i hate waking up on Mondays this time of year! First of all, i DO tell myself-"You're lucky to be alive and healthy at your age - get up and appreciate it!" But when it's 6 AM, dark, cold, flanked by a warm, purring feline on one side, and a husband (who doesn't have to wake up for another hour and a half) on the other side, it's difficult! AND i'm going to work - on days in which i could do whatever i felt like doing, my attitude would be very different!
Anyway, we had a long, warm Autumn this year - it's only been really cold the last two weeks, but i got complacent in that stretch of nice weather, and so was STILL surprised by the onset of the sub freezing temperatures. i was really upset when i realized i hadn't yet covered my Palm tree!
It's a hardy Palm, which means barely hardy in my zone 5b, so she's got to be babied. Been thru 2 of our winters so far with no damage - in a protected area facing South under a large styrofoam cone, of course! (We gardeners like to beat the odds ;-) ) Fortunately, the Palm still looked pretty nice and is now tucked in for the season.
Then i noticed my poor little homemade rain chain - coated with ice and getting heavy (it's made from aluminum armature wire - looks good, but ice will bend/twist it all to hell!). i thought it would warm up in the sun and thaw, but not that material, - and not in 30 degree (F) temps!
So i carefully took it down and moved it into our garage attached to the house till it thaws out!
...And just got the watergarden half heartedly cleaned out and the deicer floated in it "just in case"- except "in case" is here already! Managed to break a hole in the ice layer for several days so the deicer didn't have to run, but it quickly became too thick for that. Most pond enthusiasts will tell you to never beat on the ice to break it, because the shock waves will hurt or kill the fish. i would imagine that is correct, if the ice is thick and you're trying to break it with a hammer or pickaxe, but i only do it when the ice layer is thin and i can break thru it with a piece of pipe or rebar (punch thru it in a circle like a perforation and tap it ). i have done that for years and never harmed the fish - although i do see them get startled once in a while!
Oh, yeah, and i now have a rain barrel in my Florida room! (you don't even wanna know....)
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