It always amazes me to see how much colder you are than we are over here. I’m pretty sure we’re about at the same latitude. It’s incredible how much the lake moderates us compared to you or Steve in Maine. I think our coldest temperature so far has been -1 one morning.
2 Likes
lucky bugger. 
2 Likes
Ha! We do have a couple feet of snow, which is great. I just got back from visiting some of my wife’s family in north-eastern Oklahoma. I think they think we’re a little nuts for living up here, and I kind of think they’re a little nuts for living down there. So I guess that makes us even. My children and I did get to eat some wild maypop fruits and some wild persimmons while we were down there so that was fun. But there winters seem so grey and bleary. And there summers are just so 
. April there’s gorgeous though, here it’s disgusting.
2 Likes
ill take the cold over heat and humidity anytime. we were talking about snowbirding once the wife retires in 8 yrs. she has girl friends in eastern TN and central NC. we have a 22’ 35ft. camper we would live out of. the camping places are looking for workers to maintain the place in trade for free rent to stay there. that would be right up our alley. leave Maine in nov. and come back in may. best of both worlds.
2 Likes
Hear you there. I joke with my wife when I’m rich and shameless I want a house in northern and the southern hemispheres so I could live in eternal winter. Come March though it’s a dangerous thing to say…
1 Like
i really hate mud season more than anything. southeners have no idea. the wet clay here is horrible.
4 Likes
The western Piedmont of NC has a wet clay issue. The earth freezes at night, then moisture condensates when the ground is thawed during the day.
The eastern Piedmont is hell on earth where there is no clay. Chiggers and unidentified ankle and feet biters. The latter did not exist before 1993 and can be worse than chiggers.
1 Like
This is more typical of what i remember winter being. Lots of clipper type systems dropping 1-3 inches. We avg about 45 inches of snow a year and we’ve got to easily be over 10" already. I don’t think we’ve seen an above avg temp day in 2 weeks. This weekend looks horrendous with brutally cold air. Where is my global warming? These past few winters have spoiled us with mild temps and no snow. This is like the mid 90s or early 2000s.
1 Like
deer ticks showed up here about 15 yrs ago and have decimated our moose herd who have no defence. lymes disease also has come with them. before it was too cold for them to survive the winters here.
yep -0 nights in the last 10days. we havent seen it this cold this early in 10 yrs. think its going to be a test year. at least this early cold will harden off the plants early enough so they might not tale as much damage if we see -30. we are also having more snow sticking so it should help protect as well. another 8in. coming tonight. winter forecasts were all off. they said it was going to be mild with average snow.
9-10" last night. I think we’re close to what we had in ‘22. That was a record snowfall year for much of central MN. With snow blowing off the lake to my west, I’ve got 3’ drifts already. It’ll be a tough winter for deer and other critters
1 Like
another 5-9in. tonight. its passing to our east so we will likely get the 9 here. that will put us at about 16in. on the ground. im glad because with this cold we need some protection for some of the more tender plants. the groomers will be going out after this next storm. sledders and skiers are going to have a good season if this holds. will give a needed boost to the local economy that we havent seen in 5-6 years.
1 Like
On the snow and protection from cold topic…I grew some wild pears from MI and IA seed sources. They grew well and I planted them out in year 2 ( I grew them in Roottrapper bags and kept them in a garage the first winter). The winter after I planted them was snowy, and the pears did great the following spring. By that fall they were 5’-6’ tall, the second winter in the ground wasn’t snowy…and all the pears died back to the snow line. They did put on new growth and stayed alive for a couple more years, but eventually they all succumbed to repeated cold injury.
I had the same thing happen with persimmons, and with Chinese and American chestnuts at my old place and here.
I hope your plantings prove hardier than mine did.
1 Like
i suspect dehydration and windburn is what gets you there. we dont get nearly the wind the midwest gets despite similar cold. my orchard up hill at about 400ft. elevation is considered z5a yet i see more damage there as its on a open north westerly slope and gets blasted by wind. ive got 3yr old mature tress i still need to stake or they will get blown over. wind is definitely hard on young trees. someone on here i think from canada said they put a heavy coat of diliuted white latex paint all over their branches and it protects them from the drying wind and freeze damage. its sounds extreme but he might be onto something there. at least when therye young. i think they were from alberta so similar wind issues.
1 Like
It’s over here on the West Coast 
Temps are well above average from San Diego to Seattle. It was nearly 90 degrees in parts of SoCal yesterday.
Unless you’re in the Central Valley, of course. Although there the warmth is contributing to the inversion layer. It’s 25 degrees warmer at 3’000 feet above sea level than on the valley floor right now.
Coming up on nearly a month of fog:
Great for chill hours though.
1 Like
Down south we have a choice. It’s either wet red dirt or gumbo mud. Neither one is a lot of fun. I prefer the red dirt, the gumbo mud the smell is horrible.
1 Like
I’ve had many times where the snow-covered branches of a peach/nectrine tree would be loaded with flowers but the top of the tree would have nothing. The problem is snow here is so unpredictable so can’t really be counted on to protect trees.
3 Likes
i remember the red clay of central A.L from ft. mcclellan. was damned near impossible to get that out of uniforms and gear. we buried a hummer in some in a tank training range. heavy thick stuff to dig . we had to get towed out by a army recovery vehicle. once that stuff dried it was like concrete. we have black swamp mud that stinks like that up here. it leaves a sheen like gas on the top of water.
1 Like
I usually get several loads of what they call “unwashed Gravel “ for my internal roads and my driveway to my Camp. There’s really very little gravel maybe 20 percent it is mostly clay however, after a rain, it settles down and the rocks are on the top and it is hard . Then I’ll follow it up with a load or two of washed gravel costs a lot more per load .But constantly washing the red clay off my truck drives me crazy. The washed Gravel really helps.
2 Likes
i bet that clay makes great pottery though.