Hard Freeze

The other day I took the car for an oil change and the thermometer in the car registered ICE for the outside temperature.  What is this?  This is supposed to be Florida but this part of the Sunshine State had only nine (9) days of sunshine last month.  Now we are waiting for a Hard Freeze that won't let up until midday on Wednesday.

Winter Landscape

So, we take care of people, pets, plants, and pipes.  It is important that the wild animals do have shelter away from the cold wind, a safe place where they can burrow down and make a nest for themselves. It doesn't hurt to set out a little feed:  sliced oranges on strings, dry cat food in peanut butter and rolled into a pine cone.  Be sure that the animals and birds have water available, water that is not frozen.

Of course, your pets are inside, well cared for and well loved. My husband and I took the tractor cat for her shots today and when the veterinarian entered the exam room he exclaimed: "Oh, that cat!"

Take care of yourself, too.  If you need a space heater, be sure that it has a cleared radius of at least three (3) feet and do keep it away from your bed and bed linens.

We wrapped two small orange trees in frost blankets this afternoon and put up a utility light inside the tent. We did not have enough blankets so we used sheets and light weight blankets and we tied them all together with clothes pins.  We also covered sensitive greenery with blankets and I covered some of the plants with flower pots.

To heat (and cool) our house we use a Florida heat pump that pulls water from the ground and removes the heat (or cold) from the water, circulates it, and forces the heat (or cold) into the house.  Some say to close off the rooms that you do not use and others maintain that it puts the forced air into an uneven distribution or something to that effect.  Any way, we covered the pump and the pipes with a rug and put a utility lamp under the rug.

If you are not sure about your pipes: wrap them with towels and blankets.  David Gray Plumbing recommends that you leave the water flowing.  In other words, let it drip ever so slightly.

Finally, be sure that the kids at the bus stop is covered up.  With the wind chill factor, it won't take long to develop frost bites.

Hang in there; spring is on its way.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

How to Make Bean Poles

My husband and I like Sieva Butter Beans.  We prefer the climbing beans as opposed to the bush beans because we get more beans per plant.  The climbing beans do grow rather high and require support.  Initially we used wooden poles but they rotted in a few years.  We had to come up with something else that was durable, easy to handle, easy to make, and inexpensive.

My husband came up with this idea of using 2" schedule 40, 10 foot long, sun resistant, gray Rigid PVC Conduit.  For this project, he needed 6 pieces of Conduit.  Four of them were trimmed to 8 feet.  These four Conduit (pipes) were put 2 feet into the ground.

The two remaining 10 foot pipes were used to brace the two ends.  The braces were fastened by PVC Ys.  When we braced the end pipes in the middle, we found that the flanges broke due to the strain exerted by the top wires caused by the heavy load of the beans vines.  (In the picture, one of the old braces remains and is visible.)

The pipes were also capped.  This prevents water from accumulating and becoming a good breeding point for mosquitos. It also keeps small frogs and other critters from becoming trapped.

After the poles were put into the ground, my husband drilled holes through all four pipes and the braces as well for horizontal wires.  One wire is threaded though all four poles about 6 to 8 inches above the ground; the top wire is 2 to 3 inches from the top; and the middle wire is, you guessed it, in the middle.

Cotton strings are fastened vertically to the metal wires approximately 6 inches apart for the beans to climb.  We are using cotton because these strings will eventually decompose. The horizontal wires will remain on the poles and may be tightened at season's end.  Also, we recommend that cloth strips be tied to the metal wires as caution until the cotton strings are in place and the beans start growing.

The reason the pipes are put rather deeply into the ground is so that they will not blow away causing danger and damage when loaded with heavy and dense vines. After all, we live t the beach and the threat of hurricanes or heavy wind is real.

We are using the same kind of support for the peas but these pipes are cut in half making them 3 feet above the surface.  They do not require braces but they a
re also capped.