Author: Cat C L

Another cold front came thru last night.  At 5PM yesterday we were at 40 degrees, it was downhill since then.  We’ve been at freezing or below since 9PM.  And we’ve been at 22/23 degrees since about 6AM today.  Its now 10:30 AM and its still 22/23 degrees.  The weather is just hovering between the two temps.  Though the good news is its been more in the 23 degree mark.

At this rate we’ll be able to grow apples in this region easily.  It has definitely been a cold winter here.

Its now after 1:30 PM and we’ve only hit 25.  I won’t bet on making it to 40 today.  And our low for tonight is supposed to be 27/28 degrees.  We’ll have to warm up to make that!

Okay, at 5PM we still only made it to a high today of 28, still below freezing.  They say we should still be a low tonight of 27/28.  That would mean the temperature should be steady from now thru the night.  We’ll see if that happens.  I’m betting on another cold night.

Weird.  We hit a high of 61 yesterday (Thursday).  Today (Friday) at 10:45 AM its already 60.  And yet next week we might hit a low of 27.  So who know what the weather will bring.

Sorry, didn’t post this on Friday.  Now its Saturday (the day before Super Bowl Sunday football game).  At 9:30 AM it is already 66 degrees outside.  Tomorrow night (Sunday night) it should be down to freezing and later this week we should hit freezing nights again.  Quite a roller coaster of weather.

Its 2:30 pm and we have made it up to 31, almost up to freezing.  The drive way is looking better, and I’ve even seen one car drive down on the street.  But tonight is due to get down to 24 so any moisture left on a road will freeze up once again.  Hard to believe that Thursday we should get to 66 and Friday to 77.

Weird weather!

Well, they warned us of another cold snap and we got it.  We woke up this morning to a layer of ice on the driveway, the walk ways, the back patio, all hard surfaces.  We are, at least for the time being stuck in the house.  Good thing we did our Costco run yesterday.

Weird weather.

Yes I know, its been a while.  But we made it thru the holidays – Christmas and New Years.  We’ve made it into the 2014 successfully.  Now about this weather.  Its been a bit of a roller coaster.  Just about the new year we had cold weather – really cold for this area.  We had some nights down to low 20’s with the days staying pretty cold too.  But then the cold front would leave and we would warm back up.  For example last Thursday and Friday it was cold, cold enough for snow and sleet here at the house.  But yesterday, Saturday we made it up to about 65.  Last night it only go down to 45 and is expected to warm up to mid 70’s today.  But we have another cold front coming in tomorrow night.  Monday should be almost 50 degrees, but that night we should get down to 26 and Tuesday night we should get down to 23.  But next Thursday it should be 66 and 47.

We were gone from Jan 4-20 and did a pretty good job of making sure everything was covered in plant blankets.  We these cold fronts we are getting I had best check and make sure everything is still well covered.  Also with these alternating cold nights and warming days cedar season is in full bloom.  It is sometimes tough for me to even go outside its affecting my breathing so much.  I watched a news report that said this is a bad year for cedar pollen and that some people are landing in the emergency room and even getting bronchitis from it.  Not the best of weather.

Yes, its been a while.  I know.  I haven’t posted as much as I should.

So what’s been going on here?  Well, we’ve had some cold weather.  We had a week long cold front with night time temperatures down to 24.  Some day time temps that barely made it above freezing.  It kept us cool/cold with temperatures around 30 degrees below our normal.  But it has had one advantage – my tomato plant has finally died.  I was going to keep it wrapped up and warm but I decided not to.  I don’t want it in that same place next year – its in a plastic raised planter.  But the planter got moved from one stop to another, and its not in a good spot at the moment.  So I left it unwrapped and let the cold freeze the plant back.  Its not a nice dead looking plant.  Now I can try to get the tomato cages out of it.  The tomato plants had grown into the cages so well I couldn’t get the cages out until the plants died.  So now when we get some warm day I will go out and pull up the cages.  Also, some of the cages broke under the weight of the plants so I need to just get rid of them.  Another reason why I wanted to tomato plants to die back.

On the good news my broccoli is still growing and so is the lettuce.  I am a bit surprised at the lettuce.  The weather has been below freezing, but the lettuce that is growing hasn’t frozen.  Live and learn.  So I’m thrilled with that.

The yard guys have put more dirt into the four raised planters they built.  They has used extra dirt we had, but did not have enough dirt to fill the planters properly.  Since the planter area was dug down, then 12″ (or taller) stone sides were built around the area, the planter depth is more then 12″ deep.  So when I say some didn’t have enough dirt, I mean 2 had okay soil depth, 1 definitely needed more soil and the fourth planter had about 10″ of dirt over maybe half the planter and the other half had only a couple of inches of dirt.  So they needed to finish filling the planters.  Now when late winter/early spring planting time comes, I’ll have places to put plants.  Yeah for my side.

