Good grief.
Yeah, the thermometer shows it’s gotten warmer, but we’ve got another bit of a storm happening. The winds are quite as severe as a few days ago, but with more snow.
When I headed out this morning, we were at -26C/-15F, but the wind chill was at -39C/-38F I spent as little time outside as possible! Basically, just give the outside cats non-frozen food (their food trays are filled with frozen kibble) and warm water, and that’s it. I did manage to get a few pictures, including a show of this gorgeous girl.
I want to pet her. I want to brush the mats out of her fur.
I want her to not be pregnant.
I assume she is, as the boys are leaving her alone, now, though when I checked out the bathroom window last night, I saw some shenanigans happening with Midnight and a female I couldn’t make out under him; definitely not a big fluff ball like Brussel. I wasn’t going to even try interrupting them, since that would just scare cats outside into the cold.
As I write this, we have warmed up to -19C/2F with a wind chill of -32C/-25F This time, the wind is coming up from the south at 34km/h21m/h, though we certainly have higher gusts that I can see blowing past my window.
We are supposed to reach a high of -17C/1F I don’t know what time of day they use to determine when the high happens, though, as the temperatures are supposed to continue warming slightly, to reach -15C/5F by about 10pm tonight, and stay there until about 2am, when we’re supposed to cool down. The “high” of tomorrow is supposed to be -19C/2F, but that’s supposed to be at about 5am, and things are supposed to keep cooling down for the rest of the day.
Thursday, at least, we’re supposed to have a high of -15C/5F. I got mixed up and was thinking that’s when we’re taking a couple of cats in for a spay and a neuter, but that’s on the 30th. This Thursday is a follow up doctor’s appointment for my daughter. Her appointment isn’t until 3pm, though, and we’re supposed to get snow again, starting Thursday evening and continuing all through Friday. Friday, however, is supposed to have a high of -3C/27F!! Then, on the 28th, we’re supposed to actually go above freezing!
If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, things should stay pretty mild, with only one or two days below -20C/-4F in February.
I certainly home so.
This polar vortex may have some other negative effects that we won’t know about until spring. While our Liberty apple tree is planted in a sheltered spot, and protected someone with an anti-deer wrap, it’s still a zone 4 fruit tree. These temperatures may have killed it.
Our winter sowing experiment may also be affected. While the sown garden beds did get a thick layer of mulch, they would also have benefited from a thicker layer of snow to insulate them. We just don’t have a lot of snow this year (which is NOT a complaint!). Some seeds, like the onion seeds, I’m sure will survive just fine. Others, I’m not so sure!
Well, we’ll see in the spring. Once things warm up and melt away enough, I’ll remove the mulches. Then we’ll see whether I’m making a mistake by not buying more seeds this year.
Oh, who am I kidding. I am sure there are some seeds out there I will end up buying!
With the cold, the snow and the winds, I am cheering myself up by thinking garden thoughts!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
It never even reached above freezing here today. I’m waiting to see if we are or are not going to get snow. It keeps bouncing back and forth between yes and no..Currently they are in the yes category. If it does, it will lay as the ground is frozen solid.
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Weather whiplash!!!
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Absolutely. I had to go purchase the ingredients for a cobbler for my son and got into a conversation with the lady checking out my groceries on how a lot of people don’t wear scarves any more and she was surprised to see that I did. Personally I love my scarves ;)
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I rarely wear them, as my parka covers my neck very well with the hood up – but I can’t breathe if I have a scarf over my face!
I just got back in from giving the outside cats their evening food and water. The wind chill is -35C/-31F right now. It’s blowing in from the south, which is our least protected direction. Snow is actually getting into the gap in the sun room doors, and the kibble house bowls all have snow in them.
I went to put my phone on its charger and realized my hands were shaking from the cold! I’m sitting right next to a little heater, now. Our poor furnace is really struggling to keep this place warm!
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Right now I’m not sure whether I’m glad or disappointed. Texas and up the coast through Louisiana, and Florida I know got many inches of snow while we got a very slight dusting. I know it means the roads are safer and I’ll be able to take mom to her eye exam tomorrow but the big kid/photographer in me was hoping for some good landscape shots in the woods. But, since that didn’t happen here, I’m ready for Spring and warmer weather. As it is now, I’m going to have to find another water bowl for the outside cats because I broke theirs this morning trying to get the ice out of it to fill with water.
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Oh, no!
Many of our trays and bowls for the outside cats are old kitchen items, like stainless steel frying pans with the handles broken off, or drip trays from broiler pans. The one good thing about those is, you can bash them on the ground to knock the ice off, and they handle it just fine.
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