A prelude of things to come this winter?

[MontyJ]

It's a balmy 15 this morning. I don't know if that's a record or not, but it is certainly the coldest I have ever seen it this early in the year since I moved here 20 years ago. I spent all day yesterday revamping the chicken run. I reduced it from 15 x 30 to 15 x 8 so I could put a 4 foot wind break all around it and a roof over it. I have two more pieces of plywood to put up this morning then I can start on the roof. I haven't been out to check on the chickens yet. I do hope they are OK. I put down a very deep layer of bedding in the back of the coop so they would have a place to snuggle into if needed.

 

[897tgigvib]

I hope your chickens will be alright too. You and dew been taking good care of them so they will be good I'm sure.

The Polar Vortex weakened earlier this year than ever in history, and it did break up again and looks like in a way that it is releasing the cold polar down the eastern north American areas again. You'll be getting storm and cold systems until some of that can go elsewhere. I wonder how the weather is in Korea so far.

 

[so lucky]

It was down to 15 degrees at my house, too. I just came in from feeding the chickens. They were ok with no supplemental heat in the coop, and plastic only half covering the open 4'x4' screen end of the coop. I have to be in St Louis all day today, and I am just hoping the sun will keep the water thawed out enough for them to get a drink. At least I can be thankful the sun will be shining. No free-ranging for them today. Yesterday we ran two big chocolate labs out of the chicken area. Never saw those two before. I hope that is a one-time visit. Two dogs would do a lot of damage.

 

[digitS']

Oh No, dogs after the chickens!!!

Marshall, you made me look at NOAA's "space weather." I'm still hoping to not have the Northern Lights catch me unaware . . .

It will take a clear night and we have such a dirty sky, especially in the mornings, I don't think it will be soon. Yeah, I know that space weather doesn't have much to do with the air - except for those of us looking up with bleary, blood-shot eyes.

MontyJ, that cold air Heather was talking about a week ago has come your way! If things had been different . . . . Okay, your temperatures are colder than some places in Alberta! However, on the morning of November 20th, it was -28f in Edmonton!

One thing that TEG has helped me learn is how interconnected we are. When the people in the Midwest were struggling thru all that heat in 2012, we couldn't get the storms outta the NW! Last week, the cold air didn't drop directly south as Heather in western Montana (& some of the forecasters) thought it might. We dodged the bullet but that leaves us now with some unpleasant air stagnation anyway. And, the mass of cold air drifted off over the Great Lakes. MontJ, your morning temperature is colder than Edmonton's! Oh yeah, it is warmer here right now: a smoky 20 ~ koff ~.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

A low of 19 Fahrenheit here but Im not worried about my chickens. Mine have decent wind protection. In other years, mine have gone through below zero before with no problems. Heck, mine go out foraging in zero degree weather as long as it is calm. Cold to us is not the same as cold to chickens.

Growing up we had some sleeping in trees in zero weather. Id really be surprised if yours had any problem with 15 degrees, but I dont know what kind of wind you had. If they get too cold they should just drop to the ground and get out of the wind.

So Lucky, I understand your concern. I had a similar situation when mine were already free ranging and I had a commitment to be somewhere else. Someone had dumped two big dogs off out in the country. I lost 8 that time. I still remember the beautiful blue eyes of one of those when they came back for more and I met them with the 12 gauge. Those dogs worry me a whole lot more than Montys cold.

I know you are gone today, but if those dogs are not wearing identification, what does it cost for you to drop them off at the pound if they come back? Its free here. If you dont know who they belong to, assume they are dumped and need a good home. The pound is the best chance for them to find that.

Ive done that before with dogs that were obviously just dumped out here and before they had learned to kill chickens or livestock. Yeah, taking them to the pound is free and people still dump them off out here.

 

[catjac1975]

Chickens can stand it very cold as long there are enough birds for them to snuggle up. I was outside weeding a daylily bed yesterday. Now it is 22 degrees and windy. I am pretty hardy but I may be doing indoor things today.

