Oh boy, here we go again! Yet another round of this mess.

Our poor tomatoes, sweet peppers, and oh yea, my next batch of corn I have to worry, (I mean be concerned) about.

Most IMPORTANTLY the folks, and that includes we gardeners, that need to deal with this.

I just hope and pray all of y'all, your families, pets, livestock and gardens will make it through this and the rest of this summer.

Please be careful out there Dawn.

Barbara

Barbara, Hey, you don't have to worry about me---I have neither a heat advisory or an excessive heat warning because our humidity is running much lower than y'all's. Our RH may start out in the 80s in the mornings (last week it was in the 90s) but it drops to the 30s or 40s by mid-afternoon, so our heat index numbers are only going 3 or 4 points higher than our temp at the most. So, I'm better off than many of you because it has been relatively dry here.

Having said that, it is hot. I try to get outside around 6 a.m. and lately, back inside, no later than 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. (Before it got insanely hot, I'd stay out until noon.) In the evenings, I'm only out briefly to see if anything needs water. It is just too hot to weed, mow or mulch, I'll catch up on those when the heat breaks.

The fruit is coming in hot and heavy so I'm just staying in the kitchen most of the time. I also think I'll be making salsa by the end of the week. As always, when it rains it pours, but this year it is raining plums, peaches, peppers, tomatoes and squash. Last year it mostly rained tomatoes and peppers.

You know how a kitchen feels when you're canning all day....just so unbearably hot and steamy. I am SO grateful we have air conditioning. When I think of what women used to go through, doing their endless rounds of canning, bread-baking, cheese-making, etc. in a hot kitchen with no AC, I feel spoiled by comparison.

Often, I sort of resent the time I spend canning because it keeps me out of the garden. (Kind of a paradox, isn't it, because you can't do that kind of canning without a garden but then it 'redirects' you from gardening activity to kitchen activity!) Now, though, I am happy I have another week's worth of canning to keep me inside and out of the garden. I couldn't be outside exhausting myself in the garden even if I wanted to right now, because the produce won't allow it. With this heat wave, that's a good thing.

I hope everyone remembers to drink lots of fluids, stay in the shade and come inside to cool off inside the air conditioned house.

I am concerned this kind of weather will hold for weeks, or months. It kind of reminds me of 2005, which was a horribly hot, dry year.

Dawn

Anyone have a cabin in Alaska I can borrow?

Scratch that. How about a cabin at the South Pole?

Diane

Don't you thin it would be nice to live in parts of the Pacific NW where temps are in the high 60s to low 70s YEAR ROUND???

In the last 6 years, my husband's job has taken us from NYC to rural West Virginia to here.

I told him if they want to transfer him to a temperate climate I am all ears. Otherwise, I am planting trees and I am STAYING.

Our daughter lives in Seattle and has been running her furnace several times this month!! They've had days where the highs are in the 50s. I told her I'm booking a flight and flying out to visit any day now :).

Tomorrow my husband and grandson and one of his buddies are going to be laying railroad ties for the drive for the building. Ugh. We have stocked up on gatorade and bottled water. I'll be worrying about them while I'm at work, but my husband is pretty smart about knowing the importance of staying hydrated, and our grandson and his buddy are baseball players so they are too. Still .... it's going to be a lot of hard work in the heat.

Suzie

Temperate climate, what's THAT? No place I've ever lived. Loved the 8,000ft mountain cabin I built back when in Wyoming. Sleeping with the windows open at night in the summer to the smell of pines. Never needing AC in the summer.

Last winter I was there, got snowed in, 40 degrees below with the wind chill factor. Snow drifts 14 ft high.

I'll still take Oklahoma. At least I can drive in it or walk without needing snowshoes or cross country skiis.

Dawn, I wasn't worried about you working in the heat. I was concerned about you trying to work in the garden til the last bit of light, and about prowling night critters. I know your a savvy alert lady but it's hard to see things when it starts to get dark.

Barbara

Barbara,

Oh, that. hee hee The only wandering critters I have seen and heard in recent weeks have been foxes (stalking my chicken who were in their run) in the middle of the day, hungry deer (eating anything that's not fenced), raccoons (climbing the fence to check on 'their' corn crop), possums (stealing a bag of trash off the porch), snakes (trying to eat my newborn chicks), cottontail rabbits (playing and eating hen scratch), a turtle (wanting into the new potato patch to eat potato bugs, and I did let him in) and a multitude of birds pecking holes in the fruit. Except for that, "there ain't nobody here but us chickens", as they old saying used to go.

When I am out near twilight, I always have a killer dog or two with me. Well, one is a killer...he'll grab a possum or raccoon and shake it a certain way and break its neck. The other one just kills plants by trampling them.

I am expecting and hoping for a really quiet summer, but I am always careful. One more scare like last year might give me a heart attack.

Dawn

Dawn,
In the country, there's always critters. The only one's that really concern me are the one's that can hurt me or my cats. That's one reason I hesitate to have chickens even though I'd love to. They seem to draw predators. It's the food chain thing.

Some of the critters that do make the mistake of coming on to the property should have been warned somehow. I saw a young rabbit in the yard the other day and thought, "Uh oh, I hope he makes it out of there before the cats spot him."
We have a pet door for them to go in and out at will. A few days later I spotted something on a throw rug. Looking closer it was a small rabbit foot:(

That makes me sad, but there isn't much I can do about it, since the cats think their doing me a favor by clearing the property of anything besides them they can find and tackle. Most of the time that works out well with rats, and mice. The cats provide their own cat food and the property stays clear of varmits.

Yes, I thought about that scare from last year. I am hoping and praying there's not a recurrance for your safety and peace of mind, as well as that of your little grandaughter. I know you'll be careful, knowing you, so no need to warn. Just saying out of concern :)

Barbara