Damned scary weather...

[OldHorseman]

   Under the long-handles, flannel shirt, and heavy coat, I'm bronzed as an injun 'cause, up until a few days ago, it was hot & sunny shirtless workin' weather... Now it's slipping into the teens at night again!

   Bad enough what this is doing to my fruit trees... But my best mare just went into the nursery paddock full-time today. She's due in around ten days. Hopefully she won't go early and have the thing before the warm comes back.  I don't want a flash-frozen foal!

   You'd think that breeding for April and May foals would mean I didn't have to worry about this sort of thing.

[Michelle]

I had shorts and a tank top on one day and a leather jacket on a few days later.
Wierd. My poor kid had already brought home most of her winter wardrobe.
She froze.

[Nicole]

Stupid weather.  Weeks of work down the toilet and I gotta do it all AGAIN.  If this stuff was established, I might lose a crop and keep going, but I suspect the new vines and trees are toast.  I guess I'll find out when they leaf out again... or not.

[bruce from chicago]

Nicole, I feel your pain. I just planted a bunch of fruit trees and all but two started to bud before this cold wave hit. I talked to some local orchard people and they said the plants should recover, but they might require some heavy pruning. I’m just gald I decided to wait on my Grapevines that I’ll be putting in - that would have been disastrous and very expensive as some are newly released hard to get wine varieties.

[lady-t]

i lost both my baby goats due to the cold and the fact their mother isn't putting out enough milk.  she put out some milk just not enough to feed them good enough to keep their bodies warm.  if it had been warm they would have been a little hungry, but they probably wouldn't have died. 

my plants weren't set out yet, they all got brought into the house.  i only had 6 plants started at this time. so it was easy.   

i lost all my peaches and apples and pears due to the cold. i had a good crop coming on for sure and then this.  i am sure they are toast.  maybe i will be lucky and still get a few.

[OldHorseman]

   I just know Rush Limbaugh is gonna be on the air today sayin' "So much for that Global Warming nonsense!" 

    Asshat bastard.

[bruce from chicago]

Inconsistent weather is a large part of global warming. This freeze would not have been bad if we did not have such a long warm period in March. This is going to very difficult to plan for. Do you go with later fruiting verities that should miss the last bad frost, only to get whacked by an early fall frost? Hard to say at this point. Welcome to “interesting times”.

[Chip Haynes]

It's been cooler here in west central Florida this week than it was last Christmas. I wanna call Al Gore, laugh and hang up.

[volterwd]

   Under the long-handles, flannel shirt, and heavy coat, I'm bronzed as an injun 'cause, up until a few days ago, it was hot & sunny shirtless workin' weather... Now it's slipping into the teens at night again!

   Bad enough what this is doing to my fruit trees... But my best mare just went into the nursery paddock full-time today. She's due in around ten days. Hopefully she won't go early and have the thing before the warm comes back.  I don't want a flash-frozen foal!

   You'd think that breeding for April and May foals would mean I didn't have to worry about this sort of thing.

The teens?

So its hot out?

[Nicole]

Do you go with later fruiting verities that should miss the last bad frost, only to get whacked by an early fall frost? Hard to say at this point. Welcome to “interesting times”.

I say go with a mix of things.  You want the longest fresh harvest possible for your area anyway, so you want to a) succession plant b) practice as close to 4 season gardening as you can for your area, and c) choose a mix of items that produce crops at different times.  Maybe you lose you peaches and apples one year, but your fall raspberries and persimmons will bring you fruit.  Your indoor dwarf citrus tree can supplement.  Et cetera.

Plus, of course, put your crop up in good years.  You never know when a lean year will come.

[OldHorseman]

   Well, the ol' grey mare has held off foaling so-far, and I think we're finally moving out of this freak cold-snap... (I hope.)

   Late-blooming varieties isn't really much help in livestock...  My last foal was born in early May, and the poor thing almost roasted in the heat.  This one's due mid-April, and I'm worried about it getting chilled.

   Show and race horse breeders go to great lengths to have foals born in Jan and Feb for technical reasons... Even though it means needing to have heated indoor foaling stalls.  This year, there was plenty of nice weather in Jan, and we're freezing in April.

[PeakEngineer]

It stayed warm enough in Florida, but it seems a lot of the country was his pretty hard:

http://charlotte.com/115/story/78479.html

It's definitely some unnerving weather...

[Michelle]

I was thinking about putting the garden in on Tuesday, but it's going to be in the
30's again Sunday night. Sigh.

[OldHorseman]

   I intentionally put my spuds in late, as I've had them frost-burned before...  So long as they haven't grown up above ground level, they'll be fine.

   One week 'til the big mare's due date. Supposed to be rain this weekend. Hope the ol' girl has the sense to wait for a break in the weather.  But she's commencin' to look kinda' ripe already.

[Michelle]

Hoss is goona be a BABY'S DADDY!!!!! Have you got any names picked out?
YOU WILL take pictures right?!?!?!?