After all these years, I have kept my motorcycle license. Always kept the hope that someday. Now, I guess I keep it for sentimental reasons. 8 ) I do hope your weather prognosticator is wrong, wrong, wrong!!!
Fireside chat... Part 3 ... toasting our toes!
Well, the weather prognosticators are Tyler, weatherbug and the local paper. They all are pretty much in agreement about being in the 20's Thurs and Fri. Weatherbug actually has us at 28° tomorrow night. I hope they are wrong too.
I'm done with winter now. I'm ready for spring. I want all my plants out of the house and in either the GH or in the ground. I want the space back. I want to go camping. I want to sleep with the windows open. I want to sit on the porch in the morning and have coffee. I want to sit on the terrace in the evening and listen to the crickets and frogs. I miss my lizards and geckos. I miss the green that is spring and summer. The smell of fresh mowed grass. Oh well......I guess I have cabin fever.
Lol....me too, but if you think this is bad try waiting until May like we did in Wisconsin. Spring seemed to take forever to show up!
I couldn't live any further north. If I had to wait until May I'd feel denied I tell, denied!!!!!!! AAAHHHHH I want SPRING!
Ok, it's out of my system. I feel better now. Guess I'll go sit by the fire and dream...☺
LOL ~ I can see you laying there kicking feet and beating clenched fists and wailing for summer. I think I need to join you... as a friend says, it's been a terrible winter already.
I am excited as a DGr sent me four different Hoya cuttings. I've never been good at rooting but tried my hand with these. All four have new growth or roots in less than a month. I am hooked. I set the cuttings on my gas stove. The pilot lights generate heat and the halogen rangehood lights deliver heat and light. I guess I better not get too crazy as we still need to eat but hope to try some cuttings from the huge Confederate jasmine vine that became prostrate in IKEs winds.
I got ambitious today and ripped out large amounts of the dreaded honeysuckle. I have a patch about 4' wide by 20' long left to uproot. I was so amazed at the good leaf mold under it and at the large earthworms. That had been needing doing and tonight, I am pretty stove up! Tomorrow it is back to work so I guess I can rest up.
Think I'll say goodnite from deep east Texas and hope I can crawl out of bed in the a.m. ...
Whew, it got colder that I thought it would last night here. My outside thermometer showed 28 this morning at 8:00. I didn't cover anything because I didn't expect that, so don't know what may have been nipped. It's beginning to warm up though and the sun is out. It's beautiful outside so I may have to go find something that needs doing out there. I've been working on getting a small bed ready for some veggies and tomatoes. I need to put some newspaper down and cover with manure and it needs done soon so it'll be ready to turn in early March. I've lost my manure source so guess I'll have to buy some of that bagged stuff. Has anyone here ever used Zoo Doo? I'm wondering if it's be worth the trip to get some.
I've got the breakfast table laid for the birds and am just sitting by the window with a cup of tea waiting for the late arrivals. Hope y'all have a great day.
Crow
That wind today is a killer. My weather service says it's 43 w/ a wind chill of 33. Sure does feel like it, too. I have to go out and I dread that. Have to get a blood test. Never ending chore. Beautiful day, otherwise but from inside.
Off to the great outdoors.
Ann
Exactly what happened to me the night before, Crowelli! And I usually go by the NWS site, where I can...if I play with the site map a while...zoom in on my actual area out in the sticks instead of a town that's not that close! I think it factors in the altitude...which matters a lot on these hills. It works pretty good, although sometimes the killer frost catches them unaware. But last night no freeze here.
We got down to 31° last night. We are supposed to be 28 tonight and tomorrow night and 24° Thursday night. Ouch. The wind was AWFUL today. I had to take mom to the dr. at 8:30 this am and it was painful. The wind bit anything exposed.
It's already 40°. I'll be putting the GH heater on early tonight. Hubby got the filled today so I know we can go at least a week of cold nights.
Got the fire going and the sunroom is toasty. I'll have two more morning glories opening tomorrow. That'll be nice in this cold weather. You guys south of us did get cold last night. This arctic blast is supposed to bring you below freezing too. Or so the Weathermen say.
Winter, go A W A Y !!! I really hate this cold. It's 28° right now. Our gardener comes Friday and I don't think he will have anything to do. If this weather would stop thinking this is Wisconsin or ? maybe we could get our warmer weather back.
