Tumbleweeds in the yard? LOL, a Tumbleweed Snow Man sounds interesting. If you make one, take a picture and get it into Webshots. It may be a one of the most downloaded pictures! The weather has gotten really nasty in Southern Nevada, with a predicted low of 28 the last Wed of the month. Thankfully, it should warm up for the weekend. My parents tried to cover their gardenia with a blanket and it got blown away last night. They put the orchid underneath a patio table next to the house. I got them to bring the Arabian jasmine inside. At least it was blooming and is adding a nice smell.

But the weather is bad in our part of the world, including Southern CA. This is a cold Santa Ana day, the winds are kicking up to 60 MPH in the canyons. Everyone re-learns what the botanists mean when they describe eucalyptus trees as "self'pruning". In other words, when the winds hit 40 MPH, the branches start to fall off when it feels like it. Sadly, heavy branches have been known to smash houses and cars, sometimes with people inside.

According to weather.com, the average high Temp for las Vegas is 57 for both January and December, and an average low of 37 degrees. So, it'll be a while before I start doing much gardening in Nevada. I'm a cold weather wimp. But I'll be in town for my parents' housewarming and house blessing. They were hoping to spend some time outside, but all the line dancing will have to be done in the garage!

You're not kidding about the wind. Yesturday was trash pick up day and I went out to retrieve our can and it was gone. Had to walk down the street to find it. I had a apricot tree that needed planting to replace one that died but decided I needed to do it on a day where I wouldn't be blown to Arizona.

Then we were supposed to get really cold Wednesday night. First we heard 24 F then it was raised to 26. I don't think it got down that far and thank goodness for that. Our heat pump won't heat and we couldn't get a repairman out until the friday after Thanksgiving. We were in NO. CA. so we had to put it off until this Monday. Well the repair guy says they can't get Trane parts in town so we'll have to wait until it arrives on Friday best case to get it repaired. Everybody got lots of blankets last night and I'm planning on baking that Thanksgiving Turkey we weren't here to cook.

Oh, and that fireplace we ordered and put a big deposit on over six weeks ago is nowhere to be found. Well it should be interesting to see what might have croaked from the cold. First we have the blistering summer to kill of anything that doesn't like living in a blast furnace and then there's nights like last one to take care of the other end of the spectrum. Just makes me appreciate the great plants that take it all in stride.

Baking (for today) Maria

Well, I am soo sorry to hear about your heater problems Maria. Blowing you LOTS of hot air to warm your house til the heater gets fixed...and the fireplace gets found. I can't imagine how cold it must be-yikes. Keep the oven working-hehehe...it can be your temporary heater. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner!!!

I had that same problem at our other house once...playing search and you "might" find garbage cans down the street somewhere (and once a filled oil pan...found safe & sound across the street on our neighbors porch)!! We had a patio table umbrella fly in our backyard once while we lived there. No one ever said they were missing it??? Just how far did it fly from, I wondered.

This morning it is not windy anymore. I slept wonderful last night-thank goodness. When the wind blows like that it hits the sunroom windows and is noisy.
It is very cold but that's ok...woke up at 7am to 35 degrees AND a almost dead mouse that my cat caught!!! The mouse was discovered yesterday in our great room...he ran all over the room all day and night with the cat and both dogs (and Dan and I at times) following him. I told the cat it was his job to catch him while we were asleep LOL...I woke up and walked out to the great room and there was the (almost dead) mouse and Casey...who was so very proud of his work.:):):)
We are going to go behind our fences and find some more tumbleweeds to finish the snowman for our yards. Dan says I won't believe how many are around our fences. I believe him. We have empty lots all around our house so it won't be hard to find a tumbleweed (or dirt). I will post a photo of this cute snowman too, Bill. I will also post a photo of ALL of my tomatoes I picked before the frost hit. You won't believe how many I got.
I doubt many gardeners want to deal with winters here to garden...so don't worry about that, Bill. Nobody does it-we just sit and watch what dies and what is still alive LOL...and we wait for springtime.

Beca~

Beca,

We too have a cat who likes to bring us presents. Occasionally it is a mouse but more often it's some hapless bird. She will come to the front or back door and meow to be let in but her meow sounds strange because she's holding her "gift." When I hear that meow I no longer let her in as I'm not so crazy about her presents. One year in spring she brought us baby rabbits. Like a dummy I would rescue them when they were alive and set them loose. Now with all the rabbit problem in our neighborhood I'm kicking myself for it!

I'm jealous of your tomatoes. Our greenhouse has protected our plants a little but I have a cold and neglected to turn on the heating pad in there the last two nights and am afraid to look now. At least we finally got our heater fixed on Friday. After the last week of cold did that ever feel great.

Oh, I like your idea of tumbleweed snowman, we just give the tumbleweed we collect to our horses and they disappear like everything else of plant material in the corral, including the barn siding!

Maria

Maria I am so glad your heater is repaired and working :):):) I thought about you all week long. Would you beleive that out here in Pahrump...no store is bringing in Christmas trees? Kinda hard to believe this. We drove into Las Vegas yesterday to buy one. (Last year Ace Hardware had some but this year nope. Weird.)

Cats are funny creatures. Casey and the dogs got 3 mice in total. One Mommie and 2 babies. I can remember my cat bringing my Mom "a present" many moons ago and she just screamed for my Dad to come take it away. She was not happy to get the present-I think it was a dead lizard. Our hunters are "still" on mouse alert...constantly watching for a mouse. So far-I hope they are gone from here. That is funny about your saving the baby rabbits. So far we are lucky they have not dug under our fences.

We have to go find 2 smaller tumbleweeds today. Neighbor says the association has been picking them up all over this place so I hope we find some..LOL...we bought some rebar in LV and bought a scarf and ear muffs for our snowman. We have to spray paint him white and he will be done!!!

Your horses ate the barn siding??? Unbelievable. I thought goats ate almost anything...

I am so glad the colder weather is gone. My yard is ugly from the winds...my poor babies. I always hate what damage the winds can do. Today we will do some needed deep watering-all of my outside container plants are very dry. Wished I had done this a couple days ago but just was too busy to think of doing it.

Beca~