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End of October

11 comments


This week has been an unusual week. We have been experiencing record low temps for a couple days this week. Our normal start to the cold season starts on halloween. It is usually the first chilly day of the year. But the cold came about two weeks early this year.

Along with the change in weather, I caught cold earlier this week. I have been harboring up in the house for the last three days, enduring a regimen of chicken soup, OJ, and vitamins trying to get well. But I am still fighting to get well. I guess it is one of those that you just have to wait out and rest as much as possible.

I had a slight scare this afternoon. I went into the back bedroom, and heard a loud, frantic scratching noise. I poked my head out of the room and found that the noise was coming from the kitchen. I had just seen the cat in the living room, so I knew it couldn’t be him.

So I started slowly towards the kitchen, and the sound got louder, but I couldn’t see anything. I got closer, and it sounded like it was in the laundry room. Lo and behold, I peeked around the fridge and saw a squirrel on my windowsill trying to get in the kitchen window. I have never seen a squirrel that anxious to get in a window before. As I walked over, he jumped down and ran away. The window was closed, so I don’t know what he could have been after.

I am not much a fan of squirrels. They chewed up my bird feeder, and we think that one of them had been living in my attic space for a while. If the squirrels at the park get fed by people, then they can become aggressive towards people with food. Anyways, I have lots of them around, and no clue as to what we will find them up to next.

We are planning to work out in the garden this weekend, if I’m feeling better and the weather is agreeable. Hopefully it will be.

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Comments

 

I had squirals in my old garden but they never came near the house.
I never knew Florida had clod weather.
Take care . I hope your cold will be better over the week end.

1 Nov, 2008

 

Get well soon! BTW, what temps. do you call 'cold' in your part of the world?

1 Nov, 2008

 

No i did'nt know either i thought Florida was always hot, but got hurricans, anyway get well soon.

1 Nov, 2008

 

If you think you have squirrels in the attic, call a professional now, cause they can do a lot of damage. We had this problem about 2 years ago. We called a company called "Critter Getters" and they rigged something so that animals could get out but not back in. I'm not a big fan of squirrels either. They can be very destructive.

1 Nov, 2008

 

I guess our cold snap came early too, several areas had snow on Thursday, the first time since the 1930's that we have had snow in October!
Hope your cold goes soon, they can make you feel so miserable.

1 Nov, 2008

 

Thanks guys! Still sick :(...So I didn't get much done this weekend. We had rain yesterday and today, even though the weather man didn't predict it. But it was nice outside most of the day. I just didn't feel like doing much.

FL is usually warm to hot. It doesn't often get below 40 F here (4.4 C, I think), typically in the middle of winter. But it was down to 37 F one day last week. I think the very south tip of FL doesn't ever see freezes, but we get them occasionally.

W, I think the squirrels in the attic have moved on. We haven't heard them in a couple months. Just need to figure out how they got up there and block the hole.

2 Nov, 2008

 

Hope the weather has been kinder to you this week and that you are feeling a lot better.

8 Nov, 2008

 

Thanks for your kind thoughts guys! I'm almost back to feeling normal now. Have a good week. :)

10 Nov, 2008

 

Gardengem,

I want specifics! What do you consider cold!

Canadian, Newfoundland cold or what? Seriously, what did it dip down to in OCTOBER? Here in the Pacific Northwet we dodged the bullet until just last week. 26 F. That put the end to the hardy Fuchsia bloom; Penstemon and the Dahlias and Nasturtiums were mush. I mulched everything.needed and I think I am ready for the cold yet to come.

"I peeked around the fridge and saw a squirrel on my windowsill trying to get in the kitchen window."
I suspect you are looking at the negative rather than the positive. Perhaps he was trying to deliver a nut to you, to get through the coming winter.

I suspect we are going to have a long one from the activities of the birds. My woodpile is ever growing -- forget the plants. I want to stay warm.

My own animal story and winter goes back to 1984. It dropped to 10 below F. and stayed below 32. F. for over ten days. Two Canadian geese hit my roof and landed in my frozen (unsnowed_back lawn. I fed them, and gave them and all the other birds fresh water every day.

That was a crisis time for the birds.

3 Dec, 2008

 

Skyline, cold here is when it gets in the forties or thirties. It typically only gets into the thirties a few days out of the year and rarely freezes. It has been colder than normal this year so far.

Squirrels here are very numerous. They are cute, but not when they get up in the attic and chew up things, or when people feed them at the parks and they expect people to feed them. There are lots of oak trees around with lots of yummy acorns for them to eat.

3 Dec, 2008

 

Today is Dec. 3 up here, but I sure feel the tap-dance of Winters feet. I had to work in a windy, cold and gray day. I do not do so well under such conditions, but I did get a lot of pruning done. I think there must be some squirrel blood in me, as I brake for every tree that is in seed. I took a picture of one today. Every picture needed a flash!

4 Dec, 2008

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