Watching the House

We watch a house for these folks who go to Arizona for the winter. We make sure the plants are watered, the furnace is running ok and the house is warm. Today I went over to check on things and there was a foot of ice on the whole step going into the house. There was no way I could get the door open. So I went home and got my husband and he brought a spade and chopped at the ice until he got it all off. Then we could get the door open. Got the plants taken care of and went all thru the house and basement and everything was fine. It looks like a piece of siding has come loose on the garage though and will probably tear off if this wind keeps up. According to the weatherman, the wind is just getting started and could hit 45 mph gusts tomorrow so we don't hold out much hope of that siding staying on. I set their furnace a bit higher too as we have had outages of electricity off and on and sure don't want their water to freeze as they have hot water heat. By the time I went to get the mail about 4:00 pm, it was blizzard conditions at the end of the court where we live. Snow banks were forming quite a bit on the curve in the road nearby.