We hit the 80* dewpoint this morning. I felt it when I took the trash out. Right now we are 97 with 114 heat index. I’m staying in. Prepped a bunch of veggies for salads and baked chocolate chip cookies.

Yikes, Rebecca! We hit 103 with heat index of 111. Currently we are 101 with heat index of 110.

I went out to put soaker hoses on everything and to check the chickens. Now, I have a headache.

While I was out there, I grabbed the dried PEPH peas. Giant beetles have been on them--thought I got them all last night, but, remembering back, one flew off. That one was back tonight.

That's all I've done in the garden today.

My poor chickens. If they can just make it for another day, things are supposed to be better. The chicks are literally crying and their mothers panting and clucking at them--I assume to soothe them. They really are miserable right now. I have tarps and shade cloths on their pens. They have water. The fans are useless during these hours. They just blow very hot air.

Dislike.

I'm on the "I want to move to Flagstaff" kick again. LOL

Dawn, thanks for the reminder to fertilize I haven't done that in a week or so.

If it would just cool down a bit, I think my mite damaged pole beans would rebound. They are actually trying to make new blooms. The Seminole pumpkins continue to impress. Seriously, they are reaching to all areas of the garden. I will grow them on the tunnel trellises next year...and maybe skip the pole beans and only do bush beans. Maybe. I have a bed that already needs to be rebuilt. It's a smaller one. The current compost pile is next to it, so I wonder if the compost being right next to it, caused the wood to rot more quickly. In a way, this isn't a bad thing. I can enlarge that bed now. Make it twice as long. I'm moving the compost pile to the back garden soon anyway.

I did start spinach, kale, arugula, and some lettuce seed last night. I will probably start more lettuce tonight. Tom said he would work on my hinged hoop next. He's almost finished with the neighbors' wagon. I would like to change out coverings for it. Frost protection in the winter and insect protection in the spring and summer. This needs to happen. I eat greens everyday and dislike buying them. I'll need to look for cold tolerant varieties for the fall/winter and heat tolerant for the spring/summer.

I am excited about this upcoming fall. It's been 4 years since I had any type of free time during the fall. (Then I drive by the school and get sad. haha) I'm also excited about next year's garden. It should have more attention during the spring months. It will just be so nice for it to cool down a bit so we can start working on things.

What is everyone else growing for the fall?

Oh, the two fall tomatoes in the mineral tubs look amazing right now. (knock on wood) I might be a fan of this type of gardening too!

So many things to be excited about! If it would just cool down!

Planting crepe myrtles and rose of Sharon in the fall? Is that a good idea. I have the beginnings of a plan for my "backyard" (the spot between our backdoor and front porch of the shop).

I have not been doing much other than trying to stay cool.

I have been trying to find fall seed for my wildlife garden. I stopped at the Poteau Oklahoma farmers co-op and was told that they would have fresh seed in, in 2 or 3 weeks. What I am after there is a deer plot mix. I will have to order the wild flower mix, but it wont be hard to come by. I hope to find some poppy seeds also.

I have made a low-water bridge across the wet weather creak about 150 feet from the house, in doing so I created a very small pond. I went out Fri. and noticed it was very low on water, and had fish in it. I caught some grass hoppers and tossed onto the water and they gone about as soon as they hit the water. It was very hard for me to catch the grass hoppers, even tho there was millions of them, so I stopped in Mena Arkansas co-op and bought a bag of catfish food. My fish did not like the catfish food very well. I hate to let the fish die, but I cant afford to buy water for that small pond. We have not had a rain where there was any run-off in a long time. There were 2 or 3 coons killed crossing the highway headed toward the creek. I dont like coons and squirrels but they have to make a living also.

My garden is very sick, needs a lot of water, but the produce is not worth what the water will cost. The heat has really hit my garden hard. The 6:00 news said the heat index was 118 in Ft. Smith. We were out a little earlier and the car said the temp was 100. I will have to water the sweet potatoes, okra and peppers a little to keep them well enough to keep them alive. I will have to be careful with the sweet potatoes because I dont want them splitting. It would be my luck to get a flash flood, wash out my low-water bridge, split my potatoes, drown all my grass hoppers, and make me mow the rest of the summer. Come to think about it, it may be worth it.

Rebecca, Well, you probably could have baked your cookies on the hood of your car, or on the dashboard. On our way home from Fort Worth, I looked at the Max Heat Index Numbers for today and was appalled at how hot and steamy y'all were up there. For anyone who wasn't watching the numbers today, here's the hot and steamy map, showing why NE & E OK had an excessive heat warning:

Today's Maximum Heat Index Values Map

For us, even though we weren't here to enjoy it, today's heat index values at our place were a lot more reasonable because our dewpoint was substantially lower---I don't know what it was all day, but it was only 72 when we were driving down to Fort Worth this morning and only 68 when we were driving home. We only hit a heat index of 109 at some point today and by the time we got home it was only 103 or something. It felt sort of normal for August, instead of feeling like we were in a sauna. I don't know how long our good luck with the dewpoints will hold down here, but y'all are getting what we had been having last week, aggravated by all the rainfall that was so lovely at the time it was falling.

Jennifer, In past hot spells, I've used a patio mister system to keep the chickens cool (since they can free range, if they don't like the mist, they can walk away), sprinklers, soaker hoses, a shallow wading pool with 1-2" of water in it, and milk jugs filled 80% full with water and frozen. When they get hot, they often come and lie on the ground close to the frozen ice jug, though generally not touching it. I've given them frozen corn to eat or canned (low-sodium) corn to up their fluid intake (in addition to their usual dry grain), watermelons, large Armenian cucumbers, cantaloupes, corn on the cob, etc. Anything that gives them more shade, more water, or more cool air usually helps. This summer my poor chickens have endured heat index values up to 114-116 with no apparent heat illness. I hope yours can make it through another day. Do you cool down on Tuesday? For us, Tuesday is expected to be worse than Monday, though at one point they showed it being cooler. I guess the cool-down is going to be later to reach us down here than they originally thought it would be.

For fall I'm not doing much since I succession planted flowers and they fill every bed and are going strong. It was by design though, since I knew we were entering my mom's last summer and we'd be busy, sooner or later, with cleaning out her house and getting it ready to sell and all that. If any bed of flowers wasn't doing well, I might have planted some fall crops, but then the one million and one grasshoppers here probably would have mowed down the young seedlings and I don't have time to deal with them now. So, I guess things are working out as expected, even if not the way I'd like them to be. I might start kale, spinach, lettuce and such indoors from seed later this month and transplant them someone into one of the flower beds in September. We'll see. It depends on how much time we spend in Fort Worth over the next few weeks. So much depends on how long the dreadful heat hangs on too.

I think you could plant both crape myrtles and Rose of Sharon in the fall as long as your mulch them well to get them through their first winter. Fall usually is a great time to get plants established before winter weather arrives, and plants that are transplanted in fall tend to fare much better than those transplanted in summer.

Larry, Staying cool is enough. That is unfortunate about the fish, but what can you do? Sometimes nature is cruel. We have saved fish before when the creek was drying up by catching them in a net and moving them to the pond. Then, the spring that fed the pond dried up in drought and we lost the fish anyway. I suppose it all worked out, because as the pond dried up, the coons found it easy to catch and eat the fish....so at least the coons weren't hungry for a while there.

There's certainly been years when I decided continuing to water the garden wasn't cost-effective and I just stopped watering and walked away from it. Sometimes that is all you can do in the extreme heat.

The deer plot mixes aren't in stores here either yet....I've been watching for them.

I hope you get whatever rain you need, despite any problems and aggravation it then would cause.

I am shocked at home much the roadsides are drying up between Marietta and Fort Worth. We're all in the same boat with the dryness and heat, but it still surprises me to see the changes from day to day. August is such a hot, cruel month and there's still a lot of August left. El Nino is fading away and the final El Nino Advisory for this event was issued on last Thursday. We'll see what happens next---they expect neutral ENSO conditions, which usually bodes well for us.

Dawn

Larry if you don't mind ordering seed I have used Hancock farm and seed company. They are always pretty quick in shipping and most of it ships free. Well free as far as they are concerned. They have a pretty good selection on seed for most situations. Seed Here

We were out yesterday looking for sprinklers. I know it was hot, but aside from getting into outrageously hot coal like car interiors, it didn't seem so bad. But we weren't working, just walking from the car to the stores and back.

I have a mum I put in a pot last fall that survived the winter. It is covered in buds. Should I cut it back so it doesn't bloom in the heat?

I thought corn was bad for chickens in summer? Supposed to raise their temps. I fed mine frozen peas and made mud beds for them.

I'm tired of watering. Good thing we've had more rain than usual this summer. I just get lazier and lazier.

Everyone have a good week.

I've heard that about corn too, Amy, but I've often frozen it for them in muffin trays and they seem to enjoy it without bad effects.

We have a chance for rain tomorrow. I hope so!

It's another brutal day, so I brought the dogs in at noon and bungeed the chick waters to pavers. Hopefully the overly enthusiastic momma hens won't be able to scratch them and tip them over. I really am ready to move all hens back to the flock and put the babies in the old coop together, but I'm going to give Stormy a few more days until the youngest is 5 weeks old. Although, she was sitting in her broody box clucking sorta like when they're about to/have just laid an egg. Maybe she's ready. She isn't charging at me with such determination. Of course, it could all be the heat too. If she lays an egg, I am going to move them all.

