Oh the poor potatoes~~~!

They started to plant this years crop of potatoes for Lays this past weekend, but then came the weather.

The blur isn't from the camera - its the dirt blowing up...
this particular morning it was blowing away from the farmhouse....thank goodness!

About mid-way through the planting, the tractors were stilled and we saw the men load up into their pickups and head on out. And the temperatures plumeted.

The truck drove into the field and told the men to stop........
apparently the farmer has watched the weather forecast.

Yesterday morning we had just a bit of frost touching the tops of our hibiscus and azaleas and camelias....and the sun was shining brightly out over the fields. But we were under no illusion that the beautiful sunlight was actually warming up anything outside, because inside, we were freezing! The downstairs heater just couldn't keep up with the unusual weather.....we never made it past 54 degrees on the first floor of the house...and the thermometer just outside the kitchen window showed 40 degrees as the high outside.


We replaced the upstairs unit three years ago this month...but the downstairs unit has kept on working until the first hard freeze of the year.....and isn't that just typical? Thank God for that upstairs unit though because we were able to stay upstairs for most of the day yesterday instead of calling upon family for shelter from the temps! We enjoyed a lazy day of movie watching and good book reading...that doesn't happen very often.

Its warming up nicely outside today, but the frost that teased us yesterday morning was no longer in a teasing mood this morning......it almost looked like snow at 7:15 a.m. As we walked out the door to take H. to school , David grabbed the camera and took a few shots of the potato fields......and the idle tractors....

The sun was just coming up and although we shot several photographs, this is the only one that came out clear enough to share.....the other side of the barn ws completely frosted over.

We just tried the heater again and now its putting out some warm air......poor old thing....it may be time for retirement.