Saturday was the day to check the farm after the historic Winter storm.
There was still ice on the steps.
And on the North side of the house, in the shade, there was still some melting snow. The ground was also super saturated everywhere from the melting snow and runoff. The house was fine, thankfully.
The water heater stayed unfrozen, we had rigged up some lights on old school hooded reflectors. They hang with a clamp and as fate would have it the doorknobs in the bathroom (where the water heater is) were shaped to have a foolproof way to mount it with zero danger of falling off. This angle looks like it's close to the door but it wasn't. There wasn't anything flammable nearby. Even with the rolling blackouts on the grid, it was on long enough to keep the area warm and above freezing in the house (small bathroom with both doors closed).
The water was turned on to see if any obvious leaks. We didn't see any but we decided to turn it back off until we could take a closer look by crawling under the house next weekend and inspect the pipes for small leaks that are not so obvious. The p-traps in the the sinks were fine with the RV antifreeze inside.
Looks like the house dodged the freezing problems. 2nd Family had one burst pipe under their house. When we're not in the house, it's easy to drain, flush and shut off water. When you live there, even with heat on, you have to have water and then you battle the temps but the pipes can still freeze.
It was time to uncover the citrus trees to see how dead they were (ice still around the outside of them).
This is the lime tree. Dead. Dead dead. I bent a couple of branches and they snapped right off. I figured that was going to be repeated two more times.
This is the orange tree.
If I didn't see it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. It's still green! The branches don't have any visible freeze damage. I could be wrong, maybe it will never leaf out again or next weekend it will melt into a puddle, ha, but we were still cautiously surprised. We have NO idea how this survived single digit temps. I never put the Christmas lights on the timer under the cloth because we figured even if they were 10 degrees warmer with those turned on, it wouldn't help with a low of 8 or 9. Somehow it looks like it survived.
And here is the lemon tree.
It's ALSO green. Well, kind of. There seem to be a few brown ends but for the most part it is green. Again, we have no idea how it survived. It could still die and we're planning for that occurrence. But maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised? Heck, one out of three would be great. Two out of three would be amazing!
We're rethinking the citrus though. We'll see what survives. They are still so small and frail and haven't grown much since we put them in the raised beds. They do well and then are set back by a freeze. These are 2 years old. If the orange makes it, since it's in the middle, we'll leave it and do something different with the lemon and lime.
Stay tuned.
Remember the beautiful peach tree blossoms from a couple of weeks ago?
Yeah, not so pretty now. We had read that they were hardy to about -25 degrees so we didn't bother to cover it for this freeze. Not sure if we made a mistake there. I guess we'll see what happens in a couple of months.
Come back tomorrow for some fun pictures of the snow at the farm. 2nd Family took some for us and then the trail cam captured a beautiful one of the front yard.
MONDAY UPDATE:
They citywide boil water notice was lifted!
We've followed the instructions and things are back to normal...though we did think twice about the first few times of using it but they say it has passed all the tests.
All and all I'd say everything done pretty well.
ReplyDeleteWith warmer temperatures we had here Sat. and yesterday all of our snow has melted away. Was in the mid 70's yesterday. Sure seemed different not having to wear a heavy coat.
Our water was finally turned on early yesterday evening and how nice it was to get up and take a shower and be able to flush our toilets once again.
With our the moisture we have had our yard is turning green.
Being my daffodils where coming up, the freeze kinda took care of them but I'm thinking that they may still come out of the shock of being frozen.
Had found a couple of dead birds in the yard that didn't make it through the cold & freezing temperatures. We have an electric bird waterer so they at least had plenty of food that we put out and along with fresh warm water to drink.
Probably come this weekend our yard may need to be mowed so just maybe Spring is on it's way. Not sooner enough for me.
Enjoy your day and have a great evening.
Yep we think the same thing. All things considered, it came out as well as could be (knock on wood, still have to make sure no small leak drips, we'll check that this weekend). I forgot to post but we had the mower picked up too for its annual maintenance. I think the freeze won't delay the grass, ha. I did notice some weeds were wilted and dead looking, I'm ok with that. So sad about the birds. I wonder about that too. And other wild animals. We'll never know the true scale of those kinds of losses.
DeleteCome on spring.
