According to the forecast here, the temps are supposed to reach the thawing point starting tomorrow and not go below zero.

If they are to be believed.

I doubt if I'll get up to my cottage anytime soon as the ice will jam the river shut. All the ice from Lake Huron bottlenecks at the St Clair River, where my cottage is. I took a car ferry to Harsens Island and walked across the ice to my island about a month ago. I took some photos but my camera was on the wrong settings. So not the best. It was awesome, nobody there. I saw a bald eagle! First time ever in 40 years going there! The eagles are back!

I took Jesse with me, he loved it!
4 people and 1 dog were on the whole island.

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The ice on the river jamming up against the island, too unsafe to ever cross on foot.
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The canals frozen solid
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My cottage
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You know you're in Michigan when the golf carts have
chains on the tires!
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I am West of Drew, no chance of seeing the ground in March. It is going up to 40F Friday, but then it will go below 32F again, night and day.

Nice pictures Drew. I'm sure that's a wonderful place to live....in summer! I'll bet there's good fishing as well. I'd like to get back to lake Michigan for salmon and then smoke them. Now that's good eating!!

My buddy and I tease each other about where we live. He will send me pictures of temp gauges at -23 degrees and I will counter with one of 70 degrees. Neither of us would even considering swapping locations. Bring on the 100 degree weather. I am ready.

One day up there in the winter, was enough, I was going to spend the night but decided not to. It was just too cold!
April 1st the ferry starts, but may be delayed weeks from the river jammed with ice. All the lakes are still frozen solid!
Yes excellent fishing. Salmon now run through the river, but I mostly fish for walleye and perch. When I go to my in-laws in Cheboygan I buy fish from the Indian commercial fisherman, the day's catch, they smoke fish too, Mostly whitefish, but all fish. Whitefish is best fresh. I would never order in a restaurant.
Back to the subject, I have some dieback on my nectaplum. I'm also worried about a couple blackberries. Not from the cold, but the coming standing water. If they die, I'll build a raised bed in the spot. I should have done that before.
The peach trees look excellent, I'm sure some buds damaged, but they are young only 2nd leaf, so no great loss. Most of the buds I'll remove when I prune it.I still need to form structure.
As stated elsewhere I'm sitting on a dormant peach tree. I healed it in sort of, in the garage. Roots packed in peat moss and potting soil wetted down. It's about 40 F in there. Should be good, still dormant. Horizontal of course.
Monday 2 blueberries, and a blackberry come in from Bay Laurel. I'll pot them up till after last frost. I'll need to make room in the south window!
21 pepper seedlings sprouted for me. I have a cold frame and we are expecting some 40 degree temps in a week. Hoping to get them in the cold frame for a few hours each day. It should get up to 60, it's been averaging 20 degrees warmer than outside. Pretty cool little greenhouse!
Waiting at least 2 weeks to start tomatoes. Some of the peppers are tropical and require long seasons, so I need to get them big. Some start in November! I'm totally facinated by the pepper plant right now. So much history and uses. Easy to grow, very cool! I met some super cool people who grow tomatoes and peppers. I have tomato seed from Italy for sauce. You can get most anyway, but knowing the exact origins is pretty neat. Strains develop quickly, so having the strains used at famous restaurants in Spain and Itlay is awesome!
I met this lady from Mexico, Mary who is a great farmer, rancher, and chef! She is growing out some rare peppers
Offered to send me some next season.
From PM...
I just recently received seeds for Cajamara (Peru and hard to find) and from the Basque country, Choricero. My family loves Chorizzo and Linguisa and that is the pepper they use that gives the links the distinctive red color.

Mary's recipes are just awesome, very complex techniques, but gives hints to achieve excellent results. What equipment and techniques work well for sauce.
She is a wealth of information.

Be patient. Summer will arrive and guys will not like it. According to my predictions, the East will experience record heat waves.

We had sub-zero temps last week, a serious spring blizzard that resulted in a fatal avalanche, and drifting. Now it's 38 F, sprinkling, and flooding. What a mess! I have to wade out to the car that I had to shovel my way to last week.

Good luck all!

My first new trees showed up yesterday. Usually the ground is easily worked but it was 4F a few days ago! Fortunately we are finally in a warming trend and I will be able to plant them soon.

Scott

In RI we're up to the forties, but just for a few days. Spring will be here soon as my snowdrops are all up and my 'pussywillow' catkins are coming out. Quite pretty with a sprinkling of snow. I really prefer this than the endless rains of spring. Will start my pruning next week and first of the 2014 spray schedule too. I just hope we don't get a late frost that would ruin my beautiful peach buds. I am so looking forward to trying four varieties of peaches in one summer. Can't wait. Mrs. G PS no problem getting 'batty', I play tournament bridge in the interim.

