I hope you get as much as you need and not too much either. I awakened to thunder, but think the rain slid north of us. We did have rain late yesterday, a whole 0.07". Our big puddles from the big rain a few days back have dried up. One thing I hate about clay is that it stays wet, wet, wet, wet, wet and then, suddenly, one day it is bone dry and as hard as a rock. On Sunday we were still wet. By yesterday we were bone dry.

That's so true about clay, Dawn. I'll think...this mud will never dry out and then you go out the next day and it's dry and cracking. Or it seems like that anyway. Weird.

It didn't rain much, but I like misty days if it's not too wet outside. A little wet makes for easy weed pulling. And not having to get crazy with sunscreen and sun hats is nice.

It's not raining here, unless you count the sweat dripping off of me. The chickens and I just watered the garden. I tried to put a shallow pan of water out for them to walk in to cool off, but nobody figured that one out. I need to be out there, but I don't know if I have it in me. If I wait till tonight, the mosquitos will carry me away. Summer in OK.

It's muggy out here, now, Amy. I want to pull my onions. Maybe I'll wait till the garden gets some shade in a couple of hours.

Last year I made shallow pans of ice water for the chickens and dropped in clover and other green stuff they like to eat. They waded in it then.

I like misty days here too, especially in June, except that misty days make tomato foliage wet and encourage diseases. I guess we have to take the bad with the good. It is humid and muggy and feels awful outside, but we have had clouds on and off and it definitely feels tolerable until the clouds move on and the sunshine comes back.

Our chickens like sprinklers set on very low settings more than they like to get into a pan of water. I don't know if all chickens are like that, but it has held true consistently for ours for almost 2 decades.

I worked outside until about 1 pm, but I didn't even get the harvesting done, and there's a lot to do. I'll probably do that after dinner in the cool hour or so before sunset.

The temperatures alone aren't all that bad. It was only 84 degrees and cloudy when I came inside, but out Heat Index at that point was 99. I was soaked with sweat. It felt so awful that when I came inside and saw that 84, I couldn't believe it was only 84 out there. Our current heat index is 101, and I'm not going back outside in that!

Here's the Max Heat Index Map for today:

Today's Maximum Heat Index

The rest of the week is supposed to be just as bad or worse. Luckily (in an odd way), it is salsa-making time so I have something to keep me busy indoors.

Good idea, Hazel, I'll have to try that. I went back out and transplanted some things into the former potato bed (and found another potato). And I planted Lady Peas. They're tiny seeds. Wonder what kind of harvest I will get. I still have 2 more beds to redo. It's going to be terribly hot this week for that.

I like to look at the Wetbulb Globe index, too.

It went from too wet for tomatoes to too hot in the space of one week. I've been trying to get my tomatoes to blossom, and its now 96 degrees, too hot for most varieties.

I've got one or two that are supposed to set blossoms in heat, we'll see. Please let this break.

Lady peas love the heat, Amy. I have about 6 or 8 varieties of southern peas and lima beans planted, all within the last 4 to 6 weeks, and most of them are in bloom now. Once the air and soil temperatures are warm, they spring up out of the ground and grow like mad. I've rarely seen heat slow them down unless it is truly excessive---like the summer of 2011.

Looking at the Wetbulb Globe Index makes me feel cooler as long as I'm sitting inside looking at it, but I still feel the same old heat when I walk out the door. I wonder why that is. Can my brain not convince my body that it feels like the WetGlobe Temperature instead of the Heat Index? I need to retrain my brain.

Sheik, Yes, it is the same here. The tomatoes are experiencing a little shock at going from cool/mild to hot/toasty so quickly. Mine are still blooming, but I don't think I've noticed any new fruit this week except on cherry tomatoes.

Those heat setting types usually set fruit for me until the highs reach the upper 90s. Sadly, the fruit obviously was not bred for flavor, but any home-grown tomato still is better than grocery store tomatoes. Hang on to that thought.

Dawn

Finally getting a nice gentle rain here

Glad it is nice and gentle and not tornadic and filled with hail. What a nice change!