They say it's gonna freeze tonight...

...and that hasn't happened in the 10 years that I've lived in South Florida. We received a few days' warning that this would happen, which gave us time to wrap the Looking Glass in plastic. Last night reached 39* outside, but with 2 small electric space heaters, I was able to maintain 46* in the coolest section of the LG. And that only happened for around 2 hours.

They're predicting tonight will reach 31* in my area, which will cause the temp to go way too low with my current setup; so DH bought a small propane burner today. (You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find portable heaters in South Florida. Neither HD nor WalMart had any. The idiot at HD didn't even know what a space heater is.) We also dragged our propane grill into the LG, in case we need to fire that up, too.

My blooming plants that have any significance to me have been brought in, and they're hanging all over the house. 10 blooming Rhy giganteas are sure making my bathroom smell sweet.

All 6 kitties will get to enjoy the luxury of indoor living tonight (as opposed to being locked on the screened porch, which is their usual nightly arrangement.) Even though they each have a heating pad for when nights get cool, (they're spoiled) we'll be bringing them in. 'Should make for an interesting evening: 2 of the cats hate the other 5; and all 6 hate at least one other cat enough to start a fight.

The orchids tied to trees are left to fend for themselves. I've wrapped 2 of my favorite groupings in sheets, though. We have a newly planted avocado grove of 72 trees, but we'll run the irrigation all night to try to protect them. We have a collection of around 15 other varieties of tropical fruit trees, with no irrigation to protect them. Hopefully, they will survive.

Ah, the joys of living in the subtropics... We just don't know how to deal with this cold sh*t.

 

That's a sad, sad day when Denver is warmer than Miami...

 

Thanks, folks! So far, we're maintaining 63*...

Piggy, you're a lucky girl that you have room to bring in all your plants! Kudos to you for having a plan. Meanwhile, MY Piggy (badass little feline girl) is roaming the house, looking for something to kill...

*Alexis and Jim are looking around for their stash of sleeping pills*

 

We did just fine, thanks for asking. Other than the fact that we got ZERO sleep. Freakin' cats...

I checked temps a number of times overnight, and we maintained 59* in the Looking Glass. I don't think the outside temps went much below 38, so we dodged a bullet.

I hope you don't lose too much as a result of such a long freeze!

 

They were calling for 30. If I'd known it was only going to 38, I'd have left their asses out! They have heating pads, after all. But I'm a softie...

 

Sorry to hear that, Cathy. Don't uproot the entire banana, though. I bet it will throw a pup once the temps warm. If the papaya looks like it's dead, you may try cutting it back to around waist height. I've heard they will regrow from a dormant eye. I've never tried that, but I have successfully "dwarfed" a number of papayas by repeatedly pinching the meristem. I have fruiting trees that are no more than 5 feet tall. They're pretty resilient.

Good luck!