late tonight, and our weather's been going straight downhill ever since. We now have a Winter Weather Advisory that was issued one hour ago.

If this weather slides by y'all without hitting you, I'll be really, really surprised.

Susan, Poor Jess. Another headache? Are they giving her anything that helps her? (Sometimes those expensive prescription meds don't help our son's cluster headaches at all.) I hope she is feeling better. I bet it wasn't any fun being out in this and I'm glad y'all made it home safely.

I'm glad y'all have heat/power backup plans. It is wonderful the way family, friends and neighbors look after one another and help one another at times like this.

Thanks for the update on news from your part of the state. I'm watching the website of The Oklahoman and the NWS and the Mesonet, but it's always better to hear it directly from you who live there.

Some of the OK Mesonet stations, particularly those in SW OK through central OK, are starting to report only partial data....and it is likely those stations will go down soon.

All is well here so far, but we're just a very few degrees away from joining y'all in "ice-land".

Dawn

Just reporting in with nothing to report, thankfully, but we know it is coming. We are hoping that the cold front drops down fast, before the moisture gets here. We are at 30 degrees and dry. I am watching Channel 6 radar with the winterize feature turned on, and it sure is colorful, with rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow all showing at one time across Okalhoma. It is showing quite a lot of snow building along the Kansas border and below in the last little while so we are hoping for snow or even sleet, but NOT freezing rain. Full preparation is being made in our county. I worry about the trees because so many fall when they are iced over, landing on houses and cars. So many of us have large trees here and I hate to see any of them lost.

So many cities and counties are running out of money and a big weather issue is just going to make it worse. It takes a lot of money for roads in a severe storm for sand and salt, and all the personnel hours your need to keep equipment moving and also officers on the street.

I am going to link the Channel 6 radar site. Check on Winterize and it is very graphic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulsa Channel 6

George, it might actually be good, if you didn't get the little trees staked. I had two bigger new Bald Cypress trees bent over all the way to the ground in 2007, during the ice storm in Tulsa.

Once the ice melted, they sprang back up. I wonder, if they had broken, if I had them staked.

Moni

You icy folks be safe!

Dawn,
Still hate to say much. The NWS has dropped a few inches off their predictions. Accuweather is 2-5. NWS was 9-13 but now around 6-10 I think.

We were talking here earlier. Our critter forecast is not for a severe storm. Unless mother nature is fooling the critters I expect some snow. Probably in the Accuweather range. But not in the 12 inch range and high winds. Now I'm sure I've really jinxed us. Knocking on the table. The critters have usually been correct. Will see if they are this time. Jay

Carol,

Thanks for linking your radar. I love the winterize features on the radars. They turn the screen into a rainbow.

Diane, Y'all be safe too. The ice/snow might miss you, but they're forecasting thunderstorms for the Dallas-Fort Worth area and those might eventually make their way up towards y'all. We're having a little thunder here right now and it is raining harder than it was, but nothing to get excited about yet.

Jay, I'm going to start calling you 'Jinx'. LOL I'd still trust the critters and their fur coats more than I'd trust any other forecast.

Y'all, Power outages are starting to be reported in SW OK and even a few in the Warr Acres area in OKC. For a while today, Healdton (west of Ardmore in Carter County) lost power, and I suspect that's because their big transmission lines come in from western Oklahoma. I understand their power is back up again.

We're in the same boat here as Healdton...all our power comes in from the west, so if the large transmission lines are brought down by the weather in southwestern OK and beyond, we could lose power even if the ice mostly misses us.

Well, time to watch the noon news and see what kind of 'gloom and doom' they are reporting today.

Dawn

They have restored the few who lost service in Warr Acres, and I think it was only just over 100 customers. Course, those few do count and I am glad they were able get their power back.

Had to take a break to make chocolate chip pancakes for Kenna. We just put put a few on them to make smiley faces. I always do weird stuff with pancakes, like shapes, e.g., caterpillar (of course), Mickey Mouse, turtles, hearts, flowers, fish, whales, etc., and sometimes we color the batter with food coloring and use sprinkles, too. There are no ordinary pancakes in this house LOL! I bet you do the same, huh, Diane?

Yes, they won't give her those things like Imitrex because she is pregnant. Even so, you have to be able to take those meds before the headache really gets started, like when you see halo effects, tunnel vision, etc., that precedes a migraine onset.

