Seedmama, you are so sweet. I really don't mind bringing food, but I am just not ready to commit to naming it yet. LOL I like to cook and I can always bring something in a cooler. I talked to my daughter and both of her children have tournaments this weekend so she can't come. I don't feel like I am bringing much at all. George gave me the seeds for Baker's Family Heirloom so I'm just giving a couple back in a different form. I wish I had planted more, but I only did four. One failed to germinate, but another pot must have had two seeds sticking together so I got four after all. I don't even like Roma's much, but my DH does. I will gladly share those with George because I have plenty. My plants are still very small though, because I was determined not to "plant and cover" like I normally do. I guess they are strong little plants however, because the night George lost his, I just slid mine under the shed that had a piece of plastic on the front of it. Our temps went to 31 according to Mesonet, but I didn't lose anything. One of my carpenters told me today that everytime I get my yard in shape they come and mess it up again. I think this is the last time though. They had a bobcat for this project and it made some pretty deep ruts, but they also graded it out to make the water flow away a little better, so all and all I think I will benefit. They poured the final concrete today for our safe room/tornado shelter, but we still have a lot of work to do. It has been an interesting (although stressful) process. Tomorrow they are ordering siding for it and with a little paint it should just look like another room on the house. They are also ordering in the metal to match the house roof. That should take care of the outside but we have the finishing on the inside to take care of. We probably will leave that until the roof is on. The roof is just to make it look like the house and to make the water flow off, because it has a thick reinforced concrete flat roof already. I will have to explain it to you on Saturday, because it has been an interesting project. The flower pots are just lightweight plastic, but they are big enough for small plants. I grew lettuce and peppers in some of them last year and they were plenty big for that. I have oodles. If I could trade one for a plant, any plant, I would be happy. LOL I have the room where the shelter connects about 2/3 painted and that is my last inside project, then I am moving outside for the summer. LOL It always seems like I have so much to do that I think my neighbors must be frustrated from looking at our home, but they always just say, "Look how much you have already done, and how good it looks". Guess that's what happens when you buy an old house. The work never ends. Thanks again for your offer to bring food for me, but I am indepted to you already for all of those flowers I have growing that came from your seed stash. Hope to see you on Saturday. Carol

@Aidan Creekmore yes it's that last picture... I think your sixth. Landed right in front of me and just sat there staring at me on the deck. I quitely got up and went into the house though I wanted to run and screen just like that 10 year old post. Sprayed cutter waited. It left because my bird reflector tape moved so I am back out on the deck nervous trying to enjoy the sun here in Georgia. Lol. Should I worry?

I guess you can take advantage of the robber fly population and get some batting practice in.tennis rackets make good fly swatters to.maby a potatoes gun for the jb peach balls.get creative.I am learning weild ways to kill bugs that way.for instance,I just learned cooking oil,new or used,kills every bug I pour it on.like dish soap and water,it suffocated them.bakeing powder and yeast,with some suger,added to hot water,makes my fly bait.it ferments a day or two,then its sealed tight for two weeks.the end product is effective for all species of fly.after its in the trap a few days it ferments again,into vinegar. Now fruit flys die by large numbers.it just cycles over and over.flys ferment bringing in more flys.its nasty stuff! I'm still worried about the black widows, they are as bad as my flys but have no nateral preditor here.I want to get some chinise mantis eggs,and lady bugs,but I may have to wait til next year.we got a month or two befor winter starts in here.

Farmgardener, I'm sorry you're having such a rough time with the garden this summer. It's this darned weather. Some years we just get to a point where you cannot water enough to keep the garden producing, and it sounds like your area is at that point now. (Mine is getting closer and closer to that point by the day.) There's no shame in walking away from the garden and waiting for better weather---either in the fall or next year. Jennifer, The chickens are fine. They are bored and they are aggravated with being held hostage in a nice climate-controlled area (and I don't care that they are aggravated because I want them safe from the extreme heat). I'm thinking we'll let them out tomorrow because our forecast high for tomorrow is only 106. There's only six chickens left, courtesy of the heavy predator population we've had the last two or three years. The predators get 1 or 2 chickens a week except when I lock them up in their coop/run and don't let them free-range. This is why I'm about to give up on having chickens. We have a much, much, much worse predator problem these last few years than we had when we moved here 20 years ago. The chickens get hot or bored or whatever and wander off into the woods, despite my efforts to stop them. They ignore me and just keep going, and if you try to pursue them, which is dangerous in snake season anyway, they just run deeper into the woods, which is more dangerous for them. Then, something gets them in the woods and we never see them again. If I didn't have these 6 locked up in the mudroom, we probably would have lost at least another one this week. I call these six the smart ones because now they stick close to the house when they're out, but I don't know if they're being smart and cautious or if it just has been too hot to roam around and get very far from the house. When these are gone, I doubt we'll get more. Losing them is hard to bear. If we ever do have chickens again, they won't be allowed to free-range. If chickens are never allowed to free-range and are always confined to a fenced chicken run, they're fine with that because they don't know what it is like to be free ranging. Once they've free-ranged, though, they hate being looked up permanently and it is stressful to them to be confined. So, I try to keep these as safe as possible while still allowing them to free-range, but I'm resigned to the fact that the bobcats or coyotes will get them eventually. We went many years with only losing a couple of year, but for the last couple of years it has been 1 or 2 a week. Jacob, You've had a very adventurous couple of days. I'm glad the garden held up to the hail, and glad the baseball-sized hail didn't fall at your place. My childhood home got hit by baseball-sized hail when I was about 20 or 21 years old, and by the time all the damage was repaired, my parents practically had a new house (and new cars). I'm envious of your cool weather. When we moved here, we thought we'd be able to sleep with the windows open in nice weather. Well, that didn't work out so well as the frogs made such a racket during mating season that you couldn't sleep at all. So, the windows stay closed now. Jen, That Boston terrier sounds very, um, energetic. I hope y'all survive the weekend. Nancy, I like gravel that has been taken over by grass (and/or weeds) just like Mike McGrath described. He's one of my favorite garden writers, and Organic Gardening magazine never was worth reading after he left his job as its' editor. You can have the appearance of a grassy lawn, but the ability to park on it no matter the weather. I'd like to gravel over our entire side yard that sits between the house and garage one of these days and then let the grass grow up through the gravel. The dense, compacted clay in this area holds puddles of water forever after it rains, turning into a lake when it rains a lot, so gravel on top of the clay would be a huge improvement. Kim, I agree with you. For the 3rd or 4th day in a row, we were over 100 degrees by noon. It might have been the same at your place out there west of us. This is ridiculous heat! I'm ready for a break, even though our break here still will include highs in the upper 90s. I bet 97 will feel fairly cool after so many days between 106-111. Tomorrow should be our last triple-digit temperature day for at least a week, if the forecasters are correct. I looked at the garden about an hour ago when I went out there to check on the plants in containers. Considering the excessive heat we've been having, it looks fairly decent. Not great. Not good. Not nearly as good as usual, but mostly still alive and likely to recover if the temperatures will drop down to normal or average July temperatures. Of course, August awaits, and our hottest weather usually occurs in the first half of August so it isn't like I think the garden's hard times are over. They aren't. Maybe, though, we'll at least get a few slightly cooler days. No chance of rain though. If the drought continues to deepen and worsen, though, all bets are off. Dawn