Cold temps, for north Florida anyway.

[WebSlave]

One forecast is calling for a low of 22 degrees tonight, and another 27 degrees. Hard freeze warning between 2:00am and 8:00am.

I was just outside taking off some hoses so I can drip some pipes to have the water pump running a little bit. We have the pump tank sitting outside, kind of in the woods so somewhat protected, but heck, I REALLY don't feel like fixing any soft of plumbing crap.

Man, this Florida blood is murder during even modestly cold temps. I feel like my fingers are frozen, and my skin on my face felt tingly from the wind. And that is with only being 46 degrees out. I COULD NOT move up north. Heck, I don't think I could even visit up there in the Winter months. My heart would just stop when the cold air hit me.

BRING ON THAT GLOBAL WARMING!! What do I need to do to help?

 

[Socratic Monologue]

I don't know, this kind of sounds like my kid saying she's starving to DEATH because she hasn't eaten in an hour and a half.

Just kidding -- 22F is pretty cold. But maybe part of it is that you forgot how to dress for the weather? Synthetic base layer, wool layer over that, windproof outer shell (those light-medium weight down puffy jackets are really nice), good hat, good wool socks, long johns if you need them. Keep your core temp up and your hands will stay warmer.

I was outside most of the day cutting wood (thinning a pine stand per the forester's advice) in low 20s with a little breeze, and it was really nice.

 

[bcr229]

We've been spoiled the past few years with fairly mild winters as far as temperatures go. This is the first one in a long time where we've had days in a row where we never got above freezing, and where the prior snow didn't melt off before we got another one.

 

[Lucille]

Just saw a NYT headline, parts of Massachusetts have already gotten 30 inches of snow.

 

[WebSlave]

I don't know, this kind of sounds like my kid saying she's starving to DEATH because she hasn't eaten in an hour and a half.

Just kidding -- 22F is pretty cold. But maybe part of it is that you forgot how to dress for the weather? Synthetic base layer, wool layer over that, windproof outer shell (those light-medium weight down puffy jackets are really nice), good hat, good wool socks, long johns if you need them. Keep your core temp up and your hands will stay warmer.

I was outside most of the day cutting wood (thinning a pine stand per the forester's advice) in low 20s with a little breeze, and it was really nice.

Hah! I am not even sure I have a coat. I think I do have a jacket, however. My usual plan is that if it is too cold outside, don't go outside.

When we moved down from Maryland, I brought down our snow shovel for some reason. Maybe I thought I would be shoveling sand with it. Might be worth a pretty penny at the local GoodWill store for the collectible value!

27 degrees outside right now. We pulled a lot of the citrus fruits yesterday, but didn't get it all. And Connie has (had!) lots of new blooms coming out on her Meyer lemon trees, which will probably be history. Several other plants were thinking it was Spring time, too. Surprise, surprise!

 

[Socratic Monologue]

That's too bad about the plants. We get weather events like that here too (late spring freezes take out apple and cherry blooms, winter ice storms wreck the trees) and it is quite discouraging.

Sounds like you could go shopping at a place like REI and come out a new man, ready for weather. Even living here in the upper Midwest my whole life, I didn't really enjoy winter until I learned to dress for it.

 

[WebSlave]

The low temp on my weather station (sensor is positioned out in front of the apron of the garage) got down to 21 degrees last night. On another sensor I have setting on the porch, where it is somewhat more protected, it got down to 25.9 degrees.

Haven't done any inspection of the plants yet. Hopefully they are OK. We have some semi tropical plants that have been doing very well with the milder Winters we have had lately, so I'm not sure how they will have fared from this.

A few years ago we found some newly sprouting coconut palms on Sanibel Island that we brought back here. I would LOVE to grow my own coconuts! But they did not like cold weather AT ALL. Temp got down to just 35 degrees or so, and I didn't think they would need to be protected. WRONG! Killed every one of them.

One year we had a very early cold snap come through in November that wiped out all of the citrus on the trees. They weren't quite ripe enough to eat before then so we lost all of them when the cold damaged them. If you have ever smelled rotted citrus, you know what that is like. So we had all of them falling off of the trees that we had to clean up.

 

[WebSlave]

Ugh.. Temps went down to 28 degrees last night. Supposed to hit around 35 tonight. Then things are supposed to be looking up.

We have really only had one really cold night so far this year, but seems to be a lot more nights of low 30s and high 20s than I can recall. Seems like we have been covering the pineapple plants at least one or two nights every week.

BTW, that 21 degree night did damage some of the pineapple leaves, and any new growth coming out of the fruit trees got damaged. Some of the smaller more tropical bamboos I have got hit pretty hard too. All it takes it really just one night to kick some of the plants in the butt.

