My yard got down to 15 on the coldest night. Two nights in the 20s, two in the teens. In ground I have Rio Red Grapefruit, Cara Cara and N33-E Navel Oranges, Kishu Mandarin, Meiwa Kumquat, and Miho Satsuma. All were covered, but no heat source. When the covers were removed, the trunks and branches do not appear split. The leaves however show discolored areas of off-green and have a crinkled appearance. I expect to lose the leaves until Spring warming, but time will tell. Strangely, the grapefruit still on tree did not freeze. Perhaps the very thick rind protected the pulp. On a larger note, perhaps global warming should consider the effect of atmospheric heaters such as HAARP in Alaska, and other ionospheric heaters operating throughout the world in places such as Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Tromso, Norway, and the former Soviet Union. Seems strange that governments are using such technology while asking the public to not warm the planet.

We got our rain! Looks like a pretty good amount. Everything is thoroughly soaked. Amazing how much good the rain can do for plants. Glenda, You have had much cooler night temps then we have had. It has been in the high 90s during the day and high 80s at night. At 1 o'clock in the morning the temps would still be in the mid to upper 80s. Awful. Cameron, I am so sorry about your weather. I know the last time I flew to SC to see my daughter, I couldn't believe how brown everything was from Atlanta to SC. It was an olive green. I have never seen the South like that. The lakes were down really far and some almost dried up! I could see columns of smoke rising from the fires burning here and there all over. This must be the fourth or fifth year for you guys to be in drought conditions, huh? Man! We had a ten year drought and it was devastating. Nearly broke the banks because the farmers had no crops and the ranchers were having to sell off their livestock because there there was no hay to feed them. All the cattle ponds had dried up. This year, all the rain and precip. we got in winter and this spring really made the difference. The trees were able to get moisture further down in the ground, so the plants closer to the surface are not having to compete with them for whatever there is near the surface. I have had to water every day through this Heat Wave, but everything is doing pretty good, considering this early hot weather. The only exception being the veggie garden - insects ruined my cool weather crops. But even the areas further out where I never water look good. The garden phlox are the first to indicate drought. When they shrivel up, I know we are in drought. It's still very overcast and gray out, so we might get more rain. Hope this heat wave and drought ends for everyone... and moves on up to Washington where they could use a little heat and drying out. BTW, has anyone heard from MeMo lately. She blew out her knee(s?) trying to move plants and do things she shouldn't be doing by herself. She doesn't have one person to help her when or how she needs it the most. Wondering if she is in the hospital. Oh dear! I am just heartsick for her over her beautiful cottage garden plans. She worked so hard at designing it and digging those beds and her veggie garden. Then digging up her plants out on the ranch and transplanting them, mulching them, babying them along, only to be told it would all have to be dug out. And to make matters worse, this all happened right when the heat wave hit. Good grief! I would have been devastated. I worry about her. ~Annie

I have a basement fireplace that is on an outside north wall. Cold air leaks from the edges of the brick mantle and all along the basement wall adjacent to the fireplace. Directly above in the main floor cold air blows in through the baseboards where the chimney is run directly behind the wall and all along the entire length of the wall's baseboards. It blows enough to move a match flame when held in front of the baseboards directly where the chimney is running behind the wall and less further away so it's like there is air blowing around the flue and down and blowing into the house via baseboards and poorly insulated walls. Also the walls in front of a chimney normally get very warm when there is a fire blazing. On this wall, there is no increase in wall temperature whatsoever even though there is very hot air going up the chimney. Our electric company suggested some sort of chimney kit that would seal the area around the outside of the flue and the chimney space. A chimney builder and repairman I consulted said to take the outside siding off of the chimney and insulate and recommended replacing the outside with brick instead of siding. He didn't have much to say about the "kit" suggested by the electric company. Any other suggestions or comments on which of these 2 suggestions would be best?

This is what I have found with this problem. It took me forever to figure it out. The air is coming in throught the exterior wall, stay with me here. There are two pipes that run through the wall, one is small that handles the flue gases from the gas stove. The other is a larger 6-8" pipe that surrounds the smaller flue gas pipe. tha larger pipe goes throught the wall and most to all HVAC guys cut a way to big hole in your exterior wood wall. The guys then come a brick, side or whatever over the wood exterior tight to the larger pipe....so it looks nice. But when the wind blows, really noticeable with brick (because of the 3/4"air space between the brick and wood wall) builds up pressure between the brick and the wood wall. The air comes in through the large, unsealed hole that is left from the pipe going through. This air is direct to the surrounding area behind the fireplace and comes out through any vent (usually the lower grill) making the floor icey cold. Putting a bag or plastic over the box outside does nothing. The way to fix it easily is to remove the box outside, cut the larger pipe only in past the brick to expose the ouside wood wall. Seal the area around the pipe and reinstall a new short larger pipe extension. The builders contractors will only give you a runaround because they know to fix it properly is to remove the two flue pipes, and fireplace completely and seal it as it put together in steps. I hope this helps a bit and isn't too confusing.