Weather Forecasting Folklore

Hi Greykyttn, welcome back!

down here my parents & gr. parents would not plant hot weather crops till the fig trees leafed out. in the late 80's i remember it got to april 1, everything else had been leafed out for a month or more but the figs were holding tight. i planted eggplant, and okra and sure enough we got a frost and cold front. i wait for the figs now whether that be in feb or april or somewhere in between

Wow! That will be something I will watch for... thank you!

I had not heard that one.

Around here the pecan trees are considered to be the ones to watch. No more freezes once the pecans bud.

Amazing that the trees "know".

I wonder if they watch for signs. LOL

up here its the pecans as well. They won't leaf out till the last freeze. or so you hope.

OK, Greykittyn, I'm counting on you keeping us posted about the pecan trees leafing out, as I don't know where any are around here.

i have one in my yard... If it survived the bag worms from last fall.

I did not realize they grew that far north. We had lots of them back home. They are famous for shedding limbs but don't let them go to waste. Try laying some of them on top of the charcoal when you grill. It will give your meat an out of this world good taste. Mmm

Hello long time since I've been a pain in your ///.Having a go at it here slower than I thought but all ok

Hello, EOM. It has been a long time. Will you be able to do any gardening in Spring?

Guess I need to buy a fig or pecan tree. Or rely on my DG friends to let me know when it is safe to plant.

Actually, it sounds like they will tell us two different things. I know the pecans budding out here are a sure sign that there will be no more frosts.

If I followed FlSusies' post, the fig trees will let you know when it is safe to plant "hot weather" crops. Like okra, peppers, eggplant, etc. I watch the local pecans for budding out and last year planted a fig so will keep an eye on it too.

Podster, please keep us posted

I will certainly try to... please, feel free to jog my feeble memory if needed!

I too have both figs and pecans. It will be interesting to watch the process.

OK .... I'm relying on you all with pecan and fig trees to keep me informed. :-)

@Crit - I live just a mile off i-44 so we get everything...got 10 inches of snow on the way right now.

No signs of life from either figs or pecans - stay tuned...

LOL ~ Ditto!

10 inches of snow ~ crap! we got rain and looking for lows in the low 20's this coming week. 10 inches is a lot for Joplin isn't it?

Last couple of days have been really nice here. Today is supposed to be pretty too so Ima do some gardening.

10 inches is nothing for Joplin.. its up to 20 inches now... possibly gonna increase to above 20 inches :) last big snow... we got 36 inches in 14 hours. We are under a blizzard warning, severe winter storm warning & hazardous weather warning. 1 inch of ice/sleet under it all. Birds were fighting over the feeders today trying to get well fed before they find somewhere to hide... 50 mph winds coming in.. and it drives me nuts bc being pregnant i can't lift what i normally do or do things i normally do ( i tend to test my guardian angels patience & give them heart attacks)... i have to be safe.. therefore i can't be out there up on the roof in the rain battening down the hatches on my chicken coops... just have to make due with what little i told my DH how to do. Normally i'd have them tucked in so tight all they would hear is wind... but they may have a few ice covered tail feathers this time due to small holes in the plastic sheeting that's up there. Still gotta string the cord & plug in the heat lamps... and find our kerosene heater bc they are calling for power outages starting early tomorrow.

I will say a prayer for you and your chickens.

All that snow and you can't go sledding. That's a shame. I know how much you like sledding. Last snow we had I slid down the hill on a feed sack. It was fun.

looks like I'm talking to some of my friends nieghbers up there in Mo. They've been saying a little further north around Bourban/Sullivan and up BLIZZARD conditions. I feel for all ya'll caught in it, most of my family lives in around that area. I was in Ky last Feb when we had all the ice, and let me tell ya, It was'nt fun. Some folks did'nt get power back for a month.

Cajun did you get any of the ice we had last year?

Hang in there, GreyKittyn, and you be extra careful.

We caught a glancing blow from that ice storm. We were without power for six days and nights.

Some of the folks around our area were hit pretty hard, glad ya'll did'nt lose power for to long. They reported on the news that a lot of folks tried to heat their house with unvented burners, some folks died from it. I wished there would have been more that I could have done, but you cant get to every one. I think in my area, Central city, and Brheman, wer hit the hardest. You could'nt even drive down 431 for about a week, it was pretty messed up.

