I would have been just as happy if the weather had stayed more spring-like. A lot of you are under a heat advisory for the next day or two as we encounter our hottest weather of the year at a time when dewpoints and RH values are still pretty high. So far, our county isn't under a heat advisory, but we still expect heat index values around 100-102. We're doing our work early in the day and they coming inside to cool off and to stay as cool as possible.

We're already having some medical calls for heat-related illnesses and it really hasn't been all that hot until the last couple of days.

I found your comment about having weeds this year that you've never seen before to be interesting, as I've observed the same exact thing. I keep thinking to myself "So, this is what we'd have if it rained a lot all the time". Of course, we have plenty of the usual weeds too, and they've been keeping me busy. One good thing about all the rain is that normally we have gorgeous autumn wildflowers in great abundance, in a rainy year so I'm looking forward to having a flower-filled autumn.

As of early last week we still had some purple martins in the martin houses, but with the arrival of the heat, they've now fled to the woods. I still see them out flying in the mornings and evenings, so at least they haven't started flying south yet. They always do such an awesome job of keeping the flying insects under control, although the other wild birds and bats help out a lot as well. We also have lots of barn swallows, and they come regularly and check the window screens for bugs (it is fun to watch them dart from window to window), though most of them live under bridges here and not in barns.

The cottontail rabbit population is huge, but we all know what the coyote population will do to the rabbits over the next few months, so I just enjoy seeing the bunnies for as long as they last. They're always a lot more scarce in August or September than in May, June or July.

Stockergal, I thought of you a few minutes ago with several VFDs at the NW corner of our county got paged out for a hay barn on fire. I hated to hear that call. It isn't just the loss of the hay barn (which usually is unsured) but also the loss of all the hay. When you've got hay bales (especially big round bales) burning, they are hard to extinguish, especially when all stacked up in a barn. I hope the FFs get this fire out quickly so the family doesn't lose its barn and all their hay.

To me, the first hay fire of the summer is a clear signal that summer has, indeed, arrived.

There's tons of people in our neighborhood out either mowing (yards and meadows) or haying the pastures. In some cases, the lawn grass is so tall that it is hard to tell who is mowing and who is haying. The drone of tractors, lawn tractors, lawn mowers and string trimmers is even louder than the summertime drone of locusts. The sounds of spring (torrential downpours, thunder and wind) have been replaced today by the motorized sounds of summer.

Dawn

Stockergal, it's so hot the birds were asking me for an invite to the house. I think the pepper plants ordered a keg of corona and are partying.

Dawn, mine was among them. Okay, you're too far away, but you know. It's so hot I had to forego my late-night reading so I could rise at 4:30 am and start mowing. I was wearing a portable headlight. Bill joked about buying two of them and positioning them on the front of the mower. I wanted to work on the garden bed before the heat tsunami arrived. It landed. I still have shrooms growing in places. In the shade, the ground is still muddy.

I got the donkey pasture mowed this morning so I am caught up on mowing!!!!! Yea!!!! That is until about Tuesday. I hate to hear about hay fires in the barn or in the field.

I will try to get a little weeding done tonight. Dawn, I hear ya, there is a mower, trimmer or tractor going in every direction.

Some guys are trying to cut alfalfa hay but it's just too wet. We will try tomorrow on some sandy ground and see how it goes.

My basset hound has a UTI so I spent the afternoon trying to run down a vet to get her some meds. Finally got her some so she should feel better by bedtime. Been there done that it ain't fun.

It is warm outside today. I think tomorrow will be even worse. 78 last week and 98 this week to soon and to fast for my body to adjust.

Everybody try to stay cool and hydrated.

Bon, That is too early for me. Be careful out in the dark. Did you know (no joke) that snakes will be attracted to the light from your headlamps? The neighbor who lives between us and the river can sit out on his front porch with a gun, and shine a flashlight out into the darkness. It seems to draw the copperheads towards him. He says when he turns on the flashlight, he can see the snake eyes looking at the light, and he shoots them. He does this not because he is cruel, but because he needs to keep the population down so that people and animals don't get snakebit. The part of our property that is directly adjacent to his is so snakey that I won't even walk back there except in winter. We also occasionally have had feral hogs back there, so to me.....that area is mostly off-limits anyhow. If you've ever heard a wild hog snorting at you while you're strolling through your property unarmed, you'll understand why.

As a side note, when Chris went outside very early this morning---around 6 a.m.---to work on his house for a while and to get the latest round of mowing done before it got insanely hot, he found a dead copperhead that Tim apparently ran over in the driveway when leaving for work last night. Tim got a kick out of that 'Hey, I didn't even see it and wasn't even trying to run over it". I wasn't laughing because I was wondering how close that snake was to his feet when he got into the car.