Ann
Well, the forecast for here was 31 last night, and this morning when I checked the thermometer outside it said 24. It always seems to get colder at my house. Heater in the GH is holding the inside temp at 36 so it's trying it's best. At least here it warms up during the day.
It got down to 25° here and my GH heater kept it 36° also. The workshop got down to 40° so I have the space heater on in there for the brugs right now. The last time I looked it was up to 55° in the GH with the sun on it.
I'm with you Ann. WINTER GO AWAY!!!!!. I'm normally not too bothered by winter but this one is annoying the heck out of me. Maybe because I have more plants this year in pots to take care of. Lots of cuttings and seedlings. Many of these will go into the ground in the spring. But then I'll be running out and putting on and taking off pipe insulation from my brugs next winter. Oh well, they are worth it.
I remember last summer I read somewhere that they believed that La Nina was ending. Supposedly that would mean the drought here was ending (I thought good riddance!) and also they predicted a colder than normal winter. Well...WRONG about the drought, right about the winter! So here we have both a more severe drought than we had before and a very cold, unstable winter. Would anyone with just the unusually severe winter like to trade with me?
Nope. Thanks for putting it in the right perspective though. I guess I shouldn't complain.
In my 30 years here I've seen it so wet that water seeped from the ledges 24/7 for about as long as we have had this dry spell and algae grew on top of the caliche and smelled like a marsh. When it's that wet it's too wet to garden. However on the other hand when it is dry at least we can water a small garden and still have a little fun gardening.
I decided to take today off from working on the fence to plant 108 peat pellets, mostly tomatoes, 5 varieties of pepper, 2 varieties of Broccoli and a few pellets of basil. I plan to share a few plants with a neighbor who helps out a lot at church.
Here is a picture of a Flora Cart I am using to start seedlings. The height of the light is fixed so I have to use a plate glass shelf and elevate it up to the light.
This message was edited Jan 14, 2009 3:27 PM
Sounds like you have some mighty good springs on your property! I know a lady who has a place like that in the Boerne area. I've never experienced that. Algae is very rarely seen here. When it doesn't rain, it's always extremely dry in the yard if I don't water on a regular basis...I do get tired of all that watering. I think last night's freeze killed a few plants off.
it may be in the 30's here but I am so glad I am not back in northern IL again this winter I do not miss the bone chilling cold they get up there at all I like being able to wear a sweatshirt and turtle neck here and giggle when I talk to family and friends up there and they say how cold it is.
I've got to get focused and get some seedlings taken care of that I started they have shot up so fast I hadn't planned on that happening ...better go get them into some pots
I have a three day weekend coming up so I may try to pot some seeds too. I have plenty to work with. You have a great set up there Jerry, I envy you. Maybe someday I'll be organized and have a place like that. Right now the table we use for camping sits in my guest bedroom with florescent lights over it 12 hrs a day.
Texasgrower, What you have is really all you need. The only reason I have the Floral Cart is because 10 or 15 years ago I went crazy and tried to see how many African Violets I could collect and the three shelf plant display worked great for the AVs. I would never have bought it retail. I got a real good deal on it from a lady who was getting rid of her AV collection and she didn't want to look at the empty rack or have it collecting dust sitting out in her garage. Me...I never throw away or get rid of anything. The rack has been collecting dust for years when it was not being used for pottery junk. Now that I have time to garden I'll put the rack to use.
I would still like to have a better set up than I have. I need more room. So I will be on the look out for anything I can find at flea markets or resell shops that can be used for multiple tiers of growing. I like to keep the tenders and seedlings in the house where it is warmer.
I'm glad you have time to garden. I find it therapeutic. I would go nuts if I didn't have my plants.
Good morning Texans. I am a happy camper so far with my gh I have only used the heater two nights and it has stayed toasty. I still haven't gotten a thermometer, but the plants tell the story for me and they say they like it in there. When I open up the inside gh the heat comes boiling out to the point that I leave it open for a while. The larger one is warm enough, but the inside one is to hot to stay in. I hope that this is okay in the long run, but for now everything is doing just great.
I was late putting my things inside due to Shelly being in the hospital when the first frost hit so early unexpectedly in late fall. So a lot of my things looked totally dead when I put them inside. The brugs tops had died off and now they all have luscious looking big leaves coming from the bottom. I still haven't cut the tops off, I really need to get that done, but it hasn't been a priority.
