Posted on 12/09/2016 7:58:30 PM PST by greeneyes
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I simply could not live as far north as you do. In fact, I wish I had moved south at times.
It gets harder every year. I am only up because I woke up an hour ago and our daughter was not home yet from her second shift job. She just walked in. Just worked late and it was a nasty drive home PLUS we have a steep driveway and sometimes we don’t make it up.
I lived in southern Illinois while at college. Too many snakes.
I find that another year older means that it’s harder to keep warm.
The Baker Seed catalog arrived this week. It’s the earliest since we started doing business with the Mansfield, MO company in several years.
Check out rare seeds.com
I agree, hubby even who hardly ever gets cold is feeling it.
It is 19 degrees this morning with snow on the way Sunday night and Monday. I still have to wrap the hives today, but first, work on the inside of the coop.
I got my catalog yesterday. Haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. I get almost all my seeds from them - Mo. based company!
I think I’m going to buy an electric blanket to wrap up in while I’m sitting at the computer. LOL
Cool here in Florida, according to the natives. Some of the natives look like they are Nanook of the North for the ‘cold’ (low here last night was 50 going to 72 today).
Wood chippers got a bad rap from that movie “Fargo” LOL.
They are most likely a hybrid English walnut.
Black walnuts have a much thicker and harder husk than the English variety.
I don’t think even San Franciscans are loopy enough to plant black walnuts along streets.
Those black walnuts could easily dent a car when they fall.
We have Black walnut all over the place around here.
We had ten or twelve on the farm. Most were 50-60 feet tall.
When the nuts fall from the tree they are covered by a thick green husk.
We would throw them on the driveway and run over them for weeks.
The husk would turn black and start to dry.
Once most of the husk had been removed we would gather them up and spread them in a sunny spot to dry a little..
Once they had dried a bit we would start cracking them.
Unlike the English walnut the black walnut has a very hard shell.
It required a hammer, an anvil and much sweat to crack black walnuts.
You could always tell when someone was husking walnuts because their fingers would look like they had been staining furniture without gloves.
Took a week or so to wash the stain off.
We would take a couple of gallons to town and sell them by the cup.
Some years those walnuts paid for Christmas.
LOL. Well I guess all is relative, and depends on what you get used to. At fifty degrees, I just throw on a sweater and dash out to the car or mailbox.
I still have the newspapers from the ‘78 storm - when it hit my small town it basically cut off all communication with the outside world for a few days. EVERYONE was helping everyone else in digging out and making sure people were ok. Getting snow off roofs - there was one partial collapse... The papers had articles about truckers (I think 2 or 3 I’ll have to recheck) parking under the overpasses, getting drifted in and suffocating. As with any major weather event I’m sure that some places were hit much different then others.
Interesting the thing about meterologists - I imagine they love the science so much they still want to be involved or view it.
I have two rose bushes I replanted and one seemed to have taken well but the other is questionable as to it making it before winter. I put a milk container over one and a vinegar container over the other. I punched holes in order to place metal spikes to keep it in place through wind and bad weather.
My neighbor came over last month to comment on my blooming Azalea and as she left she said, "Better move it before winter." Well I didn't. I might regret ignoring her last words.
I did go out with 6 tall metal spikes and put them around the plant. I then took bubble wrap and wrapped it all the way around the plant. (going inbetween the spokes of the spikes)I then took leaves and put them at the base of the Azalea up to its first branches. I guess this Spring I'll see if I did the correct thing.
I wish I had kept newspapers from the 1980 storms. That 21 inches overnight was the most I ever experienced in Missouri. Had several like that when I lived in S. Dakota.
Thanks for your post. Sounds like the winter prep is pretty good. I sometimes use double row covers with straw added as the weather gets colder. I grew a whole bunch of lettuce and greens that way one winter.
I also have painted milk jugs or soda bottles black, filled with water, and placed them around the edges of the planting bed. If a bed is placed close to rocks or blocks that are situated where the sun can hit them, that works too. The heat built up during the day helps keep the temp warmer at night.
I learned something new this week. If you’re sensitive to certain fabrics, don’t EVER trust a set of earplugs that doesn’t say on the packaging what they’re made from!
I thought wearing earplugs might keep the medicine I put in my ears from dripping out. Woke up the next morning and one ear was swollen shut, the other was almost shut. I had to take a sick day from work because of it. The swelling went down, thank God, but my ears are still ringing a little.
Glad the swelling is down. I wouldn’t have thought about such a big reaction from earplugs either.
What a unique idea. You-all amaze me here. It makes perfect sense and I have several blocks I’m not using that were in the back of my truck. I went over board a couple winters ago for blocks to give weight in the back of my pick up truck. It didn’t seem to have helped. Driving a truck takes some time on rain and snow. LOL Looks like I’ll be moving blocks.
I totally understand I went further. When my son was in swimming classes all the parents were using the ear plugs you roll in a ball and then take them out after the lesson. Well, on July the 4th (Of course on a Holiday) my son comes down with a horrible earache. To make a long story short we were sent to the emergency room to have his ears, both vaccuumed out. Those kind of plugs we were told needed to have been OFF the market. The doctore informed out that flakes break off inside the ears everytime they are used. I felt like a terrible mother!
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