Good hard freeze

I'm hoping this winter brings a good hard freeze. A week or two of sub zero Fahrenheit weather would be perfect. Forty below zero would be great. I want to go a least one full week where it never rises about zero.

Am I nuts?

There are a couple good reasons why I'd like to see some good old fashioned cold. The big one is ticks. Growing up, winters were colder than they are now. If it's cold enough, long enough, ticks can't survive. I'd never even seen a tick until I was in my late 30s. A series of milder winters allowed them to thrive. Along with ticks came Lyme disease. Nasty.

Last winter, parts of New England experienced seriously cold weather. This past summer, ticks had been seriously knocked back. I only saw one this past summer, and that was 30 miles south of me, in a river valley. It's a different micro climate than my place in the hills. Didn't get quite as cold.

So I figure one more bout of serious cold should really knock the tick population back. Bugs in general have a hard time with a good hard freeze. It really sets them back. That's fine by me. Even things like the fungus that causes tomato blight is knocked out by winter cold. Gardeners who live in warmer climes have a harder time dealing with it. On the other hand, their growing season is longer than our brief interlude of bad skiing.

Since I'm the one doing the wishing, ideally the big freeze should hit about the second week of February. By then I should be somewhere in Florida. Just because I want a good northern freeze doesn't mean I actually need to experience it.

-Sixbears