Too funny Leslie. I agree though. I ready to get some stuff growing.

Mike

It's planting time somewhere, but not anywhere close.

Larry

Ok, you guys. I'm faking it. I gave in and started brocs & cauliflower under a desk lamp, tomatoe & pepper seeds are germinating in coffee filters and I even bought cabbage seeds on the way home from work. Hope "springs" eternal!

And it will be time to plant onions in 2 weeks.....are you envisioning tulips and daffodils yet? LOL!!!

Seriously, (I don't know how many of you have FB or maybe you can "google" it) - I've started following the weather predictions of snow bird bob (only the first two words are actually one. Sorry, trying to avoid the garbage.) He's some kind of AR local media personality, maybe a weather man but his predictions are pretty interesting if not mostly accurate. He covers the whole south with emphasis on the AR, OK TX, LA, TN regions (he's in AR) and points further east.

Paula

I guess it could, if who ever p*ssed of Mother Nature would go and apologize!

Please, lets find the offender and lets get it over with.

:)

Moni

I remember a few years in times past--January of 2005 especially--when daffodils and crocus bloomed in my yard. This year the tips of the daff leaves are barely above ground and I have yet to see crocus foliage. At this rate I'll be lucky to see them in March. I do have hellebore blooming though and have had since December. And after a low of mid 20s in the greenhouse this am, the high was 71. Everything was frozen this morn and looked fine this afternoon.

At least this snow melted quickly, unlike that last heavy snow that lasted a week. We may get more and colder temps but it won't fall on top of iced, snowpacked roads. Ours are clear after a high of 42 this afternoon. So I'm grateful for that anyway.

Our high yesterday was only 29, but the roads cleared pretty quickly. Everything else is still covered in a few inches of snow. That's really the best scenario possible. Pretty snow, good driving conditions. It was 31 this morning when I got up (and still is) and it rained last night, but the roads are still fine. I complained yesterday, but it could really stay like this for a while. Of course, Mother Nature doesn't care what I think, so these conditions probably won't last.

Leslie

We've been waiting since Thanksgiving for three consecutive days with lows above 40 degrees to pour concrete in our backyard (and the three days can't start on the weekend because the concrete truck won't come out).

It looks like that may happen, oh, around June or so.

Leslie, Y'all always seem to go from winter to summer in a span of about 3 days over there in SW OK, so maybe you should just tolerate or even enjoy the weather being freezing cold, wet, muddy and gloomy while it lasts because it beats being 105 degrees and with no rain for 30 days.

I don't mind the cold and the snow, sleet, ice and/or freezing rain that much, but I really miss the sunshine. I don't even mind the mud because mud is better than dusty dry soil.

Larry, It is practically planting time down here in southern OK, but I don't think Mother Nature is paying attention to our human calendar. Some years I'd already have onions in the ground, but this is not a year in which I'd push any of the planting days a little early.

Paula, Last week while it was sunny and our high temps were in the 70s, I cleaned up the bed where the onions will be planted, so it is ready for them. Now, I'm just waiting for Dixondale to ship, and maybe by the time the onions get here, the ground won't be quite as muddy as it is now.

Mia, Now, don't be so pessimistic. I'm thinking it could happen even in May.

Y'all, I do have blooms in my yard if chickweed and dandelions count. In between the alternating cold/snowy and sunny/warm periods, the little wildflowers called Spring Beauties bloom, but the blooms disappear as soon as the cold returns. Yesterday the chickweed and dandelions flowers were covered in ice from the freezing rain, or buried under the sleet and snow, but today they are merely wet.

Dorothy, If our daffodils or ornamental alliums have put up any foliage yet, I haven't even noticed it. The comfrey has stayed green most of the winter, although it browns out and shows some freeze damage when we go down into the single digit temperatures.

I do have perennial onions that are up a couple of inches, and garlic greens about 6" tall. They look miserable after it snows and sleets on them, but they perk up quickly once we warm up a little.

In the garden, there's lots of volunteers up and growing---chamomile, poppies, Laura Bush petunias and larkspur specifically, but that was before the latest snow fell. I don't think we have been cold enough to hurt them the last few days, but we might get that cold over the next couple of days.

I'm not looking forward to the cold weather we're going to have for the rest of the week, but it is February after all, so the cold is fairly normal.

I haven't started a single seed of anything yet. I feel like this is going to be an average or late spring and definitely not an early one, so when my traditional seed-starting day (Super Bowl Sunday) rolled around, I decided to wait another week or two before I start anything.

Dawn

Mesonet predicts grey skies for the rest of the week. Blek blek blek

My forecast is slightly better---the NWS says we will have mostly sunny skies on Saturday. I hope they are right. With all the cold weather between now and then, at least the sunshine is something to look forward to. Some sunshine also is in our forecast for Sunday too. After that, though, rain and snow return to our forecast for early next week. I just hate it when we have winter weather in winter while our hearts and souls are longing for spring weather.

