I've been counting the days and waiting for it to get here. I can't stand the waiting.

The front is rolling thru Kansas and Missouri as I type and heading south. We've gotten a little rain from it so far with more possible. The nice thing is the rain is actually cooling things down instead of just making it steamy and sticky. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the 60s showing on the KC 15 day forecast. That gets us almost to September so I am hoping the high heat is over for us this year.

I will turn a fan on and point it south to push the cooler air towards OK :)

Yay, Lone Jack! I'm glad to hear the front is rolling. I hope you get more rain than "a little". Please turn up that fan to Extra High so it will push the front all the way down to Texas. It has to reach Texas to help me because my part of OK sticks down into TX like a finger and I have Texas to my west, south and east. No rain here at our house since July 9th (though 95% of our county got rain, up to 3+", on Monday night, but we are in the tiny part of the county that did not) and we are in dire straits here.

I usually water deeply every 4th or 5th day, but have had to move it up to every other day this week. Even when I water long enough to get the soil moist several inches below the surface, it is bone-dry again in less than 24 hours, but I refuse to water every day. There's only so much that you a person can afford to water. Our July water bill was awful and August will be worse. And that's just the garden. Nothing else is getting watered except the part of the yard where I make splash puddles for the poultry and the soil around the foundation, which gets watered once or twice a week with soaker hoses.

We have some lovely brown bermda grass now, and many of the leaves on our large, mature trees are wilting daily in the onslaught of high temperatures with no rain. It is nothing like 2011 by any means, but there are cracks in our awful clay ground that are at least 1.5" wide and getting wider daily. Perennial four o'clocks that are in a large drift like a ground cover under an old pecan tree are drying up and going dormant. They won't die. They didn't die in 2011, but they're outside the garden fence so I don't water them and they look quite dismal.

If we don't get rain over the next few days, I'm closing the garden gate and walking away from it because I won't be able to water enough to keep it going any longer without rain. Every year I think to myself that maybe this will be the year that August is not awful, and every year I am wrong.

It arrived. Yes! Bill has an unbelievable amount of construction to do on the house. We welcomed the cool down. Heck, it's still hot, but not triple digit heat index. Little Miss and I keep a seemingly endless supply of popcicles, iced tea and cold sodas for the boys. My son stays out there with him, because I fear the worst and my husband doesn't need to be alone in the heat. This is AFTER he works in a weld shop all week.

OMG Life sucks, sometimes, but it's even worse with the breath of Hades breathing down your neck. lolz

But it could be the opposite like my best friend in Louisiana who just lost everything in the flood.

I hope everyone enjoys the cooler weather.

bon

Loving the cooler temp!!,

We enjoyed a much cooler day at the market. I look forward to a lot more of those

Bon, I'm sorry about your friend. That really sucks. The flooding was just so horrible and the recovery from flooding is always so hard.

The cooler temperatures are nice, but still don't make up for the lack of rainfall. It is what it is. At least I can stop worrying so much about the hot weather's effect on the poultry. They were so much happier yesterday in the cooler temperatures that it was ridiculous. It is good to have happy hens without having to provide water for them to splash around in, put ice in their waters and feed them cool veggies and fruits twice a day. I believe they've gotten really spoiled, and now I can enjoy not spoiling them.

I'm moving on, abandoning the garden to let it deal with the weather however it can, and will be working on DIY projects inside the house.

We've been relying on lots of watermelons, true cantaloupes and muskmelons to help us beat the heat, and I bought a big bunch of Icees in some sort of squeezable pouches back around July 4th and filled up the freezer with them. When someone in this family has stayed out in the heat too long, they come indoors and grab a frozen Icee pouch out of the freezer, hold it under running water for about a half-minute to help it thaw and then eat it. Lots of popsicles and ice cream are being consumed as well, and the extra fridge in the garage is always filled with bottled water, bottled tea and Gatorade, to ensure that anyone working outdoors in the heat can quickly grab cold drinks to keep themselves well-hydrated. Dessert this summer has leaned towards being icebox pies. We have cooked a lot less hot meals than usual in July and August, and that may change here now with the cooler temperatures. We'll see.

This year's brutal heat index numbers have done something I've never been able to do---they've broken Tim of religiously mowing the lawn weekly without fail. It finally got so miserably hot/humid that he hasn't mowed in about 3 weeks. That might be a record for him, but there's really no reason to mow because the grass isn't growing since rain isn't falling, so I've talked him out of putting his body out in this heat just to cut a few measly blades of grass that have somehow managed to get taller than the rest of the stunted grass.