Seeds starting now will not get too spindly? I am really anxious to get them started, but the man at the feed store in Palestine cautioned me that it was way too early to start them. I have to decide if I should start them in the gh or do less and start them inside. What do you all suggest?
I love this time of the year when the calves are coming. Only five so far and only one is a bull calf. Not good! Maybe the rest will be bulls. We only have seventeen mama cows, as we just have a small place. We could have eight more maybe. So we may keep some of the heifers this time.
It is fun to take our coffee and ride out to look for new babies. DH will get out and walk up on them, hold them down, and I will tag them with their mother's number. If they are bulls, I will change them to steers with a bander. Most of our cows are black angus, but we have a few other kinds. I love seeing the babies of the mixed cows to see what they look like. We have some that are not numbered because they are so different we just give them a name. We have one that DH bought for only $200 at auction because she was so poor and skinny. She is so fat now and she is about to give us her second calf which makes her the biggest profit margin we have in a cow. We still call her "Skinny". We have a dark red (almost brown) one that we call "Chocolate". We even have one we call "nameless" because we never named her. The black Angus are all exactly alike so they are numbered, but the named ones are all named crazy names.
Can you tell I am having a good day?
Charlene
It sure sounds like it Charlene, animals can be a lot of fun, and work too, but who's keeping track right?
I am running the sprinklers on the slope, and just about froze my fingers, it is supposed to get in the low 20s tonight and the ground is pretty dry. It is only 40 right now but we still have the watering ban, no watering from 10am to 6pm, and as we know by 6 it is already dark, so here I am doing the best I can.
Josephine.
Yea! the weathermen were wrong. I'm not complaining this time. Our low was 32°, seven degrees warmer than predicted. That cold front must have moved further east than expected. My GH is a toast 47°. Will turn it off as soon as the sun breaks above the trees, in about 15 min.
Well, now it's supposed to be warmer for the next five days or so. Probably won't need to heat the GH. Phew.
Brrr... East it is. Currently 27° and icy around the edges of the pond. Just filled the bird feeders. Wearing my flannel lined jeans and off to work! Keep the fire going please! LOL
Josephine, I am sorry you are having to work around a water use ban. We are having drought conditions here, but with our own well we use the water when we please. I figure at some point in the future (hopefully after I am gone from this earth) there will be controls even to using your own well. After all the water comes from the same aquifer that public water comes from, so I could understand that it may happen. The aquifers hold only so much water.
I watered heavily yesterday just in case the weatherman's predictions were right. They were wrong and boy am I glad.
I bought a thermometer yesterday that will give a remote reading. It will hopefully tell me the gh temp from inside the cozy warm house if it works right. I also bought a small one so I could tell the difference from the large gh to the small gh. When it warms up a bit, I'll go get them set up.
No calves this morning, but I think we will have one by this evening from the cow we call "nameless". Crossed fingers for a healthy bull calf. LOL
Everyone stay warm and have a good day.
Charlene
Those remote thermometers are great Charlene.
What are you going to name the Nameless cow's baby?
Josephine.
I already have a tag made up for it with LN on it for little nameless. Really creative huh?
Charlene
27 degrees and cloudy here this morning, looks like a rather boring day.
I'm making bean soup and baking a pumpkin rescued from Thanksgiving. The house smells good, I think I will organize my household files, I hate it when it all piles up.
We shall see how long I can stay with it.
Josephine.
Well, he will be up there with a lot of people who like to be called by their initials.
I believe a lot of famous people have chose to go that route.
Josephine.
I have a cat I call Two....at one time there were 3 stray males that would hang around the property most of the time. I refused to call them by name or nickname because I wasn't going to adopt another cat. So they were referred to as One, Two and Three. Well, one of them is still here and he's mine now, but still called Two. I hate people who dump their pets! Yesterday was nice and warm....today is supposed to have a high in the 40's....I hate this winter!
Well, I am back inside for lunch. Shelly is fixing us her version of a subway lowfat and lowcal sandwich.
I planted 20 strawberry plants and made a bed ready for some potatoes. After lunch, I will plant the potatoes and make a bed for 20 more strawberries. I am thinking of drilling holes in a barrel for the strawberries. It depends on how ambitious I feel. If I put the barrel with strawberries in my gh will I get strawberries faster? Someone must surely know the answer to that one. If so, then I will do just that.
