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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 26, 2021 13:49:35 GMT -6
We hit 79 yesterday at one point. Thankfully our house didn’t heat up too much, though we did close the blinds on the southern window to help. I heated our Christmas ham in the crock pot instead of the oven to help keep the heat down, though I did use the oven for scalloped potatoes with chard, and an apple pie.
This warm weather is making me nervous about my perennial plants and trees. After losing the cherry last year during the hard freeze because it wasn’t dormant, I worry that we’ll have some kind of cold snap, and it will harm the trees because they haven’t gotten that gradual hardening that happens with frosts and freezes in late fall. I don’t like seeing my blueberries flower at this time of year. I’ve never seen that since I’ve had them. A couple of my fall-planted lettuce plants have even bolted, it’s been so warm.
Even with all this beautiful (though perhaps not beneficial) weather, I haven’t been doing much in the garden. Cedar pollen is thick down here, and I’m feeling it something awful. I will be sticking to sleeping in my bedroom with a HEPA air purifier running. I’d really be grateful for a good rainstorm to wash some of the pollen out of the atmosphere, but it’s looking to be warm and fairly dry coming up. There is some humidity in the air, but it’s not the cleansing rain I’d love to get.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2021 16:56:13 GMT -6
Fleas love it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 27, 2021 10:57:11 GMT -6
I just took a peek at the extended forecast. The NOAA is calling for a low of around 17 degrees this coming Saturday night, and a high of only 34 degrees on Sunday afternoon. If that's true, our plants and animals will be in for quite a shock! It was so warm this morning that I went out to feed the chickens and to gather the eggs with no jacket on. I walked down to the garden and noticed that the wind was changing from the Southwest to the Northwest, so I came back inside to check the forecast to see what was going on. There is a strong cold front moving Southeast, from Alaska and British Columbia.
Good thing I checked. Our propane is at 20% capacity. By next week, it would probably be around 10%. If I waited to place an order it would probably coincide with the cold front and cause me to be put on a two week waiting list. Between it coming up on the end of the month pay day, and cold weather on the way, every family with a propane tank will be ordering by week's end.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2021 12:37:19 GMT -6
Thanks for that. Good to hear. This warm weather is just wrong. I stopped looking because I didn't want to be disappointed.
Maybe we can get some RAIN too. K. I'ma stop complaining.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 27, 2021 17:26:13 GMT -6
Your message got me to take a look at the revised forecast. We’ve got a forecast for 29 for the low on Sunday night. It will be interesting to see if it finally freezes here. heavyhitterokra, I think you mentioned once that our coldest weather seems to come from the Pacific Northwest. I have a gardening acquaintance up there, and he’s being hit with some unusually frigid temperatures this week.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2021 4:43:11 GMT -6
Let the dog out. The wind is very cold and there was a wee bit of sleet. Felt a little more normal.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 29, 2021 14:38:41 GMT -6
Now, the NOAA is calling for a low in the 10 to 11 degree range for Saturday night. That is hard to imagine after so many warmer than usual days. I guess like everything else in life, we'll just have to wait and see, but it's best to be prepared for the worst possible situation. Better safe than sorry.
Looks like I beat the rush on the propane order. They delivered it yesterday. Last year, I ran low on propane in February, right before that heavy snow and the negative 15 degree temperatures that came with it. Our propane delivery guy wrecked his truck in the snow and it took several days for our order to arrive. Everyone was backed up on orders by then, so it would have done no good to re-order from a different supplier. As a result, our plumbing froze and busted. We had to remodel our kitchen in the months that followed. This year, I am way more cautious.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2021 20:01:03 GMT -6
I'm sorry that happened to ya last year. Y'all did a wonderful job and the results were beautiful. We're more prepared too. I think the drafty house kept the pipes warm, but I'll be turning on the taps just in case.
I have secondary rabbit water bottles on the ready should it get that cold again. Last winter was really stressful, but learned from it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 29, 2021 21:49:31 GMT -6
At least it looks like the cold snap will be short-lived. Our poor animals ... Going from 77 degrees last week to 11 degrees Saturday night has got to be tough on them.
