Southern thing.

[SwampDonkey]

We don't have the deer ticks up my way, but they do to the south of here. We have moose ticks, which I'm pretty sure are wood ticks. Only time I get a moose tick is walking by a dead moose. I've had wood ticks on me in Nova Scotia working in tree plantations, have had none here just from walking in the woods.  For some reason the horse flies (a bigger fly than a deer fly, that bites) have been real bad here the last two summers. And last summer was the first time I had deer flies come into a building to chew on me. They got into the shop when we had the door up and they were persistent like mosquitoes. Out in the yard, you see maybe two of them, knock them dead and might be none the rest of the day. But they sure flocked into that shop. They was hungry. 

[barbender]

That is odd, SD. Don't be sending your structure invading deer flies over here!

We don't have enough moose to have moose ticks in my area. Well, to know what a moose tick is, I should say. I know the moose do get ticks really bad, to the point it causes mortality in the winter because they scratch their hair off trying to rid themselves of them. I've never seen regular wood ticks hang on to anything past late summer though.

[GRANITEstateMP]

barbender, could that have been what happened to my hair?

[SwampDonkey]

Last March was the first moose tick I saw here at the woodlot. There was some moose hair caught in some bushes and had fallen on the crusty snow and a tick was in the hair. I know the moose ticks are bad in places south of here. Wood ticks I guess are a different species from these, but sure look the same laying on the snow but not blood engorged.

Dermacentor albipictus

wood tick species are Dermacentor variabilis

[barbender]

Well, did you find yourself rubbing your head on saplings and such, Granite?😁

[SawyerTed]

We've been living here since 1988.  My wife was raised on this farm.  

We experienced something entirely new to us yesterday.   I use bins to store and move my firewood and move the bins with my tractor.  We were doing so yesterday.  

Our ground is FROZEN!  Not just some ice on top, real hard frozen ground several inches deep.  The top inch or so is thawed and is a slick mess.  Underneath it's pure ice.  

This is NOT a Southern Thing we are used to.  

[Peter Drouin]

Some call it global warming,

[Old Greenhorn]

So it's probably not a good time to be trying to plant anything.

 Hard as it may be to believe, there are lot of us that depend on that frozen ground to get our work done. If it doesn't freeze life can be miserable. That's what happened last year and it really messed up my log harvest. I just saw yesterday that the reservoir by us in now Iced over fully. That hasn't happened in two years, so also a good sign.

[SawyerTed]

Tom, I understand completely.  The ice, snow and frozen ground are common enough for you to need the gear to deal with it.  Otherwise you just couldn't get anything done.   

Frozen ground is just an uncommon situation that we aren't prepared for here.   Things like tractor tire chains are expensive to use just a few times ever. 

[Hilltop366]

SawyerTed I think you have more frost in the ground than 
I do.

About 12 years ago this time of the year we took our daughter to Disney in Florida, we stayed in one of their places and used their bus system to get around.

As I was sitting at a bus stop waiting for the bus a guy struck up a conversation with me and asked me were I was from, I replied "Nova Scotia" he said it sounds cold. I asked him were he was from and he said "North Carolina" to which I replied "NORTH Carolina.... that sounds cold!

I don't think he ever got the joke judging by the puzzled look on his face.

BTW most days that week that we were at Disney it was warmer at home in Nova Scotia than it was there. A warm spell here and a cold spell there but it did't keep us out of the pool even though there was frost on the grass the pool was warm. We had the pool to our selves too as people walked by in their winter coats and hats. 

[SwampDonkey]

I can remember 40 years ago when there were a few years in Fl that had some cold snaps that nipped the citrus orchards. Decades before that rarely happened from my understanding. We where there in '84 and I remember frost in the grass a couple mornings. But by the time we were done vacationing and heading home it was 87° that day. Back home it was in the negative teens, looking at the climate data about that time in Caribou, Maine which is 25 miles from here. A lot closer to here than Fredericton or Halifax, in case geography is a challenge. We flew into Presque Isle, Maine which is a 20 minute drive.

[Raider Bill]

It's been cold in Florida for a couple weeks with more to come.

[SwampDonkey]

Saint John River here is full of ice as usual. It's affecting repairs on the old Hartland covered bridge. They've had to abandon the job until ice out.

[Magicman]

Our Southern Buns just might get a surprise Tuesday because the "predictors" are predicting below 20°'s and a bit of Snow. 

[Raider Bill]

I've been wearing socks and birkenstocks all week.
It's a Florida thing, means it's DanG cold!
Heading to Arizona tomorrow. Supposed to be even colder.

[SwampDonkey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egwsW41eRCU&t=159s

[TreefarmerNN]

It's been cold in Florida for a couple weeks with more to come.

Below 40?

[Magicman]

This old Southern boy has loaded the insert for tomorrow morning and the forecast says for the next 8 days....Yikes !!!

[Old Greenhorn]

As I age I find socks are mighty important, so that clip that SD posted strikes home. I don't wear muck type boots much, I have my size 15 orange Husky chainsaw boots with liners, but I have size 11 feet. Those socks would be great in those boots. I have been trying various quality socks and several years ago I happened on some socks that Madsen's was carrying and they were super. They fit w4ell, were comfy, but mostly they added to my comfort during those cold days. They came in packs of 4 I think, so I ordered some more thinking I would add a pack a year and build up my rotation. Least year I went to order more, and they don't carry them anymore. SO I tried a set of 'loggers socks' that were mostly some kind of Marino wool, I think. I don't buy synthetic socks and cotton is only good in July. It has to have real wool to be a good sock. The loggers socks are pretty thick, so tight in my everyday work boots. I save those for really cold days. Even today which wasn't really cold but we were working on Ice, my bad foot started getting pretty cold after 3 hours or so. They are too warm for mild days in the 30's and up. Still searching for a reliable source of sock I like.

[TreefarmerNN]

I've been trying out some alpaca wool socks which so far seem pretty good.  I haven't gotten any thick ones yet but the regular thickness are pretty warm.

[Hilltop366]

I know that when it is cold and you put your hand on foam board insulation it warms you hand up pretty quick. I wonder if you are working standing mostly in the same place if a piece of insulation board on the ground would help. I have used some on the steel floor of a backhoe before when we use to plow snow all day, it seemed to help.

I also had some socks with electric heat strips on the toes but I found that they made my feet sweat and they were uncomfortable but maybe there are better ones than what I had.

[barbender]

There was an incident in MN recently where a guy was wearing heated socks. The Chinese made lithium batteries ignited, he was struggling to get his boots off and recieved 2nd degree burns on his feet iirc.

[Machinebuilder]

This last week has been the longest i have had snow on the ground for a very long time.
I had about 3" on 1/10, it melted where the sun hits pretty quickly, yesterday we had rain and it took all day to melt what was left in my back yard.
It has been a bit chilly in the morning, some were 17 degrees. Native southerners told me id was Dang cold not chilly.

Now its hard to walk my dogs because it is so muddy.

This coming week there is more snow and real cold coming Tuesday night the prediction is 8 degrees. At least the mud will freeze.

I decided to send my tractor to the shop, I did not want to work on it in the mud, wet, cold. Something happened and I lost all the hydraulics.

I had to pull the truck and trailer out of the mud where he mired in the mud.

[Magicman]

The weather guesser is predicting that we will get 3"-5" of snow Tuesday.  Yikes !!!

[thecfarm]

That's what I will get tonight for snow.