I wonder how much stress this weather causes?

[CometKeith]

The real problem are the lobbyist and donations to our legislators. A coal processing plant would rather spend $10 mil in donations than spend $100 mil on a retrofit to meet today's standards. EPA just came out with a list of the largest greenhouse gas emitters by state. It is a real eye opener. They calculate it in millions of metric tons. A new coal processing plant in St Louis will be producing 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year! Only 30% of the greenhouse gases are being produced by automobiles and trucks. The rest is coming from industry. We must be really stupid to allow this for going on so long. I don't love Obama, but there is not one Republican candidate that feels we need to do anything about greenhouse gasses. See the Chicago Tribune's article about it from two days ago. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...0122_1_greenhouse-gases-coal-plants-polluters

 

[sissy]

donations they can right off and doing something to make the air quality better is not .sad to say it always comes down to how much money they can make .

 

[whiskey]

:grumble: stress stress and more stress,called wet, muddy, rain, hail then sunshine for two hours before dark, temp dropping to near zero over night... ......all i can do is wait to make a start on pond :disappointed_anim:

 

[sissy]

brrrrrrr I feel for you but temps here up to 60 degrees here and almost 70 degrees the last 2 days .We are only supposed to get up to the middle 50's by this weekend .So we have been having a really nice mild winter and glad for it .But I will remember you and your chilly weather and hope not to get it .

 

[addy1]

60 in maryland, high 30's at night, this has been one warm winter, I am going to put the pump back into operation mid february, unless the weather takes a dive on us.

 

[j.w]

Good idea addy and maybe you'll just cruise right into Spring!

 

[koiguy1969]

both of my males were following, nudging and bumping my sumi orenji this morning...no sign of actual spawning. and the water is only 58*. so they must be anticipating spring, and theyre indoors.....WUTZ UP WIT DAT?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

My oldest female koi and goldfish are both showing signs of being heavy with eggs already. Yesterday the pond was iced over most of the day, today we got up to 60 degrees, and tomorrow we're supposed to hit 68. We didn't get a real Winter last year and I was hoping that would turn around this year... but apparently not. The only good thing for my fish is the fact that the new pond holds over 5x the water, so the temperature fluctuations shouldn't be affecting the water nearly as much as in past years. At least this mild Winter is giving me a chance to fix the waterfall before we get a hard freeze... by next year I'll have the liner fixed up so that several inches of ice won't cause an overflow.

addy - I'm really surprised, given that you are much further South than me, that you don't keep your pumps running. I guess it just comes down to differences in the layout of each pond.

 

[sissy]

It may be that external pumps may be different plus I think after last winter everyone was scared we would have a repaet .I guess better safe than sorry .I have in the pond pumps and left mine running and my filters running because the weather has been really mild .

 

[addy1]

addy - I'm really surprised, given that you are much further South than me, that you don't keep your pumps running. I guess it just comes down to differences in the layout of each pond.

With the surface area of the bog, it really cools down the water. If my bog water fall started to ice up it would be a quick disaster, the water would start to run over the edges of the bog and out into the yard. We are gone so much taking care of his parents and rentals, it is not worth the worry to keep it running, it would be a nightmare to dial into the cameras and see the water running out. Last year it was cold enough to freeze it 8 inches thick. This winter, hardly froze at all.

 

[j.w]

Would not be a pretty site to see at all addy! Glad you turned it off cuz if I tuned in and saw that happening I would be horrified!

 

[CometKeith]

It hit 50 degrees today, the same for tomorrow. They are saying the strong la nina winds are keeping the arctic air well north of us. I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts. Usually we get the 0 degree centigrade temps around this week or early Feb. At least there is a nice hole in the ice in my pond.

 

[j.w]

Yep Keith, enjoy it while it's here cuz ya never know what tomorrow will bring. At least if you get some cold weather coming you won't have long to deal w/ it this year................hopefully!

 

[CometKeith]

I guess the only problem is I expanded our client list and did a lot of marketing for snow shoveling by my property management company for this year. I can usually bill in a good week more than what we have billed for the whole winter so far. I'm still hoping for snow!

 

[fishin4cars]

Talk about being warm this year, the plum trees are blooming, the mulberry tree is putting out new leaves, the butter cups and Daffodils are starting to put up buds and today one of my tropical water lilies put up a small purple bloom. All this and it's not even February yet.