Hard Freeze

This past week we have had frost on two different nights. Last night we didn’t get frost, we got a hard freeze. It was -2C this morning, and Attila said the water in the wheelbarrow was frozen solid. By midday it should be obvious which plants survived and which did not. The strawberries were covered, as were the starts in the little greenhouses. Attila called me during his break this morning, and while I had him on the line I headed out to the garden to lift the covers on the greenhouses and the strawberries. As far as I could tell everything was still alive, yay!

Since the weather is so chilly, and this coming Saturday is supposed to be wet and cold, we decided roast a turkey on the weekend. This has a few advantages for us.

The first is a bargain at the local grocery store, they are selling off last year’s frozen turkeys for $20 each, regardless of size. Turkey has been so expensive, that we have sought alternatives for festive dinners. We made a special trip to the grocery store yesterday to purchase the largest frozen turkey we could find.

A roasted turkey dinner will provide us with five or six days of leftover meals, two batches of soup from the bone broth, and five or six meals from leftover diced meat that has been packaged and frozen. These easy meals are welcome, as spring is a busy time with the garden.

Another advantage is that roasting a turkey will entail heating the oven, which in turn will heat the house. I turned off the heat when it was hot, more than a week ago now, and it has been off since, until this morning. As the weather has cooled, the house is slowly cooling. Last night the interior temperatures was 21.5C, and this morning it was 20C. This is really quite wonderful, as last night it went down to -4C outside, but we only lost 1.5C degrees. I had hoped to warm the house this morning by opening the curtains to let the sun shine in. When the temperature dropped later in the morning to 19C I turned the heat on, a temporary measure to keep it comfortable until the weather, or the roasting turkey, warms the house naturally. This little house holds the heat well now, and will be even cozier when we eventually insulate the exterior walls on the main floor. The new energy efficient windows, attic insulation, and basement insulation, have made an incredible difference.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Thu, May 18 at 6:05 AM
-2°C
FEELS LIKE -3
Clear
Wind 4 NE km/h
Humidity 83 %
Visibility 22 km
Sunrise 5:38 AM
Wind gust 6 km/h
Pressure 102.3 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:30 PM

Quote

“Be to her virtues very kind. Be to her faults a little blind.”
Matthew Prior
1664 – 1721

or he…