She went to her doctor yesterday, but couldn't see him cuz he had to leave to deliver a baby. They just told her to go to the ER. So that is what we did. I think she's about ready to change doctors. She has called him several times and he either doesn't call back at all, or will only tell her to make an appt (which she does and he is not there) and the nurses can't tell her anything. It is so frustrating!

My house windows are frozen over! I need to check the weather again and will let y'all know if anything new has popped up.

Susan

I just got word that our friends in SW Ok (Mangum, near Altus) have lost power, as has their mother.

Here in BA (Broken Arrow) the sleet is still coming down, but it seems to be becoming a mist again.

Anyone know of any other power outages, yet?

The Channel 6 website says sleet here but looking outside all I see is gray, cold and dry. Hmm...guess it'll be here very soon. :-(

Susan,

I hope Jess can find a doctor who will be more available for her to see when needed.

Icy windows? Ouch. That makes me feel cold just thinking about it. Our windows are merely wet.

Laura,

As of 1:30 p.m., The Oklahoman's website was reporting that about 12,000 people, mostly in western and southwestern Oklahoma, are without power. The majority of them (about 9,000) are in the service area of Public Service Co. in/near Elk City, Chickasha and Hobart.

And, just so you Okies know we're not suffering alone....down in Eastland County, TX, (southwest of Fort Worth) there's been one tornado so far today and warnings/watches for severe thunderstorms remain over a good-sized area.

Dawn

Yesterday was my father's 83rd bday. One year ago on his bday, our ice storm hit and by this time of the day, hundreds of limbs were down,(One through the thin tin of our mobile into the living room), the electricity was out and a huge limb bigger than my waist fell into the field where we had parked the cars, just brushing the rear bumper of our son's van. This year it can't possibly be as bad for us as we had a metal roof built over the trailer and a carport built, and there just aren't that many limbs left to fall. We also bought a generator and a couple battery operated lanterns to go with the candles and oil lamp. We survived 9 days in our home because we have a wood stove and propane cookstove, but no electricity because the small generator that we borrowed was only big enough to keep the freezers cold, although DH did disconnect the freezers each evening long enough to pump hot water into the house for showers.

I've prepared though. Filled several gallon jugs full of drinking water and brought in 2 five gallon buckets of rainwater to flush toilets if need be. Done laundry, charged cell phone, filled woodboxes. Now need to take a shower and I'll be prepared.

Right now here in extreme eastern Ok, it is either 27, 30 or 33 depending on which of the outdoor thermometers is right. There is a thin coating of ice on the porch railing and 3" icicles hanging from the roof, although the sidewalk is still just wet. So far we have only had light rain and right now it has stopped. I pray it stays stopped until DH gets home this evening.

George, we also cook on our woodstove a lot in the winter, soups, stews and beans mostly. Thanks for the idea of making bread. I ground the last of my wheat yesterday and will make 18 hr no-knead bread for tomorrow. The recipe is simplicity itself.

4 cups flour (I use a mix of whole wheat, 7 grain, and unbleached white)
1 & 1/2 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
1/3 tsp yeast

Mix everything briskly in a glass or crockery bowl, cover with a towel and set on the counter overnight. The next morning beat it down and let it rise again--twice. Then oil your hands good and form it into a loaf and allow to rise for the final time. Cook at 375 til done. Great stuff. Develops a bit of a sourdough taste. The 18 hours is an estimate. How soon it will be ready will depend on the room temp.

Everybody stay safe.

Dorothy, I do something very similar, only I don't have it rise three times. I just dump it out, on a floured counter, after 12 hours of first rise, fold it into a ball, and drop it back into a floured bowl for 1 1/2 hours. At the 1 hour mark, I preheat the oven to 450 F. and preheat a Dutch oven or Pyrex(?) glass casserole dish, with a cover for the last 15 minutes. Then, I drop that ball of bread dough into the cooking pot or dish, cover it and bake at 450 F for 1/2 hour; remove the lid, lower the temp to 400 and let finish for 15 minutes more. It comes out great!

One can skip the yeast and add 1/4 cup of sourdough starter and about 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda. Then proceed as before. This produces a sourdough loaf which is excellent.

Tonight we're having a venison roast and sweet potatoes, cooked on the woodstove; as well as lambs quarters from last summer's garden. I have no knead bread, but it was done in the electric oven.

After getting quite wet, doing chores and storm preparations, I'm ready for a hot meal and to sit with my wife and daughter, ... by the wood stove. We'll probably read together before going to bed.

Looks like the storm's effects are being downgraded for Tahlequah. I hope!

George