 

[digitS']

From the chicken coop to the world!!

Here is an international weather map, Marshall:

wunderground global

Look at how much warmth is still in the northern hemisphere . . . Remember your 5th grade geography. The equator: Equador, the Congo, just misses India, on to Indonesia, Galapagos Islands

You can click on a "region" and go most anywhere. Airports send in data, anyway. India may be facing another hurricane in a few days . It looks like it could come in just about where the last one did.

(In Chuncheon, Republic of Korea - the weather has been a little wet and mild. That is supposed to change with a chance of snow Wednesday night. After that, colder with morning temperatures in the teens.)

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Digit, at first the page said there was something wrong with the search parameters, so I clicked a topic, climate change, and now it's loaded. There is already a pin on Ukiah, which shows an almost biennial temperature rise. I'm reasonably certain in my microclimate at least since 2008 it is every year being warmer.

Coldest of the season so far was this morning on my hi lo digital, 30.9 for less than an hour. (I smoke my cigarettes outside on the porch and the hi lo is visible from where i sit with cold toes).

It gets some serious cold at the 38th parallel north of Seoul Korea in winter. Spring lasts about a week, and then some serious hot for summer there. After that, fall lasts a good week and then it's winter again. At least during the late neolithic of 1977.

 

[digitS']

Ooops!

I wonder what happened to the last of that URL!

www.wunderground.com/global/?MR=1

I will go back and "fix" that in the earlier post . . . To make up for that:

Click ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ Click

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

38th parallel. Where was that Marshall, Camp Casey? If so, that was the good life, a big camp with all the luxuries and entertainment. You could even call home from there.

I was up in Camp Pelham a few years earlier, a small camp with basically nothing up near the DMZ. The ground froze in November and thawed in March when I was there. When those fields that had been having fertilizer thrown on them all winter thawed, the air was ripe for a couple of weeks as it decomposed.

You might appreciate this story. Its a bit convoluted, I know and a bit off Digits purpose for the thread, but I dont think hell mind too much.

I had a girl back in the States that Id been dating about three years but Jody was making inroads while I was gone. For those that dont know, Jody is what we in the army called the guy thats hitting on your wife or girlfriend while youre away. Id been gone a long time and needed to make a connection. The only contact we had was snail mail and that could take a week or so. There were telephones in Camp Casey but that was a long way away and passes were hard to come by.

When we went to guard duty inspection, we had this thing called Supernumer or however it is spelled. If you were the sharpest dressed and knew your military trivia, chain of command, code of conduct, things like that, you could win Supernumer. That gave you an excuse from guard duty. If you won three in a row, you could get a pass. Well, I won three in a row. I could get a pass.

I wrote that girl and set up a time on a Saturday Id call so she would be home. I secured a pass for that day. I got in contact with some buddies stationed in Camp Casey Id gone through MOS school with so we could party after the call. Things were looking hopeful.

At this time the two Koreas were holding reunification talks. A diplomatic mission would travel from one capital to the other to hold these talks. When they were traveling to these talks, they did not want South Korea to look like an occupied country so all Americans were confined to base.

Guess what happened that Saturday? We had a surprise announcement. We were all confined to base. No trip to Camp Casey. No phone call. I already had my pass and could not change the date on it. She wrote and mailed the Dear John letter the next day. No chance to explain what happened.

Probably a good thing. One reason I volunteered for the draft was to see if we were ready to commit and our relationship was strong enough to handle a separation. Obviously not.

You know what aggravated me most about that sequence of events, other than losing the girl of course. The South Koreans were traveling north. I could understand if the North Koreans were traveling down to Seoul. No need to rub us Americans in their face, though there is no doubt the North Koreans knew more about us that the South Koreans did. But with the South Koreans traveling north? I just couldnt see the logic in that.