Tag: weather

  • Adding shade in the garden

    The front door of our house faces east towards the Pacific Ocean. (A mere 10 miles west!) Our backyard garden sit on the top of an exposed his with full eastern sun.

    For three seasons that really isn’t a big deal. In fact, because we can get full sun for about 75% of the garden it means that the other three seasons are great. But right now, in the height of summer sun, with June Gloom giving way to coastal San Diego’s July Fry, our plants are suffering.

    In both our tomato patch and where we currently have our melons, the plants obvious grow towards the north fence and away from the full glare of all day sun. Leaves on our cucumbers always look wilted. Once something gets established and can effectively shade itself we are totally fine. But often small plants never thrive.

    Today we made a small investment in a fix by adding some shade for the melon patch & the tomatoes.

    Here’s my supply list: (All from Home Depot)

    • Tan sun screen (6’x20′ = $31)
    • Garden stakes (9 x 4 feet each = $8.97)
    • Grommets ($7.96)
    • Zip ties (laying around the garage)
    • 2 hooks (also in the garage)

    The melon patch is 7 feet wide. I measured 24 inches from the fence and drove the 3 stakes down so 36 inches was out of the soil. I cut the sun shade to length and put 4 grommets across the top, 2 in the middle and 2 on the bottom. Next, I used a level to attach the 4 grommets to the fence securely. I draped the shade from the fence and over the stakes, making a little tent over the top.

    It’s a very simple design aimed at just keeping the sun off of them in the heat of the day. While I could stake down the bottom I don’t have it staked right now so I can easily flip the ends up and weed underneath.

    For the tomato patch I made it even simpler. I attached it to the fence on the north end draped it over the various bamboo stakes and then attached it to the fence on the other side.

    Zip ties were my friend. They made the whole process simple and entirely portable.

    The hope is that this solution helps lessen the direct sunlight and helps both the melons and tomatoes beat the heat to a better yield.

    We should know in a couple weeks.

  • June Bloom!

    San Diego is known for it’s June Gloom season. The combination of a cool coastal current and northerly winds this time of year result in a strong morning fog that often lasts until late in the day. While most of the country soars into summertime temps, June is traditionally a chilly month here. It’s actually more consistently in the 70s in January than in June!

    But with all the gloom I was surprised to see lots of blooms in the garden!

    What’s blossoming in your garden? 

  • Lamborghini + Tree = LamboChristmasTreenini

    MY CAPTION:

    What do you mean I’m fired? I thought you said, “Put my lamborghini under a Christmas tree?” [face + palm]

    What’s your caption? 

    ht to Dirk up in Eagle Rock for the picture… it was windy up in LA last night.

  • Pelican Strikes Back!

    Take that, weatherman!

  • El Niño this Week

    Chris Farley explains this quite well. We were told to expect 5-15 inches of rain. Yikes!

  • A true Michigan winter

    big snowLet’s just say the picture is an exaggeration. But we’ve had a very good Al Gore inspired winter in Michigan.

    It started in November and it has stayed until now. Non-stop cold, lots of snow, few warm weather breaks, and a lot of storms.

    I love winter. I love snow. I really like driving around after a fresh heavy snow. I love everything about it.

    For the last several years lifelong Michigan resident have told us, “These winters aren’t like we used to have.” Well, those same people are now saying, this is just like we used to have.

    I want to give perspective on the snow to people outside Romeo. We’ve got about 18 inches of snow in our yard and on the roof of our house.  Along our driveway, where we’ve piled up snow from shoveling it’s about chest high. (3-4 feet?) As the snow was melting today with the warm temperatures I was out digging out the downspouts out of the ice and snow. The main one was buried under 5-6 feet of slushy snow… I never found it.

    We love winter weather. And we’re happy to be surviving a “real Michigan winter” here in Romeo.

  • Don’t Watch the Weather

    winter weatherI am continually surprised to see people pre-decide that the weather is too bad for an activity. They watch the weather on the local news and believe the hype that we’re going to have a blizzard or that it’s going to be bad out there… so they pre-decide tonot go to work, school, or church.

    You hear them say “It’s going to be bad out there.”  Then they stay home.

    This leads to a two-part thing that I don’t like about living in Michigan.

    1. People born and raised in Michigan are wimps about winter weather. They live in a state surrounded by water and Canada on 3 directions and are surprised to see winter weather.  Instead of being like Wisconsin or Minnesota or Northern New York and taking  “bring it on, nothing will stop us” attitude they wimp out and pretend to be surprised when winter weather comes.
    2. People born and raised in Michigan tend to lack the hardiness to overcome weather adversity. I think it took us moving to the West Coast to really see this. There are people who won’t let anything stand in the way of their going to work, school, or church and then there are people who just look for an excuse to not come. We had people in California tell us they skipped church because it was below 40 F and might freeze. Some Michigan people are the same way. They look for any excuse to call out to work, school, or church. It’s not worth the trouble they say.

    A lot of people want to blame the governor or the auto industry for the poor economic state of things in Michigan. I think residents would be wise to examine their work ethic. If something as simple as a snow storm or even a rumor of a winter storm is enough to negatively impact our economy… I think we need to examine these cultural things. (After all, this is reality we are talking about. We’re talking about attitudes.)

    You know it’s coming. Adam’s annual rant about dirt roads is coming. 

  • Snow is heavy in Romeo

    It’s November 26th and the snow is coming down heavy in Romeo. It’s one of those pretty snows too, the kind that is hard to hate.

    That isn’t really newsworthy, but it is always good to record the first heavy snowfall of the year. Though technically we got 2 inches on Thanksgiving… it didn’t happen in plain sight and we woke up to it. 

    My prediction: It will be 55 and warm on Christmas day.