Tuesday, April 15, 2014

RAIN , WIND, SNOW, FREEZING TEMPS, BLOOD MOON

More rain this morning,although lighter than last night, when I went to bed it was pouring. I emptied 1" from the gauge this morning.
A light drizzle continued most of the morning and early afternoon.
I started laundry and then did my Tuesday housework.  After lunch with the holiday weekend coming up I baked 6 caramel, 2 chocolate, 6 pound cakes and 1 blackberry wine cake.
As I was in the kitchen I heard the wind begin to howl outside with the cold front that it is ushering in.
The sun was shining by mid afternoon but the wind was blowing at 30mph and higher.  Scattering the lawn and garden with a new covering of branches and pine cones.
I went outside and took a picture of this blooming Azalea as I'm not sure what it will look like tomorrow after the mid 20's temps predicted for tonight.
Each time there is a "blood moon" in April or around Easter there is usually always a really cold spell.  We couldn't see the blood moon here last night because of the pouring rain but this is a picture from the web.
And this might be the result of this years "blood moon".
Apple, peach and strawberry farmers in the area are looking for a sleepless night of worry as a temperature below 28 degrees will definitely hurt the fruit crops. Early apples are already in full bloom.
I have thought of how I can protect our early vegetables that are coming up in the garden and I came up with a simple idea that might work.
I straightened the hooks on a bunch of clothes hangers and stuck them in the ground beside the tender plants.
These held up the sheets and blankets that I used to cover the plants. With the wind whipping things around and pieces of limbs flying around hubbie and I got things all covered up in hopes that our efforts will keep them from freezing.
These are all early vegetables and are cold hardy, I'm just not sure they would be hardy to temps down in the mid 20's or below ? It is 33 degrees at 11:00 and usually we get a 10 degree drop overnight, I hope that is not true tonight !!
I also put some extra covering on the big chicks house since they don't have a heat light anymore.  Mom was doing a good job keeping them close so I think they will be fine.
As I finished these tasks a snow shower completely whited out all the surrounding mountains.
Hubbie went up to church at 6:00 to a meeting and he came home and said it was really snowing hard up there.
No bridge work was done today. They did haul in some more equipment that looks like they are getting ready to start hauling in dirt to raise the road.

Thankfully I don't hear the hard gust so maybe the wind is dying down a bit and we will keep our electric overnight.  Many folks in the county are not as lucky tonight.
Got the news from my sis-in-law this evening that our extended family increased by one today as nephew Aaron and his wife welcomed their second son at a little after 3:00 this afternoon.
Noah came into the world weighing 8 lbs 5 oz.and needing a haircut !!!
Welcome little great nephew !!

Thanking God for His grace and goodness as this Tuesday of Holy Week comes to an end.
Good Night and God Bless.









3 comments:

Sandy Livesay said...

Carolina Nana,

Beautiful picture of the moon!!!

Oh I did the same thing you did with your garden beds. Unfortunately, a couple of my tomatoes didn't make it.
That's okay, I'm going to look for more tomorrow. Please no more freezing weather!!!

linda m said...

I didn't get to see the blood moon either - cloud cover. Sure hope your plants made it. We've had very cold temps here all week so far. Hoping it starts to warm up for real soon. Blessings

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Well---we made it through last night --so hopefully, we can make it through tonight also... We took all containers inside the garage --but were worried about our other flowers... All seemed to do okay other than a few Tulips which were LIMP today... We did have a bad freeze though --so were worried.. Hope this is the LAST cold spell of this season. I'm ready for spring to come and STAY.

We couldn't see the moon this week either due to lots of rain and clouds... Oh WEll.

Hope you made it through the freeze okay.

Hugs,
Betsy