Our soil is dry near the surface, but still very wet 3 or 4" down. It makes weeding hard because if you're pulling up a deeply-rooted weed, it has a big clump of mud clinging to it. I've been weeding the drier areas only at present while waiting for the wetter areas to dry out some more.

Stockergal, Congrats! It is too bad that Tuesday rolls around so soon.

The neighbor across the road was out mowing the pasture today. I assume he's getting ready to bale native grassland hay. It did make life feel more normal to have all the mowing and haying going on. I guarantee you that tomorrow morning I'll see just as many tractors going up and down the road as cars, at least early in the day, and that's a nice thing that makes life feel more normal in this oddest of weather years.

Poor doggy. I hope the meds help. Today our dogs focused on lying still in the air conditioned house and holding down the floor so it wouldn't float away. They adopt to a summer schedule quickly---when I am out in the garden or in the yard mowing, they are out in the dog yard, and when I come in, they come in. In cooler weather they happily stay out all day, but once the heat cranks up, they love the AC.

I think our highest heat index today was only 101 down here. I'm sure it was much worse in many other places. Our dewpoint has been running lower than y'all's the last few days, but I'm not sure if that will hold true for Monday and Tuesday because it has gone up substantially today.

For us, Monday and Tuesday will be the hottest days of the year so far, and then we cool down slightly. I'm looking forward to the cooling-down part. With the mowing caught up as of this morning, I hope to weed for a couple of hours early tomorrow. I want to get out as soon as it is light enough to see the snakes, so maybe around 6 or 6:15 a.m.

Dawn

Snakes are one thing I seldom have, thank you very much. I did see A few rat snakes and mice while I was mowing the donkey pasture this morning. The rat snakes are bad enough for me they are HUGE.

My dogs do the same thing. About noon they are waiting at the door to,come in and keep that floor down. If I try to squeeze in a little more time outside I get the poor me look from both of my girls.

I am up about 6:30 but I am just sitting and enjoying the start of the day. Shortly thereafter I'm am so busy I don't know if I'm coming or going.

I always have weeding to do and I'm not sure I will ever catch up. I don't have much in the heavily mulched area, and if it is growing there it is very easy to remove, but along the fence lines, it is endless. I had a really busy week, but on Saturday I didn't feel very well and decided to take it easy for a day. I heard my neighbor across the street mowing his lawn, next time I looked out he was mowing his next door neighbor's lawn which is directly across the street from me. The mower got louder, so I looked out again to find him mowing our lawn. He was on a roll and doing the neighborhood. LOL His wife told him that she is never going to make homemade bread, so he better just keep doing nice things for me so he can continue to get hot loaves of bread. Of course, they would get the bread anyway, but in this heat, my baking job is a lot easier than his mowing job. I have more and more friends that want homemade bread......I think I could open a bakery.

I was out before the sun early this morning, and it felt nice compared to how it feels now, but it still felt too hot for so early in the day.

I'm back inside now and have no desire to go back outdoors until the sun is sinking low in the western sky. My heat tolerance has not been the same since 2011, when I got too hot while out at fires on at least 3 occasions. I didn't have heat stroke, but was likely in the early stages of heat exhaustion each time (I recognized it myself and got myself a cold drink and climbed into an air-conditioned vehicle) and it seems to have made me permanently less able to tolerate extreme heat, so I am very careful now to get indoors before the heat gets too extreme.

Rat snakes are huge here too, and if you try to pick them up and carry them out of the chicken coop, they will fight you like the devil. The ones we see are usually 5-6' long, and occasionally an extra big one will be closer to 7' long. I hate them. I'd rather run into one of them than a rattlesnake or a copperhead though.

Carol, What a lovely thing your neighbor did. I bet you could open a bakery. You're spoiling all your neighbors with your home-baked bread. Sometimes one neighbor or another (or Tim) will be out mowing alongside the roadway/bar ditch and instead of only mowing their own, they'll go on up the road and mow everyone's bar ditch or a good half-mile or so on both sides of the road. There's something about men when they get on those tractors or riding mowers, that they get into it so much that they just keep on mowing and mowing and mowing.

Oh my gosh..snake talk again....just when we were thinking about moving to the country ....again....thank you....I keep forgetting about them......think I will stay in town, lol!