If the weatherman is not lying, the high on New Year's Day is forecast to be 61 degrees, and the low that night is forecast to be 11 degrees. That's a 50 degree drop within about an 18 hour period of time. That makes me wonder what the record temperature drop for a single day is?
It's really hard to imagine that the ground warmth right now could actually allow that to happen. If nothing else, it will be an interesting weekend.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 31, 2021 16:44:49 GMT -6
Phew. I feel sorry for those animals, too, but I know you provide for them well. We’re currently forecast for freezing temperatures tomorrow night and a hard freeze on Sunday night. Sometimes we are higher than the forecast (and sometimes lower), but I went ahead today and took the opportunity to harvest what I think really will be the last of the heat lovers this time. (It’s my third “last harvest” at this point.) I did leave some small peppers on the plants just in case I’m wrong again. It’s a bunch of hot peppers, new potatoes, roselle calyces, and sweet peppers and tomatillos. I could probably have left them all one more day, but this gives me time tomorrow to make up a batch of salsa verde, I hope.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2021 17:33:39 GMT -6
So awesome that you can get all those goodies this late in the year. I don't have peppers but my lavender and rosemary spring transplants had a chance to really root in and grow beneath the warmth. Little Miss and I staked some pool noodles and tossed some frost covers over them. Them being on the outside of the fence, just might see someone try to steal the covers. Ima go check my motion light . . .
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 31, 2021 17:48:42 GMT -6
This has not been a normal year weather-wise here. I thought last year was weird when we didn’t freeze till the end of November as that was a whole month beyond what I had seen before. An additional extra month this year seems almost surreal, especially when I have to start thinking about seed starting for peppers and tomatoes at the end of January!
I’m just growing lavender for the first time this year, and I have some cuttings rooting in water inside at the moment in case it doesn’t make it through the winter outside. (It’s in our cinder block bed in the southwest facing corner of the backyard, so it has some protection.)
I was shocked when we moved to this part of the country to realize that rosemary was not just a culinary herb here but a major landscaping plant. We had a whole bed devoted to it on the south side of the house, and most of it was killed by February’s freeze. Thankfully we still have some surviving plants, and that’s plenty for us. It was weird to cut out the dead rosemary though and to run it through the chipper to turn to mulch. That quantity of woody plant is still surprising to me because of all those years I spent in zone 7a.
Another plant I’m growing for the first time this year is za’atar (Syrian oregano). I have loved using it in cooking and dips, and it’s a small beauty as well (delicate frosty green leaves). I’m hoping it will make it through our hard freeze coming up. I have not had success rooting any cuttings. I should probably grab some new ones tomorrow.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2021 18:40:56 GMT -6
Lavender is one that was on my bucket list. Looking forward to next year. Zataar is good. I had a small seed seller on facebook chide me about zataar once "it's just marjoram". Really hacked me off. He clearly didn't have culinary understanding. I know that Richter's sells seeds from those grown in Israel. I have yet to grow it. But I now know that if I grow it here, it would probably taste different. Weird stuff.
I have tried and tried and tried to get my daughter to send me some Jordanian-grown Zataar seeds. Even more, tried to get her/them to tell me what recipe my ex mother in law used in her zataar spice mix. This is such a massive heirloom for me. I'm so sad I haven't been able to make it happen. the ladies would make a huge batch of dough and make up zataar pockets. The meat pockets were favored, but they always made up a batch of zataar spice rubbed in olive oil and stuffed into pockets. So good.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2022 3:07:38 GMT -6
Here it comes.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 1, 2022 7:57:39 GMT -6
Not Too Purdy Out There.
Thanks, Bon. That temperature map about sums it up. It has been raining continually here since yesterday afternoon at about 4:00 pm. Not hard rain, but steady moderate rain. The dry creek bed behind the house is steadily rising. (Good thing I built a footbridge above the flood plane back in 2015). The forecast for Tahlequah New Year's Day: Rain before 3pm, then freezing drizzle. Temperature rising to near 56 by 9am, then falling to around 33 during the remainder of the day. South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. The chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation is expected.
Tonight a 20 percent chance of snow before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 11 degrees. Wind chill values between zero and 10. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Sunday; mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 29. Wind chill values between -1 and 9. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
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