TIME FOR A FREEZE

'Tis the season!

Our first freeze of the season is coming.  30-31 should not be any worry for the pipes and hopefully won't be too bad for the citrus (they are supposed to be hardy to mid 20's but they are young).

I needed to go cover them.

Of course, let's back up a bit for this nice long weekend.  Thursday was Thanksgiving of course and we were in town cooking and eating great food.  But then it started raining.  And it rained.  And rained all day Friday.  And rained all day Saturday.  We had about 3-5 inches of rain total.  Since it was spread over a few days, there was no flooding danger but of course it meant there would be no farm visit during the rain.

When I got there yesterday midmorning, this is what it looked like.  Overcast and cold.  49 degrees.  And windy.  VERY windy.

I wasn't going to need the Christmas lights on timers that I had purchased last year in preparation for a major freeze.  This isn't going to be that kind.  But this being 2020, my plan fell apart anyway, ha.  I struggled to get the freeze covers (these are the new large ones) on the trees in the high winds.  Now it won't always be windy so in the grand scheme of things no big deal.

But the poles with the tennis balls on top did NOT work in the high winds.  It let the freeze covers blow around and it even bent one of the steel rods because it was blowing around so much.  Had to scrap that plan.  

I think what we will need to utilize the original plan is to get more of the steel fenceposts (called T-posts) that I used for the deer fencing.  You can see there is one above that I had (an extra) and it worked well for being a good height and it did not move in the wind...it just didn't work having only one, ha.  It should keep the freeze cloths nice and tight and not blowing in the wind.

So for tonight's freeze, I had to improvise a bit.  I used the three galvanized rings as a means to keep the smaller freeze cloths in place.  I put one over and around each citrus tree.  Then I used the poles we already have as a means to shore up the freeze cloths.

I put the bags (these are the smaller ones) over each tree, tucked the fabric around the tree at the base and then used the weight of the galvanized ring to hold it all down.  Then I tied off parts to the poles just to keep it somewhat stable. I had to do a few more things at the farm before leaving and when I did, they were all still in place so all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

As I mentioned, these varieties of trees should hold up to a mild freeze like this.  For example, the lime is hardy to 26 degrees.  The satsuma is hardy to the teens but young trees like this are hardy to about 26.  We've done what we can do without being there so we'll see.

The other thing I had to do was cover the banana trees on the porch.  I did the same thing I did last year and it worked fine.  I saved this flat box in the barn and then just unfold it and sit it down over and around the bananas and the container they are in.  They are already protected being on the porch and out of the wind but at least this adds an extra layer of protection.  The top is open so they can breathe.  

That was it for this weekend.  It was a long weekend but not a long weekend of being able to do much outside.  Maybe it was nature's way of making us rest.

I'll catch up on your wonderful Thanksgiving comments tonight when I get home from work.  A couple of you asked about recipes too, those will be coming as well.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving or if you don't celebrate it where you are, hope you had a great weekend.