right now the temperature is a warm 77 degrees.
as you move into the kitchen, it cools off a little bit.
wood heat is nice and toasty.

outside its a different story.
so far about six inches of new snow on the ground blown off the drive way,
and around the house. several more inches expected to fall by morning.
12 degrees outside, west wind at 16 mph gusting to 26 mph wind chill minus 6.

i'm going back into the living room. puts another chunk into the wood stove.


keith

I'm looking on the bright side: it'll be 36 ABOVE on pantry distribution day! Otherwise, yes, it's cold enough for me! Great gratitude for my brand new furnace, which is working very well thank you!

Weather folks are saying we have a 30% chance of 1” or more inches of snow next Tuesday. Going to be cold for sure.

Yes, I just saw on the weather report that Southern Colorado is expecting a HIGH of 0˚F on Monday with an overnight LOW of -23˚F. Brrrrrrr...about a 75 degree drop from Thursday's high of 53˚F. Time to take a vacation to Kauai.

For the last ten days or so we’ve been well below average with the temperatures. Got a brief warm up to more normal temperatures for tomorrow and Friday, then the bottom is going to drop out. After Saturday, we won’t get above 50°for five straight days and the high on Tuesday is supposed to be 31° and Wednesday morning 21°

USDA hardiness zones are a joke. I think it is now five straight years where our lows have been well below Zone 9b cold here and three of those years we got into zone 8a or 8b type of cold. Zone 9b minimum is or should be no lower than 25°.

Now here's something I don't see very often. It's supposed to snow next Tuesday!


The last time it snowed was February the 15th, 2021, almost 4 years ago. Here are two pictures of my backyard with a dusting of the powder.

33'/~10m Ice Castle rises in Eagle River, WI (https://madison.com/news/state-regional ... -top-story) The Gotch

Now the weather forecasts have our lowest low being 28° up from 21° This is a world of difference in an area that isn’t especially used to or built for extended cold. Getting to 28° overnight is routine, a low of 21° with a high below freezing requires a lot of extra work winterizing stuff. All the daytime highs are forecasted to be above freezing. Still have snow possible on Tuesday. Snow isn’t so scary, it’s frigid weather that causes problems. Freezing rain is an issue. Let’s hope we don’t have that.

I cut up some Hurricane Beyrl killed pecan wood for the fireplace from one of the largest Pecan trees I have ever seen. Tree is horizontal on the ground and dead from early in July 2024. Hope it isn’t too wet, the wood. I think I have enough wood stashed away to keep the house warm. I’ve got high BTU live oak stashed away, some medium BTU red cedar, and the npnedium high Pecan.

Cornelius_Gotchberg wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 6:12 am 33'/~10m Ice Castle rises in Eagle River, WI (https://madison.com/news/state-regional ... -top-story)
67869c25ce9cb.image.jpg

The Gotch

Are you poking fun at my puny dusting of snow?

SpookyShoe wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 8:21 amAre you poking fun at my puny dusting of snow?

Heck no; feeling sorry for yer Palms (type?) & Elephant Ears, though!

The Gotch

Cornelius_Gotchberg wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 8:41 am

SpookyShoe wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 8:21 amAre you poking fun at my puny dusting of snow?

Heck no; feeling sorry for yer Palms (type?) & Elephant Ears, though!

The Gotch

Sago “palms” ,a Cycad from Asia, pictured are normally hardy to at least 20°. Ancient type of plant from earlier times than the dinosaurs and a distant relative of palms. Florida has a native cycad, the “coontie” and the only one native to North America.

Got another half inch of snow today, and only a little over freezing, so it didn't melt, but is supposed to get into the 40s tomorrow, to melt what is there. I'll get out there later tomorrow, and pull that tarp over the rosemary and sage, and leave it there about a week, seeing what's in the forecast. Tuesday is supposed to be the coldest day we've had in over 2 years - 6°f for the low.

The snow all melted by 1 pm, except for a small amount on the N side of the house (probably gone, by now). I went out there and pulled the tarp over and around the rosemary and sage (though the sage is not looking good), and put the bricks and other weights around it. Supposed to get 2-4" of snow Sunday, after about 3 hours of light rain Saturday. And then the real cold hits...

@pepperhead212 regular garden sage survived winters outdoors here for more than 20 years... Mrs. Rosemary only survives in the greenhouse. Hope all goes well with your plant tarping.

Nothing more than doormat snow here. Have not shoveled anything, although brushing the car off daily for the most part.
We're having a thaw and some rain into Monday, then two cold days dipping to -10C/ 14F - just the edge of that polar vortex nipping close. I must say it's alright being the farthest east, when we do get left out of some stuff.

@bower I wasn't really expecting the sage to survive as long as it already had! Usually I just trim it flat to the ground, and it grows back in the spring. I have a fairly cold resistant rosemary variety - Hill Hardy - but I still want to cover it, when it's getting below 15°, though that one year I left one uncovered, while I covered the other with a trashcan, and both survived 7° f twice that winter. It just got too large to cover that way!

The year I had an old rosemary plant die was winter of 2017/18, which I only remember easily because that was when I
tore the patellar tendon on my R knee, and there was no for me to get out there to cover it (and a friend that would have gone out there and done it, had his second knee replaced, in about the same time frame!). So in spring, I ordered a bunch of things from Richter's herbs - the Hill Hardy RM, some large leaf sage, and that Syrian Oregano (thyme scented oregano), and a couple thyme varieties I didn't have success with. All the rest are still producing well, 6 years later.

Snow chance here seems to be getting more likely. Monday evening into Tuesday afternoon is the timing.

Helped my folks winterize their house and tender foliage today.

Tomorrow I’ll do the same thing at my place although the pipes are already done.

Pretty mild today with the high around 66°. Similar tomorrow. I put the tomato seedlings outside in the breeze today.

The high for today was around 50F then the artic blast moved in. Now we have snow and it is down to 13F/-11C and still dropping. This is probably the warmest we will be for the rest of the weekend. They are forecasting a low of -10F for Sunday night. Ours is an old house so deep cold means the house can get rather cold especially near the outside walls. I am glad to have seed catalogs to curl up with as we are not going anywhere for a few days. Have the makings for chili, and gumbo and other hearty soup/stew like meals and the dogs have fresh chews, We have papers if need be for the little puppy. The adults know to run do their business and rush back in the open door where a freezing human will be yelling hurry, up hurry up.

@pepperhead212 most of the Salvias are not hardy here.
But Salvia officinalis, which is quite woody, is able to survive without cutting back. The leaves do wither, but most branches survive and put new leaves out in spring. (my seeds came from Richters as well).
Here's hoping your large leaf Sage is okay with this winter blast!

going arctic here,

after a rather balmy high 30s day yesterday, we will be getting some below zero degree days
where the HIGH, might be zero. won't start warming up again until later next week.
currently around 11 degrees with light snow. we will be getting snow over the next few days too.
not a lot at one time, just every day. we have had 120 inches of snow to date. about an average
year for us if we reach 200 inches for the year. wood stove is cranking.


keith