Yanno, 50 ain’t 32.  And 32 ain’t 50.  I can appreciate that getting the weather right isn’t all that easy.  But…we’re talking a difference of almost 20 degrees and an important difference at that.  It was 70 yesterday and the weatherman (or woman) said it was going to get into the low 50′s overnight.  Get up this morning and it is 31.8.  Thirty-one point eight.  That would be freezing.  This reading was on the house thermometer, which tends to stay a little warmer because it’s next to the house.

See, 31.8 means the plants need to be covered.  50 means, well, nothing.  But if we farmers know it will get to freezing or close, we cover the plants during the day while it is SEVENTY.  This not only helps keep the farmer warmer, it keeps the plants warmer because that nice warm heat is trapped underneath the covers in the soil.  But when we don’t KNOW about 32 sneaking up on us, we have to go out in the early morning, shivering.  We have to hope that it doesn’t get colder.  We have to hope the plants aren’t already toast.  Or in this case, freezer burned.  Check the weather, you say?

Hmph.