Christmas week into New Year's brings our most reliable weather of the year. It usually freezes, and if we're lucky, it's wet. Many times the wet is followed by fierce winds. 

We've had many an exciting Christmas night or New Year's Eve over the years.

This year has been ok so far - 7 inches of rain this past week. 

We ran the wind machine once so far this year.

Wind machine video

A few years back it got so cold, we got a little crazy....

Frost Dragon! New Years Eve in Churchill Orchard from Lisa Brenneis on Vimeo.

It's been so cold since Christmas.
OK, cold for Southern California.
Too cold for our Kishu mandarins, so we took extreme measures.
Jim and Mike unleashed the Frost Dragon, a tool we saw up at a neighbor's operation in Cuyama Valley.
They were kind enough to let us try it out this winter. It's primitive, all right. Yes, someone has to drive it around the block for hours. Looking forward to Jim and Mike's haikus.