Mike, I understand just what you are saying. I have driven over most of the lower 48, Alaska, and much Canada and Mexico. I think ever where I have been had its good points as well as its bad points. The only city I have been through that I thought that the only thing it was missing, was Me. That was Eagle Pass TX., I don't think God even knows where Eagle Pass TX. is. I expect I was just luck enough to hit Eagle Pass on its good days. Most of the places I have been were too hot, too cold, too wet too dry, too windy, the list just goes on and on, but here you get a little of all of it.

I am seeing gardening supplies hit the shelves here also but I have not bought any. I did however set my min/max thermometer up in bare garden soil after I broke through the ice. It may be a while before I do any planting.

Larry

I noticed a big supply of prepackage seed at atwoods in broken arrow bought some op tomatoes and some pepper seed i was looking for and a couple i was not looking for

Haha I pulled Eagle Pass up on a map and I was like "Why is all this stuff in Spanish?" and then I zoomed out and figured it out.

I would love to live some place with better weather. But if I couldn't complain about the weather, I'd just have to find something else to complain about.

Our Walmart and Atwoods both have their seed starting stuff out. Walmart had their seed potatoes, but Atwoods doesn't have their big bins out yet. I bought the ones at Walmart because I just needed to have them right then. You never know, there could suddenly be a seed potato shortage between now and planting time!

Leslie

My first question was "how far south?" 'cause I am here to tell you that I'm not far enough south this week, but to go much farther south I'd have to move to Texas.

The cedar trees are in bloom here and the pollen is driving everyone crazy. It seems like everyone I know here locally either has the flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, severe allergies or some combination thereof. I'm trying to stay as far away as possible from anyone who might have the flu....but we all have cedar pollen issues.

Our Wal-mart has cool-season seedlings, including kale, collards, strawberries, rosemary and parsley. They also have crates and crates of bundled onion plants. All of these are outside in the garden center attached to the store. I hope they cover up all of them because the air is incredibly dry. In Gainesville, where the Wal-Mart is located, the relative humidity right now is 13% and the dewpoint is -2. If those bundles of onion plants are not totally dehydrated and not worth planting, they will be by the end of this week.Maybe they are spritzing them with water daily. Otherwise those little onion roots will be awfully dry.

The stores I've been to do not have trees outside yet, but they are setting up plant shelves, racks, etc. Wal-mart has set up all the concrete blocks and boards they use to create the plant corral out in the parking lot, but they haven't put any plants out there yet. It wouldn't surprise me if we see the trees arrive on Friday or Saturday though. That would be pretty typical for us.

All the stores here have a severe case of "let's put out all the gardening stuff now". The main problem with that is that some people (Leslie! Already? Really? lol) cannot resist buying what they see whenever it hits the shelves. Lots of newbies think if stores have the seeds or plants in the store, then it surely must be time to plant, and we all know that is not the case. Some stores have bathing suits now. What is wrong with them? Do they not know it is January???

So, the January thaw is over and the big chill returns. We can handle it. Spring is just around the corner....in a couple more months! January is the hardest month because it temps us with occasional lovely days and gets our hopes up, and then slams us with the return of the bitter cold weather.

The lack of rainfall bothers me more than the cold temperatures. With no good chance of rain in the foreseeable future, our county is going to end January with rainfall that is way below-average, and we aren't the only ones.

Lake Texoma is so low that a lot of the marinas no longer have water access. It still is about 10' above its all-time low, but the lack of rain in its watershed area is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Larry....

Believe it or not, but Katie and I have actually been in Eagle Pass...out in the middle of nothing but tumbleweeds :)
This was probably almost ten years ago, but we were with a mission group and on our way to Sabinas (in Mexico) for a week in the middle of the hot, hot summer...no AC, but a priceless time.

Sharon

Eagle Pass, huh? Well I have been to Piedras Negras and I didn't leave anything there that I need to return for. LOL

I was reading all the comments on Eagle Pass, which is in Maverick County, and I was thinking to myself that at least they probably were warm down there. So, I went to Wunderground to check it out.

Del Rio, which is not too far from Eagle Pass, set a new record high of 85 degrees yesterday. Wish we all were there to enjoy that! However, the same cold front that will have us shivering is expected to carry cold temperatures and possibly wintery precip to Maverick County on Thursday/Friday. Still, they'll be warmer in Eagle Pass than we'll be here.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Maverick County's Weather

I am also tired of this weather and our current temp is 15 with a wind chill of 9. Our high for Thursday is 18. When will this ever end?

I noticed a big supply of prepackage seed at atwoods in broken arrow bought some op tomatoes and some pepper seed i was looking for and a couple i was not looking for

I just got back from the Northeast where the house I am trying to sell was literally frozen. The crazy temps here are still better because we get a break. Now they are having a big fast moving snowstorm called a clipper (8-12" of snow) followed by a real storm (NorEaster). Our weather in OK may be a little crazy right now but soon I will enjoy all the daffodils I planted last fall and continue redoing the backyard. I admit to challenging hot days and missing my partial shade yard but It is fun learning a new way of gardening in a new zone.

If we move farther south, the summers will be worse. If I move to California, I will be broke. If I try Arizona or New Mexico, I will have water problems. The east does not seem better. Florida has sink holes, and also gets too hot in the summer.

