Suzie, Isn't it aggravating when you water and THEN it rains? It happened to us last week. I was sure all that heavy rain would miss us, so I watered. That night and the next morning, 2.5" of rain fell. From the way my garden looks now, though, you can't tell that I watered or that it rained. Y'all keep having incredibly high heat indexes and humidity up there, though our RHs and HIs aren't that high here even though our temps are. We hit 99 degrees yesterday, but I think the highest heat index I saw was 103 but for some reason it felt much worse than other days with a similar HI had felt. I think it felt just miserable from about 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., and suddenly if felt so much better after the sun went down. We took the dogs for a swim in the creek and two ponds that still have water just before sundown so the dogs could cool off. Actually, they were only supposed to swim in one pond, but the youngest one decided to swim in the small lily pond and came out of it with a water lily in her mouth. It was pretty hysterical and she looked scared, like 'Please, don't yell at me". I couldn't yell at her, 'cause I was too busy laughing. I don't know the last time we had the high humidity/high HI's for so many days without a break in this state. DS is a firefighter and when they aren't fighting fires, they're training constantly. They had a Haz-Mat training the other day and the guys wearing the hazardous materials containment suits, which are heavy and impenetrable, had to wear 'cool vests' underneath their Haz-Mat suits. That made me think that we all need cool vests for ourselves so we can work in our gardens! Now, that's an idea. A cool vest is a vest with pouches filled with coolant? How could that be a bad idea. I'm going to find a photo of one and link it. Why doesn't somebody make one of these for gardeners? (I do wear a cool banadana around my neck at some fires and sometimes when working outside, but it cools a relatively small part of one's body.) I found and linked a website that has cool vests for real people. (The ones for firefighters are a lot more expensive.) And, in case you're wondering who'd spend the money for one of these....well, I probably wouldn't, but I have an acquaintance with multiple sclerosis who used to live in our neighborhood and who wears one at times because her body doesn't cool properly, or she has a flare-up of the MS if she get too hot or something like that. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Cool Vests

Jay, Yesterday afternoon was just plain miserable and there's no other way to describe it. The Heat Advisory was for the counties to our immediate west and Love County was not a part of it because our heat index was expected to reach 104. By shortly after 2 p.m., the heat index at our OK Mesonet station at Burneyville was 109. (The rains in eastern OK sent us humidity even though we got no rain from them) Even though our air conditioning system works just fine and keeps us cool most of the time, yesterday it felt like it wasn't on and wasn't working. (It was on and was working, but it still felt miserable.) Although all the rain storms stayed just east of us, their outflow boundaries late in the afternoon brought us a sudden rushing wind with gusts into the upper 20s and the rain-cooled air that those winds brought us dropped us from actual temps in the mid-90s to the lower 80s in just a couple of minutes. Our heat index dropped from the 104-109 range to the upper 80s. It was heavenly, and it came just at the time that we were thinking we couldn't stand the heat another single minute. Our humidity is high this year because our rainfall has been high and it sort of (but not quite) makes me wish for a drought year, because I like the much lower humidities we have in drought years. The people across the street from us are having their home added on to/remodeled and the construction crew there starts around 6 a.m. and works until about 2 p.m., which I think is wise given our afternoon high temps. Still, they are out there working in miserable morning heat index numbers. Most days, our temps hit the lower 90s by 10 a.m. and the heat index breaks 100 about 10 a.m. I am usually in the garden from about 6 a.m. to about 9 or 10 a.m. and then back out about 6 p.m. until dark, although sometimes I have to come in and take a break during those 'cooler' times also. I have learned to pace myself too, because it isn't worth making oneself sick out there. I know it is annoying to come into the house soaking wet, which is a daily occurrence lately, but being soaking wet does mean we are staying well-hydrated, and that is so very important. Some days it seems like I spend more time drinking Gatorade, water and tea than I do working, but I couldn't work outside without drinking them. I don't know that I have learned from "maturity" (although I am old enough that I should have) to pace myself and come inside and to not push so hard in the heat. I HAVE learned it through "stupidity" though. If you stay out too long in the heat without drinking enough and getting in the shade to cool off, you'll make yourself sick. I've done it once or twice before, and I won't do it again. It actually happened to me a a large grassfire along I-35 in the summer of 2006 where I was so busy taking care of the