Good news on the farm front. I hope the repairs to 2nd Family's house are not too burdensome, as leaked pipes can be the start of the issues. I appreciate getting the updates from your perspective. Still sending positive thoughts to Texas.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yeah we hope they are easy fixes too. He's got plumbing skills so he can fix whatever was broken (plus he fixes ours when we have issues, ha). Yes, lots of Texas still needs some positive energy. The daughter of one of our dear friends is in Austin and while they have power, there is no heat and no a/c (system was damaged) and still no water.
DeleteIf ever you two are living at the farm permanently you might want to consider water pipe heated wraps. I used to use them many years ago in a mobile home I had in N.C. Worked wonderfully. It is like a flat water hose but has a heating wire inside and is plugged into the electric. It only comes on when temps are below freezing. We then covered the pipes with foam pipe covers. The ones offered these days must be even better. Something to consider for the future.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Wrap-On-SEPTLS34731006-Pipe-Heating-Cables/dp/B0006BJLKI?th=1
Thank you for this. Yep, we'll be out there at some point in the next few years and since we're going to do a remodel, we would definitely consider something like this. Looking for some options. These freezes don't happen often but who knows, we seem to have had more than normal and so who knows, this might become more commonplace. Thanks again!!
DeleteLooks like your preparations paid off. Won't be long before you're mowing again.
ReplyDeleteYep, so far so good. And mower was picked up for annual maintenance so that first wonderful Spring day on the mower will be wonderful!
DeleteTHE FARMHOUSE LIVES!
ReplyDeleteYep!! We're fortunate. So many others still in such hardship.
DeleteHave you considered an orangerie?
ReplyDeleteWell I will have to admit, we had to look that up, ha! It's like a mini greenhouse of sorts for citrus. I like it. We're going to have to see what we can come up with. Thanks for the suggestion...going to do some more googling to get ideas.
DeleteI’m so glad that everything was fine at your farmhouse. I love that old doorknob in your bathroom.
ReplyDeleteGood news about your orange and lemon trees! Your method of covering your trees really helped. It created a dead-air space around the trees which was an insulator, the covers did not touch the leaves or branches which would have caused cold damage, and the metal rings absorbed whatever heat there was during the day and then released it at night. Plus the height of the metal rings offered some protection from the wind.
Trees do grow slowly at first. There’s an old gardener adage about that: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap. The first year, their energy is going towards creating a great root system. The second year, the roots grow bigger and stronger. And more foliage is produced which absorb the sun's rays, creating food and energy for the plant. The third year, all of the systems in the tree have matured and the tree is now ready to start growing in earnest.
I uncovered my fruit trees and checked them. Of course, with their leaves brown and crinkly, they look awful. But I scratched the bark and so far, they each are showing green underneath. Hoping they will survive. I didn’t cover the peach tree and I think it will be fine. It has already put out new tiny leaves. The loquat tree was covered up only 4 feet but it survived. I covered the lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage and it survived. I didn’t cover the purple kale but it survived and is putting out new leaves.
The sun was out today, it was in the 70’s, and it was warm. Heaven! I not only enjoyed it but really, really appreciated it. Can’t wait for Spring!
It was beautiful out today. So glad to hear about your citrus and other veggies. I think what you said about the covers may be what happened. They did create a zone inside that insulated it and we never thought about it but those rings may have warmed up too. And their height in relation to the trees may have helped. Still not sure what we'll do, we might give them another year but we will need a new lime and "possibly" lemon, we might come up with a different method for them, at least until we're out there. We'll see how it goes. Amazing that your lettuce and stuff survived too. That's wonderful. And we KNOW you're glad to have normal weather back. "Survivor Texas" was no fun, ha.
DeleteI'm glad the house came through unscathed.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Aww, thanks for that. We are too!!! Be safe (and warm!!)
DeleteI was thinking of your citrus trees as we listened to the news about Texas, and hoping that some of them somehow would survive. Fingers crossed! Love from Canada 🇨🇦.
ReplyDeleteThey are small but, at least the orange tree, but may have survived. For sure the lime is a goner so we'll have to see how the lemon ends up. Thanks for the love, all of Texas can use it. We're build for heat but not for this, ha.
DeleteDon't trim anything until spring.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that info, I've heard that and forgot that yep, we should wait until we see what comes back and what doesn't. Hoping for the best.
DeleteYeah!!! (Can you hear the applause?)
ReplyDeleteWith everything that happened, you all had an amazing outcome. I am shocked, yes SHOCKED, that your orange and lemon seem to (for now at least) have come through the worst.
Peaches are weird. We had one for several years that up and died because of a very wet Spring one year. Love how they look, but we didn't bother to replant. It's tough love in my backyard. ;)