Brrrr

[jal_ut]

Re the pot: I went out and found my seed box where I keep seeds that didn't get planted yet, and searched through it. What? No radish seed? Oh well, I planted 4 pea seeds and 7 or 8 spinach seeds. We will see........

[Taiji]

Re the pot: I went out and found my seed box where I keep seeds that didn't get planted yet, and searched through it. What? No radish seed? Oh well, I planted 4 pea seeds and 7 or 8 spinach seeds. We will see........

That's great! It gives me an idea. Planted some lettuce and collards a few days ago to go into a south facing window box later. I wonder if one pea plant will get peas? Does it need another plant to keep it company?

Coldest here so far this season has been 16 degrees. Gotta get down to at least 10 to officially remain in zone 7b. Oh well, still have a couple of months.

[jal_ut]

"I wonder if one pea plant will get peas? Does it need another plant to keep it company? "

Seems to me that peas are self fertile. All they need for pollination is a little shake.

[jal_ut]

The pea seed came up and has grown to about 4 inches tall. It looks pretty spindly. The Spinach has not shown its face yet.

[jal_ut]

Wow! another 8 inches of snow on the sidewalks this morning. Got me huffin and puffin to remove it. Still need to go start the tractor and move the snow off the driveway. Maybe I will wait a while? Its still snowing. Gee, just the 4th of January and I am ready for spring already.

[jal_ut]

It keeps snowing. Now we have about 30 inches out on the garden. We got around 8 inches last night and I went out to start the tractor to move it off the drive and the tractor won't start. Minus 7 degrees F makes it balky. I will have to get the propane heater going to heat it up. Out of propane in the tank. Always something..............

[pomerinke]

Sounds like you're having quite the time out there. I've certainly missed the snow! I would love to be back in the states for a good winter storm.

If you don't mind me asking, where about in Utah? My dad and my uncle grew up there with some family in Milford and Minersville.

[jal_ut]

I am in Paradise, that is ten miles South of Logan. It is a small town. I have a 2 acre lot on the East edge of town, behind me is fields and mountains. I am retired. I keep bees and grow a big garden for something to keep me occupied. Sell at a Farmer's Market in summer. My lot is right at 5000 ft elevation.

[jal_ut]

Those humps are the patio tables.

[Gary350]

19 degrees and snow today. My broccoli, kale, peas, parsley are still doing good. There is a lot of activity to our bird feeder.

[jal_ut]

"There is a lot of activity to our bird feeder. "

Nice. Here the birds are way down in numbers. I usually have around 30 Juncos, this season only 3 or 4. The House Finches and English Sparrows are lacking. I can't imagine unless some farmer put out poison grain to get rid of the Starlings.

[pomerinke]

You're quite a bit further north than where my dad lived. I think my cousin lives in Salt Lake now, but I don't usually keep in touch with him.

I'll have to take a picture of the ocean later today and share with everyone. Maybe it'll warm you guys up.

It hasn't been below 60 at night except for one week in December. Highs are around 75-80, and by about February, They'll be having the Cherry Blossom festivals popping up. The Sakura blossom when the warm air makes its way up the western pacific. It's pretty fun to watch the news follow the trees blossoming all the way up Japan. Starting in Okinawa and all the way up north.

I'm expecting to be able to put my plants out with the blossoms in February.

[digitS']

After another round of overnights in the single digitS', we are supposed to have warming with a loss of our blue, daytime sky as snow clouds move in this afternoon ..!

Some television weather people are hyping the chance of rain. This could actually be a disaster since there is already nearly a foot of snow on the ground and that ground has been frozen since November! The weather station at my closest location is saying 33°f for an hour or two tomorrow. My guess is that if some of what falls from those clouds after 12 hours of snowflakes becomes rain, it will mostly vanish in the snow. Here's keeping my fingers crossed.

I guess that I will drag out the ladder and the roof rake for the deck roof, clear some snow away from the front porch roof, and see if I can move some snow off the structures. It may not be too tuff; the snow falling has been powder these last several weeks. Dry and cold -- trusting that there isn't too much of an ice dam!

: (single) digitS', on both sides of 0°f

[jal_ut]

Minus 4 degs F here this morning. Clear skies, 30 inches of snow on the ground. It is pretty, but not something I want to be out in. Guess I will take the birds some seed and come play on the computer.

[jal_ut]

I put some seed on the bird feeder and immediately about 150 of those Eurasian Doves come and take it over. Whoever let those things loose on this continent sure did a dis-service to the Native birds.