Early this morning, I fed the east garden. Last night I cleaned up the strawberry bed. It really was looking neglected. So glad I did that. I really enjoy strawberries and need to take better care of them. I stuck 3 peppers into empty spaces of that bed because I ran out of room. They are sweet peppers (I think).

I'll feed the back garden tonight when it's shady. There's newly sprouted peas back there. Hope they don't burn up today.

Notes: plants that do well in the summer heat--Armenian cucumbers, Seminole pumpkins, okra, southern peas, and peppers.

Larry, I am sorry about your garden and your pond and fish.

There's new occupants at a house down Indian Hills a few miles from us. They tilled up a garden in the spring. It drowned. Their property sets in a low spot as it is. So, they tried again and it's coming along nicely. I'm happy for them. I always think the gardener is a male because it has straight rows and looks like what I consider a traditional garden. When I see gardens like mine that are wild with flowers, veggies, herbs all crammed into together, I assume a female is the gardener. Isn't that weird? And untrue. I did see both a male and female tending to the garden down the road from us. It's the first time I had seen them.

HJ! Really! Flagstaff! I contemplated moving to Flagstaff for about 15 years, during the 30 years I was single just before I reunited with GDW. I love Flagstaff. 2-hr drive to warm winters! LOL.

Heat indices out the kazoo. . . I turned on sprinklers, mostly just to provide water for pollinators. Worked in town from 9-2 today for back-to-school party for those who need help. It's pretty much heart-breaking. This is probably not the forum for this kind of stuff so won't say more.

At any rate, came home--it was an exhausting get-together, and I took an hour nap. Then GDW and I watched a really amazing movie, Hacksaw Ridge. It's brutal, but heroic.

I think it is possible to overthink feeding chickens. Ours have corn available and eat it if they want it, and ignore it if they don't want it. Too much corn wouldn't be very healthy, but they don't eat too much of anything except maybe watermelons---they prefer a widely varied diet, like frogs (protein), small snakes, grasshoppers and other insects, etc. They love cat food if a cat is foolish enough to leave any food in a dish for them to find. They are healthy, and we often have chickens (if they evade predators) live to be 7 or 8 years old and, when they die, they don't die of poor health---they die because a coyote, bobcat or hawk gets them. So, I don't worry about feeding corn. The doves, coons, deer and others scarf up whatever corn the chickens don't eat. Sometimes the mourning doves beat them to the corn and then it is almost like a little battle over who is going to eat it. In the summer, the chickens mostly spend their days chasing bugs, catching them and eating them, and checking the compost pile for whatever they can find there, but there's days I see them eat corn. What I've really learned about feeding chickens is that they eat what they want when they want and how they want, whether it is what I fed them or not. They are very independent in that way. Our chickens, at least, seem to have the attitude that "you are not the boss of me" and they definitely do what they want to do.

It was too hot today, but worse for those of you further north or east than us. I think our max heat index was only 111 and I know a lot of you got hotter than that because I was checking the map while we were driving home. (Obviously, Tim was driving and I was checking weather and traffic---both were bad.) I think tomorrow is supposed to be bad again. I'm over it and wish all the heat just would go away. We have been on the go so much lately that my goal for tomorrow is to stay home, stay inside and do nothing at all. That's a pretty lofty goal, right?

Amy, I don't know if it is too late to cut back a mum. I'd probably take my chances and cut it back but you should do what feels right for you. All I know is that whenever I get overly excited about finding pots of mums in bud in the stores in August or even in September, if I buy then and let them bloom while the weather still is hot, the flowers scorch and start looking like crap almost as soon as they bloom....so I've learned not to buy them down here until we're really cooling off. Maybe putting them in morning sun and afternoon shade would prevent that. I haven't tried it in time to save them in the past because the place where I like having them (by the back steps) is on the south side of the house and blazing hot in August and September. I don't know what y'all do that far north since most summers you cool down at night earlier than we do. We often stay in the 100s and 90s through the end of September here, making autumn flowers difficult to enjoy early. It just depends on when the rain returns or when the cool fronts start rolling through and change our weather.

Jennifer, I don't know. When I see a perfect garden with straight rows, it usually is a man who planted it....though the lady may help maintain it. I know it is more of a Type A personality thing, though, and Type A men have to have those perfectly straight rows. Thankfully the Type A man at our house is not the gardener because he and I would clash over his desire for straight rows and my disdain for them. : ) My argument is that Mother Nature doesn't plant plants in straight rows, other than when birds sit on fences and 'plant' seeds there.

Nancy, Poverty is everywhere in this state. I've seen things, both when we are out on fires and when we are delivering toy drive holiday presents to needy families, that are shocking and stunning---literal third world living conditions. Many programs have been started here (like a Food Bank---they didn't have one when we moved here, for example) to help people in need over the years. I do think it is better here in our county than it used to be 15 or 20 years ago. What we needed here was jobs---and the WinStar Casino, among other employers, has brought plenty of jobs. Anyone who wants to work and who can pass the drug tests can find jobs here now, and our unemployment rate stays pretty low compared to what it used to be. I think we see a decrease in poor living conditions each year too, for that reason, but there's always going to be people who do not benefit from improving economic conditions. You just do what you can to help the ones you can reach.

Today was a long day, but it was a good one. It was so good to see everyone again---most of us were all together yesterday for the family visitation at the funeral home and for dinner at my sister's house afterwards, and today for the funeral, and tons of our friends and family of all ages stayed afterwards to join us for a lovely catered lunch. We didn't want to leave and stayed there forever. This was the first time in ages that Chris and almost all his cousins were together in one place at the same time for a photo---only one cousin was not there and she just couldn't make it in from out-of-state. It is so endearing to have 4 generations of friends and family together even if it isn't for the happiest of occasions. I feel like I finally caught up on what is going on in everybody's life now---even people I haven't seen in 20 or 25 years. The biggest question we all had, though, was "how did we all get so old?" No one had a really good answer for that. My dad's 95-year-old gardening buddy was thrilled I'm still gardening and still growing tomatoes like he and Daddy taught me to, and I was just thrilled that he is still alive (not gardening, due to mobility issues). Nostalgia reigned today, but now we're back to real life in the real world.

I bet I do need to water the garden tomorrow. It has been horribly hot for the last week, and both the garden and I are tired of that bright, hot sun shining down relentlessly. Our soil is really starting to dry out again now that it has been a while since it rained. Maybe if we cannot get rain, we'll at least get some clouds to bring us some relief from the sun.

Here's the 6-10 day outlooks. They don't look very promising.

6-10 Day Outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center

Nancy, I think we had the Flagstaff conversation last year about this time. LOL. Their highs are in the 70's and 80's all week. Or that is their forecast. SO nice.

I'm sorry about your heart breaking situation.

Glad you got a nap today! It was a good day for a nap. Ethan and I watched 2 episodes of Stranger Things.

Larry, I'm sure it was a lot harder keeping chickens cool and watered back in the day! I've heard stories about how they would just die in the summer.

Mine have shady places all day long. When I'm home, they are out in their yard. When I'm at work, they stay in their pen. Luckily it has shade too. The mommas and babies (in three separate coops/pens) also have shade.

In good news, it looks like today could be the worst of our summer. In bad news, our chances of rain aren't great. I'm wondering how long we will go without a good soaking rain.

I went out to pick the peas and okra this morning. I was too late for the peas, the deer beat me to them. It looks like I wont pick peas again this year. They also hit the sweet potatoes pretty hard. I will have to start hooking up the fence again. I expect that the peas are about gone in the wildlife garden also. I should have something growing for them, but it is so dry that not much of anything is growing. I still have clover and millet over there, but I expect that the hot dry weather has it about like toast. My zinnias are about gone also, I hope they have produced enough seeds to come back next year.

Hey Dawn! I didn't see your post last night.

This morning we got a trace of rain...but enjoyed the cooler temps for sure. I didn't do much in the garden except for killing squash bugs and their eggs.

I'll admit that I sprinkled some old Sevins on the mostly dead ornamental volunteer pumpkin plant--right around the base. There were hundreds of squash bug babies in different stages. There are no flowers or fresh foliage around, so felt okay that a bee wouldn't find it's way into the dust. This is only the 3rd time in my life using Sevins. It smells like flea powder that we used to use on pets. I bought it when we first moved out here. Used it once and then researched it and didn't use it again until squash bugs were attacking my watermelon. Used it once then. And once today for a total of the 3 times. Anyway, the squash bug babies are no more. I also saw a SVB moth emerge from that area too. I'm not sure about their life cycle. There is definitely SVB damage on that plant. I'm amazed that it produced so well. IT's rooting from the vine and making new leaves blooms (I did NOT put any Sevins on those areas--too risky for bees and other good guys). I did use duck tape and pull off any squash bug eggs that I found.

I found a leaf footed bug on Juliet, but missed it when trying to kill it.

I found a stink bug on the okra and killed it.

And these giant weird beetles on the PEPH. I'll come back with a picture.

Thinking about it now...I should have brought a chicken over and showed them the squash bugs. Hopefully it would have scratched around and eaten them all. My luck is they would refuse to eat them. My chickens are like yours, Dawn, they eat what they like when they like... and when they want to eat it. Next time I see 100's of squash bugs like that, I'll grab a chicken and give it a try.