Surprisingly enough, I have a larger tropical clumping type bamboo that I bought from a guy in Tampa years ago that used to get killed back completely to the ground every Winter. But the last few Winters haven't fazed it at all. Matter of fact, even that 21 degree night we had didn't harm it at all. Not even any leaf damage. Maybe it just got used to the cold and adapted?

 

[WebSlave]

Damn..... Well, Spring is going to be taking a sucker punch to the nose Saturday night. Weather.com is calling for a low of 29 degrees here overnight.

Looks like we are going to be having some REAL unhappy plants that are putting out flowers and new growth.

Does God have a complaint email address?

 

[bcr229]

Record 75*F yesterday, tomorrow night snow. Every year, without fail, it snows on my daffodils.

 

[WebSlave]

They are calling for a low of 28 degrees tonight. Freeze warning in effect.

Well, the navel orange tree had the most flower buds on it, so we decided to cover that one out of all the fruit trees. Unfortunately the rest have to fend for themselves over night. Even Connie's pumelo tree, that she dearly loves, that has some new flower buds just forming. It is tucked between two buildings, so I hope it will do OK. We really don't have large enough tarps for any of the other fruit trees anyway. We would have to build cages out of bamboo around them to keep the tarps from laying directly against the leaves, as that causes nearly as much damage as not covering them at all. At least to the leaves touching the tarp surface. Plus putting on a tarp without a cage winds up causing it's own damage by knocking off blooms during the putting on and taking off action. So you really don't gain much if you don't do it right.

Covering the navel was a real circus. The tree is good sized, many 8 ft. tall. We only had one really big silver colored tarp that has been in the shed for years, but it was only long and wide enough to cover the tree on three sides. We put some bamboo poles in the ground to drape the tarp over so it wouldn't lay right on the leaves and buds. We then had to drape a smaller blue tarp over the open side and duct taped it to the silver tarp. Then since it might be windy again tonight, we had to use tent stakes to stake the tarps to the ground to keep them from blowing off of allowing cold winds underneath them. I do hope that tree appreciates the work we did to protect it. It gave us about 2 dozen fruits this past year and they were EXCELLENT, so well worth the effort, to us, to try to protect it.

The pear trees, peach trees, and asian pears are all putting out flower buds, as are Connie's blueberry bushes. Just hoping for the best for them all.

And, of course, we covered Connie's pineapple plants too. One of the plots got hit hard by that 21 degree night we had at the end of January. The other one seemed to do fine, though.

Honestly, I am really hoping that the weather forecast is just WAY off. It's not like that has never happened before. A good 10 degrees warmer than forecast would be just fine with me.

 

[JColt]

Yeah got bone cold here and snowed couple inches over Friday into Saturday. Today it warmed up to 43 and Sun but not till later in the day. 57 tomorrow!

 

[bcr229]

Same. My daffodils have snow on them. I'm hoping that was winter's last gasp.

 

[WebSlave]

The weather station sensor said it got down to 28.4 degrees in front of the garage Saturday night. It was 31.8 degrees at that sensor when I went to bed at 4:30 am that night. The other temp sensors on the front porch of the house are saying it got down to 33.3 degrees.

Last night (Sunday) it got down to 34.0 degrees. Looks like things will be warming up, so we are planning on folding up the tarps and putting them back into the shed before possible rain comes in tonight. Hopefully messing with the tarps for the last time this season.

Connie and I did a walk around yesterday to look over the fruit trees. Not much damage. Just looks like a finger of cold air got a few areas of new growth on a few of the trees, but not bad at all. Connie's pumelo tree has some new flower buds coming out so she is all excited about that. She only got one fruit this past year, so she is hoping for a bumper crop this year. It takes her about a week to eat one of them, they are SOOO huge.

Looks like rain off and on over the next week or so. Temps supposed to be getting into the mid 70s. Combining warm temperatures with a few rain showers here and there (plus the 120 lbs of fertilizer we put around them), should be getting the Spring air filled with the smell of citrus blooms shortly.

 

[WebSlave]

I took a few pics of the contraption Connie and I put up to protect the navel orange tree before we take it down.

Also took some pics of the satsuma and pumelo pre-blooms we were hoping would not get destroyed by the cold night Saturday.

 

[WebSlave]

33.6 degrees overnight last night. I guess we will lose Connie's pineapple gardens because we are just not in any shape to be dragging out tarps and covering them during the cold nights coming. Then uncovering them the following mornings and putting away the tarps when rain threatens. That is the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.