It didn't quite make 60 here today and with a wind, was a bit chilly.

Dorothy,

I wish you'd had our weather. It was such a delight. This is such a hard month because the occasional gorgeous day "teases" you and makes you believe spring is here, even though you know it really isn't.

The bees are out, and I noticed some trees just beginning to bloom along the pasture fencelines as I was walking our deaf, old, half-blind 14-year-old dog. I think they may be sandplums--the aroma was intoxicating. Even the old dog stopped to sniff the air.

On the "bad news" side of late winter/early spring, the skunks have been out for several weeks now and it appears rabies is rearing its ugly head here. A crazed skunk chased a friend of ours into her house and then kept running into the screen door repeatedly with its head trying to "break down the door" to get to her. I think her son shot the skunk, but DH was fuzzy on what happened after the skunk chased her into the house.

Dawn

Dawn - Lucky you. I was happy that it was to be in the 50s here today because I wanted to work outside. It was not comfortable out there and surely didn't feel like the 50s. I went out long enough to go through my wintersown things and uncover those things that had sprouted and get everything watered, but my hands sure got cold before I finished. It probably would have been OK if it weren't for the wind.

I had an old blanket that I had used to cover some plants last weekend. I ran out Sunday morning and took it off and just kind of rolled it up and laid it in a lawn chair instead of putting it away. When I went out to water the plants, I saw it move. The cat had gotten into the center of the roll and was just lying there with her face up near the small opening. She stayed in that rolled up blanket the entire time I was working out there. I don't think she liked the wind either.

The cold doesn't seem to be bothering the plants tho.

Carol,

The wind was pretty strong here too, so it didn't seem as hot as it was for most of the day. Then, around 3 p.m. the wind must have let up, because all of a sudden it felt like we were roasting! We walked the old dog just before dinner and the wind had completely stopped blowing and it was a perfect early evening. I think we have one or two more good days here before the real cold returns.

Dawn

Carol, your cat is pretty smart! LOL

We were coldish, too. I brought my cabbage and bunching onion plants out to the porch, planted a few of the bunching onions (I know it's early but I don't have any more seed for that so I would be happy if this part bolted to seed) and watered things out of the water collection tank and my hands got really cold.

It's supposed to rain Thursday night, although the chance is slight, and the tank was full. The last time it rained, the runoff from the roof completely filled the tank. But we had gotten quite a hard rain. When we bought it, I tried to tell DH it wasn't big enough, but he was absolutely sure it was plenty big. Now I wish I'd just gone to buy it by myself. He is constantly offering an opinion that veers me off in a direction that later I wish I hadn't gone. I'm thinking I might put this one in the herb garden where there's a downspout off the back porch, and then get the big container that I wanted in the first place and put it where the run-off is most heavy. The tanks are not cheap (bought at Atwood's -- made for farmers to put in the back of their trucks to spray out of) and those little faucet contraptions they sell to close off the hole at the bottom of the container are cheap and useless. We had to buy a submergible pump to drop into the top hole, to force the water through the garden hose. Using gravity was similar to the molasses in January thing. I've seen all kinds of home-made tanks, with plastic garbage cans and the like, but getting DH to do stuff like this is like pulling teeth, and I'm busy with other things. I figure, though, that having water collected in a big tank instead of it going on the ground between our house and the house next door, will pay for itself before too long. Probably will have to buy mosquito dunks when the weather warms, though. I watered five raised beds, five grapevines, eight new shrubs, the new bed along the fence and four lilac bushes really, really well and still had probably ten gallons left in the tank.

Today is supposed to get to 69 and tomorrow to 70, with temps going back down 20 degrees after that. So spring has not sprung here in NE Oklahoma yet, although I see some budding on some of the shrubs and my 'tater onion' and Jonquils are greening out. The garlic, that stayed green all winter, is perking up a bit too.

Ilene, Since you're thinking it would be OK if the onions bolted, they'll probably be stubborn and refuse to bolt! (That's the kind of luck I always have, anyway.)

I like your rainfall collection tank. I've wanted something like that ever since we visited the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin where they have a massive rainfwater collection/cistern system that is incorporated into all their buildings and is simply amazing.

We have 5 ponds, 3 of which we put in here after we built the house, but they haven't had water in them in months. They do catch a lot of rainfall when it actually does rain, but I leave the water in 4 of them for the wild things and the fifth one is "mine" to use to water the veggie garden if needed. That fifth pond is on the northeast corner of my veggie garden and I can pump water out with a small sump pump or can scoop it out with a watering can. This pond is fairly small and holds maybe a thosand gallons so the water doesn't last as long as you'd think. If I had it to do over again, I would have had Elvis (our backhoe guy--you gotta love the name) dig a quarter-acre pond and I would have had him dig it deeper.

It is going to be 75 or so here today, so I suspect we'll have fires again like we have the last two days, although maybe we'll get lucky and have calm winds and no fires.

I'm not ready for the cold to return. All the fruit tree buds are swelling--even the Mexican plum which tends to be a bit later than the others. I guess the cold will be a good thing because it will slow them down, but I'd still rather be warm. The plum tree that's been in full bloom for days now probably won't set any fruit, or will set it and lose it to the cold, but I'm hoping the other trees will make up for that one.

I looked back at my temperature records and noticed that when Feb. is warm, we always have a cold spell around the first week in March, so this cold front that's coming in is right on schedule.

Carol, that is a very smart cat. In the afternoon our cats "collect" on the back porch where the greenhouse plastic and the afternoon sun keep the temp about 10-20 degrees higher than it is out in the open. I guess sitting or sleeping in 70-90 degrees on a winter afternoon is pretty appealing to the cats. That porch almost feels "too hot" to me at times. Sometimes I open the french doors that connect that back porch to the breakfast room and let some of the porch's collected hot air flow into the house.

Dawn

Well, I don't get it either, Dawn, but my cat Pearl will stay outside on the hottest days, sleeping on the porch. On cooler days, if she can find a spot of sun, she'll curl up in that. Otherwise, she wants back in the house. You'd think with all that fur they'd be plenty warm and be looking for someplace cool, but not so with her.