Jennifer, Those big beetles look like (I did not name these beetles and it isn't my fault their name doesn't make sense) Green June Beetles, which actually tend to be active here in July and August. I guess the name 'Green July and August Beetle' wasn't a winning combination. Here's some info about them:

Green June Beetles

Usually I only see them for a week or two and then they are gone, so if they aren't doing too much damage, you might see if it works for you to just ignore them and wait them out. Otherwise, I guess you could hand-pick them and feed them to the chickens if they will eat them, or drop them in soapy water to drown.

I've always felt like we have the pickiest chickens on earth. Maybe it is because they free-range and can pick and choose, but the list of insects our chickens will not eat is a long one. They don't eat squash bugs, stink bugs, leaf-footed bugs or big beetles of any kind. They do like grasshoppers at least for a while but tire of them and stop eating them later in summer, tiny frogs, some caterpillars (but there's a lot they won't eat, including tomato hornworms) and small snakes and lizards. Sometimes they eat small mice or tiny fish. They also are not fond of white grub worms, although we once had a mille fleur d'uccle banty rooster who would eat white grubs---the only chicken we ever had who would eat them. In winter when insects are scarce, they will eat some things they don't eat the rest of the year.

The battle with squash bugs is never-ending. Don't you just hate it? I'm looking forward to taking off a year from growing most edibles next year because I won't have to deal with the squash bugs. I'm excited about that. If they show up, they'll just starve to death because I won't be growing any cucurbits, and we mow down the native cucurbits that pop up in the pastures. I'm thinking of building a 12' x 20' hoop house similar to my greenhouse/hoophouse, only covered with netting like MicroMesh or Biothrips Proteknet netting that would exclude pests. If Tim and I could make doors that stay closed snugly, we could grow squash inside the netting-covered hoop house without having to deal with squash bugs and SVBs. That's my dream, anyway. After a lifetime of dealing with them, I'm just sick and tired of them and don't want to have to fight them hard every summer any more. I miss the old days when I could grow whatever pumpkins or squash I wanted and never have them. They didn't used to be so numerous a couple of decades ago. I don't know what happened to change that. I don't know if we'll ever have time to build something like that netted hoophouse because it seems like we either have fires or the grandkids every weekend and neither one leaves time to work on projects. Maybe after Tim retires and is home all the time we can work on a project like that.

If ever there is a pest that would drive a person to use Sevin dust, I think those squash pests could do it. I think one of the best times to throw caution to the wind and use Sevin is when there's tons of babies hatching in August/September that will overwinter as adults and cause you trouble next year if you don't kill them all now. One of the most important ways of controlling them is to try to kill them all in the fall. If none overwinter at your place, you get another month or more in spring/summer the next season before they start migrating from the next closest garden and find your place. We have crazy squash bugs here. I almost always see the first one in Spring hanging out on the mudroom door....on the outside. I don't understand it. Do they overwinter somewhere near the back door? Are they soaking up the sun from that south-facing wall? Do they come sit on the outside of the exterior door to blatantly announce "we're here"? Regardless, when I see them I kill them, so it all works out.

Larry, Those deer sure have hit you hard this year. Ours have nibbled a few zinnias that are growing out through the garden fence but that's about it. They aren't even nibbling the vines yet that grow on the fence.

Our little deer herd that scavenges the compost pile is getting bigger and bigger. It now has 11-13 deer in it. First it included one buck ( a pretty big one) and then after a while a second buck was showing up. He is at least a year younger than the big buck. Now two more even younger ones are showing up with them. It is rare for us to get a herd with more than a couple of bucks in it. We usually have mostly does, a couple of yearlings and the current year's fawns. I don't think we've had 4 bucks together other than in really cold, snowy weather. That's not much to eat since I've already cleared out most of the vegetable plants from the front garden. I'm not canning anything, so I'm not throwing produce peels or ends of cucumbers or anything on the compost pile either. They haven't started eating the sunflowers yet, though they could since the sunflowers aren't in a fenced area. I threw out some old pizza a couple of days ago, putting it on the compost pile and figuring either the possums, coons or skunks would find it after dark. Nope. First a little feral cat who I think might be a barn cat from next door came and ate the meat off the pizza, and then the deer came and ate the rest. I didn't know deer would eat pizza. I hope the deer appreciate that the grandkids left some pizza uneaten for them.

What I'm not seeing or hearing lately? Coyotes. Not hearing them in the evening, the overnight hours or the early morning. Not having dogs barking at them in the woods. Not having hysterical chickens hiding under the hollies from them. Not seeing them. Not having to rescue a cat being chased by one. I don't want them back, but I wonder why they disappeared so suddenly?(When this happens it usually is because a larger predator is around, and I do not want to even contemplate that.) I haven't heard or seen any coyotes in at least 3 weeks. Tim thinks maybe I just haven't noticed them because we've been so busy with hospital, nursing home and hospice visits with all the illness/deaths around us this year, but I think they aren't here. I think that even when I'm distracted by something else, I'd hear the coyotes howling....if they were here howling. We don't even hear them howling when we are sitting outside in the evening when the girls are playing in the swimming pool. I think the coyotes are not here right now.

I did water the garden today but I didn't do anything else outdoors. It was too hot. The rain went north/northwest of us this morning, and south/southeast of us this afternoon and evening, so we stayed hot and dry. As usual, the heat index maxed out at 111---we seem stuck on that number a lot this summer. We're supposed to get a break in the weather tomorrow. We'll see if that actually occurs. The garden looks pretty good for mid-August, especially considering how little attention it has gotten lately. I really need to weed and deadhead. Maybe if I wake up early enough in the morning I can do that. Except for grasshoppers I am not seeing many, if any, pests. Well, I saw one stink bug on a celosia today while I was moving the sprinkler, and I grabbed my garden scissors and snipped that little pest right in half. Any day you get to kill a stink bug is a good day.

Dawn

Dawn, the deer almost got in the garden last night. I hooked the fence charger back up before going to bed, and when I went out to water the garden this morning ( I was too tired Last night ) a wire was pulled loose on the south side. I dont like fences of any kind, so I string the wire as close to the garden as possible and mow right up to the edge of the garden. ( I think I have less weeds, and it looks neater this way). Anyway, I string the wire where it is over the edge of the peas or sweet potatoes, and when the deer have their head down eating, then, lift their head to look around they get bit by the electricity and run away, without taking my wire with them.

I checked the pastures and water supply yesterday, and both were in better shape than I had expected. The main creek is nowhere near "running", but still has a lot of holes that I expect to hold water for the rest of the summer. The wet weather creek running into the property from the east is still just seeping water when it gets to the main creek, but all the holes are full between there and the artesian well, which is about 1/4 mile away. The stock pond is down about a foot, but pretty good for this time of the year. There was a lot of activity around the pond, I expect if is predators after frogs and anything else that may be using the pond. The wildlife garden was better that I had expected, but still not good. The zinnias are very thirsty, still a few blooms on the clover, but overall everything is thirsty and the only way to get water over there is to haul it. I plan to take some water tanks over there and fill them with water when I get ready to burn the brush piles. I would really like some rain before I burn brush.

Larry, I'm glad the deer didn't quite make it into the garden. That close is too close. That's always been the trouble with electric fencing to exclude deer here...they knock it down, pull it loose and carry it away.

We are going to re-do our overly mature landscaping around the house next year and put in new shrubs, groundcovers and perennials. It was so hard to do it the first time because the deer kept eating everything we planted, but the plants that managed to survive are now huge monsters around 18-20 years old, and are getting too big. Partly that's because the yard is a lot shadier now and some of the plants are stretching for sunlight. It is time to take them out and start over, but at least this time we have the shade of the trees and somewhat improved soil, so I don't think it will be as hard this time as it was in 1999-2000. I'll be able to plant more shade-tolerant plants too since we have shade now that our trees are two decades old instead of being young and small. Tim has never, ever wanted to put a fence up around the house and I've gone along with that, but I know it will be impossibly hard to get new plantings established without one, so the first step in re-landscaping the house next year will be to put up a fence all the way around the house---front yard, back yard, side yards, etc. I don't know what form the fence will take, but we are going to have one. He has had his way for 20 years....and now I'm going to have mine. lol. If anything, we have more deer now than we had then, and the deer tend to ignore those lists of 'Plants Deer Won't Eat', especially in drought and in winter. So, a fence it will be. I have told him gently several times lately I am planning on having a real fence and he's just going to have to deal with it....and I don't want for it to be an electric fence because of the wildlife, pets and grandkids. I guess I'll spend some time this fall and winter researching attractive garden fences that also keep out the deer and trying to find something Tim and I can agree on. I want something that is prettier than a chain-link fence, and I know that deer (and coyotes and bobcats) go right over the top of 6' tall wooden privacy fences like they aren't even there, so I think we'll need to make at least the back yard portion of the fence 8' tall.

It rained overnight, beginning a little after midnight and continuing for hours. There wasn't much rain in any one little storm, but the cumulative effect of training storms going over the same area all throughout the early morning hours was that we ended up with almost 3/4s of an inch of rain at our house, and some parts of our county got 1 to 1.5". Most of the rain was on the Texas side of the river, and some areas there had 3" or more and a Flood Advisory. I wish that had been us! As it was, Tim and firefighters from several other departments were out fighting a housefire in Thackerville during that time. We had tons of dry lightning with no real rain in the housefire area while they were out there, and I always am nervous on their behalf when they are fighting a fire in an area with a lot of lighting, but no one was struck by lightning or anything. Tim said it started raining on them when they were driving back to the station.

