Thursday, October 12, 2006, 20:11
Hot -N- Cold
"Boy," Randy said, "it sure is *hot* out here!"
"Isn't it," I said. "I can't believe how *warm* it is."
"Hasn't been this *warm* in a long time," Randy replied.
"I'm so *hot* I'm going to have to take off my coat," I said.
I looked at Randy. He looked at me.
Talking about heat and warmth hadn't helped. I still felt freezing cold. So did Randy.
Our little conversation took place Thursday night while we were outside getting ready to feed the horses.
If I thought it was bad out yesterday, today is worse.
The HIGH temperature this afternoon is 30 degrees with a 30 mph wind out of the west that is driving snow flurries ahead of it at a furious rate. The windchill is probably around 10 degrees.
A 10 degree windchill. On Oct. 12.
And not only that, but we have a dusting of snow on the ground. The ground is starting to freeze, too.
I did not have the foresight to pick my red bell peppers. I really did not think it would get this cold. They are frozen now. So -- I am going to just pick them, put them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer.
What's left of my tomatoes are frozen, too. I am also going to pick the tomatoes, put them in freezer bags and put them in the freezer. I will be able to make use of them later on for spaghetti sauce or for stewed tomatoes.
My wild grapes are frozen, too. But that's all right. If I can pick them before they thaw and start to rot, I'll still be able to make some grape jelly. Don't know if I want to be up on the ladder today, though, in a 30 mph west wind. For one thing, I might not stay on the ladder long. Or rather, the ladder might not stay upright for long, and if it falls over, I'm afraid I would go with it. And for another thing, *I* might be frozen before I am finished. Better that the grapes are frozen than me, I always say.
This is unusually cold weather for October. Yes, we often get some snow in October. But not the cold wind and the cold air temperatures along with it. This is more like an end-of-November day. Or an early December day. Not a it's-not-even-the-middle-of-October day.
With any luck at all, this will not be one of those "the bottom dropped out of the temperature in October and stayed out for the rest of winter" kind of things. But you never know. It has happened before that it turned very cold in October and stayed cold until the following May.
The year before my dad died, 1991, was the year of the Great Halloween Snowstorm. It snowed 10 inches on October 31, and the snow stayed until spring, with quite a bit of other snow piled on top of it.
The kitties are having an in-and-out day. They desperately want to go outside, and then as soon as they get outside, they desperately want to come back inside. They wait for a while, then they want to go outside and a minute later, they want to come back inside. It is as if they cannot believe that the weather has turned so cold and nasty.
I don't blame them.
I can hardly believe it, either!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 17:05
Winter Weather
Would someone please explain to me how it could be a nice, sunny, fall day on Tuesday -- not too warm and not too cold -- but now today, it has turned to winter?
This morning there was no doubt about it -- it was snowing. Not some light flurries. Not the "heavy rain" type of thing when you wonder if it is almost snow.
No, this morning it was definitely snow. Big thick white flakes driven by a strong west/northwest wind. The air filled with swirling snowflakes. Showers of snow that came from the west driven ahead of the wind, snowing sideways.
I should have brought all my potted geraniums in yesterday when it was nice out. But no. I waited until today when we've got blizzard conditions with a gale force wind.
I loaded the geraniums up in the wheelbarrow and wheeled them around to the side of the house and put them in the basement. I hope the change to a warmer climate isn't going to bother them too much.
Monday night it got downright cold -- temperatures in the 20s. The dog's water bucket and the horses' water buckets were covered with ice Tuesday morning. I had to fish out a quarter inch of ice so the dogs and the horses could drink.
I might have known that ice on the water buckets would mean the weather was going to turn to winter soon. (To be honest, I didn't think it would be *this* soon.)
Monday night I had the foresight to cover all of my geraniums. When I put them in the basement today, they looked okay. Not wilted or frozen or anything.
Can't say the same for the rest of the tomatoes. I simply have not had time to pick the tomatoes, so I imagine there will be plenty going to waste.
I'm going to have to try to get my squash in, too. The squash didn't do very well this year. They went dormant during the drought conditions and were late setting squash on the vines. I haven't had an opportunity to cut one open to see if they are ripe. There's only a few out there, anyway.
Even though most of the trees have lost their lovely leaves, I am surprised to see that some of the aspen and birch still are bright-yellow. It seems strange to have so much bright yellow in the landscape along with snow at the same time.
Poor little Isabelle doesn't quite know what to make of the weather change. She stood in her shelter this morning and wasn't sure she wanted to come out for her grain. She did eventually and then chewed it up really fast so she could go back into her shelter and eat hay out of her hay bag.
Later on, when I was carrying the geraniums inside, I saw that Isabelle was standing on the east side of her shelter out of the wind. The sun was trying to peak out a tiny bit, so I suppose she wanted to stand in the sun -- what little there was of it.
The morning glories have had it, too. After we got some rain in August, a thicket of Morning Glories from last year's seed sprouted around the bird feeder post. Every morning for the past month, small purple flowers have been blooming. The Morning Glories are black and wilted today.
One thing about it, though. Now that it we've had snow, we can have Indian Summer! My mother always said it wasn't Indian Summer until we'd had some snow.
LeAnn R. Ralph