They kept our main road clear and we are lucky to live on the main road but our driveway was treacherous. We had to leave our van and truck parked at the church up the hill. The truck couldn't be started because it is a diesel and has to be plugged in to keep the block warm or it won't start even with 2 batteries. We had to get a friend with a 4 wheeler to bring us up the mountain to feed 2 of our horses. We heated with a kerosene heater but had to stay in one room. Problem was, even when we were able to get out to town there were no supplies to be had. And it was like that a long time after. My Mom sent "D" batteries from La for our flashlight. We are much better prepared this year but are so glad we haven't had any problems so far. Hope and pray it stays that way.

Forgot to add since our power was out our fences were down so we had 3 of our horses on a tie line in the yard. It was a miserable time.

Cajun, sounds like ya'll got hit pretty hard also.we lost power for 1 day down in Hopkins ville, but for us having the horses out there in Crofton, turned out to be a lot of work. They got hit hard, and the road going into our property was coverd with downed trees. We packed feed & hay in about a mile because we couldnt get a truck down the road. Couple days of chainsawing and the help of friends and neighbers and we had the road back open though. Thank God for friends and neighbers!
Crit, arent you close to OKC? My dad is in Midwest City I think he said ya'll got a lot of ice that tore up trees realy bad down there.

Yes, I am a little under 2 hours up the Turner Turnpike from OKC. We got a lot of freezing rain and sleet before the snow started. It is really piling up out there. Temp is 9, windchill -11, with the really strong winds coming in later this afternoon. It's pretty well 'white out' condiditons. Blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings, just about all of the winter 'warnings' you would expect. Some of the snowdrifts are getting close to the top of the houses. I don't remember having over a foot of snow since I was a little girl when we use to get a lot of snow every winter. I remember icicles 6' long hanging from the eaves and the snow about swallowed me. lol
We bought a gasoline generator last year before a bad storm was coming in, so at least we can have light and heat (and my husband says, 'as long as the TV works, I'm good. LOL) Went to the grocery Sunday, and have a full pantry and freezer, so we can eat.
We are lucky our horses are just across the road, but that will be a trek with the snow like it is. DH went over and got their feed pans at 3 a.m. this morning, before they got covered with snow. :-) We will just have to go to the pond and break ice for water. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Going to be like this until Friday, then it may get up to 40. I don't think I can make it into work this week. Told my boss Monday, I was going to call in 'snow' (instead of 'sick') tomorrow. She said, I don't expect to see you all week. lol



This message was edited Feb 1, 2011 12:34 PM

Crit, wow sounds like you guys got alot already. I was watching the news and they're sasying they've already shut the airport down, and a whole lot more snow coming.Glad ya'll had the forethought about the gen and the grocerys! Could have been a long ride out with out those. I hope my dad had enough sense to do the same. Gonna call'm and check on him. Not much I could do for him here in Tucson though
We did get snow on the mountains yesterday and last night. We got rain and some wind down here i n the foot hills though.Stay warm!

The only thing I'm short on is my meds. It's a narcotic and he won't refill until it is due, which is Thursday. That is, if they are even in the office to get my refill order. Hope I have enough that if I space them out and go as long as I can before letting the pain get too bad, I can make it through.

Just took some water out to the birdbath, shook the birdfeeders to get the snow out of the little holes and seed out, and threw some seed on the ground. Of course it sunk down a way, but I suppose they can get it. Was 13" where I measured in my back yard.

13" that alot aready, how much more are ya'll expecting? well, I hope your pills hold out for ya. Nothing worse than being cold and hurtin'. I talked to my brother in Dallas and he said the snow flakes were coming in the size of hamsters. Said they got some ice also, truck doors frooze closed.

"the size of hamsters" .... LMBO Tooooooo funny

I'm not sure how much more we got after that check on it. Haven't ventured out again. I will tomorrow to take the birdies some more water.

The flakes were big here for a while, then they turned smaller but were quad-zillions of them!

Reminded me of a saying an older friend of mine use to say "little flakes, lot of snow". Boy have I found that to be true!