We are cloudy and much cooler today and, so far, our heat index has made it up only to 98 degrees. I think it has dropped since then, so maybe that is as hot as we will get.

Unfortunately, something made three little kittens 'sprout' in our dog yard. I assume they are feral and have a mother somewhere. Perhaps they are barn cats who were out roaming the fields when the rain hit so they sought shelter under the dogs' patio cover intended to give the dogs shade from sunshine and shelter from rain. Luckily I saw the kittens in the dog yard when I let the chickens out to free-range, so was able to use white folding tables sitting on their sides to build a temporary wall to block the dogs from being able to reach the kittens. I used lawn chairs to hold the tables upright so they wouldn't fall over. It looks horrible, but it is doing its job today. The dogs still have access to 80% of their dog yard, though I still go out with them to make sure a kitten doesn't crawl under the wall and get into the dog part of the yard, and then the kittens are in the other 20% of the dog yard. I hope when Tim gets home from work that the two of us working together can get these kittens out of the dog yard, and block the area where they're squeezing between the fence and the garage to access the dog yard. I tried to catch the kittens, but they are feral and not inclined to let a human even get close enough to grab them. Two of us together, wearing thick leather gloves, might be able to corner them and at least get them out of the dog yard---or maybe just scare them into squeezing out between the fence and garage and then we could block that area with a large piece of plywood or by hammering in a fencepost or something. IT isn't a very wide opening, but then tiny kittens can squeeze through even a small opening. Or, maybe their mama will come back and claim them. These kittens look about 2-3 weeks old---too young to be away from their mama. The dogs know the kittens are there, and didn't try to get through my wall to get to them but I don't know how they'd act if I wasn't out there with them. Our two younger dogs are pretty territorial and I'm afraid they might grab and harm an unknown kitten in their dog yard even though they peacefully exist indoors with our own cats.

My plan for this afternoon is to harvest from the garden if the clouds linger until I've made and eaten lunch, and then I might deadhead some flowers if the humidity doesn't drive me indoors.

Dawn

Every time I click on to this site it takes me to the Houzz home page instead. Been doing it last couple of days. Takes me forever to get to here or have to click back through history. Am I the only one having a problem?

When I woke up around 2 this morning, I looked at my phone (I always check the weather like an obsessed crazy woman) and saw that you were getting rain, Dawn. Norman did too, but not our area of Norman. We might just dry up and blow away out there.

I'm not working super late tonight. I'm about to leave, but have a couple of stops before heading home. I'll probably water tonight. And harvest okra. Maybe look for squash bugs.

I'm so exciting.

Saturday will be the day to reintroduce the momma hens back to the flock. Rosa and Buttercup will do fine. Especially Buttercup. She seems mostly ready. Story will be difficult, I'm afraid. But I'm gong to take down their pen area and move her babies to the old coop with the other chicks. Hopefully that will help her forget about them more quickly.

Houzz is often weird for me, farmgardener. Sometimes it works like I want it to and other times I can't find my way in.

Hi, everyone! It has been the same brutal heat here as for many of the rest of you. I thought I needed to check in this evening because of Amy. She informed me that she calls my Meot Jaeng I Ae Hybrid "Korean Kutzu." (c. moschata summer squash) So now I am beginning to understand why she calls it that. And I just laugh every day when I go through the raised veggie bed enclosure. SO funny, Amy. The squash plant is indeed going crazy. We don't get huge amounts of the squash and that's a very GOOD thing. . . but it is regularly producing a few at a time. Perfect.

And now, Dawn and George (wherever you are), I am having fun watching the LARGE Seminole squash/pumpkins taking off. I trained their leads outside the fence, to see how far out they'll go. I still want to see one climb up one of the oaks!

The new tomato plants are growing fast. They're a sturdy, healthy-looking 2-3 feet tall. The yard beans are going crazy. . . and we got our first cucumber this evening. I only put in 3 cucumber plants and all have zillions of blooms. The sick and poorly performing tomatoes from spring--some are rebounding. I tore out about half, but am harvesting a few tomatoes almost daily. Regarding the ridiculous sungolds, am throwing many into compost every few days!! If EVER there was a fruit/veg to grow in a starving community, it would be this one!

Meanwhile, the nectar plants for butterflies are hurting. The tithonia are looking really bad. I cut one in half the other day just to see if it'd grow back. The rest are all too tall and many have been attacked by bugs and are falling over. Now. I put one in at my school garden in town. It wasn't doing well where I first put it, so dug it out and re-homed it. Well because of all the rain there, it was iffy. . . and it was stunted. But now in August, it is only about 3-4 feet high, but it is the HEALTHIEST 3-4 feet high! I actually am loving/hating this my place garden compared to the BFF garden. There are things in MY gardens I wouldn't give up for anything. But then over there, it's the same situation, only in reverse. I can't have what they've got, and they can't have what I've got.

Dawn, I love that you got to have this reunion time. What an amazing gift! We had one, but only once. They just are hard to come by. I'm so joyful that you had this time.

HJ, hahahaha, you obviously have a much better memory than I do. I laughed heartily when reading your post! We oughtta take off on a trip together to check it out! LOL

Re the heart ache trail. Thanks for your comment, Dawn. And I totally agree with you. It is entirely the result of NO jobs. Wagoner is a no jobs community. One, and it only employs temp workers. GRRRRR. The wages are so low, that no one can make enough money to afford to drive to Tulsa for a job. Or even to Muskogee. I was on a raconteur mission. Did a drive along delivering lunches to kids who need them when school is out. I was warned I'd see absolutely horrible things. I did. I now plan to invite friends to do an expose' with me. This is totally unacceptable in THE United States of America. I was and am physically sick about this. There has GOT to be a fix, there has GOT to be people with good ideas of how to fix/help.

Okay. . .. and then there are the butterflies. Had some friend on FB teasing me about the butterfly love. Uhhh, no , not silly. Actually important, as are bees. All our creatures are important for our ecological balance, as are our plants. The more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn.

But THIS group, this very group, is what started me onto a deep interest and desire to do gardening well, and THANK YOU all!

Here's today's Oklahoma Drought Monitor. Drought has continued to expand across the state, though most of the change this week occurred where areas that already were Abnormally Dry (pre-drought) or in drought advanced at least one category deeper. The overall amount of area within all these categories didn't change much. Since this map reflects all rainfall reported as of 7 a.m. Tuesday, the impact, if any, of any rain that fell after that will not be reflected until next week's drought monitor map is issued.

Oklahoma Drought Monitor

Jennifer, When we are as dry as you have been, I obsessively check for rainfall and watch everybody else's rain even if none is falling here. I don't know why. I suppose it is because I am just hoping and hoping that someone else's storm will get lost and wander aimlessly our way and dump some rain on us. When I heard the rain falling here, I grabbed my phone to check it and see if you were getting significant rainfall---I was so hoping that you were, but could see you were not.

Farmgardener, I have not been having that problem, but it has been giving me a page showing posts on any forum I've ever been interested in. I'd rather come straight here to this page, so I went to whatever place I found that had forums I liked to visit checked off and I removed all the check marks except for the one for this forum, and now it brings me straight here. Houzz is very frustrating to use.

Jennifer, You're having the kind of summer I usually have. We were awfully close to having that sort of summer too, but a couple of good rainfalls over the last 3 or 4 weeks have helped a lot. Of course, for people who are getting inches and inches of rainfall, my description of 'good rainfall' applied to amounts between 1/4" and 1" might sound ridiculous, but I consider those good amounts for late July and early August. Hopefully your luck will change soon and you'll get some good rainfall. For us, the change didn't come until September last year, but once the rain started falling, it didn't stop until almost June.

Dry years like this are so very challenging no matter what you grow. When I am planting trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers here, I always choose the varieties I plant based on our summer rainfall and heat because I cannot plant anything that needs too much water, having learned that the issue here for me isn't what will grow well in spring or early summer when rainfall is more consistent, but rather what will tolerate extreme heat and low rainfall. This frustrates me because there's plenty of other plants I'd like to plant but do not because it would be extremely challenging to keep those plants alive in the summer months. Some years, we just can't win.....in 2011 even our native trees and cacti died. Now, if it gets so hot and dry in a summer than the native cactus cannot survive, what in the world does that say about the rest of our plants? I hate summer, especially when it is hot and dry. Or, when it is hot and very humid. OK, so I hate all the summer weather. I love spring and autumn though.

Good luck re-integrating all your little flock together. There might be a rough day or two but the chickens usually manage to work things out and peacefully co-exist, at least until a young rooster tries to challenge an old one. At that point, all bets are off.

Nancy, The struggle is real here in OK in the summer, isn't it? The plants, like Korean Kudzu, that grow well in our awful summer conditions almost grow too well. By this late in the season, I just let the C. moschata type summer squash ramble and roam and climb all over everything even though they start out on a trellis that seems like it would keep them neatly contained. It is always such a relief to me to have summer squash plants that do not succumb to squash bugs and SVBs.

