It’s been like Spring, really what I’d like to call “Summer” if only Summer would be so nice, around 70-74 as a high, mostly in the high 60’s usually for daytime temps. I digress …
It’s been around 70 or higher some days the past week, with temperature getting down in the 50’s at the most at night. Balmy, mild weather. Yesterday it began to rain, and it rained and rained and rained. It then stopped. Opening the door, the chilly air wafted in, as I quickly tried to slam the door shut. The door has been really swollen for many days. It doesn’t shut so easily. See, balmy, mild yet warm temps. Not dry, not wet, just probably moist enough to make the door swell with joy.
I knew colder temperature were coming, I’ve been watching them via accuweather.com predictions the last few weeks, waiting for the heralding of the next day being the actual COLD day. It’s here. It was down to freezing overnight. It’s supposed to be up to 45 degrees F. today. That’s about 25 degrees lower than normal — uh, not the average normal, but the normal of late, what we’ve been experiencing.
Guess what tonights low is supposed to be? Cold. 16. Brrr. Considering that in the 20’s is USUALLY as cold as it gets in this part of the country. Considering that balmy temps in January are rarely thought of really happening at this time, in this part of the country. Considering that we’ve been lulled into dressing like it’s Spring, thinking like it’s Spring, seeing that it’s Spring … this is a hard fall. I see in the extended forcast finally a prediction of snow, sleet, or rain on the morning of Jan 9. That’s the first use of the words “snow” and “sleet” this season in forcasting this area! The only other days also for that kind of forcast are the 17th & 20th. Plenty of cold in between this all.
In past years we’ve had snow in December and January, and at least one big ice storm in January, if not two. We have become babies this year. Spoiled rotten. Let the games begin. We have a tough few weeks to dive back down into Winter, again or for the first time this season 😉
So then, I have my hennie pennies to prepare for their first ever COLD COLD night. We got the Leghorns in February last year, as young pullets. They had lived through winter, but in a cosey place I do think. We’ve got quite a different setup. Speaking of which, I’d better post this and go do something about it!
5 responses to “Cold, cold, cold”
What state do you live in? We live in northern California where we don’t have quite the extreme temperatures you do. Mostly down to around 30� at night and mabe up to 50� during the day. Oh, I also have a rooster question for you! We just got a black and white rooster but have no idea what kind he is! (breed) Would you have any idea?? You can see a picture of him at http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=3363915&uid=148896 . Over on the top left you’ll see a picture entitled “Our cranky old rooster.” That’s him. Any ideas?!?
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/lakenvelders.html
Rebekah, Your roo is a dead ringer in looks for the above. What do you think?
He is very beautiful, how big is he, and do you know how old he is? Is he a cranky guy really? Too nice looking for that! 🙂
Some more links:
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Lakens/BRKLakenvelder.html
http://www.cacklehatchery.com/lakenvelderpage.html
http://www.dianejacky.com/Poultry_Archives/Poultry.D.L/pages/Lakenvelder.htm
http://www.geocities.com/erisso01/Lakenvelder.html
Fun chicken sounds and mouse pointer here with this NL page:
http://www.kippenpagina.nl/Lakenvelder.htm
http://www.atalayafarm.com/lakenvelder.html
Rebekah, we live in NE GA. We are in Zone 7, and that is meant to mean that our lowest temperature is usually 0 degrees. But normally it’s not that low in the Winter, just the possible low. We usually have nights below freezing, or around freezing in December and January for sure, with first freeze around November 15th.
Usually things are up and down though, so it’s rather normal to have highs in the 50’s or 40’s or 30’s and the rare days of highs in the 20’s. Nights are usually in the 30’s with some below that and some above that.
This last weekend we had very mild temperatures, the whole house warmed up and if we had A/C we could have run, we’d have been using it during part of that time. [our a/c is messed up, needs looked at.] We’ve been here since Fall of 1996, and there has never been a time in January that this has been the case, so very, very mild, that we can recall.
I was wearing (most of December) thick tights or double-that, with boots and as warm skirts and dresses I could bear to wear (I hate lots of layering). This past weekend I was in summer skirts and shirts and barefoot inside and outside. Quite a change just since yesterday, as I’m back into the “have to wear warm stuff” or else I’m very cold.
For us, we aren’t using central heat this year either, cost plus the fact that our system is tied in with the a/c, so we don’t have the $ to get that looked at, and the $ to run it … wearing warm clothing and buring wood in the fireplace is cheaper, and running a space heater in some places when need be. We have learned to be frugal and do rather well in this case. It was nice to have Springtime a few days though 🙂
We do live in a mild winter area. Most heating systems in housing here are “heat pumps” which work well as long as temps are above freezing. Usually January is the toughest month, with many days here and there of a struggling heat pump (mostly at night), so really the main thing for us is it’s not so bad to see temps dipping below 20 degrees finally. Today is supposed to be a high of 42. By Friday the high will be 48, and next week somewhere around 55. All lows for the next week at or above 32 by several degrees, well after our last really cold night, supposed to be 23 tonight.
We’ve escaped all snow and ice and sleet so far as well. This is a really weird season. Well I guess I’ve droned on long enough, digressing as well. 🙂
Marysue,
I just thought you might like to know, yesterday when I left for work at 6:30 am it was -7. I think the high yesterday was 5 or 6. It is warm today, with the current temp of 15 degrees at 2 in the afternoon. It is bitter cold, and I’m sure we havn’t seen the last of it. The wind chill factor has been -25 or -20. BRRRR! I hope you are feeling better. So far our health has been ok. The weather was warm the week of Christmas. Normally it would be freezing, but we saw temps in the 50’s day and night. The grass is usually dead this time of year I’ve heard, but it was green and beginning to grow again. Now we have a couple of inches of snow covering the grass and it should be back to hibernation again. With the fluctuations around here I am surprised we are all still relatively healthy!