Happy First Day of Winter in America and wherever else it is applicable! At least we will have fewer fires. What else is good about winter?

I'm sold m'dear! Summer is the hardest for us to cope with. We can always get warm enough in winter. Autumn is our favorite time and Spring is pretty nifty too. Winter works for us but summer? You can have it if you want our share! Thank you for your reply Shuhak and have any of your fruit trees frozen? What happens when they unfreeze? Can the cold kill them?  I remember many years ago they'd put out hot pots or something during the night to keep trees warm. Smudge pots? It's a very vague memory but I haven't heard about it in decades. Am I making any sense? I don't really know what I'm talking about! Do you?

Except for the fires and PSPSs, fall is a very nice time of year.  I always took my vacation days the last week of September and the first week of October.  I don't like the extreme heat of summer, but I do like the long days and warm nights.  The end of spring is the best.  Early spring is wet and snowy here, but the end is nice.  Highs in the mid to upper 70's, with lows in the 50's.  

Smudge pots are common in many citrus orchards, however they are illegal in California.  Citrus trees don't like freezing weather.  The smoke from the smudge pots acts like a thermal blanket, keeping in any heat (like cloud cover).  Of course, smoke is a pollutant and California hates pollutants.  Down in the valley they spray their citrus trees with water before a moderate freeze.  The water freezes on the trees, thus insulating them from the damaging cold.

I can't grow citrus here (too cold).  However, my Rainier cherry tree froze.  We had a very hard late freeze one year, just after the tree set fruit.  It never recovered.  It's now a shell of its former self, and it's bark is still peeling.  It should have healed by now (it's been over 20 years), but evidently not.

Oh NO Rainier cherries? The QUEEN of cherries? How sad is that? I mean if you can even find them in the market they cost dearly. But they are so delicious. We have indulged ourselves in that treat a couple of times when we felt "FLUSH".. I really feel so bad. I know you know I am a foodie so it hits my stomach as well as my heart. I think if it's been over 20 years it's a good sign it's gone. Which reminds me. You know all those fires and smoke you endured for WEEKS? How does that affect what you grow? I know it is DEADLY for YOUR lungs but what does it do to other living things? It can't be good..They used to have smudge pots many decades ago probably before you were born. I did not know they were outlawed. But we used to be able to burn our trash in the incinerator we had in the backyard. One side was grill where my dad would barbecue and the side was furnace like thing where we dumped our burnable trash. But that was outlawed too. The EPA used to help but with bozohead? He eliminated all EPA because he could. PIG trump. Oinked. Thank you for your reply Shuhak! :) This post was edited by RosieG at December 23, 2020 10:24 AM MST

The smoke is bad for plants.  It deposits a fine layer of soot everywhere (even in the house).  Plants have a difficult time "breathing" (photosynthesis) when they've got soot on them... and it doesn't blow off.  A great many trees around here begin to turn brown after weeks of smoke.  Even my garden plants do badly when the smoke sets in.  I have to wash off my pepper plants or they'll begin to yellow.  Between bark beetles, drought and smoke, it's no wonder so many trees are dying.

All These kinds of things (smudge pots, incinerators) were banned back in the 70's/80's when they decided to clean up the air.  Los Angeles air used to look like Beijing air does today.  (the old joke - what happens when the smog lifts over Los Angeles?  UCLA)

Geez Shuhak you really get hit from every angle don't you? Your life is made exceedingly more difficult because you have to contend with all that! How do you keep your sanity? SIGH. I know you're way too busy to even think about it right? Things will get better one day. Hopefully we will live to see it. We know it's getting worse due to a variety of calamities. We're not certain when it will start getting better.