I always grow tithonia next to the fence, so that when the plants get too tall and start falling over, they can just lean back against the fence and stay more or less upright. Everything else that begins to fall over under its own weight either gets staked upright or cut back hard. It just depends on how much time I have to try to keep the plants upright...or, rather, on how long I'm willing to stay out in the hot sun staking or cutting back plants in August. Most of my plants are in full sun so they only start falling over because they get so heavy as they get tall. The few I have that get some afternoon sun don't really fall over (except sometimes the glads do) though a few will reach out east, like they foolishly want more sun instead of the shade from their west. Silly plants. They should be glad to have dappled shade in the afternoon.

SunGolds are ridiculous producers aren't they? Long ago I had to choose between them and Tess' Land Race Currant (the largest tomato plant I've ever grown) because trying to keep up with harvesting from both of them was killing me. Obviously SunGold was the winner, but I don't always get all those tomatoes harvested before they get too far gone and start dropping to the ground.

The best part of mama's funeral was simply getting to see so many childhood friends. One of them served as a pallbearer and confided to Tim that he always had a crush on me in high school but was too shy to ask me out. I thought that was such a sweet confession to make after, ahem, 40-plus years. The next day he told me the same thing himself and I thanked him and told him I always had a crush on him too back in the day. It was awesome to catch up on everyone's lives, and felt so strange to me that we're all grandparents now (and a few who had children young, and then their children had a child young and so on) now are great-grandparents. Mind blowing!!!! That sort of chance to see everyone is exceptionally rare, and it is only sad in the sense that it took my mom's death to bring all of us back to town and together again. Well, a lot of them still live down there, but are scattered around the area and so we haven't seen them when we have gone down to visit mom or my siblings. Another thing that was jarring? Meeting the new spouses of the surviving widowed parent of friends of ours. It is odd to see someone who was always part of a 'forever' couple with someone else, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone finding happiness a second time after losing their spouse and I was happy to meet the new spouses. It also was fascinating to me to see how much some of our friends from our general age group now look the way that their parents looked 20, 30 or 40 years ago---with us four kids being adopted, we don't see that same family resemblance between ourselves and our parents, but it is cool to see it in others. There were a couple of times where my sister and I couldn't decide if we were looking at the adult son (of course we were!) or at their long-deceased dad (clearly we weren't seeing him....just his younger twin), which made us feel about 100 years old. Also cool? Remembering what the father, now deceased, looked like....and seeing that resemblance not just in his son who is our age, but in his son's son, who is about Chris' age. I found it interesting that all the people who thought Chris looked just like me when he was a kid now think he looks like the spitting image of Tim (and he does). I think Chris looks like both of us at times, but as he gets older he definitely looks more like Tim.

What you see in Wagoner exists in every single community if you know where to look. The reasons are very complex. Where I live, some of it is endemic poverty, pretty much passed down generation to generation in some families, but some of it is the result of bad choices made over the decades too. We've certainly seen kids come from abject poverty and have a strong drive to get an education, to earn that college degree no matter how many years it takes, and to make a career and a life for themselves that is better than anything that anyone else in their family has achieved, but we've seen the other side of the coin, where young folks give up early, become addicted to drugs and alcohol, throw away chances to get an education by dropping out of school very young, etc., and then their own children grow up in poverty too. We have schools here with personnel that are so devoted to giving every child a chance via a good education, and our school counselors work so very hard with the high school kids to get them to go to college, helping them piece together scholarships, grants and other forms of aid, including work-study programs, but a person cannot make a kid take advantage of all those opportunities if they don't have that drive to do so and if they lack the drive and the desire to better themselves. In my early years with the VFD, I saw living conditions that broke my heart and appalled me....very, very substandard housing, no working utilities, perhaps no septic tank system (too horrible to describe), broken windows covered with cardboard, no real income other than food stamps/SNAP and WIC, that barely enabled them to survive, etc. In a way you have to toughen up and accept that these things exist or it will eat you up. I also had a hard time accepting that some people choose to live this way because they do not want to work, no matter what the job is or how much it pays---they just don't want to do it. You certainly see a certain percentage of people who are that way, and they aren't shy about it either. They've learned to work the system as much as it can be worked so that they don't have to work and still manage to get by, even if only just barely. I don't think we see that quite as much any more, because we have the jobs here for anyone willing to work and able to stay clean and sober. Lack of reliable transportation is huge in rural areas where public transportation is non-existent. The food bank started here 10-12 years ago makes a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of families weekly though, and I'm proud that people in our community saw that need and came together to fill it. I think the number of families our food bank serves in a county as small and as sparsely populated as ours is shocking---but even working families often find it hard to earn enough to pay rent and utilities, pay for a vehicle and gas, and also put food on the table. So, I understand what you are seeing and how it breaks your heart. You can find the same thing in any community in OK though, or in any state of the union, in fact. You just have to look and, really, you don't even have to look that hard.

For me it isn't just the butterflies and moths, but all the insects, and all the birds, and all the reptiles and amphibians and mammals and so forth and the way that all of them are interconnected with one another in the food web. It is an amazing world and we are so lucky to live in a state where there's still so many wild things with which we can peacefully co-exist. Gardening is lovely, but my favorite part of it is that the garden and, indeed, our entire property, are an ecosystem far above and beyond just whatever we choose to grow. This is why I work so hard to avoid the use of even seemingly innocuous things like soap sprays or neem. Anything that will hurt the bad guys has the potential to hurt all the guys. I prefer targeted baits because they harm only whatever eats them, but some pest insects won't eat those baits either. Now, when I see grasshoppers in the gardens on the plants chomping away, I am not happy, but instead of thinking of them as plant-devouring beasts, I try to think of them as food for the birds. I try to do this every single day, and most days I succeed, and some days I just want to go ballistic and spray some synthetic pesticide and kill them all (but I don't).

Today was one of the coolest mornings of the month so far, especially for a non-rainy morning, but it is clear from looking at the forecast that the weather honeymoon is about over and the heat is coming back. At least August is half over, and we ought to start cooling down sometime in September.

Dawn

You're correct--it is a multifaceted problem, Dawn.

Nancy! My Seminole pumpkins will take over the entire garden by the end of the season. I can't believe how crazy they are this year. I've grown them twice before. First time, not so great. Second time, pretty good. This time---insane growth. I think my soil in the east garden is MUCH better now.

Dawn, I sure hope that we get rain in September. I hope we get it before September. Our main coop is on a concrete slab and it is cracking. I have flower beds around the house and they are being watered, so hopefully that is helping the house foundation.

I am only adding the momma hens back to the main flock. All 8 chicks will be placed together...and I'll only have 2 coop situations to take care of. Adding grown hens back to a flock is hard enough. However, this year we have a rooster and he did a great job of keeping the hens from picking on Blossom when she stopped mothering a couple of weeks ago and went back to the flock.

It will be interesting to see how the 5 and 6 week old chicks will do together. It will be even more interesting to see how many pullets I have vs cockerels.

Next year, I'm going to do it differently. I might even let the mother hens take their babies to the main flock at some point. With Jean Luc, maybe that process will be better than I think.

I had bagworms on my columnar apple trees! Seriously!

I haven't looked at the garden since this morning, but will go out to water in a few minutes. After one day after fertilizing and clean up, the strawberries are so happy. They get afternoon/evening shade. New blooms and everything.

I really need to do a better job taking care of my plants.

Poverty and horrible living conditions. I'm not smart enough to have an answer, but I know it takes more than love and hand-outs. Tom's friend from Switzerland and his son visited a couple of years ago. Explaining why we have poor was so difficult. The son didn't understand it--he said in his country people want to work hard to contribute to their community. I tried to tell him, that some people here do not. That is the truth whether we want to believe it or not. I see it everyday when people come to the church for money, gift cards, etc. There's a young woman who was a bus kid back when we ran buses. She is probably 27 or 28 now. After we stopped running buses, one of our families continued to pick her and her older brothers up. Eventually, the brothers stopped being interested in church, but she continued to come. This family helped her mother financially for years. The mother worked off and on. We would do Christmas for them--everyone would sign up to purchase various things. Once, my Mom bought shoes for the girl. Her mother called my Mom and said these aren't the sort of shoes that her daughter wanted. My Mom, just gave her the receipt and told her to return them. She wanted a very expensive type of shoe. However, my Mom bought her daughter the same shoes she bought my daughter, so it wasn't like she was buying crappy shoes.

So...now this girl had a baby at age 16. No biggie. Happens all the time. We helped her a lot with all sorts of items(not crappy things--things we would use for our own children). Taught her baby in the nursery classes. Tried to encourage her to get an education. As a young single mom, she could get a free ride to college (my daughter could not, of course). She did not want to go to college. She did not want to work. She wanted everyone else to pay for her living. Finally, the family who had given her (and her family) hand-outs for years no longer was able to help her. And the church pulled back some of their contributions for her living...and she stopped coming. Once, not long ago, she called on a Sunday morning and wanted a ride to church (this was after she hadn't come in awhile). Tom picked her up. The next day, she called asking him for money.

This is just one person. She has every opportunity to an education. Her mind, and others like hers, is...different. It's hard to explain. I talked to her for years...and there is just something missing. Probably because she was raised to mooch. She doesn't know any different. She doesn't realize that she can be so much more.

I remember a few years ago Oprah ran an episode about how all the money was spent on the wealthier schools. Maybe in some places. BUT, I watched them completely remodel the southside OKC HS's a few years ago--state of the art computer labs, etc. These young kids trashed it all. Why? I don't know. Teachers want to help, but it is very discouraging.