September can't get here soon enough, but if we don't get rain in September, it won't be much of an improvement, garden-wise, over August either.

Dawn

Such a disappointment that all the rain fell in Louisiana. Bad for them and bad for us. But the cooler temps are nice.
We will abandon most of our garden too, just watering the perrenials and the stuff that hasn't made yet after tomorrow or the next day when the meter will get read again. I am NOT adding another $ to this month's bill. Our latest planting of corn is only a foot high but if it doesn't rain, it can just die.

Bon, my bil and family had to evacuate their home by boat in Baton Rouge. It's a cruel twist of fate that our loved ones in Louisiana have too much rain and we would love to have just a portion of what they got. I hope your friends are okay and able to bounce back from this horrible event.

Does your husband use those neck cooler thingies with the water absorbent crystals? I have a couple I've had for years and use them when I have to be out in the extreme heat. Didn't think I'd like them, but they really help me.

Carol

Dorothy, I am sure all those folks in Louisiana who are flooded out are wishing a lot of their rain had come further north instead of all of it just pouring down on them endlessly. Why oh why doesn't rain ever come in amounts that are just right? It always seems like it falls as too little or too much at one time.

I was incredibly frustrated when the weekend rain didn't pan out. I'm over it now. I did what I could to keep the garden going until then, and it didn't work out, so that's that. I'm moving on. Gonna focus on other things. I watered so heavily in the first 10 days of August that my August water bill may be as bad as July's, and that is if all I do from this point forward is water the perennials. Tim likely wouldn't complain if I chose to keep watering the garden, but he sure didn't try to talk me out of stopping the watering either. Sometimes a person just has to do what makes sense, even if their heart and soul don't want for them to stop watering the garden. I'm choosing to make the most practical choice, and it sucks.

Carol, We use those neck coolers a lot with our firefighters in bad summer fire seasons. We haven't had a bad summer fire season this year and likely won't have one, but I do like using them. We wore them practically around the clock in 2011. I am sorry to hear about your bil and his family. I cannot even imagine how hard it will be to return home and face all the cleanup and rebuilding necessary after a flood. Often, nothing can be salvaged from a flooded home, and the homes must be gutted down to the framing. I just cannot imagine how you bounce back from that. It must be very difficult, and the insurance companies are not easy to work with, either.

Dawn

65 degrees this morning. Lovely, but no rain yet. We have a chance later in the week.

We have a chance of rain too, but based on how last week played out, I am trying not to get my hopes up too high. The cooler temperatures are nice, but meaningful rain would be even nicer.

I agree. Wateriing just isnt the same as rain. I am putting most of my watering on my seeds and the older drying stuff is coming out. Some of my tomato plants and pepper plants look amazing so they get watered. Any thing that is struggling is on its own. My water bill was a lot higher for July since I had other people watering and they aren't nearly as conservative as I am. I just want to be more frugal this month. I got my last check from the school and am so excited about not going back.

Not only is irrigation water not the same as rain, it is also a whole lot more expensive. I don't have a specific dollar amount in my head that tells me when it is time to stop watering because every situation and every year is different, but the July water bill, which arrived around Aug 1 or 2, made me cringe and I resolved I'd only water enough to get the plants to the big forecasted rainfall. So, when the rain didn't come, I stopped watering. My brain knows I made the right decision, but my heart still wants for me to water and keep it all alive. Maybe rain will fall this week and make everything all better.

It must feel strange, Kim, to not be going back to school this year! I hope retirement is everything you'd hoped for.

So far I have a lot of side jobs so I will be busy. Still finishing planting. Gotta get rapini and beets in today

I had to stop. I originally thought my water bill was 4 times normal, but it was 6 times normal. I live alone, and I don't use much water. For me, it isn't just about the water, but about the sewer as well. For every gallon of water I pay for, I have to pay an equal amount in sewer charges...even though the water for the garden never touches the sewer. So, that is why I am done watering.

Ouch, TurboCat!

Carol

Mary, I totally understand, and I think that sucks, by the way!

Tim teases me and tells me that when I stop watering, I need to call the water co-op and warn them that their profits are going to drop.

Being in a small community, we usually stop by the water co-op office and drop off the check to pay our water bill every month and sometimes they do glance at the total and say something like "I bet the garden is looking great". lol I wonder what they think about the garden when the water bill pops up impossibly low in a hot month? I guess they figure out for themselves that we stopped watering the garden.