I love, love, love living in the country. Truly I do. The snakes are definitely a reason for concern, but you learn to be careful and watchful and to avoid doing things that encourage them to stick around. Having said that, I feel like we have more snakes here than the average rural resident ever sees in most parts of Oklahoma because we are in a big bend in the Red River, with the Red River less than 1/4 mile from our back property line. We also have the Red River, although at a greater distance, to our south and east. Because of our proximity to the thousands of acres of river bottom/flood plains lands alongside the river,some of which are Wildlife Management Areas, we just seem to have an extraordinary amount of wildlife, and not just snakes. I might mention snakes more often because they (especially the venomous ones) give me the heebie-jeebies, but there's tons of wildlife here. We've owned this land since 1997 and have lived on it since 1999 and I haven't been bitten yet, despite the fact that I spend a huge amount of time outside. I've probably only come really close to being bitten maybe once or twice a year.

Much of the wildlife is fun to see. In the last 24 hours, on our property I've seen whitetail deer, cottontail rabbits, squirrels, a raccoon, all kinds of birds, tons of frogs and toads, lizards and turtless, and only one copperhead. I smelled a skunk last night but didn't see it. That's not too bad. Some days I don't even see a snake at all. The most I've ever seen in one day is about 8, but that was an extra-bad day. Usually 1-3 per day is the most we see. Snakes, as most of you know, are not the worst thing I've ever encountered here. I'd still rather run into a snake, even a venomous one, than a bobcat, coyote, feral hog, stray pit bull (or any other aggressive dog) or cougar any day of the week so, in that sense, it is sort of a relief when the worst thing I encounter is a snake.

I did have to change my footwear. I had to give up all open-heeled or open-toed shoes, sandals, clogs that leave your heels exposed, etc. and mostly, when outdoors on our property, wear leather, steel-toed, sturdy-soled workboots. Sometimes I wear athletic shoes, but not during the worst of snake season. I kinda miss having the chance to wear pretty shoes, but that's something I'd gladly give up for all the joys of rural living.

Sometimes I complain about the snakes and say if anything at all ever could cause me to give up rural living and move back to the city, it will be the snakes. However, I don't think I'd ever be able to live in a city again. You do get used to the wildlife, the beauty of nature, the peace and quiet and the slower pace of rural living, and I don't want to give than up. Now, if bears or wolves start popping up on our property, all bets are off.

The hardest adjustment for me has been to realize that I know it is best if I carry a gun with me at all times on our property, and to act accordingly. I don't like that, and I still won't carry a gun with me when there is a child around, but I concede that being armed is the best thing when you have frequent encounters with potentially dangerous animals. So far I've been able to back away from dangerous animals or, in the case of a rabid skunk, to outrun it and make it into the house (two separate occasions). I think I can survive any wildlife encounter here if well-armed, or for as long as I can outrun an occasional skunk.

We have friends a couple of miles closer to Marietta than we are, and their area is a lot more civilized, though still really rural, and they do not see nearly as many wild things as we do.

It's a little soon for 112°. What for August, 120° ?

Bite your tongue! It could happen, you know. We have had years where it was flooding in June, and then the rain stopped and conditions went downhill fast in July and then August was awful We don't need that sort of year again.

When it gets over 100 I can't tell the difference. It's just hot and everything goes into slow motion. I'm still hoping for a cooler summer, maybe this is just a little blimp on the thermometer.

I hope so, stockergal. This is awful.

I tolerated the heat better last year. This year is just killing me! Got in my hot car yesterday and glasses fogged over. It actually hasn't gone over 100 here. But it was 93 with a heat index of 103 earlier today. Humidity sucks.

I remember ...1973 I think...I came around the corner in my unairconditioned Rambler station wagon and the bank said 115 degrees. I said "With God as my witness, I will never have a car without air conditioning again" (Play on words from Gone With the Wind if you are not as old as I am).

I'm not much of a nag, but I nagged Bill for months to get ac in the truck. Then, we had to invest in construction. I'm going to nag him this winter about it. We're getting too old to live without.

Sitting here in the hay field it's about 9:00pm. Waiting on the dew to come in so we can bale alfalfa. It was another scorcher today I have so much weeding to do but its hot at 7:00am. I have my grandson Thursday and Friday so I guess early Saturday morning I will just do it. I put a little water on the raised beds, they were dry, and the pots. I bought about 6 half whiskey barrels this spring and they are working out great. I was at Home Depot this week and noticed they had a few left, I need to buy them for next year.