I can share endless stories. I don't know what the answer is. But, it has to come from somewhere inside them--the desire to do better. The belief that they can do better. That they are smart, talented, children of God that has something to give...and not just take. Their parents are not equipped to help them. It is so heartbreaking. It doesn't matter how many electric bills we pay, how many meals we provide, how nice of school computer labs we build...

Of course, this is coming from a city and not a small town. The poor of small towns might be different.

And on that note, I have going to say a prayer for these souls and then go to the garden to water.

Hazel, that was sweet, I know where you are coming from. I have family that just will not work. I think many factors inter in to why people wont work. I also thing that giving handouts, rather than opportunities is a mistake. A person (If able) should have to earn what they get. Many may have to be shown how to earn their own way, but nearly anybody can learn something.

Well I had better go turn on my electric fence and try to protect my sweet potatoes, which I cant find any potatoes under yet.

So appreciate your words, HJ, and I agree with you about it taking more than love and hand-outs! I participated in an event on Monday wherein we handed out backpacks full of school supplies to all the children. I found myself not feeling comfortable about it. The only thing I was comfortable with was the fact that the teachers wouldn't have to be buying the supplies. THAT, I liked. A friend and I touched on it yesterday but we didn't have time for a long conversation--and indeed, this subject requires many long discussions and much thought, research, and expert handling. I certainly appreciate your sharing. But on top of the fact that the schools in OUR county are all run down and in need of repair, AND the general knowledge that teachers are sorely underpaid, thus leading to the idea that education isn't valued, is that the county, in all its wisdom, decided it would be a good thing to have 4 days of school, not 5. We've been having the learning program on Mondays from 9-1:30 this summer, with 1-1 and 1/2 Power Reading hour, one-on-one. One volunteer to 1 student. The kids have really loved it, strangely enough! As have the volunteers. And as soon as they find funds to get a new floor put down (they're getting a new roof as I write) from the flooding, hopefully very soon, they'll go back to Monday school. Meanwhile, they'll keep the 9-1 program at the church until then, as we have all summer. Wonderful church volunteered its use.

Yes, I'm so glad Dawn and George got me to grow the Seminole for real this year. It's fun to watch--and the leaves are enormous! But the Korean "Kudzu" is every bit as much fun, and I LOVE that squash. Did you grow summer squash, HJ? Maybe I'll make relish with extra cucumbers. Do you all freeze summer squash?

The lawn could have used a mow job today, but I was being lazy. Well, not really lazy. I just decided to make it a reading day. I'm SO far behind on reading materials and books! So with minimal work in the gardens I retreated for studying and reading, and Garry joined me.

We spent many hours the 2 days before, cleaning the filthy boat that hasn't been used since April. I've never worked that hard cleaning house! And would you believe, there STILL isn't a nearby ramp to launch it from. Yes, the water is STILL too high! CRAZY.

Dawn, I totally agree--it's all about the ecosystem. I have become somewhat militant about it all! LOL! I think the one thing here on our 1.5-2 acres that bothers me the most is that Titan will not abide possums. And so no no possums dare come onto the property. And I don't feel sorry for the deer, they can raid any ole one's property. The vegetation is lush here. And our deer population while down a bit the past two years, is back up to the normal 30 or so who travel through the back twice a day. Down during the day and back at night, stopping by our place to see how well we're guarding it. They were coming through right at suppertime tonight, and GDW spotted them. He laughed and bet me Titan wouldn't go even if ordered. So he opened the back door and said, "Titan! Deer! Go get em!" Titan just lay there, So I got very excited and RAN, shouting TITAN TITAN (in a kind of panicked voice), DEER!!! SIC EM!!!! and ran out on the deck. I can just see him rolling his eyes, thinking, SHEESH. But he dashed out all puffed up, only had to run about 100 feet, and they scattered.

As you know, my gardens are pretty new, relatively speaking, but oh my gosh, the insect predator population this year! It has been an amazing freak show. I have no idea who half of all these guys are! I DO know Japanese beetles, aphids, grasshoppers, probably many others that aren't springing to mind. All I know is that we have had a slew of bees and wasps. I daresay we have more wasps of various kinds than I've ever seen in my life. And bees everywhere. I thank the butterflies, not only because they're so beautiful, but because they have made me aware of the preciousness of maintaining a healthy ecosystem. My feeling about it all in the present is to leave it to nature. One being's pest is another's beneficial. And vice versa.

Night, all, and blessings.

I'm working my way backwards from bottom to top today because my brain is tired and only wants to remember what it read most recently.

In general, the reason you're seeing so many wasps, Nancy, probably is because we have had tons and tons of caterpillars all season, and the wasps feed on the cats. I have seen a lot of blue thread-waisted wasps carrying various caterpillars out of the garden this year. They take them back to their nests to feed their young, stashing them away, paralyzed, so that their young can feed on them. In years with significant fewer cats, we see significantly fewer wasps. Like everything else in nature, the level of the predator population rises and falls with the level of the prey population. Butterfly-lovers don't like seeing caterpillars carried away but it is the ecosystem and food web in action and I don't interfere with it. We always have a lot of bees here, perhaps because pesticide usage is fairly low out here in the sticks. There's plentiful butterflies pretty much every year, though it seemed like their numbers fell through the floor during the horrific drought of 2011. The population rebounded though when better weather conditions returned.

We have had dogs that have chased the deer, but after Honey and Jersey ran off into the woods to do that once and became entrapped and surrounded by coyotes determined to engage them in battle, we stopped letting the dogs run freely and keep them confined to the fenced dog yard for their own safety now. I never want to hear the sounds of dogs and coyotes engaged in battle ever again, and I don't want to see our dogs with the hair/flesh pulled out of their hips by the attacking coyotes either. Our dogs suffered only mild plucking like that, but we've had friends whose dogs have come home with their rear haunches looking like raw hamburger meat. Y'all probably don't have coyotes in abundance there like we have them along the river here, so Titan probably isn't in the same danger if he runs off a bit.

I enjoy seeing the possums, but not the coons because they will prey on chickens. I'm not crazy about seeing skunks either, especially in the daylight hours, but they're part of the ecosystem too. I don't mind seeing the foxes and bobcats as long as they aren't after our poultry. There's an endless array of wildlife to see here and I like that, but some days there's too much of it too close to our pets.

It is crazy y'all still cannot use the boat, but that rain just keeps falling in parts of NE OK, and it has to run off somewhere. Our lake and river levels have been back to normal since probably June but the heavy rainfall stopped here long ago. Since so much of our river water comes from SW OK and they are in drought, there's not a lot of water flowing downstream now and huge sandbars continue to emerge from the river. It is not yet so dry that you can walk across the river without having to wade through some water, so there's still more water in the river this August than in most years.

Some years I freeze summer squash. Of course, as with everything else, it changes the texture, but the squash still can be used in squash casserole, which is my favorite way to cook it (other than frying it, and we don't eat a lot of fried food any more). You can make squash pickles or squash relish though.

Our school system in Marietta has dealt with the school supply issue by supplying all those school supplies for each child themselves these last few years. I think that is pretty wonderful even though I know they are making budgetary sacrifices elsewhere in order to be able to provide the supplies. Our community in Marietta has been really good about supporting bond elections to improve the schools since at least the early 2000s, so it seems like one building or another (or one athletic facility or another) always is in the process of being improved, built, replaced or whatever is appropriate in each given case. Thackerville has not had the same success, and saw bond elections fail for probably a solid decade before finally getting one to pass so they could build a new elementary school. Here there is a lot of support for the schools, but still the tax dollars can only be stretched so far.

Larry, I have some family members who will not work either and it frustrates me because they are capable of working. Instead, they have learned every-which-way to work the system and get stuff free. I love them but this sort of behavior is not how my parents raised us and I don't care for it myself. When they plead poverty, I ignore them because I know they are capable of working and supporting themselves. If they want to have more cash to spend, they should work. I'd better shut up now before I say too much about them. They were taught how to work, they know how to work, but they'd rather not do it. Ooops. Gotta get off my soapbox.

The deer were crazy yesterday. I cut up some cucumber and tossed them on the compost pile for them and they acted like it was Christmas. Then they stalked me the rest of the day every time I went outdoors, so I won't do that again for a while because I don't want them expecting such things every day. No wonder I never get much compost out of that back compost pile--the deer eat things before they can decompose. Some days the deer stand in our neighbors' woodland, right on the edge, and just watch me all day. I know they are wishing I'd leave the garden gate open so they could wander into the garden and eat. Well, I'm not going to do that, but sometimes they startle me because I'm not expecting to have one standing nearby, perhaps under a tree or two, staring at me. It gets sort of creepy after a while.

Jennifer, We have watered so long and hard around all our concrete slabs, using soaker hoses, trying to prevent cracking in dry summers, but when all the land around you is cracking badly, you really cannot prevent it. It is very frustrating. I hope your slab in the coop doesn't crack too badly. Rain before September sounds great but I don't see anything in the long-range forecast that makes me think it is likely to happen.

In some years when we let the chickens hatch their eggs, we'd get about 80% roosters. It doesn't make any sense to me, but it happens, and that is why we do not often let them hatch out eggs---we don't need more roosters! We've always let our babies run with the adults once they are about half-grown. The adults protect them and teach them to protect themselves from all the wild things.