Every year I have such a hard time with the winter. There is nothing to do even if I go outside. As much as I hate the cold, I probably won't venture on. But I agree with you.

Some people just don't mind the cold. It is a good time to go out to dinner, go to movies, and other gatherings. I want to be outside, and do not want to sit that much. Winters are terrible for me.

Sammy

lol As I was reading Sammy's comment, I kept checking things off. It gets really hot, I'm broke (which I'm pretty sure would be true no matter where I lived), and I have water problems. But there aren't sinkholes! No need to travel the country, just come here.

We're not supposed to get as cold as some of you, though. Thursday's low is supposed to be 27. And then back up in the 60's Saturday. I guess I can handle that.

Leslie

Carol,

It never ends. Still, we are supposed to be pretty warm again down here by Sunday. I hope that is true for those of you who are farther north in OK and adjacent states too.

Our winter weather is such a roller coaster ride, but at least that means we get warm, sunny spells too. I am just as tired of the persistent cold as you are.

Oldokie, I can't even let myself look at the seed racks in stores or I'll buy plenty that I don't need. I already have all I need right now, but if I stop and look at the seed racks I'll find something that I think I just have to have.

Shawneegardener, I have been watching the weather in the northeast and thinking those folks sure need a break. At least here we know the cold spells are fairly short in duration.

Sammy, I totally agree with you. Even though our weather drives me crazy at times, I'd rather be here than someplace else.

The winter weather does bother me more than it used to. On pretty winter days I like to be outside and I always can find something to do, even if it is just refilling bird feeders or putting out deer corn for the deer and rabbits, or cleaning out some of the raised beds in the garden area.

On the cold days where it is so cold that I'd rather be inside, that's the days when I feel like I'm losing my mind. I hate being cooped up indoors too, but it beats being frozen outdoors. Some days it is so cold that I don't even want to make the 300-foot walk from the house down to the mailbox, but I do it anyway.

Let's look at it this way, y'all, for most of us the cold weather peaks at its worst point this week on Thursday night, and then it starts improving and we'll get to have a few nicer days.

I know that spring is coming. It always does. The wildflowers in my yard might think spring is already here. Last Friday I noticed two kinds of wildflowers blooming in the yard. One was a dandelion, and it was blooming so close to the ground that it was touching the ground. I guess it was in such a big hurry to bloom that it didn't give its stem any time to grow before it bloomed. The other was a Spring Beauty, which also tends to bloom very low to the ground. Both the flowers are fairly small---the Spring Beauty was about the size of a dime and the dandelion flower about the size of a nickle, but at least they were there in bloom, and a reminder that the plants outside are just about as eager to see spring as we are.

Dawn

yeah you all are right. No matter where you go It will just be a different set of problems. I think the last few winters have just spoiled me. My ex father in law used to live in St Croix. Aside from not much there and the occasional threat of a hurricane, 75 degree days everyday does sound nice.

Dawn, I think to answer your question it would be as far south as I have to go to never see temperatures below 20. Im mean that kind of cold is just silly.

Mike

I always figured my best bet (which will never happen), would be to leave the US, find a tropical location with high mountains (South America, Africa, New Zealand, or Asia would all work). Find a height that had a temperature that agreed with me, that should be pretty much constant year round (due to being tropical and coolness due to altitude).
I'm sure like everyone else here, if I did that, I'd be bored (no seasonal changes) and have to gripe about that.

We always want weather that is different from the weather we're having, don't we?

On a 100 degree day in July, we're thinking longingly of October days with a high of 70 degrees. On 10 degree days in December, we're longing for a 60 degree day in March. After the umpteenth consecutive day of rain and clouds and the threat of hail, flash flooding, and tornadoes in May, we're thinking about a lovely, dry, sunny Fourth of July. Why can't we just learn to love the weather we have at the time? I suppose that's just human nature.

I know we'll be miserably cold (and for some of you in northern OK, dangerously cold in terms of wind chill) for the next couple of days, but at least we won't be buried under a blizzard of snow. We sure could use some rain, and if the weather does what it always seems to do, the rain will arrive just in time to make it too wet at the proper spring planting time.

When we lived in Alaska, we had a friend that said when he retired he was going to tie a snow shovel to the front of his truck and drive south. When he got far enough that someone said, "What is that thing on the front of your truck", he would stop and live there.

3ð....... 3ð!!! Ack

Is there still room on the bus, and when is it leaving. I am ready now!

:)

Moni

I am getting a chuckle out of this thread. I checked the computer for Coldfoot Alaska, ( about half way between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay) which is the most northern town I have been in. The temp there is warmer than it is here, and if they got the sunshine we get I expect it would be much warmer. I think Mother Nature is in a bad mood.

Larry

Mother Nature is indeed well, touchy (to say the least).

For a chuckle (if you aren't easily offended by some crudity), check this out (about Mother Nature):

Here is a link that might be useful: Mother Nature Witticisms

I just skimmed through the above posts. Reminds me that most things are relevant. I've said many times I wanted to move south and east. South to be warmer and east for at least a little more rain. So have been excited about moving to west central OK. After reading the above posts maybe I need to go further south. LOL. Jay

Well, today my friend in zone 8B Austin, had 23F. How much farther do you want to go ? :)

It only dropped one degree after I went to bed last night. Of course when I went to bed the temperature was 1 with a windchill of minus 6. Right now it is 32 and doesn't even feel bad. LOL