Stockergal, I used to think I couldn't tell the difference after it hits 100 degrees, but I have to say that in 2011 once we were hitting about 108-110 I could tell the difference pretty well, and on the days we were out fighting fires and the thermometer said 115 or 116, it was a whole different kind of heat----and that was away from the actual fire itself since we don't set up food and drinks too close to the active fire line. If we never hit a temperature of 115 degrees here ever again, that's okay with me.

Amy, For me it was the summer of 1980, which was the hottest summer ever in Ft. Worth until 2011 rolled around. I had a little AMC hornet with no AC and I don't know how I survived the summer driving to work in it at 1 pm every afternoon. I had to wear street clothes while driving to work and then change into my work clothes after I got to work, or I would have been too hot and sweaty and my work clothes likely would have been dripping wet. I haven't had a vehicle with no AC since then.

Stockergal, I love containers. At least with them your plants have a chance of thriving in the heat as long as you water regularly. I have a row of them along my garden fence line on the east side of the garden and another row of them along the eastern fence line of the dog yard. It helps shade the dog yard in the mornings because I grow a lot of tall plants in them.

I agree it is too hot to weed at 7 am, which means it is too hot right now to weed period. This is how I lose control of the garden in July or August, but eventually I reclaim it once the temperatures start dropping a little.

Dawn

Hello all. I'm new to the forum as of today, though I've been reading along for a couple days now.

So far today has been cooler than many this summer. I'm up in the panhandle, and it's only 75° out as of 10:15 (though my phone tells me the real feel is 84°). It's been around 100° (or higher) by early afternoon for over a week now, despite the abundance of night storms this summer.

I can honestly say though, even when it's over 100° here, it never feels that hot because of the lack of humidity compared to where I grew up. I'm originally from Virginia, right near DC (which if you didn't know was essentially a swamp they filled in before building), so I'm used to it feeling like 100° out when the actual temperature is only 75° and stepping out the door to almost instantly feel moist. I've only been in Oklahoma since 2007, so maybe my body will eventually forget what it was like where I grew up lol.

I currently live in an apartment, so I only have containers for planting. Everything is still inside right now, and I got a really late start (nothing planted until the end of May), but I'll be slowly transitioning my tomato and pepper plants outside, as well as my peas (all 3 of which are smaller varieties that I'm hopping won't get too big for my containers). And I'll be planting a fall crop of peas, as well as the beets, lettuce, and onion that are on their way in the mail. I've got garlic and saffron crocus on preorder for September shipment.

Hiya, bluerose! Welcome to this little corner of the world. I'm glad the panhandle got some rain.

Welcome bluerosebud!

The weather down here in southern OK was slightly more pleasant today than the previous few days, but not by much. We'll take whatever improvement we can get. Even if we only feel a couple of degrees cooler than previously, that's still improvement.

I don't know. If your body hasn't forgotten that swampy DC air, it might never forget.

I do love the drier air of drought summers, though I'm not so crazy about the drier soil.

Keep us posted on how your plants do this summer/fall. You're growing in a really challenging location. Keep an eye on posts by Jay. He is gardening in KS just across the KS-OK border from the OK panhandle. He's in Morton County KS and is very experienced at dealing with your area's harsh summertime temperatures, pests and strong winds.

Dawn

Glad to see another newbie, bluerosebud! I just posted for my first time last week! :)

Thanks for the welcome!

chickencoupe, the rain was nice. As I just said in the thread about the drought monitor, it's not so nice today. Thunderstorm warning (warning not needed, since it came over an hour after the thunderstorm started) and flooding advisory, with possibly quarter size hail and 60mph wind gusts. Apparently there is already minor flooding in Guymon.

Dawn, I suspect your right about my body but bothering to adjust lol. But if it means I don't feel the best as badly, it's fine with me if the body never adjusts. :)

The dry air is nice, but I've actually found that the lack of moisture makes the inside of my nose dry out. I often wake up with a stuffy nose, just to have specks of blood when I blow it. When that happens I have to get out Vaseline and/or Vicks to put on the end of my nose. I hate that feeling, and more often than not I get it all over me by morning, or get it in my hair (which makes it knot), or dog and cat fur is stuck to it.

I will definitely keep you guys posted. The heat already killed my early planting of a pea plant, but I'll be planting it again for the hopefully cooler fall.

Thanks for the tip about Jay. What username does he go by, so I can keep an eye out? It sounds like he'd be great to look to for my area.

Kate, it's nice to know I'm not the only newbie lol. Welcome and good luck to us both! :)

Jay posts as elkwc (6b) and he know everything there is to know about gardening in your area. He is in Morton County KS and his sister lives in Guymon, OK.

Thanks Dawn. I'll keep an eye out.