Arkansas is pretty nice, Deb. Very mild winters. This year I could probably have been harvesting out of high tunnels without a gap except we moved so I'm not set up. On the other had, last summer we had a stretch of heat that wiped out the gardens. Even with irrigation a lot of stuff wouldn't set fruit. So I guess it's a trade off. My half time job has me hopping for July and August, which are pretty slow by then in the garden. I think we all just have to find our niche. Our expected lows are in the mid 20s now, and highs, depending on sun, range from upper thirties to nudging 60. There will be more cold nights for sure, but unlikely to dip into the teens again before November.

Deb, I'm in Indiana, about 2-2 1/2 hrs south of Chicago, 1 hr NW of Indianapolis. We also have those extreme temp swings this week. Highs on Saturday of almost 60, lows tomorrow below zero, wind chills tomorrow morning of -20 or so.

We normally have milder winters than where you are, but not every year. Our January temps average around freezing for highs and lows in the teens.

Vicki, where abouts are you in Arkansas? We lived in FL for 8 years until I inherited my farm. I miss the 2 week winters, but then I missed the changing of the seasons.

I live in a town called Searcy. About 45 miles northeast of Little Rock. We're right on the edge of where the rice flats meet the Ozarks. We had one pretty heavy snow, about 6" which is very unusual for us. And then one light snow. I don't think we had any temps in the single digits this winter. I think the all time record is 5 degrees. our winter headache is ice, not snow. When we have "bad" winter weather it's generally hovering around freezing. Thus all the issues associated with ice. I sawed up quite a few tree limbs over Christmas break this year.

I've been near the Ozarks, and down thru eastern TX during Feb/Mar one year. If I ever sell the farm, I want to be somewhere warmer, but definitely don't like ice storms.

Hopefully you didn't get all the bad weather this last year, seemed like AR/MO/OK and east got alot of several storms. We missed out on them.

Weatherman just forecasted another 4-6" of snow for Thurs pm/Fri am. At least it kills off some of the bugs from last year.

This is the time of year that I gather all my seeds, order more, and get all the planting stuff out to determine what I need more of. Plus planting some during good planting days, but that only takes a few moments.

In Minnesota we have a saying, 'kwit yer belly akin'.

It was 55 degrees on Saturday and right now it is 6F and we will reach a high of 16F. I have a store building that is hard to heat and a CSA pick up this afternoon and I am trying to figure out how they will get non frozen produce. A lot of space heaters will be involved and we might even use the electric furnace that is in the building (if it works, it's been several years since we have "fired" it up and mice may have eaten the wiring). And if it stays this cold for more than a day or two we will have issues with the refrigeration.

But it could be far worse-we could be -20 this morning and we are far, far above that

I woke up to 2 above at 8 am and bright sunshine with windchills still near -20. Schools delayed for 2 hours, waiting til it warms some. We are supposed to get to 12 today. Luckily this is the coldest day in the next week or so. It was the coldest day in 2 years.

Lucy, be careful, especially if the mice did get into the furnace's wiring. Nobody wants to hear about another fire.