I am enduring our annual Oklahoma cold snap. 10% to 14% at night and has not got above 28% for 3 days. These temperatures may be normal for you people that endure Montana, North Dakota or Lost in the woods Alaska winters, but for us in Southwest Oklahoma, ‘It’s Damn Cold!’
It’s to the point now that 2 times a day I have to take a bucket of boiling water with me to the rabbit pens to melt the ice out of their water troughs so I can refill them with sort of warm water. Needed a 4 pound hammer to remove ice from my sheep water container and a 20 pound sledge hammer to bust ice on the cows water tank!
Gee, that makes me cold and tired just thinking about all my ice breaking task. Weather man says one more day and night then it will be back to our more normal 28-30% nights and 40-50% daytime temperatures. Even the chicken eggs were frozen last evening when I gathered eggs and closed the coop for the night.
If we must suffer in this cold weather we could at least have a little bit of snow to go with it, but NO not in the dry Southwest Oklahoma landscape! I have a new puppy {They said he was a blue heeler, I’m not so sure that the dad wasn’t a common fence jumper}, that is 4 months old and has never seen, rain or snow.
To say it has been a dry year would be the understatement of the 21st century. Water is a priceless commodity in these parts and few have enough underground water for watering livestock and gardens and even fewer can afford to pay tap water price. I’m hoping for enough rain/snow to get my garden soil damp enough to till before last frost. My last frost date is some where around the 10th of April.
In self defense I have ordered most of the parts I will need to install a drip irrigation system in my garden{more on that this spring}. I am hoping this pin point watering scheme will allow me to better control water usage and not water as many weeds. This ‘I Hope’ will allow me to have a larger garden, use less water and spend much less time weeding my garden. {Even weeds need a little water.}
Spring planting preparation and my drip irrigation installation project will be an on going blog entry until at least may. You will just have to suffer along with the rest of until then.
Why is common sense so uncommon?
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