You guys got me to feeling bad, my onion spot in the south garden is not ready. I have the till out there warming up and I am inside suiting up. The planting depth is 36, the air temp is 23 and if I can get the till to break through the top layer of ice I will have a place to plant my onions is about 30 minutes.

Larry

It did not take long at all, now I have onion ground ready in both gardens.

Larry

I am thankful for my woodstove and sorry for people struggling to pay for heat. I have electric heat also but the wood stove is going full blast and one side of me is very warm at this time.

I worry about people trying to get to work and dogs left outside. It is nice to be retired but now I worry about others. Our forecast is 2 degrees for tonight and the next night. A local dog was shot by a policeman because the people tied it to the utility pole so that the electricity couldn't be turned off. Poor people with no money getting further behind and the dog gets shot - very sad. It makes me count my blessings. My dogs are spoiled and the little cat wakes me in the middle of the night going in and out.

I remember two years of warm winters recently nice but the summers were dry and unbearably hot. Maybe we will have a mild summer.

You're more dedicated than I am! My garden isn't ready for onions either but I don't even want to walk outside, much less stay out there to work. It's 16 here instead of your 23, but that temperature difference is not what's stopping me. It's really windy here today too.

Leslie

Helen;

It's incredible how much wood we've burned this year.

We stopped using the radiant heaters. We drag our bed mattresses into one room closer to the stove and pack it up every morning. Often, I wake with a lego indention in my back and children's books shuffling under my pillow.

Hopefully, a cobb oven will be raised, this year, next to the large makeshift rocket stove/grill. Timer sits on the hot water tank. Dryer use is at a stand-still. Computer rationing began a few months ago. They are our only connection to the world but for a single cell phone. "Cable" isn't a word that is spoken in our home. It's not that it's bad. We haven't been able to justify a cable bill in over four years. For reasons that elude me the internet provider granted locals access to basic channels. (Probably weather related.) Live television confused my son who is only familiar with various types of recordings on players and the internet.

If anyone would have told me twenty years ago this is how I would be living in my forties, I would have laughed and run away thinking they are out of their minds.

And the garden? I don't want to garden. I want to raise a forest... something that will sustain itself. Talk about different!

Times are hard, but acceptance helps. And you all help so very very much. âÂÂ¥

Helen, What a sad story about the dogs. I did love those warm winters when we were able to plant early, but the price was ridiculously hot summer weather. Today, though, ridiculously hot summer weather sounds wonderful.

We had a pitiful snowfall south of Marietta yesterday, with what I'd say was only a dusting of snow. From Marietta northward, clearly more precip fell and the roads got slick and there were people wrecking, sliding off the road, ending up in ditches, canyons, medians, etc. from 4 or 5 pm until at least 2 am. I couldn't believe it was so much worse just a few miles north of our house. Today, however, even though we started out gray, cloudy, cold and gloomy, we have had sunshine since about 1 pm, most of the ice and snow are melted and gone, and our daytime high hit 46 degrees. It still feels really chilly outside, but just having a few hours of sunshine was so lovely.

Bon, It just has been that kind of winter. I know that people who heat with propane have had to deal with spot shortages that have driven the prices sky-high. It has been a while since we have had a winter that has stayed so persistently cold for so many weeks. Even with a warm day or two thrown into the mix here and there, it feels like we have been dealing with snow and freezing temperatures for months....because we have! It didn't help that the first big cold spell with snow hit us in November. For southern OK, that's really rare.

When I go outside, I watch for signs of spring's imminent arrival, but there aren't many yet. Every time something tries to green up and bloom, we get another night with temperatures in the single digits and wind chills that are off the charts. I'm hoping a cold winter means a cool (not cold!) spring and a mild summer, but I doubt we'll be so lucky.

You know, tough times never last, but tough people do. I know you're not living the life in your 40s that you dreamed of, but who could have guessed 20 years ago that the economy would repeatedly stall and sputter or that so many jobs would just go away? In our particular part of OK, the building of the casinos on Indian land has been really helpful---creating tons and tons of jobs. Still, there's also the downside that comes along with that sort of industry as well. I don't know where a lot of the people here would be working, or if they'd even have jobs at all, if the casino hadn't been built at Thackerville.

At least we all have our gardens to keep us sane, and I know we'll all be out there working in our gardens one of these days after the snow and cold temperatures are gone for good. I hope that is sooner rather than later.

Dawn

I was really hoping the harsher winter would ease the drought over parts of Oklahoma. Instead, it put us back on the drought map. That will probably end for us if we get typical rains in spring, but my heart aches for the rest of Oklahoma.