I've never seen bagworms here. I suspect they might be on cedar trees on our neighbors' place across the property line from my garden, but we've always done our best to cut down the cedars that appear on our property so we don't have to deal with bag worms. It seems odd they just popped up on your apple trees, but then so many things are odd this year.

With regards to poverty, there's always going to be some people looking for a free ride---always has been, always will be. I have no pity for those who want the rest of society to support them, especially if they have high expectations and expect to be given fancy shoes, for example. There's a difference between true poverty that a family cannot overcome and choosing to be poor and dependent on others because one is lazy and shiftless and we all know that. I just hate seeing children being brought up that way---if a child is taught by example how to obtain housing vouchers, WIC, SNAP, free cell phones, food from the food bank to supplement what they get from WIC and SNAP, free school supplies at those big back-to-school events and free gifts at Christmas, then what are they being taught? They're being taught how to depend on others to give you things instead of being taught how to work, earn your living and be responsible for yourself. That is the part that is so unfortunate. To change society, we have to teach those children who grow up that way that there is a different way to live or the cycle perpetuates itself. To me, changing mindsets like that is the real challenge.

To me, there's a difference between people who make a career out of being dependent on social programs and charities and people who temporarily fall on hard times and truly need help until they get back on their feet. I see it in my own extended family---and we have bailed out those kids once or twice but won't do it again because they won't work to support themselves. When I grew up we were taught you'd better get an education and be able to support yourself because "TANSTAAFL", i.e. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. It was just a given that people grow up and support themselves and their families. Nowadays the problem is that there is such a thing as a free lunch, and more, and it has given us a lot of people who expect a free ride. I'm grateful we had parents who taught us to work for what we want, though not all my siblings are willing to do that work. I could tell you stories....but I won't. Sigh......

The kids here started school yesterday so my FB feed was full of bright, shining faces in new school outfits carrying brand new backpacks. The kids seem excited to be back in school, and the parents are possibly even more excited to have them back in the normal routine again. Our own granddaughters looked pretty adorable. Lillie started 5th grade, which means middle school is next year. Oh wow. None of us are ready for that! Aurora started four-year-old pre-K and was so very excited. She wore an outfit we let her pick out herself when we took her school clothes shopping---thankfully she chose a skirt and a top that actually coordinated well with each other. (grin)

We are going to have a good-bad weekend. At least one of the granddaughters is coming to spend the weekend, and we might have both. It depends on whether she goes to her dad's house as expected, which is iffy, because so often they don't even hear from him when it is supposed to be his weekend. So, if she doesn't go to his house, we'll have both of the girls. That's the good part of the weekend. The bad part is we're going down to Fort Worth tomorrow to finish cleaning out mom's stuff so we can list the house with a realtor. I think that the work itself won't be too hard---our niece already has bagged up and gotten rid a lot of the smaller, personal items like clothing and shoes, and we're going to sit there and equitably divide old photos and stuff. Then we'll load up various appliances and furniture items that will be going home with some of my siblings and nieces and nephews. We don't plan to bring back anything like furniture here as our house is fully furnished and so is Chris'. My brother, who is the executor of mom's estate, expects the house to sell pretty quickly---it is on a lot-and-a-half on a street corner directly across from the local park in a very family-friendly neighborhood and houses like that usually sell fairly fast in that neighborhood. So, the hardest thing about tomorrow is that it may be the last time we're all together at mom's house while it still is mom's house. This house has been in our family since the 1940s and it is hard to think of it no longer being ours.

I need to get out to the garden to harvest and water, and I'm sure there's feral cats, deer and wild birds waiting for breakfast. Sometimes I wonder how the chickens ever gain any weight because they seem to share their daily hen scratch with everybody, including squirrels. Have a great day everyone. I think it is going to be another hot one.

Dawn

Not much to report from the garden. I really didn't have a chance to look at it today. Got in late. We are going to get up early to finish a project in the morning. It's gonna be a hot one again. Hopefully after this project is completed, Tom will work on my hinged hoop. AND set up a temporary potting bench. Eventually I want a sink. I have the old kitchen sink. I'm putting the potting bench next to the coop and there is a water source there.

I didn't mean to ramble about the poor and all. I know the problem is much bigger and there are some people who are trapped in poverty...and possibly live in places there is no work or no help. AND... there are times when many of us have needed help. I used to have very idealistic dreams of ways to help...Anyway...not saying more about it.

Looks like we have about 4 brutal days ahead. Not as brutal as last week (hopefully). but bad. Be careful out there.

I totally appreciated hearing your comments, all of you. There are SO many factors involved and different situations. Hurts to see the little children suffering, knowing that without some sort of exceptional intervention in their little lives, the cycles will continue.

We have two individuals in our extended family that are total deadbeats. One is worse than a deadbeat. One is a meth head deadbeat.

On the other hand, I was a single (divorced) mother of 2 boys whose father didn't pay child support. It was nearly impossible to provide for them on just my salary (and of course, my salary wasn't near the salary that men on my level were paid). I was way too proud to ever take help; at one time I had 3 jobs--a day job, Saturday secretary, and medical transcription. Finally with 3 jobs, I had good breathing room for Wade and me, except for overdue hospital bills that I'd never be able to totally pay off in my lifetime. By this time, I had just one surviving son, and he was a junior in high school. FINALLY, when I turned 50 or so, I began making really good wages, working in large law firms in downtown Mpls. Sure no darned time for real gardening!

This IS an issue I care deeply about, obviously, but it isn't garden-related (see previous sentence--HA!), that's for sure! And it will likely take a smarter person than I to figure out what will work best. Nonetheless, I appreciate your feedback. Thank you, all.

https://www.povertyusa.org/facts

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/12/14/569893722/health-care-costs-push-a-staggering-number-of-people-into-extreme-poverty

We are so tired tonight! But it was a heavenly day in so many ways! It was a good day to mow, but although it wasn't terribly hot, the dew point must have been high. And I was cleaning out plant debris from flowers that needed to go, a bit of weeding. Dragging hoses here and there. I think dragging hoses is really much harder than mowing the lawn! Our beds are so oddly shaped and so widely spaced out in our property, I cannot imagine soaker hoses or drip systems working, save for in the veggie beds--and they're easy, no matter how I water them.

Dawn, was thinking about your discussion of the oleander aphids. I have been attentive to the smallish plot of milkweed out in the shop bed, and can smush them out on a daily basis. Good-sized clump now, compared to the last two years of total devastation. But now I planted a whole bunch more in the sunny raised bed so that will up the ante. And on the A. curassavica, got NO Oleander aphids, just the large milkweed bugs. I found I could handle them the easiest by carrying a pitcher with sudsy water and just tipping the tips of the plants over the pitcher. The bugs would lose their balance and fall.

Oh yikes, Jennifer, looks like it will be brutal weather. Sure glad I mowed today!

Stressful stuff, Dawn; I hope it goes well. Even when we're not thinking it's particularly stressful, it is. And with a house having memories like that, wow, that'll be sort of touch. My prayers that everything goes smoothly.

Jennifer, Your comments about your sink remind me that I am supposed to get Chris' old sink that he took out of his bathroom at the new house when they bought a new vanity/sink to replace the pedastal sink in the master bedroom before they moved in. I'm going to use that sink in my front garden somehow, but not as a sink. Possibly as a bird bath. I hope he saved it for me because it has been months since he said I could have it, and I keep forgetting to get it when we are up there.

Good luck working on your projects.

I agree there are people who are trapped in a cycle of poverty, but I also see a lot of abuse of the benefits and I do not have sympathy for people who are perfectly capable but will not work. I have 2 of those in my own family and they are as capable of working as anyone else, but won't do it. I'd rather see taxpayer dollars going to truly needy people.

I dread this brutal run of hot days we're facing. Yesterday's Heat Advisory popped up out of nowhere and we already were pretty hot so I guess it didn't surprise me much. Those heat indices around 110 every day are wearing us out. I see we have a Heat Advisory for today and tomorrow, and I imagine we'll have one after that. September cannot get here soon enough and I hope this is one of the years when September weather truly cools us down, and not one of those where Sept weather is just a continuation of the August weather.

Nancy,

One of our family's closest friends was forced to go onto welfare after a divorce in the 1970s. I don't think her ex-husband ever paid child support and she just couldn't earn enough to support herself and her kids no matter how hard she worked. For her, welfare worked as intended---it gave her a hand up until she could get better job training and a better job and become self-sufficient. As soon as possible, she got her family off the welfare rolls and made a good life for herself and her kids. I know she felt somewhat humiliated by the fact that she needed to rely on welfare, but she shouldn't have---she was working hard and doing the absolute best she could at that point in her life. She also did not fall into that trap of becoming dependent on it forever, which seems to happen with some people nowadays, and probably far too many of them.

We have two deadbeats too and, with one of them, the issue also has been drugs and alcohol for virtually his entire life. Why work if you can collect a check and stay drunk of high all of the time? Ooops. I've said enough or probably too much. I'll shut up about that.

We need to mow, but I cannot see us having time this weekend, nor can I foresee either of us wanting to mow in these dewpoints and high heat index days. Hopefully the grass won't grow too fast and we can tackle it next week.