Madison weather is beginning to warm. The trend started around March 2. No more below zero at night, and daytime highs are in the 20's, finally. We still have about a foot of snow on the ground, and of course the lakes are covered with ice, so it will look like winter here for several weeks, at least. But it is beginning to feel like spring.

double post sorry

This post was edited by MrsG47 on Thu, Mar 6, 14 at 9:42

18 Monday night, 60's this weekend.

This post was edited by kyyada on Thu, Mar 6, 14 at 14:53

kyyada:

Now you're in Texas territory. We've repeatedly gone from teens to 70s and back again all winter. Most recently from 85 to 19 and back to 70 in 4 days.

Hoping some time next week to be able to break thru the snow and check out the fruit trees. No idea what I'll find out there.

Normally, I'd have already been out pruning and dormant spraying.

Actually, this reminds me a lot of 2003. Consistent cold in winter (but generally no all-time record lows), plenty of snow, and a slow spring warmup, but when it did warm, it did so very nicely and gradually. It was a very wet summer, too. My plants loved it, but it was on high ground...low lying areas were muck fields that year.

Dont worry, having a repeat of last year (at least up here) is unlikely. We had a small snow storm at the beginning of may! This winter isnt even "historically" the coldest. It would be a shock to find out that the global air and water temps are almost 2 degrees above average this winter!

Well I'm expecting a cold summer as the Great Lakes will keep the area very cold. I have a place on the lakes and usually the ice is almost gone by now, and it has not even started to thaw yet. Giant jams of ice are a huge problem here. So access to my cottage will be cut off for probably a month. The ice breakers expect to work well into May. And I have never see that happen.

The NOAA site's 3 month outlook is for colder all the way thru - although less so as time goes on.

I got some new mason bees today, they went right into the refrigerator. I'm not hopeful that mine survived the winter.

^^^So, I'm wondering if I should adjust my planting dates? My veggie garden primarily, but I'm also getting several blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. The raspberries and strawberries should be here next week. We're normally in the 50s here by now but the last week averaged around 35. We finally had a 50 degree day yesterday and today it's snowing again! Ground is still unworkable... my berries are going to be potted (strawberries will be in pallets), so frozen ground isn't an issue in terms of getting them planted but I don't know that I want to stick freshly potted plants out there in such unseasonably cold weather.

The raspberries can probably stay happy in my garage for a few weeks, but I don't have anywhere to put 2 pallets of strawberries other than their designated spot in the garden. Can I/should I try to keep the bare-root strawberries dormant in my garage for a few extra weeks before planting in the pallets outside?

Bare roots can be put out. I don't know if not in the ground? But say raspberries if dormant can be planted, freezing weather will not hurt them. If growing do not put out. But as you say you cannot plant. The strawberries probably need protection, if bare root, you may cover them with leaves, as you should do next fall. Mine are all covered, in about 2 weeks I'll remove pine straw I used to cover. It's certainly safer in the garage. I have a bare root tree in the garage, ground is not workable yet, I don't care about freezing temps, if I could plant it now I would.
A warm spell coming Monday, I may try to plant Tuesday if not too wet. Not a good idea to plant in mud.

We will be 70-72f tomorrow, less than 2 weeks after -13f
I forced blooms on some cuttings. ALL of my peach buds were DEAD. A few of the goofy black tsiran apricot buds are alive. Half of the van and sweetheart cherry buds are good, and all of the sour cherry buds survived.

I live right on the shore of superior, and I will say its been a while since the lake has frozen like this.

I will say however that I dont find it unusual. Remember the last 20 or so years have been extremely odd and not consistant with the last hundred years or so of data. The new averages are from the warmest periods in a very long time.

Ive worked in retail and sales for a long time and talk to all sorts of people.. I always ask older people and the elderly about the weather. All I have heard from them is that this is much more what they are "used to" or remember from a while ago. I myself remember winters here being the same as this year when I was younger (roughly 20 years).

The way I see it is that we are thinking of the most recent memories winter wise and forget how it was. The great lakes used to freeze almost every winter (dont get me wrong, the ice cover on the great lakes is really impressive this year) Many ice breakers stopped coming up here because of the lack of ice. The lack of snow over the last decade or more here has left superior, the other lakes and rivers low (there is a natural cycle of high low water levels) due to lack of snowfall, and of course the urbanization of the area and felling of trees etc.

Just on a side note now that I am ranting (Which I apoligize for lol) I have seen many people in the news on forums and social media asking "climate change? Global warming? really?" Climate change does not mean a steady warm up or cool down. All the evidence points to fluctuations in the extreme either way which goes along with a general warming or cooling trend over the long run. The data still points to a general warming pattern. Again, the global average temps are still above average for 2013 and the winter of 2013-14. North america does not equal to the rest of the world.

Spring will come, just expect the unexpected like we have for the last 20 or so years. There is some evidence of a strong el nino pattern. Lets hope for a warm spring and a toasty summer with proper rain!

"Again, the global average temps are still above average for 2013 and the winter of 2013-14. North america does not equal to the rest of the world. "

They may be above normal, but you do realize that we are cooling, not warming for the last 12 years. That glacial mass is increasing, and has been for some time.
This cooling trend has just started. But carbon dioxide emmissions are way up, of course temps and emissions are not really related so that tells us nothing.