I curse my ancestors for settling in this God forsaken shithole
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My ancestor was one of the first to set up a farm in SW missouri. So..... thats not an excuse. :-)
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When I woke up it was -22 here at the house. It has warmed up to a steamy -7.

Tonight they are calling for -24 with -40 wind chills. Tomorrow's high, -6 with wind chills of -40 to -45. This crap has been going on for a couple of weeks. It's the coldest stretch I can remember for several years, decades to be honest. FINALLY the coldest stuff is going to move on next week with a high Tuesday of 28, which is going to feel like a tropical breeze after the stuff. I may have to dig out some shorts, the keens and a beater.
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Grab the clubs next weekend or hit the river with those rising temps!
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There you go!

One thing I learned, is the fact that roof/gutter heating cables aren't worth a crap when it gets this cold. I have a very slight grade on the garage roof and I had issues with ice dams a few years ago. I countered by installing the heated plugin cable to melt the snow and ice to prevent that. It worked great last year, but we didn't see temperatures this low.

When this latest polar blast arrived along with a bunch of snow, I plugged them in again. Turns out when it gets this cold, they don't work. My gutters are packed full of ice again and I'm dealing with ice dams. I need to figure something out before I have water flow back up to a heating vent, which will result in having water enter the garage, like it did a few years ago.

Last time this happened, I had to grab a dead blow hammer and beat the ice out of the gutter and off the edge of the roof. That worked fine, but it also raised hell with the gutter. I just had new gutters installed right before this last cold front arrived, so I'm not anxious about going that direction.

Salt doesn't work well when it's this cold either. The direction to go, would be to use a steamer, but I can't find an industrial grade unit to rent, and I'm not going drop several grand to buy something I would use at most, twice a year. The idea of wandering around on an ice covered roof, doesn't get me excited either.

Time to MacGyver something, I just haven't figured out what yet.
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Fix your roof venting this summer. :P
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I'm going to install a couple this summer. I have a 20" snow rake that I use for the house, but with the cable up there on the garage, if I try to rake over that, it dislodges the cables.

If I remove the gutter, it would drop the water right in the walkway where I enter the garage and make an ice skating rink, so I'm kind of stuck with the gutter.
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You need one of these...





Or maybe a propane torch if you have trouble finding a flamethrower.
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The heaters actually make it worse when you have a snow pack because it melts the lower part enough to have water back up. I had a similar problem like 7 years ago. You gotta shovel about 2-3 ft above the gutter right after it snows. Then it will drain before it freezes and you won’t be stuck with an 8 inch block of ice in your gutter.

Also, gutters cause a lot of problems and aren’t really needed in some areas. They’re really just to keep a waterfall from coming off your roof. I would just take the gutters off your garage as long as that won’t cause a sheet of ice in your driveway and that will solve that problem.
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75 degrees here in southern China, surveillance heavy to moderate.
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I just got back from a seven-mile run in 1 degree weather. I'm glad I waited until the afternoon after it warmed up.
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Should I not tell you I wore shorts to the park this morning?
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I hope you get a heat stroke! :-)
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That payback is coming in a few months. Its as hot as a ****ing oven outdoors down here for 6 months. You're either in the air con, the pool or the beach.These few months of mid-70's in the winter is our payback.
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I'll casually forget to post in here when it's 115 degrees.
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