I could have kept watering, but it had become a point of diminishing returns where we were having to water so much that it would be less expensive to go buy organic produce for the rest of the year than to raise it ourselves. I'm too practical and too budget-conscious to water endlessly once it becomes apparent that I'm spending more in water than we're going to get in produce from the garden. Once the freezers and the canning pantry are full, it becomes a question of how much more do we "need"? The answer, of course, is not that much, though I much prefer to eat fresh produce instead of preserved produce. For things like melons, winter squash and peppers, they'll likely hang on for a bit longer and produce a bit more, and it isn't the end of the world if we have to buy lettuce, greens and other stuff I had planned for the fall garden. The fall tomato plants have only produced 3 ripe tomatoes so far and I doubt they'll produce any more. The plants aren't really growing----just sitting there, stalled and stunted, and probably wondering why I abandoned them.

If it were to rain 3" tomorrow (I highly doubt it will), I still don't know if I'd go ahead and sow seeds for a fall garden. It is getting late now to plant some of the things I wanted to grow, and we're planning a kitchen remodel for fall, as a DIY project, so I'd probably be smarter to spend my time working on the kitchen so the project, once it actually starts, doesn't drag on forever and forever. I don't want for it to drag on endlessly to the point that it interferes in food preserving next spring, so starting on time and finishing on time (not that we really have figured out how long it will take us) is important to me.

I can walk away from the garden and be okay with that decision. With all the drought years we've had, it isn't like this is the first time I'd had to close the garden gate, turn off the hose and walk away from it. I don't like doing it, but sometimes walking away is about all the saves by sanity, even if it doesn't save the garden.

Dawn

The last few mornings have just been a tease looking all cloudy like it's going to bless us with some rain but by mid-day my excitement for rain has diminished. I really haven't been watering the plants too much but then again, I only have two raised beds that are about 4' x 8'. This morning as I was looking around for hornworms and pruning the dried up leaves I moved over to a pepper plant that has looked so healthy and lush but producing no blooms. I honestly haven't checked that plant in a few days now so I decided to give it some attention today. I should've just stayed away :( . As I was prunning leaves from the bottom (don't ask me how I didn't realize what I was doing) I prunned the one stalk that actually had a pepper on it. I immediately shrieked. The neighbors probably were wondering what in the world and Lilo looked at me like I was some crazy woman!!! I was so disappointed for quite awhile but then I just got over it. It is what it is and things happen.

I found some plans for some smaller raised beds that are stacked that I think I am going to try for herbs. They are made out of the dog ear fencing which is cheaper. I really want a small greenhouse to start seeds in but for now I'll just keep collecting milk jugs to wintersow. If all goes as planned, I'll have about 6 new beds that are 3' x 6'. I want to put them along the N side of the yard up along the fence but not right on it. I'll have 2 rows with 3 in each row plus the two I have now. I would love to make a trellis from one bed to the other for cucumbers.

It's almost 11am and my phone says it's still only 77 degrees which is nice. But it's so humid outside and cloudy. I have been wanting to transplant some things but I am a bit hesitant. The forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and highs in the 80's this next week, but we all know how that goes. I might just take the plunge and do it. I need to add some amendments to one bed that I'll be planting onions in. Should I cover that area with some pine needles to overwinter it? I haven't planted onion sets in the winter to be honest, just in the spring for fall harvest.

Oh.....Park Seed was calling my name again. Why do I torture myself lol. They were STILL having the 20 for $20 sale. I "might" have ordered 20 more packets of seeds. My oh my. I did come up with a new storage container for my stock though. I am going to use the big plastic containers that laundry pods come in. I don't usually buy laundry soap like that but it was on sale and so now I have 3 of them. I'm going to keep one for veggies, one for flowers, and one for herbs. Now, If I can get my littlest dd to help me and make it a fun game for her that would be grand.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!!! :)

Melissa, If my garden were small, I likely would have kept watering it. Small is doable when it comes to watering throughout an entire summer. Large just isn't. Well, it might be for folks with wells, but we don't have one and likely never will. The groundwater here in our neighborhood isn't what it once was, and the last neighbors here who tried to have a well drilled spent several thousand dollars, got nothing but dry holes and frustration....and one cannot blame the guy who was drilling the well as he has lived here forever and has drilled wells longer than you and I have been alive. If there was water there, he would have found it.

I don't grow onions in autumn, but any time I plant anything, I amend the soil with compost and an organic fertilizer before planting, and mulch is always a good idea. I start with light, thin mulch earlier in the season and add more and more as the plants enlarge.

When you buy seeds, you aren't buying the seeds themselves---you're buying the dream of what they'll give you when they sprout and grow. We gardeners are like that, you know, we are big dreamers.....

Dawn