Winter Survival
This morning when our older girls did chores they found ice on the water valves, and the water in the hose was frozen! Now that wouldn’t be so unusual except for the fact that we live in central Florida, where the weather is usually way too mild for that to happen all winter, let alone in December! At almost 11:00 this morning there was still ice on and around the young orange trees in a nearby grove.
I’ve grown up here in central FL and I rarely remember frost or below freezing temps already in December. The average temp this time of year is around 74 degrees high and 53 low. Today our high was about 51! Our family used to go camping in December, and we actually planned to camp tonight till we learned the forecast.
At this rate there is probably no chance of our long hedge surrounding our big circle drive ever growing back. When we moved here six and a half years ago, this old hedge was so tall you couldn’t see over the top. My landscaper hubby cut it down to a beautiful size and shape, and we have enjoyed it till two winters ago when too many hard freezes reduced it down to 18” tall. Last year it had started growing out again when it was hit by more unusually cold weather. Now it is almost nothing but dead sticks with a little green showing between here and there. Another winter even harder than the last two means it will surely be gone for good.
This brings some sobering thoughts. What kind of back-up heat do we have if the power goes out? Here in FL it doesn’t seem like that should be an issue, but the truth is hypothermia can be a killer here as well as in the North. More next time.
