Even if I would suffer heavy casualties tonight, I won't regret it, at least I've given it all I've got, given my constrainsts... of having a family that always reminded me to stop my madness,

Really wished I could do more, but I'm only human!

Strong work, Joe. I believe that this is the same massive cold front that will bring us lows in the single digits this next week. The propane company loves my greenhouse!

Thanks Stressbaby! I have been dreaming about owning a greenhouse, but there's not a square inch of space to spare in my yard.

6:44 am. The weather outside is currently freezing. It is 20.2 deg F and still falling...

Will have to assess damages next week.

Well I survived a few and lost a few last night. My christmas lights did the trick on the mineola and gold nugget on my patio. I put my potted Reed avacado next to the back door and the heat from the house seemed to keep it warm. However, my Fuerte avacado got zapped on my hillside as well as my passion fruit on a trellis by my front gate. I had my peppers that I was trying to overwinter inside of frost protection doodads that you fill with water. The water was frozen solid like a popcicle stick. Here's a few pictures of my successes and losses:











Phillip

JoeReal, you are a true warrior! Good luck tonight.

it was 23.3F last night here is Riverside,CA. I was hoping for the wind to keep blowing, but at about 12am last night, it just stopped. Before then it was about 39.9F from 7pm-12am. As soon as that wind stopped the temps dropped. I lost 2 small banana pups<ice>. They were covered good,but not good enough. All in all just some leaf damage. Looks like my citrus will be fine. They have taken temps this low before. About 15 years ago the temps were as low as 19F. All my other banans are fine. One more night of this super cold artic blast . I hope.

Good luck Joe!!!!
Looks like you've done all you can..

Good luck to all in the way of this nasty cold/wet weather!!

You can walk on top of the snow/ice/sleet here!! not very deep but very slick and HARD!!! Heater won't stop running.. not enough snow to insulate the foundation very well.. there is an ice dome where my pond water pump is and the pond is frozen for a few inches.. going to take some hot water out to help warm it up a bit..
so much for unseasonably warm weather..

Gina *BabyBlue*

Wow! Good Luck Joe, I don't think there is anything else you COULD do, Human or not.
Good Luck to everybody else dealing with cold and nasty weather, I really feel for all of you and will be thinking of you tonight.
Darren

Good luck Joe. Craziness. I have been in California 19 years. This is the coldest I ever remember it getting.

Thank you good and kind people!

The battle prospects looked grim. Evidence of 20 deg F temperature are everywhere. I expect to sustain some damages, but that will only be known days later. Now the forecast added another night of freezing temps. Monday early am will be 25 deg F, and Tuesday early am will still be 26 deg F. Why do they keep sliding these cold nights on and on?

8:54 am, still it is 27 deg F, the sun is up and shining in full, the new park literally froze up today. We live about 750 ft away from this new park, still under construction but almost done.



I hoped that the ice covered grasses were insulated by ice itself. Ice makes a good insulation when covers the plants like this way. Citruses covered with ice like these plants will actually be protected.


We went to church and here's what we found at 9:02 am


The service ended at 10:15 am, and still the icycles remained:


Even the pond is still slushy:


We got back at 10:30, and my car thermometer outside sensor reads 33 deg F and still the park is frozen.

Thanks for the pics Joe. Who woulda thought you guys could get that much frost? That fountain just might get a big crack in it from freezing like that (hope not).
Hang in there Joe, & all of you in Ca.
We are expected to get 6 inches overnight. We haven't had snow since Dec 1st. Very rare.

Hope you have some success, Joe, especially with your 50:1 that took so much work. My low last night was 20.1, so about the same as yours.

I'm fortunate to have a smudge pot and had plenty of oil and some diesel to burn last night and I had it running wide open. I hope it did pretty well for my two navels but the fire was out by the time I got outside at 8am. I've got friends and family laughing at me when I ask for their used motor oil! I have it running again tonight and hope this will end soon. I'm really getting confused by conflicting weather forecasts. What do you see that you've found reliable so far? I use weather.com, qwikcast.com and wunderground.com.

As I mentioned to you (Joe) in an e-mail, this may motivate me to do some plumbing. I need to save myself some work and make use of the free natural gas I've got here available to my farm house. I wish I had thought of the barrels with hot water since that would have been an easy temporary aid.

Hang in there, Joe and others!

Yes, about 5 minutes ago, that is at 1:38 am, it just went below 27 deg F. Went outside to fire up my catalytic propane heater.

I got my catalytic propane heater from eBay. Radiating heat to the 50-n-1 citrus tree. Usually turned on at 1:00 am then turned off at 8:00 am. It could go for weeks at full tank load at the current operation.

So far, the leaves that are sneaking out of the covers are fried, but most that are underneath looked okay, but that remains to be seen.

Sampled the fruits that I left, and none were mushy! Can't believe that my Page Mandarins turned out even better tasting than the Miho Wase Satsuma. Last year, the Page Mandarins tasted so-so, but now, after the severe cold, they developed deeper colors and tasted great!

Two more freezing early mornings to endure...

Then my sleep pattern would be normal.

Thanks for showing us the cat heater.
I have one of those that I have not used for years.
Tonight I'll use it for sure.