[applestar]

It's cold and snowy here as well but nothing like yours -- 18°F with feels like of 10° and steady tiny flakes accumulating and sticking to the patchy layer from yesterday's wet sticky snow. Street was cleared yesterday but with the freezing temp, the snow is now solidly covering over what was probably slick surface. One of those very quiet kind of days.

[Taiji]

Those humps are the patio tables.

Always nice to see a snowpack like that here in the Southwest. I don't really know the drainage patterns all that well, but I'm hoping the spring thaw will send some of that meltwater down this way!

We had an 8 incher so far this year but it's all gone now.

[gumbo2176]

Well, New Orleans got it's first taste of real winter weather last nigh and again tonight when it hit 28 for a low and will be below freezing again tonight. The wife and I brought in all the potted plants we have on the 2 porches and down on a patio area downstairs. All in all, more than 50 potted plants and some of them were a real chore to move with huge pots and big plants in them.

My beautiful poinsettia suffered the most. It is in the ground in the front yard, is over 5 ft. tall and between 6-7 feet across. Most of it is freeze damaged as far as foliage and it is only a matter of time to see how much the cold damaged the branches. .

[applestar]

Wow thats a bummer, gumbo.

[jal_ut]

"Always nice to see a snowpack like that here in the Southwest. I don't really know the drainage patterns all that well, but I'm hoping the spring thaw will send some of that meltwater down this way! "

All of the drainage from this area and much of Northern Utah ends up in The Great Salt Lake.

[imafan26]

It is 57 degrees right now. Not a minus like some of you have, but my winter clothes is an umbrella, jacket and sweats and my house is designed to leak so the only heat comes from my heating pad. I am feeling very cold right now.

[jal_ut]

Jan 8, 27 degrees F, 3 inches fresh snow. Went out and started my tractor to move snow. The snow is so deep here I can't even drive the tractor through it where it hasn't been previously cleared.

[digitS']

It is 57 degrees right now. Not a minus like some of you have, but my winter clothes is an umbrella, jacket and sweats and my house is designed to leak so the only heat comes from my heating pad. I am feeling very cold right now.

This 115 year old house is considered "energy efficient" by the local utility company. We had the walls and floor insulated - they weren't - and insulation moved in above the ceiling. All but one window was replaced and exterior siding was installed. More could be done. I'd really like to replace doors, inside and out.

The Portland Oregon area is having an ice-storm today. "We are now climbing past 0.2" of ice accumulation here in NE PDX." @NWSPortland

At about 300+ crow flying miles NE and nearly 2,000 feet higher in elevation, we should be far enough away to dodge the rain. At least, I'm sure hoping so !

Steve
snowing hard and in the 20's

[jal_ut]

Rain on top of snow, now that ought to get the water flowing? I don't think the ground is frozen under that thick snow cover we had so perhaps it can go in the ground and not run off too bad?

[gumbo2176]

Wow thats a bummer, gumbo.

It's not nice. I got a chance to look at the plant real good and it is pretty much knocked down, but not out. I'll have to cut about 3+ ft. off of the height of the plant and that will really take a toll on the diameter, but I think it still has good growth about 2 ft. up from the ground. There's only about 2 or 3 stems that still have good foliage and they were deep inside the plant.

Such is life, and it's not the first time this has happened, so I know it can come back.

[sweetiepie]

We are having a record winter for snow fall. Usually January and February are our snow months but we have already reached 57 inches of snow. They keep saying we are to get out of this deep freeze but we are still -19 below and -49 with windchill. Would like the animals to have a break from the cold. But more snow today. Oh, well the snowmobilers are happy.

[applestar]

Oh wow, that must be hard for you when taking care of the animals. I can't even imagine what you'd need to wear bundling up for those kinds of temps. I imagine you'd have to remove them once in the barn, etc. where it is warmer as well as for better movement.

Do you walk on top of all that snow or have you been shoveling -- are you walking in a trough/canyon path between buildings? Riding a vehicle?

[digitS']

We didn't have an ice storm locally altho the sleet was falling not all that far south.

Snow is piled beside my driveway higher than my 3' picket fence and finding places to put it is becoming a little bit of a problem. Fortunately, I was up to (like, on a ladder) getting the snow off the porch roofs, yesterday. There was about 14" to pull off on the north side so now, I don't have to worry so much about the weight.

Maybe 5 inches of snow has fallen over the last 24 hours and it is now 30°f, the warmest it's been this month. A couple more afternoons like this then it will be back in the single ..

