Snowflakes???? That's CRAZY!! But since you both saw them, I won't ask what you both were smokin'! LOL!

Today, I was checking out one of the Farmer's Almanac's Weather predictions. I read a prediction of snow showers the second week of November for here in our region. Guess it's really possible!

Paula

You must live close to the Colorado border!

I lived in Colorado for 18 years and among the reasons I left are (a) scraping ice off the windshield in June; (b) it always snows (okay, just an itsy bit) around the 15th of September--but sometimes it will dump a foot on September 2; (c) watching snowfall on the 15th of June in Cascade, CO; (d) getting 36-42 inches of snow on April 2; (e) getting 24 inches of snow on May 25th.

The older I get, the closer I move to toward the equator.

Paula took the exact works right out of my mouth...."Snowflakes???? That's CRAZY!!" Stranger things probably have happened, but not very often. LOL

All we have is rain, hail (not at my house), high wind and power outages....just typical little old severe Tstorm stuff...nothing as exciting as snowflakes.

I hope the cold stays away from you a while longer, Jay.

Dawn

Paula there was actually about 5 of us that saw them before they quit. Of course they melted as soon as they hit the ground.

Spadenmillane it was actually in the very SE corner of CO where we saw them. Tha is where my station is. No one saw any here in Elkhart.

Dawn yees I have seen them this early before but not very often. We have received 4 tenths of an inch so far. Hope it keeps on raining all night but from the radar looks like it may quit before long. Yes took tomatoes out to my sister and nephew. And told them if we get a freeze the goodies will be over. Hopefully we can get another 2 weeks. If so several more should turn. Of course the cooler timps may hurt the flaovor of the KB's. And I have some nice big ones that should turn any day. Hope everyone that needs a nice rain gets one. Jay

Jay
I really hate to see this coming! As much as we griped about July and August heat, (and it wasn't as bad as it usually gets), still there is a sadness about loosing all those wonderful summer vegetables. IF ONLY it would just stay warm for another month~ :(

Barbara

It is 43 here this morning. Supposed to be around that tonight and then hopefully will be warmer. Saw Denver is 41 but Colorado Springs is in the upper 30's and talking 34 tonight. Odd Denver is almost as warm as us.

So everything should be ok through this one hopefully. Jay

Jay,

I assume you harvest all the green ones you can before the first freezing night arrives? I always do. I just bury all the countertops under rows of tomatoes.

Sometimes, if the plants are very heavily laden with green fruit, I pull them up by the roots and hang them upside down in the insulated garage and tornado shelter. Somtimes the green ones continue to turn red for weeks and weeks on those upside down plants.

I just hate to see the tomato season come to an end for you so early.

It is still hot here....91 yesterday and 66 overnight, although I think today our highs will be only in the 70s.

We had oodles of wind and lightning last night but got only about 5/100s of an inch of rain. I didn't mind that the rain missed us, because where it did fall, there was some hail in some places and some wind damage.

Robert,

The older I get, the more the cold (and the high heat) bothers me too. Even 10 years ago, I loved the heat and the cold. Now, I'm happier at milder mid-range temperatures.

When we moved here from Fort Worth in 1999, one of the old-timers here told me "Congratulations. You've moved to the one place in America that is both hotter in summer and colder in winter than Fort Worth so you lose all the way around." I thought he was kidding, but it turns out he wasn't! LOL

Barbara,

I really, really want another month too. Actually, I want two more months and I'll get them if our first frost comes 'on schedule' in mid-November. However, based on what has happened in Colorado already, and based on how cold it is at Jay's today, I'm thinking we'll get our first freeze sooner rather than later.

On the news this morning, they said there is snow on the ground west of Denver!

Dawn

Dawn
West of Denver are foothills and mountains, but Denver has always been my predictor of cold coming our way. You can be sure if it snows in Denver, it'll be turning cold here or possibly raining.
I concur with spademillane, after living in Wyo 10 yrs and 4 yrs in Denver, I've had enough of really long drawn out winters with 3 months gardening time. You don't get away from snakes there either, biggest meanest rattlesnakes in the mountains as there is any place else. What Wyoming had to recommend it was the mountains and lack of population density.
As for ripping up green tomato plants, I really have no place to store them, and I am not a big fan of green tomatos. I guess I'll be making lots of green tomato relish.
I did sew annual rye grass the other day. But I don't know whether some of my fall cole crops, lettuces, etc are going to mature before a hard frost hits unless I get a hoop structure over them in time. Always a day late and a dollar short as the saying goes.

Barbara

Barbara,

I'm not a big fan of green tomatoes either, although I'll eat fried green tomatoes now and then.

I am so hopeful this cold front will pass on and normal weather will return.

I feel the same way about a lot of my fall crops...either we need more fall (non-freezing) weather or I need to get busy building hoops too.

I opened up windows today and, while the fresh air is nice, it is cold!

Dawn

I didn't see any snow here but it is very cool and windy. We lit the gas fireplace this evening to take the chill off in the house. We had .4 inch of rain which was most welcome. I love fall but really don't want a freeze yet. I still have bunches of green tomatoes and several unripe melons.

I wish we could take some of that excess rain for those of you with way too much. Too much rarely happens out here.

Jan

Jan,

I hope you have enough warm weather yet for your melons and tomatoes to ripen.

I do wish some of the excess moisture we're having in many parts of the state could make its way to you.

In my part of Oklahoma (Love County), the weather is highly variable and my garden performs drastically different based on rainfall. In 2008, we had moderate to severe drought and a little less than 19" of rain for the entire year. My garden performance was adequate, but not great. In 2009, we've already had almost 35" of rain, and the garden (and I) have just gone nuts. It is a real reminder of what a difference a great rainfall year makes. I only have a great rainfall year (at least in summer) about once every 3 or 4 years, so this has been a great year.

So, I do understand the challenges of having a productive garden with low rainfall.

We're going to warm up again (near 90 degrees) by Sunday, so I am hoping y'all will warm up again too. It is too early for it to be this cold at night!

Dawn

Still haven't lit any heater. Guess I'm too hard headed. Supposed to be a warm up for at least 7 days. Possibly one cold day around the 1st and then another warm up. So maybe I'll get some more time yet. Jay

I saw the first bloom on my cowpeas this morning so I want it to be warm a little longer at least. LOL I would also like to get a few more tomatoes, and like to pick those green beans that have taken FOREVER to make. They are covered, but just growing very slowly. Must be all of the cool weather we have had.

Jay, I think we are about the same latitude but your probably 800 feet higher in altitude than we are. If that snow comes, we're depending on you to lasso and round-up all you can and keep it there awhile. I hope it doesn't come for you either until you get all of those tomatoes taken care of.

Jay,

You are hard-headed? Oh (gasp!), say it isn't so.

I am kind of hard-headed myself.

Carol,

I think we'll get a few more warm weeks. We can't let one itty-bitty cold front scare us to death. It is only September (although our first year here, we did have a freeze on Sept. 30th).

I have noticed the trees that always turn color first in autumn are starting to show a hint of gold, and I am not even ready for all that autumn stuff yet!

Dawn

Carol,
I picked and snapped a mess of George's green beans last night. Will cook them tonight. The internet is down in town so couldn't cruise it last night. Had time to do a few other things. My nephew the IT tech at the internet, phone, cell phone and cable TV provides said AT&T has a router down. He said they weren't sure when we would have internet again. Here at work we are on our own network so have access while here. It looks like it should warm up for a while. Picked more peppers last night. I'm growing a Hungarian Volcano pepper for the first time I really like. Sets early and often. And has a heat that grows after you eat it. Should have seeds this fall. Jay