A Very Cold Weekend - For Us At Least

Saturday morning we woke up to temperatures hovering around 23 degrees.  That is a little cold for us. I was out the night before wrapping pipes on the cattle trough so the pvc wouldn't break.  Speaking of the cattle trough, our cows were standing in front of the trough with a very puzzled look on their faces. They couldn't understand the ice, I guess, and why they couldn't take a drink.  I solved their problem by breaking the ice on the trough so that they could get to the water.

Breaking the Ice

I put on my insulated overalls and Tricia and I went out and did the morning milking.  We use Vaseline petroleum jelly as a lubricant on the cows' teats.  In the summer time, the vaseline is almost in a liquid form from the South Louisiana heat.  That was not the case Saturday morning.  In fact, the vaseline was almost a solid consistency and was hard to spread on the teats for milking.  We got it done, though and finished up milking the cows and goat.

After pouring, I got a roaring fire going in the fireplace to warm us all up.  I went out to the wood pile and filled the wagon full of firewood.  Once I lifted up a few pieces of firewood a strange sight caught my eye.  A whole bunch of roaches and a poor gecko had succumbed to the frigid temps.

The 'clean-up' crew was quick on the scene to quickly devour all of the roaches and the gecko, too.  It didn't take them long to eat all of them.

Switching gears a bit, back in August we received over 25 inches of rain.  This delayed the planting of our fall garden by over a month.  Due to this delay, I knew that our tomato crop would not mature and be ready for harvest before being killed by a freeze.  But with our really mild winter, I was surprised when I actually pulled a red tomato off of a vine in January!  Can you believe it?

A January tomato (not grown in a greenhouse)

Sadly, though, that would be the only red tomato that we would harvest.  Just 3 days later, this hard freeze burnt our tomato plants to a crisp and freezing the nice looking tomatoes into a solid chuck of tomato-ice.

Just a day earlier the tomato vines were healthy, vigorous with lots of green growth. The freeze wiped them out.

I like this picture because it represents the "against all odds" spirit of our heirloom tomatoes.  Here it was January and our tomatoes were still growing, still blooming and ready to grow nice fruit.  Until, of course, the north winds began to blow.

That picture is sad in a way, but then it also shows a defiant spirit and gives a testimony, of sorts, about never giving up.  Speaking of that, I'd like to talk a bit more about the fall (frozen) tomato crop tomorrow.  It dovetails nicely with the 'never give up' theme.  By this time, it was time to go inside and warm up.

If there is a better way to warm up besides enjoying a nice bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo, topped with fresh green onions and a a side of sweet potatoes, I'm unaware of it.