I have been trying to chill and not let the oleander aphids drive me up the wall. The ladybugs are working on them because, of course, with native milkweed everywhere in the fields around us, even after I wiped out the oleander aphids in the garden, we promptly had new ones on the milkweed plants less than a week after I got the plants free of them. I like that the Windex knocked them out the one time I used it, but I really don't want to use it regularly. Instead, I'm thinking I'll move those three milkweed plants out of the garden next year to a wilder pollinator type area and just not worry about the oleander aphids....sort of out of sight, out of mind. I've only had a couple of milkweed bugs and I either snipped them in half with my scissors if I was deadheading blooms and had scissors handy or I knocked them off the plants into a small bucket of water to drown.

I'm really not dreading today as much as I thought I would. It will be good for all of us to be together again---a rarity in these times when everyone is scattered across the area and so busy working (or, for some of them, busy not working.....), busy with kids, busy with grand-kids, etc. I hope it will be a day where we can laugh and share memories and remember all the many good times in the house, not a day where we get all sad and weepy. But, then, there is the inevitable fact that when we close the door and lock the house, we know it is going to go on the market and sell, so we could be leaving it for the last time. That is hard to contemplate. We'll have our four year old ray of sunshine with us---she is so excited she gets to go see her Fort Worth cousins again---she hasn't seen them since Monday and last night she said "I miss them so much". She is in an exuberant frame of mind, having thoroughly loved every single minute of pre-K this week and is just joyful and bubbling over with enthusiasm for every single thing on earth. She'll probably keep all of us in stitches.

Last night, Lucky (the cat) didn't want to come in. I decided right around dusk (it was not quite dark yet) to walk down to the garden. The cat is a garden maniac and all I have to do is open the garden gate and step into the garden and she runs down there to join me, then I can pick her up and bring her indoors against her will. I never made it to the garden because I got into a standoff with a 6' long rattlesnake in the driveway. It was so big....not just long, but big around. I didn't have a gun with me because I keep the guns locked up when the grandkids are here, and I didn't have my phone because I'd merely walked outside to get the cat. I know from experience if I leave a snake to go inside to get a gun or to get Tim, it won't be sitting there waiting for us to come back and shoot it. So, there I stood, a safe distance away, watching it watching me. Thankfully, Tim came out to check on me and I hollered for him to get a gun and come shoot the rattlesnake. It was headed into our front yard, not too far from the front porch and the steps. I don't know what it was looking for (presumably something to eat) or if the yard was its destination or if it just wanted to pass through the yard to the woodland beyond, but we don't tolerate rattlesnakes in the yard. So, Tim warned the 4 year old that she'd hear gunshots and to just sit still on the sofa and we'd be right back. As soon as he shot the snake, I went in to check on her. She was fine. Lucky still wasn't in. So, while Tim was getting a long-handled garden tool so he could scoop up the snake and get it out of the yard, I opened the front door and went out onto the porch to see if Lucky was there (she had run off when Tim shot the snake, but I was hoping she was back). Lucky wasn't there, but a black wasp was. It flew inside my shirt and stung me on the back. That hurt! I stumbled indoors with the stupid wasp still inside my shirt, and it stung me a second time before I could get it out of my shirt. Aurora watched in fascination as I was doing a crazy dance trying to get the wasp out of my shirt and then trying to kill the wasp. It was just one of those nights.....and, eventually, around 10 pm, Lucky showed up on the porch and I brought her inside. Our night could have been so much simpler if the cat had just walked in the door when I called her shortly before sunset. Life is rarely that simple though. It really hasn't been a terribly bad snake year, but it only takes a close encounter or two to keep me on edge.

Dawn

Dawn--and how does YOUR body react to wasp stings? Garry said he feels for you! And even while you were writing about it, I was thinking, "OUCH! Ouch!!" Do you swell up? Is it in a place that you can scratch? I trust you have stuff on it? What is your balm of choice in such cases?

Nancy, My body reacts to wasp stings pretty strongly, but I tried to tough it out so the four year old wouldn't become overly alarmed. As soon as I came indoors and got the wasp out of my shirt, I went into the kitchen and immediately took Benadryl for the swelling. I could 'feel' both bites pretty badly last night and then a little bit this morning, but here we are slightly more than 24 hours later and they don't bother me now. I didn't scratch. I didn't touch. I know from experience if I scratch any insect bite it just seems to puff up and get huge and itch constantly, so my only hope is to never mess with it. I sort of keep everything on hand for insect bites since we have so many critters here. I have Calydryl, the clear Benadryl gel, aloe vera (surprisingly soothing), some sort of cortisone cream, ChiggeRX, and meat tenderizer (mixed with water to make a paste, meat tenderized neutralizes chigger bites in the blink of an eye), and a triple antibiotic ointment if it is a puncture type sting or bite. I have Technu Poison Ivy cleanser in case I get into poison ivy. I have Burn Gel for burns. There are no 24-hour drug stores anywhere close, so I try to stay well-stocked with everything because no one wants to drive 30-miles one way at night to get something simple like ChiggeRX or ChiggeRid. Some form of medication will work for every bite/sting except for scorpions. Nothing eases the pain of being stung by a scorpion---it will hurt like the devil for several days and, if it is on a finger, the finger will swell so much that I cannot bend my finger or use it for several days. Tim and I think that because I react so strongly to them, if there is anything that is going to provoke an allergic reaction by me due to repeated exposure , it will be scorpions.

Tonight while out at the pool with Aurora, we heard a medical call dispatched at one of the far corners of our county for a person trapped between a tractor and a tree. Ouch! I was trying to picture how this would happen and Aurora was worried about how much pain the person was in. We decided it probably was enough pain to make someone cry. Mosquitoes weren't bothering us at all night, but horse flies were. Still no sounds of coyotes howling at all, and the deer have stopped coming in a big herd in the mornings. They come moseying through the property singly or in pairs, clearly trying to be more low key, and on and off throughout the day---not too early and not too late. Twice this week, the raccoons have come to the compost pile in the middle of the afternoon. I don't know what is causing the wildlife to change their routines, but I don't like it.

The garden looked tired and exhausted this afternoon. We only hit 98 degrees, though the heat index was much worse. Plants don't respond to the heat index, though, so they just looked unhappy because of the heat. I had watered them deeply yesterday, so I know they weren't dry.

Today, Wal-Mart in TX had potted mums in full bloom. It is way too early for them and way too hot and, since they already are in full bloom, they'll be brown and horrible looking in a week or two. I refuse to buy them in this heat and refuse to buy them in full bloom. If I buy any at all, they have to be no further along than the tight bud stage....and I don't buy until we cool down.

I got the Twilley Seed Catalog today. It is the 2019 one, and I assume, since they are a southern seed company, they're trying to sell seeds for fall. It is too hot for me to even think of buying seeds.

Today at mom's house was hard, but it was good. We got the whole house emptied out and in less time than expected. There's so many memories there..... Each of us brought home huge bins of photos, mostly unlabeled. We're each going to sort the photos we have into zip-lock bags labeled for each sibling and try to sort out everyone's photos for them. Then we'll get together and make sure each sibling gets all of their own photos. It looks like my box has a ton of my little brother's school photos in it, and a bunch of photos of old people---including some of my great-grandparents, and one of my great-aunt Flora, that I was the only one who knew the names of those people. That's kinda sad. Aurora, who turns 5 next month, found Chris' school photo from 4-year-old pre-K and is completely fascinated with it. She carried it around in her pocket all day at mom's and then put it in her jewelry box when we got home. I think she just realized that Chris once was a little 4 year old child, just like her, and he went to pre-K too. What a dazzling revelation for a young child. I brought home a few sentimental items, but not much, and much of what I brought home was for Chris and Jana, or for the girls. I did bring home two vases, a set of my mom's pearls, and an aqua McCoy mixing bowl (it is huge) that I've always liked. We let the great-granddaughters sit down with my mom's huge collection of costume jewelry (my sister and niece already had removed the really good stuff) and divide it among themselves. They sat together in the floor in the corner of her room and selected out the jewelry they wanted, with absolutely not one cross word between them and just so much delight and joy to have Granny's "jewels" to remember her by. It was the cutest thing to see.

When we were leaving, I tried to not look back at the house. It has changed so much already, with a new roof, new siding and the lack of landscaping in recent years that it already no longer looks like the home we grew up in and I really didn't want my last memory to be of the way it looked today. It isn't that it looked bad. In fact, it looked really good. It just doesn't look like our childhood home. They say you can't go home again---well, we did and you can, but it isn't the same, especially with Daddy and Mama both gone. I don't want to remember the house the way it looked today, all empty and sad and lonely. I want to remember it the way it was in the 1960s and 1970s, when we were growing up there, or in the 1980s and 1990s when it rang with the laughter of the grandchildren. I've glad we did everything we needed to do today. I expect the house will sell quickly in the hot housing market there, and we kids never will be there together in that house again. It is hard to imagine that.

It was good to come home to normality---the garden with all the flowers looking hot and tired but still dancing on the wind, the lawn that needs to be mowed, the mole tunnels that are unusual for us to have in our yard, the clucking chickens, the droning of the locusts, the feral cat who looks impossibly young to be a mother and her three feral kittens, eager to have cool water and food, as long as I didn't watch them eat or try to approach them. Tomorrow is supposed to be a real scorcher, and we'll undoubtedly spend the morning outdoors for as long as it stays cool enough and then the rest of the indoors hiding from the heat. It is almost midnight and still 85 degrees here. Enough of this ridiculous August heat already!

Dawn