What weather we’ve been having.  We’ve started having freeze warning.  We’ve been covering plants.  And so far so good.  Yesterday I picked 2.5 lbs of tomatoes from the plant.  But considering todays weather, that may be the last I will get from it.  Its 10 AM and its 38 degrees and raining, blowing rain.  Let’s just say this cold came earlier then I thought it would and I didn’t get the plants covered last night.  I thought we were supposed to get cold tonight, not last night.  So it looks like I’m off one night, and I may not get any more tomatoes because of that.  That’s okay.  Its not the end of the world if I lose the plant.  There’s always next  year.

update:  Its now 5pm, 35 degrees and a wind chill of 28.  We went out and covered the plants since its supposed to stay cold. Down jackets helped a lot.

Tomatoes are ripening!!  Today I picked tomatoes.  I’m making home made tomato sauce, with home grown tomatoes.  I probably need more tomatoes to do this with, but we’ll use what we have and see how it goes.  Since I’m only feeding two, its not like I need a lot.  I guess its spaghetti for dinner tonight.

I’m also trying desserts for Thanksgiving.  I’ve read recipes that use puff pastry so I’m trying puff pastry topped with sliced apples, sugar and butter.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m hoping it goes well.  we’ll see.  But if it does, its incredibly easy to make dessert this way.  Literally, put the puff pastry down on a sheet pan (I lined it with non-stick aluminum foil, didn’t have parchment paper), top it with sliced apples, sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter then cook at 400 for 40 minutes.  Easy!!  Now I just hope it tastes good too.

Good news, we have a bridge.  We now have a way to get over the “creek” we get in the back yard when it rains.  Its a wood bridge, about 8-10 feet long, with a slight arch, and about 3 feet wide.  It sits on a concrete base on one side, near the house, and on blocks on the other side, near the garden.  Its unfinished wood so it will need to be sealed some how.  That’s not happening today.  We are due for rain Monday thru Wednesday so we’ll get a chance to see how well it works.

Other bits of good news:  the tomatoes are ripening and we finally ate the watermelon.  The watermelon was only about the size of a softball, more a personal size then a family size.  But it was sweet and good.  We’ll try to grow some again next year.  The tomatoes are now starting to ripen in larger quantities.  I plucked over half a dozen to day and there are many more getting color.  There are still a lot that are green, but it looks like we may finally get our crop of tomatoes.

I was at Lowes the other day and picked up seeds by Seeds of Change.  We’ll give some of those seeds a try next year.  Yes, I’m already thinking about what to grow next year.  Considering how things grow here, I figure I can’t start thinking too early about it.  Its November and I have tomatoes ripening, broccoli growing, peas starting to grow, and lettuce growing.  The pomegranate tree still has fruit on it and I expect next year will be a larger crop there.  I think I need to be thinking about next  year this year.  At the rate I’m going, I’ll be starting plants in the green house late January or early February.

Got another drencher last night.  Right around 4AM we got rain.  In about an hour we got 2.3″ of rain.  At least everything is well watered now.  There’s still a small chance of more rain today, then our next chance of rain in Wednesday.  Then we have 50% chance for it.  Could make for a messy Halloween for the kids.

This year we should have a few kids trick or treating.  It seems our neighbor is doing a hay ride for their kids to take them around the neighborhood to trick or treat.  Since we don’t have many kids in the neighborhood, it would make it easier for the parents if they all get together.  Bill’s thinking about driving the tractor down to the bottom of our driveway in his gorilla suit to hand out candy to the kids.  The kids might like that.

The yard is slowly shaping up.  Our bottom drainage problem area seems to have been fixed.  The regraded the area, got rid of the rocks and gravel, laid down seed then a mat to hold it in place.  And now the grass seems to be growing well and the water is flowing to the storm drain.  So it looks like that area is no longer a problem.  With the rain we seem to be getting, I’m glad.

I still have green tomatoes.  The weather has been cooler, in the 70’s so hopefully they will ripen.  I’m not sure what to do with green tomatoes.  Oh, and the basil plants are happy, green and lush.  The peppers are still growing too.  So I do have stuff growing.  The broccoli is getting big too.  I put in a couple of pea seeds, so we’ll see if they grow.

Pat came over yesterday, hopefully he’ll be able to come over to help Bill today too.  Pat said his father has been diagnosed with dementia.  He said his mother had broken her knee and is in rehab/convalescent place healing.  With the problems with the father she’s not too keen on coming home soon.  Can’t say I blame her.  Apparently the father is having a few paranoia issues.  I’m sure its making life hard for Pat since he still lives with them.  At this point they need him there.  I gather from from Pat said yesterday one of his sisters lives at home now too.  Probably good, she can help with the parents too since Pat’s work takes him out of town sometimes.