. digitS', one side or the other of zero

[sweetiepie]

Um... I don't like coveralls or snowpants. So I just go out in chill chasers (long johns) and jeans, a t-shirt with a sweatshirt and usually just a fleece flannel shirt over the sweatshirt so I don't get my sweatshirt full of hay and stuff. Of course muck boots and a hood and scarf, warm gloves. Yes to getting to over heated even outside while throwing hay, I water chickens by bucket of water from pump shed to chicken coop and every so many days I have to bucket grain from bin to barn. It doesn't take much for your face to be very cold but the rest of you to be over heating. If I have to spend more than a half hour outside or am going to stand around, I have to put snowpants on and a real coat.

I do not like to snowmobile but my husband and kids do and they usually are good at packing down a path to where I need to go. Sometimes the wind blows the snow over your path and you can't see it and you walk off the hard packed path and find yourself waist deep or better in the snow because you have sunk that far. The dog does not like falling off the path either, his first winter with the snow this deep. Otherwise we plow snow out of the driveway and to the wood shed and to give bales of hay to the cows with the backhoe, our tractor has decided to take the winter off. HaHa.

My garden and orchard have 5 and 6 ft fences and they are covered over enough that they are snowmobiling over the fences and across my garden. Right now I have a 12 ft snow drift in front of my barn doors and I have to walk all the way around to the back to get into the barn. So the snow is pretty awesome this year.

[gumbo2176]

Sweetiepie, I can't even begin to wrap my head around living like that. You northern folk are sturdy stock to put up with that in the winter. It got down to 28 two nights ago and you'd have thought it was sub zero Arctic weather the way some folks were acting.

[jal_ut]

My garden plot this morning:

[jal_ut]

My home is at 5000 ft elevation. I live in a mountain valley. The valley is 30 miles long and 7 miles wide. The main population of the valley is at a bit lower elevation. Now about the thing we call inversion. It is a high pressure situation where there is no breezes moving through and the smoke and gasses from fires and exhaust pipes is just held in the air. As you can see in the picture the junk in the air was thick enough you can hardly see the mountain. Wx man says about another 4 days of this coming. It will take a good storm to get things moving.

[jasonvanorder]

We are having another fairly mild winter. Last year between Christmas and New year I was out tilling the garden. This year we had a brutal cold snap a couple weeks ago but we are going to be in the 40s and 50s the next couple weeks. So far we have had more rain this winter than snow

[jal_ut]

Can't wait for the day..........

[digitS']

I think of those Balsamroot Arrowleaf Sunflowers as defining our common growing area, James.

(I also think that name is a kick. We should have some description of the stems and seeds in it !)

The air pollution in your remote Utah valley and in the valley where I live ... I wish it wasn't joining countless other gases and particles and just going somewhere else and somewhere else and somewhere else ...

Steve

[jal_ut]

"Balsamroot Arrowleaf Sunflowers "

Dad called them Docks. There was a lot of them up on the mountain pasture, interspersed with the Mountain Bluebell.

[applestar]

With a memorable name like that, I thought it might be an useful herb... It has a high edibility rating -- look at some of the excerpts:

Balsamorhiza sagittata Oregon Sunflower, Arrowleaf balsamroot PFAF Plant Database
https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinNa ... +sagittata


Edible Parts: Leaves; Root; Seed; Stem.
Edible Uses: Coffee.

Root - raw or cooked[46, 61, 106, 161, 257]. The root has a thick crown that is edible raw[213]. Roots have a sweet taste when cooked[2, 183].
…the Flathead Indians would bake them in a fire pit for at least 3 days[183]. The roots are resinous and woody with a taste like balsam[212].
…Young shoots - raw or cooked[161, 257]. Added to salads or used as a potherb[183].
…When eaten in large quantities they act like sleeping pills to cause sleepiness[257].

…
A highly prized source of food[257]. It can be roasted, ground into a powder and used with cereals when making bread[183, 257]. The raw seed can also be ground into a powder then formed into cakes and eaten without cooking[257]. The seed is rich in oil[213]. Oil. The seed was a prized source of oil for many native North Americans[257]. The roasted root is a coffee substitute[177, 183].

Another fun fact --

The large hairy leaves are used as an insulation in shoes to keep the feet warm[99].

[digitS']

Burrpollen

Zucchiniseed

Celerystem

Arrowleaf

Balsamroot

Sunflower

[jal_ut]

Never ate "Docks". Dad had cows and chickens, so we always had milk, eggs, and chicken. At times he would keep a pig. The folks who owned the land West of ours kept sheep and at times the ewe would die at birthing, so there was a bum lamb. The sheepherders would give us a lamb, knowing we had milk to feed it. In the fall Dad would always shoulder his rifle and go get a deer. So we had a variety of things to eat, from farm and garden. We never went hungry. It might be milk gravy and spuds, but we ate.

[jal_ut]

Tuesday January 17 at 2:54 PM its sunny and the temp has went clear up to 14 degrees F.