We got in some more seed catalogs. We continue to plan for green house utilization.
Hubby has purchased the materials to put up a shelf about a foot above the patio door. Then he's going to put up a support to hang a heavy clear plastic curtain up. Putting some straw bales at the sides for insulation, should make for about 24 sq feet of space for shelves to grow stuff all winter, and reduce heating needs.
John Coleman, cofounder of the weather channel and skeptic of man made global warming died recently. I am adding a link to one of his you tube presentations. It was pretty interesting and presented in a humorous and entertaining way.
Al Gore was inspired by a Professor Revelle's paper. Gore made a D in the class, but wrote his first book on climate and won the Senate race. Revelle himself felt the research was not complete and was skeptical of the climate models. Coleman's presentation is below. The first 10-15 minutes are the best of the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=AfAvMrBiqqM&feature=youtu.be
My own research has been very interesting. Climate cycles are more closely correlated with sun activity. It appears that we are entering a Grand Solar Minimum. The last one was a little over 200 yrs ago (that's the usual length of a cycle). It was known as the Dalton minimum. This one has been named the Eddy Minimum. Prepare for cooler weather, increased earthquake and volcanic activity - possible crop failures. Stock up the pantry, and become as self sufficient as possible.
Last year, Europe had a shortage of veggies due to temps that were too cool in Spain. Food riots are happening in the Sudan. For myself, I don't forget that the Big New Madrid quake occurred during the last Solar Minimum.
For now, the slipping pacific plate has had it's pressure relieved mostly in Oklahoma, though we recently had activity close to 3.0.
No need to over hype the cold - the big glacier type ice age is likely thousands of years away. Just plan on the next 20-30 yrs. to be trending colder.
Have a great weekend. Prayers up for all. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Thank you for the post greeneyes & for the video.
It was in the mid 50’s here in Atlanta, GA today with mostly overcast skies. This weekend will be mild with a little rain. Maybe half and inch for the lucky few. We are starting the year out drier than usual. Sure wish I had put that water tank in last fall. :-)It has been fairly cold this winter, but the last two winters were rather warm. The bugs made 2017 spring/summer/fall unbearable, so we need a hard winter.
Today I did walk around the house and beds. No telling what will come up or not. Last year we had ample rain and stuff came up I don’t remember from before. This year I am going to shuffle the veg garden around a bit. The asparagus should be a good show since this will be the 3rd year in it’s bed.
On the climate issue I stand with the Pan Global Climate group. The climate will pan out globally just the way God wants it to in His time. :-)
Hope that green house goes well. It has given me an idea. :-)
Due to the mild temps I will check my containers this weekend. I should have a few things that could be cleaned up since I was harvesting though mid-December.
Can’t believe that chives should be sprouting again in about a month.
Not only is lady Bender looking forward to knee surgery early this year but she slipped, fell and broke one elbow and fractured the other She had surgery Tuesday and is recovering here at home so I may have to learn to spade and plant seed and harvest...
didn’t know John Coleman had died...
Got so cold in early January we had to fire up the fireplace insert to warm up the house after a 3 absence. We have a wood boiler and shut it down and turned on the electric heat backup set at 50 degrees. We returned, the house was 50 degrees, the basement, and the two upper floors. Fired up the boiler but it was too slow, so for the first time in more than a year we also built a fire in the fireplace insert. We had one night in Missouri of 13 below zero. I’ve already burned through a couple of cords of winter wood.
Gardening is a distant dream, but the 37 quarts of salsa we canned is the best yet. Loaded up with jalapeños and lots of fresh limes and some of the grated peel too.
I began boiling down the sap to produce Maple Syrup today. The coming week is a little early but good sap flow conditions seem probable all week long.
I think a 50 year old maple tree counts as a garden plant when it produces maple syrup.
Thanks to moderating temperatures, have been able to plant the daffodil bulbs which have wintered over in the fridge. After only a few days, there are green shoots poking through the ground! Lots of clean up when it stops raining. Mainly the collection of dried leaves which seem to have wandered over to the front door.
The weekend weather was fabulous here in Central Missouri and I took full advantage. Probably overdid it, but I’m behind so I did all I could.
Had seed and fertilizer on hand to top-dress the horse pastures and hay fields. Went to start the old Farmall on Saturday and it wouldn’t. Dragged it out of the barn and over to my workshop. Breaker points were kaput - broken spring - had a new set on the shelf so it didn’t take long to get that going. I spread lespedeza seed and urea fertilizer on the horse pastures, lespedeza/red clover mix on one hay field, and timothy/red clover mix on the other hay field. 20 acres or so between the three fields.
I hooked up the trash pump and drained the pond. Buying a larger pump was a good move. I should be able to keep the water out and hopefully get that project finished when warm weather arrives.
Still need to prune the orchard trees. Maybe this weekend...