I am planting red potatoes today and will plant the other big ones a little later on. I don't have a place ready for them yet.
It's funny how those strays just become a part of the family anyway even though you tell yourself it won't happen. They seem to gradually fit in and then you couldn't think of not having them. LOL
Charlene
One good thing about this cold weather is that it slowed us down enough for me to pop in and say HOWDY. I have never wanted the internet at my house, until I got so busy here at work that I can't keep up with my friends at DG. Now, I really want to get the net at my house! I miss y'all. Has there been any talk of a spring swap? I hope we have one or two or ten, so I can hug y'alls' necks again. The storage container business is booming! I've sold more storage containers in the last 3 months than I have the whole 6 years I've been in the business! I hate the winter time because I work from sunup to well after sundown and the only time I get to work in the garden or with my animals is by flashlight or on the weekend. Plus the fact that it's COLD!
I do have some seedlings going in a window sill that include Gaillardia aestivalis, Hollyhocks, Venus Looking Glass, Sawleaf Daisy and Rubber Bitterweed. And large number of feathered visitors are great on the weekends, but I want spring back!
Hello T.J. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say we have missed you too.
Haven't talked about swaps yet, but we need to be thinking about it, time passes very quickly.
Good luck with your plants, I have some cuttings going, but no seeds yet.
Josephine.
Popping in for just a minute. Working "market" this week from 7-6 most days. Only two more days to go. Agree that we have missed our TJ. You done good last spring TJ. Guess we are depending on you to pony up again. After all, you are a young buck and ready for anything. Soo glad that your business is booming.
FYI. Dallas Market is going strong. If the media would just shut up this nation would heal itself. I believe their bad news is self-fulfilling. We are the best of the best. Can take care of each other if they (media) would only leave us alone.
Ok. Off my soap box.
I love all of you and you make life so much brighter.
Christi
HI Bronc! At a time when business is slowing down and many are being laid off, you must consider yourself blessed. Glad to hear you are so busy and have missed seeing you in Daves Garden.
LouC ~ I wondered where you have been too. I'll bet you are coming in exhausted too!
This interesting link was posted in the Vegetable forum. How to grow no till peas ~ http://www.cookinglouisiana.com/Articles/Peas_no-till.htm Things that make me go hmmmmm...
Linda, I agree on the dumped pets and resent the dumpers a lot! This is one of two that came for a visit last weekend. They are still here tho I am trying to find a home for one or both.
That link is pretty interesting, it would be worth a try if you have the space.
That is an adorable dog you have there.
She is a sweetie and twice as cut when she grins at us. As we lost our old lab at Christmas, we are thinking of keeping her but I hope to give the other one away for sure.
She looks alot like a dog we had that was part Australian Shepherd and cocker. He had the body and legs of the cocker, short. And the fur and head of the Aussie. He was the most gentle and well behaved of all our pets. We rescued him as a puppy from people who had too many unaltered pets. He was so full of worms that he lost all his hair and his skin split and oozed fluid. it took months to get him to good health but he ended up very healthy and beautiful.
We are lab folks too. Our last was 14 when we put him down in 2006. We now have two chihuahuas. What a difference huh? They are easier to take camping. But we have already decided the next one will either be a lab or lab mix. They are the best. I love them
Hey ya'll! Everyone staying nice and toasty? I've been puttering around, putting in an asparagus bed and transplanting seedlings into 4" pots. Darn I wish you didn't have to wait 3 years to harvest new asparagus beds! I can taste them already, drenched in butter, yum! Hey Jeanne! Maddie and Mom back up to full speed now? Take care everyone!
We've always had labs too (and one great dane and then Podster who is of unknown origin) but after I buried the last one I said at this age, I need to start thinking about smaller dogs. That was an effort to dig that grave. I sometimes wonder if I am given what I ask for??!? Thanks for the ID on her. I kept thinking Corgi but it wasn't exactly right. The past day or two I could see cocker spaniel and the AS fur makes sense. Her back legs and bug eyes remind me of a smaller dog tho. Not sure what else.
Darkmoondreamer ~ we grew up dining on wild asparagus in springtime. Mom wouldn't let us harvest all but left some for seed each year. Every spring I get to craving it... I'm with you, my saliva glands are working! lol