Jan 29 2009
January Weather
Finally, southern Indiana has some winter weather. I measured 11 inches of snow and ice in the little protected area of my kitchen garden where precip just falls and doesn’t get blown in. The driveway was drifted deeper than that. All this from Monday night through Wednesday noon.
We had to cut some ice-laden tree limbs that were blocking the driveway, too. My 12 foot tall lilac is bent to the ground with ice.
The hungry birds met me at the feeders. I left seed heads of liatris, sunflowers, and some other flowers on the spikey stems, and birds have picked them clean. The squirrels and field mice help eat the sunflower heads . . . now they will have to eat store-bought sunflower seeds.
The snowscapes are lovely to look at, but not when thousands of people are without power in the sub-freezing temperatures. Some turkey barns have collapsed from the weight of the snow and ice on the roofs. It’s very difficult to keep water unfrozen for livestock without power, too. What would we do without portable generators?
It’s been winter enough for the apple trees to chill, so we can all hope for a thaw now.
