There's Frost on the Tomato

Florida has just finished the coldest December in history. It had two cold snaps. The first one was sort of a warm up for the second one. It only got just below freezing. The tomato field down the block from us got hit just a little. They had crews out just before the frost picking anything that was close to being ripe. They even sprayed the plants with some chemical that was supposed to help them withstand the cold.

But one week later came the real freeze, it got down to 26 F and the tomatoes didn't like it at all. The guy at the field says the ones under the leaves are probably still good to pick especially if there are any green leaves left.

These fields are really big. This picture is one direction but the opposite direction goes just as far and then goes around a corner and goes on forever. Prices for tomatoes are going up.

The locals wrap all their temperature sensitive plants with cloth - we did also but missed a couple on the first freeze - they'll survive.

The good news is that the La Nina that brought the Arctic air down to us means that the rest of the winter is going to be much warmer than normal. Yea.

Fireplace

Every fireplace has to have a mantel - but ours in Florida didn't - so here is the story of how it got one.


Last spring my son cut down a Curly Maple tree and with a borrowed saw mill cut it up into 2" thick slabs. We built a solar kiln during last summer and after three months of drying the maple plank was finally ready for woodworking. We brought it over to my son-in-law's house and used his big planer to give it a smooth finish, then back to my garage for some finish sanding, cutting, drilling and finishing - and, walla, a fireplace mantel was born. Loaded it in the back of my pickup and carted it down to Florida. Installation consisted of mounting a 3/4" by 1" board onto the wall studs. This fit into a milled grove in the back of the Curly Maple mantel. A few screws in the bottom side of the mantel locked everything in place. Nothing to it - we got a mantel for the fireplace and just in time - we got down into the 30's last week.

Thanksgiving

We went back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving - Polly had it with her family and I had it with mine but down in New Jersey. We drove back to CT rather than flying in order to bring my Toyota Tundra back for a recall - Believe it or not they were going to replace the frame of the truck because it had severe rusting- and they did. It took them almost two weeks but I got it back one day before my planned return to Florida. The guy at the garage told me it cost Toyota $12K to do it and they have dozens more trucks to do.

We left at 4:30 AM on Saturday and drove (or flew according to Polly) down to my Cousin Russell in North Carolina. We got their 10 hours later just as the snow started. They have a bird feeder in front of their kitchen window and it was loaded with all types of birds - cardinals were a brilliant red - picture through the window doesn't get the colors but look at the number of birds in the bush waiting for food.

In the morning, his young calves came over to say goodbye to us.

It was beautiful drive with the snow stuck to the tree limbs and clear roads.

We made it to Wimauma by 8 PM that night. In the morning I went outside and found two more birthday gifts. The first was a new camper - only 14 ft long but it'll be perfect for short outings and according to the sticker it cost less than $9K.

Oh and look at this - a new car - for me?? It is a Yaris which is the updated version of the Toyota Echo that I drive back in Connecticut.

What a nice birthday surprise but I can't seem to find the keys to it.