firefighters that I didn't take care of myself, and felt myself getting ill. I promptly sat down in the shade and drank a full bottle of Gatorade and a full bottle of water, but I still felt sick for a couple of days thereafter. When I am in the garden and I start feeling a headache, nausea, lightheadedness, etc., coming on, I immediately head inside because I don't want to get heat exhaustion or, even worse, heat stroke. This is the worst combination of heat/high humidity we've had here in Love County in several years. I noticed last week that three water systems in Love County were having mechanical issues (Leon, Marietta, and Southern OK Water Corp) and it is too early in the summer for that. Our red clay shifts/cracks when it goes from wet to dry and often the water pipes can't handle very much of that. It looks like a long, hot summer for our end of the state. Game bird, I know the rain is annoying when it comes day after day, but trust me when I tell you it is more annoying when the rain doesn't come. Last year we had only a half-inch in July and you couldn't water the gardens enough to keep them thriving. The watermelon ought to be able to handle the rainfall pretty well this early in the season. The only time I think rain bothers melons is if it falls when they are nearing maturity and then it can contribute to white heart. Send the rain to Jay in SW Kansas or to me here in southern OK and we'll be happy to have it. I do hope it stops falling there before the combination of heat/humidity/moisture start causing fungal dieseases like powdery mildew. Dawn

Susan, I have no idea what it means. I know we were expecting the cooldown to begin here on Friday night and now it has slipped out to Monday. It makes me wonder if the cold front will ever get here! Everything is hot here too....the trees were so wilty looking this afternoon and it is more of a heat stress than a drought stress because we had 5" of rain in July. (However, we're just barely at or right below average rainfall so we aren't wet or anything.) At the rate things are going, I won't have to put cherry tomatoes and peppers in the dehydrator to dehydrate. I'll just leave them on the plants and let them dry there. The good news is that the bermuda grass is turning brown. The bad news is that it is only dormant and not dead. In some parts of the Texoma region, which is essentially the counties that run two deep along both sides of the Red River, highs may reach 108 with heat indices of up to 115 this weekend (NOT in my county 'cause we're too dry, but in counties that have had rain lately). Those are ridiculous numbers. Before long, we'll be talking about the Keetch Byran Drought Index and fire danger if some rain doesn't fall. The Hugo area and a couple of others are already dangerously dry. Dawn

No matter how picky your are now, you're going to find more stuff after you close. It is also possible that your builder will try to rush you when you do your walk thru with him. I would advise taking a couple of very persnickity (sp??) friends with you this weekend and spend several hours going over each room and making lists of the stuff you find so that, when you're doing the final walk thru it is actually just a time to point out issues to the builder - not be looking for them. People seeing the place with fresh eyes will see problems that you noticed months ago, that your builder promised to fix, but then somehow never got around to doing. Consider making it a game to see who can find the most things that need fixing. Doing the real looking prior to the "final walk-thru" will also allow you to present your builder with a nice typed up list of issues. Keep a copy for yourself and then check issues off as they are corrected. Otherwise, chances are, half the stuff you point out will never get corrected. Some things to look at: Whole House _ Turn every light switch on and off. _ If you have ceiling fans with multiple speeds, check that they work on every speed. _ Test every electrical outlet (both top and bottom as we've actually found that on a number of outlets in our current house - which was purchased from a previous owner - only one half of the outlet has power and the other half is dead!) _ Open and close every window. If your windows tilt out to clean, check that function on every window as well. _ Open and close every door, interior and exterior. _ Check that doors are plumb and square. The crack around a door should be even on all sides when the door is closed and you should not be able to see light coming from the other side except at the bottoms of interior doors. _ Lock and unlock every lock _ Check that walls are plumb, that there are no nail pops and that the paint is even. BTW - nail pops are where the nails holding sheetrock to the studs back up slightly. You see them as little round bumps in the paint. You should not be able to tell where the edges of sheetrock panels are. Nor should you be able to notice any dips or high places in the walls where they taped and floated the sheetrock. _ Check floors. Tiles should have even and straight grout lines; hardwoods should not have gaps between boards; seams on vinyl flooring should not be noticable; carpet should be tight and should not show seams; etc. _ Check ceilings. You should not be able to tell where the edges of the sheetrock panels are. - Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see ANY water on the inside. (Caution - don't spray water UPWARD against your windows as you may drive water through the drainholes, set the spinkler so that water falls downward against the windows.) _ Check that smoke detectors are working. Kitchen/Laundry Room/Pantry- _ Check that every appliance is working properly * Refrigerator * Freezer * Dishwasher (run thru a cycle to ensure no leaks and that it actually cleans dishes. We bought a house once where the dishwasher seemed to work when we tested it but when we actually tried to wash dishes, they never got clean. It turned out that the water had never been attached and the little bit of moisture we were seeing was just moisture from the air!) * stove top - check every burner * oven * microwave * garbage disposal * washer (again, run a cycle to make sure its not leaking and that it doesn't dance around) * dryer (run a cycle with some clothes to make sure it doesn't dance. Also, make sure the dry vent is hooked up!) _ Open and close every cabinet and every drawer to make sure they function properly. _ Look inside each cabinet and drawer to make sure it is finished properly. _ Turn both hot and cold water on at the sink. Fill the sink with water and then, after a while, check under the sink for evidence of leaking. Check around the sink to make sure that it is properly sealed to your countertop. _ Check the countertop for flaws. Check the edges of countertops especially carefully as these can easily get chipped or scratched (depending on the type surface) during the building process. Bathrooms _ Actually step into shower stalls and bathtubs to make sure they feel solid underfoot. Acrylic tubs and shower bases that "give" underfoot will crack over time. _ Run water in every sink and bathtub and make sure they hold water without leaking. (Look under the sinks for leaks). _ Run the showers. _ Make sure you get hot water when you turn on a hot water spigot. Try it at every sink, tub, shower, and in your washing machine. _ Run water at several locations at the same time to make sure you have adequate water pressure. _ Check that both heating and air conditioning work. _ Test that bathroom fans work. _ Flush all toilets several times to make sure they stop running when the tanks refill. (Having a bunch of friends out for several hours also means your toilets may actually get "field tested" to make sure they really flush adequately... which not something you are likely to test while doing a walk thru with your builder!) _ Make sure toilets sit solidly and evenly on the floor and are properly bolted down. There should not be any "rocking" motion when you sit down. MISCELLANEOUS _ If your builder installed blinds or operable shutters (inside or out) make sure they work properly. _ If you have a real fireplace, build a fire in it and make sure the chimney draws properly. If you have a gas fireplace, make sure it works as advertised. _ Check that you OUTDOOR water spigots work. _ Check all outdoor electrical outlets as well. These often get over-looked. _ Check your garage door openers. Also make sure that, it something is in the way of the door as it comes down, that the door stops and goes back up. _ If you have an attic access ladder, pull it down and make sure it works smoothly. _ Climb into the attic and make sure you have the amount of insulation you are supposed to have. - If you're really lucky and it rains while you are checking out your house this weekend, go up into the attic with a flashlight and look for roof leaks. - Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see any. _ Make sure gutters are fully attached to walls and designed to drain water away from your house. _ Check that ground around the house has been graded so that it slopes away from the house. This is all just "off the top of my head." I'm sure if you think about it you can add dozens of other things to check for. And, no doubt other posters will chime in with other things to add to your check list. Ultimately, you don't have to insist that the builder fix every little tiny thing. If something won't bother you - or if you can fix it easily yourself and don't mind doing so, point it out to your builder anyway and, once you've gone over everything you can cross those items off your list as a way to show you're being reasonable but that the rest of the list IS important to you. PS - check your contract and see if you allowed to hold back any portion of your final payment until the check list items are done. (This is called "retainage") If your contract doesn't allow for retainage, then DON'T accept that the house is finished until ALL the major stuff on your list is completed. Don't move in and don't close until there is nothing left on your list that you don't mind doing yourself. Without retainage, once you close you will have zero power to actually get your builder back to finish up the rest of the items on the check list. If he is a good guy, he'll probably get around to it eventually but you'll be low on his priority list. Others though, once they're paid, that is the last you'll see of them. So if you find anything major, tell your builder that the house is simply NOT ready for the final walk-through yet and he need to do X, Y, and Z and then you'll reschedule the final walk through.