Weathering The Storm

It got a little cold this week. Some people are calling it a once-in-a-generation storm. That sounds about right to me, because I’ve never seen anything like it.

My dad told me he experienced that kind of cold only once before, and he’s lived around here most of his whole life. He recalled one winter day as a teenager putting on multiple pairs of blue jeans and long sleeve shirts and jackets to help my grandpa feed the cows at the farm near Komensky. They drove from Weimar to there in ‘58 Chevy pickup, and it didn’t have four wheel drive. He said my grandpa drove a good part of the way in the ditch because the roads were so slick with ice.

A lot of people have gotten real mad over this storm, and I can’t say I blame them. It looks like the people who manage our state’s electric grid were not prepared. But if this was a once-ina-generation storm like folks are saying, maybe they deserve a little slack. I don’t know. It might be too early to make judgements. Questions need to be answered, though. Why did some places never lose power, like La Grange, but the elderly folks at College Place in Schulenburg had to huddle around the fireplace to stay warm? Thank God they had a fireplace and someone found them some firewood.

Once-in-a-generation, they say.

I saw some things I’ve never seen before. The pond at my mom and dad’s place north of Ammannsville froze over. The water line from Fayette Water Supply to the troughs out there wasn’t running due to the rolling blackouts. I went out there and used a shovel and a breaking bar to bust some holes in the pond so the cows could drink water. The ice on the edges was two inches thick. I have a water well at my place, but two mornings in a row I busted the ice off my water trough so the cows could drink.

We’ve been working remotely at the newspaper. I called my editor, Jeff Wick, on Monday morning to check in. We both live in old farm houses, and after our conversation about work, he told me about some weatherrelated issues with his home.

“Well, it looks like I’m going to get intimately re-familiar with the plumbing system under our house,” he said.

“Yeah, me too.”

I think the plumbers are going to stay busy over the next few weeks.

I’m more mad at myself than anyone else for not preparing enough. I forgot to keep a couple of faucets running in my house, and that cost me. I managed to save all my outside water lines, though. Last Thursday I drove to Weimar and bought some Freeze Miser devices from M-G. These little things screw to the end of a faucet. You leave the faucet on, and when the water temperature gets to 37 degrees Fahrenheit, it starts dripping. That way, the water starts running before it freezes. When the water warms up, it stops dripping. You can also install them on one side of a tee past the faucet, that way you can leave a hose hooked to the other side.

I’m highly impressed with how well they worked. I need to get more and install them at some critical points in my house plumbing.

To keep my greenhouse warm, I used a Mr. Heater propane burner hooked to a five gallon bottle. Even when the weather was eight degrees outside, that little heater kept the greenhouse around 55 to 60 degrees. One of my bottles ran out one night and few of my tomato starts got a little cold burned. I’m not sure if they’ll make it. I may have to start some more seeds, and that may push back the tomato plant sale I was planning for next month.

Obviously, I didn’t plant potatoes on Presidents Day like I advised a few weeks ago. I’m planning to plant them in about a week or so, or whenever I’m able to work the soil again. I heard some folks planted potatoes in late January and early February. If you did m, I hope you didn’t lose them, because seed potatoes might be hard to come by now. If you did plant early, wait a few weeks before giving up on them. If they didn’t sprout from the ground before this storm, you may be OK.

I’m continually amazed at this new heirloom variety of kale I planted this fall. It’s call Red Russian, but some folks call it Ragged Jack. I’ve mentioned it before in this column. The tops of these plants barley poked out of the snow on Monday. I brushed some of the snow away and was amazed to find them healthy - not a really cold burned at all. I harvested a bunch and cooked them for supper that night. I actually think the freezing cold improved the flavor.

My Brussels sprouts also made it through the winter storm unfazed, especially the heirloom variety Red Rubin, which makes pretty little red and purple sprouts.

How did your garden fare the winter storm? Let me know by sending an email to andy@ fayettecountyrecord.com.