Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Weather

Weather is always a hot topic, has been for years and probably always will be. What would we talk about all the time if it weren’t  for the weather? Everybody always has something to say about the weather. This has been an exceptionally cool winter this year here at North Ranch in Congress, Arizona. Most other years we have had cold spells but this year it seems like we have had a lot more of those “spells”! I’ll bet it is the same with you where ever you are. Most people we talk to all over the country tell us about the same thing, it's been cold. Most of us are a little tired of it and are ready for some “Warm” weather. I know we sure are.
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Speaking of Weather, I put my new "weather station" up on top of the house a while back. It sure works slick and I’m enjoying the heck out of it. I’m still learning and getting familiar with it a little more all the time. Those little “cups” on the back of it are, of course, the wind speed indicator. The big black cylinder is the rain gauge, which is self emptying and measures rainfall by the 0.01 of an inch. I got to try it out last Sunday as we had 0.61 rain.  It is all wireless and I have never failed to get a signal from it. The transmitter is that little white box with the small antenna on the back. The black area on the front of the transmitter is a solar panel that keeps the batteries charged.   With just a push of the button it gives me the high temp for the Day, for the Week, and for the Year. It does the same thing for all the other info it provides.  THEN, if you want a record of all these items, you can get a computer program and connect it to your computer for all kinds of records, graph’s, etc. I’ll wait on that.  Right now I’m fascinated with all the info it gives me right at my fingertips.

One of the reasons I know it’s been a rougher winter than usual around here is the damage all the fruit  and palm trees took here in our little town of North Ranch. Ours survived the first little cold spell and we were really enjoying the fresh oranges right off our own little trees (a first for us).  Then this last cold spell hit and a severe wind came with it and blew the protective covers most of us had over them and they got hit Bad!
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Most all of the oranges are frozen to the point they aren’t edible and the trees sure look sick. This citrus growing is new to both of us. I sure hope they will come back with a crop for next year.  The experts tell me not to do any trimming for a while and just continue watering them.  We hope nature will take it's course and bring them back next season.  So if you experienced citrus growers have any advice or words of wisdom, we'd love to hear from you.

Rollie and Gina's son, Thomas, deployed for Afghanistan yesterday.  Please keep Thomas and his loving family in your prayers until he returns.   Please say a special prayer for Ashley and little Abigail who will make her appearance before Thomas gets home.  We love you Thomas and Ashley!
 
You can bet, we are looking forward to some warmer weather here in our country.  Meanwhile.....

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  May God Bless you all!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

7 comments:

squawmama said...

The weather station sounds like a fun thing to follow... Sure hope your fruit tress comes back. We just had a ton of pink grapefruit right off the trees here and made a couple of gallons of juice... plus some for morning breakfast...YUM!
Have fun & travel safe
Donna

Unknown said...

I hope your fruit trees make it.

Unknown said...

I hope your fruit trees make it!

Al Bossence said...

That's quite a techno intriguing little weather station you have atop your house. I would enjoy something like that but might stress myself out trying out all it's multi functions. Can it predict when the Swans ice cream truck is a block away.
We saw large 8 foot high prickly pear type cactus hedge killed off back in Cochise County by that cold snap. What a shame because i'm sure it took many years to grow that size.
We are just west of Yuma for a few days right now. Air is cool but the sun's rays are warm. Sure is nice to see lots of greenery again:))

Bob and Vicky said...

A few years ago we had a hard freeze here in south TX and after that many of the orange tress produced a real sour orange - hope that doesn't happen to you.
We had a cold snap here about two weeks ago - below freezing but didn't seem to hurt any of the fruit tress this time.

Take Care
Bob

Sue and Doug said...

yes, us Canadians talk alot about the weather!..love the weather station!!..great new 'toy'!
sorry to hear about the oranges!!

Janna and Mike said...

We too are experiencing some of that cooler weather and the nasty wind! Ready for some warmer temps for sure.