perfect haying weather. Can you believe I almost got stuck trying to cut hay. I did get 50 round bales done yesterday and cut probably that much more today till the ground got soft. Still not even half way done. Course it is pretty slow when you are doing everything by yourself.

Yep. Hot enough for me. Got the cattle shipped early this morning and got the new cattle in about mid morning. My husband is cutting hay, he just couldn't stand it , yesterday he saw two of our neighbors cutting so out he goes.

My Bassett hound is much better today she needed the right meds.

I am back down with this cold, I started a low grade fever last night and I feel terrible. I guess if I am not any better tomorrow I will go see a doctor. I don't have time to feel so bad. Got the hose out this morning and ran a little water on the raised beds and whiskey barrels but I was so,week and light headed I just gave up and came in side. If I could just shake this fever I would be ok. It almost feels like flu but where would I get the flu in oklahoma in July?

I need to get well by Wednesday because it's mowing day again and Thursday and Friday I have my grandson. I need to trim and spray, I have way to much work to get caught up on to be feeling bad. Oh yea, I have my pumpkin seed I need to get planted so I hopefully will have pumpkins by Halloween!!

Everybody stay cool

Uh no. We should kick it up a notch and just do a full deja vu for 2011. At least I no longer have tiny kids.

Well, shoot, 110? No wonder this old woman can't handle it. But I need to water. :p

As much as I'm sweating outside, all I need to do is oscillate for a few minutes and the garden is watered!

Too, too hot. I'm getting too old for this heat. My GDs love it. Kenna goes outside in her black skinny jeans and fitted long sleeve shirt to play basketball - whatever happened to "wear light-colored, loose clothing"....!!!! I am old!!

Susan

I'm getting too old for this heat too, and I am very careful to come inside before it gets too hot. Right now my favorite time of the day is from 6-9 a.m. By the time everyone else in my house is waking up and starting their outdoor chores, mine are all done and I'm headed indoors to hibernate inside in the air conditioning.

I guess the heat doesn't bother the kids. I don't think it bothered me when I was a kid....or even when I was in my 30s and early 40s. It has been all downhill in the years since then.

I love the heat! We did water zumba in the pool tonight. Felt like a bathtub, but still lots of fun!

I started earlier today. I am not an early riser, but I told myself I would nap later (and I did, LOL). Got a lot done. Almost all the tomatoes have shade. Trimmed off ugly leaves. Fertilized with Tomato Tone. Planted some more bush beans. I poked okra seeds in random spots since the plants I have aren't happy. Weeded,. Watered. A lot for me!

That is a lot. I got a lot done yesterday too, and I rewarded myself by not stepping foot into the garden today. I wish I'd had a nap yesterday. Tim just started a new shift that requires he awaken at 2 a.m. and, of course, his alarm clock wakes me up long before it wakes him up, and once I'm awake I stay awake. I'm going to need a nap every afternoon.

Ron works 2nd shift, so he comes home around 11, we watch TV for an hour and I take a while to wind down after that. My daughter leaves at 7. I don't usually hear her till the door shuts, but I never sleep well after that, and usually just getting back to hard sleep when I have to get up. I often take naps, LOL. I don't have near your energy, Dawn.

Today we went to the Y for water aerobics and I worked in the garden "wet" which helped, but didn't finish my list. And still have to water.

It was too hot to work in the garden, but I did pick cucumbers twice yesterday and made 8 pints of spicy dill pickles. I will probably have to do that again later this week. I love Mrs Wages mixes for pickles because it makes it so easy. This is my first time to use the Spicy one since last time I just used a little hot chili in each jar to add the spiciness. I have a couple of Bread and Butter mixes and I will pick up 'Dill' and 'Kosher Dill' mixes so I have a variety. It looks like I am going to have a lot of cucumbers. My peppers are not producing much yet, but the plants look good. My tomatoes look terrible.

Amy, Tim's shift changes constantly and that's part of the problem. About the time I adjust to him having to get up at 2 a.m., it changes to something else....and once my body gets into a certain sleeping/waking pattern, it is hard to get it to change. Oh well, I can just take an afternoon nap to work around his crazy hours. His new shift involves working 3 long days so he only has to make the drive to DFW three days a week instead of four, so he is happy about that, and I'm happy if he is happy. I loved it when he worked 2nd shift as that fit really well into my already established-routine here around the house.

As a firefighter, Chris works 24-hours shifts, with his workday beginning/ending at 7 a.m. On workdays he leaves around 5 a.m. or possibly 4 a.m. if he is picking up groceries for the station on his way to work. He is relatively quiet and I often don't even hear him. Our son's friend who's living in our spare room just found a job here and works evening, so I have no idea when I should cook dinner on this new schedule because every single person in this house is on a different schedule/routine. I volunteered to just give up cooking, but that didn't go over well, so I guess I'll cook on a schedule that suits me and the three of them will just have to reheat dinner and eat it "whenever" if they aren't home at dinner time. I'm laughing as I type this because that's actually been the story of our life for years now. Getting even just 3 people together to eat a meal at one time can be incredibly hard, and I don't actually cook dinner nearly as often as I used to because if I am the only one home, I can be happy with a cold sandwich and some fresh fruit or something else equally simple.

Tim is having a really busy day at work, and I am making up for that by sitting lethargically on the sofa and counting how many hours have passed since his alarm woke me up. I feel like I've been awake for 46 hours already. I need a nap. It is too hot to cook a meal from scratch when there's great leftovers in the fridge. It it too hot to even walk down to the mail box and get the mail. Doing that would require walking past the garden which I bet has some hot, wilty miserable look to it right now, so I may just wait until this evening.

My garden looks hot and tired today, and that was early in the day before it even got really hot. I might have to water it tomorrow. I just cannot believe how bad this intense heat feels after all the cool, rainy days. I'm really missing them. I am completely over summer and it has only just begun to really feel like summer the last few days.

Carol, I love making pickles, but made so many last year that I get this year off. Mrs. Wage's has a new mix for Jalapeno relish and I might make some of that later in the summer. I found it at Atwoods. Our Wal-Mart doesn't yet have it on the shelves. I still might plant some pickling cukes for fall. It is so hot and I am so tired that I am having trouble getting motivated to do anything except drink iced tea. Looking around the room, the dogs are sleeping and the cat is asleep. I must have missed the "time to sleep" memo.

I wish we could fall sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow in mid-September with deliciously mild and pleasant weather!

Dawn

I'll look for the Jalapeno Relish, but since my hot peppers never seem to produce until Fall, I probably have plenty of time. They might surprise me this year with all of this heat. I will be busy next week processing fruit, but I didn't grow it. I always try to have enough frozen blueberries to last me through the winter, and I am buying some sweet cherries and peaches.

My peppers haven't produced huge loads yet, but I've been getting enough lately to at least make salsa. I noticed this week that the jalapenos and several other hot peppers do have a pretty good-sized load of peppers on them now, so my pepper production is beginning to increase. I think the peppers stayed sluggish for pretty much the whole time that heavy rain was falling and cloudy skies ruled. Now that it is so hot and sunny, they are much happier.

I do the same thing with fruit that you are doing. I buy it and can it, jelly it or freeze in while it is in season.