Trunk Wraps and Smudgepots

  While we await round two of the frigid weather to strike the Bayou, I did the usual preparations.  One of the chores was to rewrap the citrus trees.  While there is not much that I can do about the entire trees due to sheer size (some are a more than 20 feet tall), I can only hope wrapping the trunks will save the the tree above the grafting point.  A blanket and a wind/ice shield wrapped and tied in place will have to suffice.  There is hardly anything else that can be done.  

  Back on the farm, I can remember getting up for "my shift" as fire-stoker.  This meant, not only making sure the fireplaces in the old farmhouse were burning, but also, the smudgepots in the midst of the citrus trees were chugging along properly.  Being a small-time farm family, we did not have the expensive gas or oil burners that folks with huge orchards used.  Our smudgepots were simply 50 gallon drums that were piled full of logs and kept burning all night.  Once the hot coals filled most of the drum, things were easy.  It was those first hours that needed tending the most.  Getting out of that warm bed and going outside in the middle of the night in icy temperatures was not something that I relished but it was necessary.  Pop tended the fires most of the night but if the weather continued for a week or more, he needed rest.  The kids took over and tended the fires, made sure the faucets were still dripping and lights were still burning in the pump shed.  It was also necessary to keep check on all of the farm animals so they were as snug as possible.  Life on a truck farm was not easy.  I would not have traded it for the world, though, as I learned so much.

  This afternoon as I went out to do one last check on things, I noticed that the grapefruit trees did not fare so well during last week's big chill.  There was no earthly way to protect these trees so I left them be and hoped for the best.  With north winds blowing a gale today, leaves were tumbling to the ground. There was already a thick carpet of leaves beneath the trees.  This is not good as I was in hopes that the leaves would provide coverage for the trunks.  The poor trees are in for another cold week!  Perhaps, I need to get a couple of smudgepots going!