Dawn, that's the epitome of southern summer, a cool day is simply less hot. Though cloud cover helps a lot.

Dawn, though we occasionally turn it off, most of the time the air conditioner is on, just not quite as much as you might think. We try to keep it off as much as possible. Being from Pennsylvania, my dad would probably flop over like a fish if he had to sit in the house all day without it LOL.

96 is the forecasted high here today. Tomorrow 99. Then it drops to 90 over the weekend, and starting Monday or Tuesday, we hit the upper 80's and slowly cool down to low 80's as a forecasted high next weekend with 60's at night. There is RAIN in our forecast. Is the El Niño kicking in or something?!

My tomatoes just set a ton of fruit with this rain the last couple days. I'm going to keep them based off of this forecast. Maybe they'll make a comeback. If anything it'll be a good learning experience.

Humidity is less oppressive today. We don't do much for our chickens in hot weather, but they access to a cool forest behind their coop with plenty of shade. Down in the ravine behind our house it's considerably cooler as you get to the creek. The chickens just retreat to the forest for the day when it's this hot. They come back to the coop for water occasionally, but there's plenty of food (bugs) in the leaf litter, and with the recent rain there are pools of water in it as well. They pant a bit and look stressed, but they are normally fine at the end of the day. I do notice that egg production can go down in heat waves. Funnily enough, I notice that our rooster heads back to the coop with all the hens that go back to get water, every time. They go in groups.

We have hawks all over and have a lost numerous chickens over the years to them, so I wonder if he's being protective? Actually, he's saved their lives many times. The hens themselves aren't too watchful of predators, but he's constantly up with them looking for predators in the sky, shadows, watching around them, etc. If he sees anything at all, he starts crowing and squawking, and everybody runs under the bush where the hawks can't get them. If it's a ground predator he either attacks it or gets them all to the coop. Amazing isn't it?

Oddly enough whenever it is a flying predator, he gets all the hens to the bushes, and then runs out crowing and squawking in the open. My dad says it's him distracting the predators to keep them away from his hens. Possibly, or he's just an idiot LOL. He's a good rooster. He's certainly not aggressive with us, and has only come after me once before. I just gently let him know who's boss and he hasn't touched me since. We were a little rough with him as a chick to establish that WE were the boss, not him. Seems to work.

I sure got distracted.

Just lost my post. Grrrr.

Lost power last night around 8 pm. Puttered on the patio for a while, sat in a patio chair and wished for breeze. I couldn't leave because there is a pole in the chicken run and I needed to show the guy how to get into our red neck gate. When the chair got hard I went inside and read a book by flashlight. Power restored at 10:20.

Wasn't bad out yesterday morning. We went to a 10:00 water class and there was a shower that cooled the air while we were there. I potted up some desperately neglected plants and put a fence around one of the beds the dog insists on digging in. Another bed had 3 Stewarts Zeebest okra coming up. She stepped on 2. I'm out of seeds for that. Went to SESE to look at getting more. WTH? They have so many varieties. There are 4 in my cart right now. I can't resist. Looking at ordering garlic at the same time. Also thinking about potato onions.

Y'all, just skip the BLACK EYED peas, ANY other southern pea tastes better. AND grows great in OK heat. I have eaten them small like green beans and bought some this year especially for that trait. Don't know what to tell you about okra and sweet potatoes Jacob. I like sweets cubed, spritzed with olive oil and savory seasonings and roasted, maybe you would like that better. DH cooked some the other day, but NOT long enough. Oh, well. Okra is very nutritious. Little ones can be eaten raw. Standard is breaded and fried. I also roast okra, same as my sweets. You can dehydrate it into chips. I DON'T like stewed okra. I'm not big into pickles.

Rebecca, sorry about the tomatoes. Want to borrow a Sasquatch dog?

I used the pimentos I grew last year like a red bell, H/J. They are sweet and tasty (or they were last year) and productive (last year). I don't care for green bell pepper. I have no idea if you could use them green. They are small, so more work than a bell, but if you're not canning with them that shouldn't be a big deal. Last year was an exceptional pepper year. Who knows, this year I might not like them. But I bought the Red Cheese (BC) last year based on a review from Bartlesville about how great they were. They are good raw in salad or stir fried.

I just checked the thermometer. 142?! Ron moved the sensor yesterday. Laying on the potting bench in full sun. Tells you about working in full son, huh? According to the Mesonet it is 90, heat index 99.

I was chuckling about bringing the chickens inside Dawn. Ron would kill me. What will you do if it is like this all through August? My plan is to put ice in their water, feed them frozen veggies and set up a mister. I know the humidity is high, but this is what I have. I WILL force the broody one out of the coop and make sure she has no eggs to sit on. I will run water so it wets the area under the wood racks where there is no grass and they like to hide. I fear a ridiculous water bill coming on.

The new planter is about 2 feet long and (I'm not good at estimating) 1 to 1 1/2 feed wide. It's angled, maybe a foot deep in the middle of the bottom. I'm thinking leaf lettuce. Do you think it's too hot to try? I could put some purslane in it till it cools?

Going to be inside work for the next few days.

It needs to cool down so you guys can get back indoors. That's the only hope I have of ever catching up on these posts because when you're indoors that's what you're doing... posting on houzz.

Another one of my drive-by questions - anyone grown Solar Fire tomatoes? Supposed to be a hotter tolerating variety. Burpee even says on their website they don't make the plants available until later in the tom growing season when heat becomes an issue, but they're in a cooler zone so I wonder how much that really applies here.

I see our heat index is identical to Marietta OK's today. 104. And I saw all those 100 degrees forecast for down there. GDW was out early and did some weed eating. He wisely quit at 9:30. Me, I haven't accomplished anything. Just drinking lots of water. The lawn needs to be mowed. Not happening for at least a couple more days. Fans are blowing full force, so it's bearable out here, if not pleasant.

Kitten took off like a banshee at an earlier point today to disappear in the Bermuda triangle under the deck. If he shows back up, I may keep him indoors for a few days, if not for us, for his real owner. Pumpkin could just as easily have been named Lucky, too, Dawn! Amazing he was alive and amazing that you found him--HOW did you find him?

Seriously contemplating a bed full of nothing but echinacea. Not the biggest bed, but one of them.

105 in Norman with a heat index of 110. Who has us beat? Please someone. Haha.

My chickens are so dumb sometimes. They are afraid of the tubs of shallow ice water put out for them. Won’t even pick out the cucumber and strawberry bits. Other than Peggy. I guess she will get it all.

100 in Wagoner, heat index of 111 according to weather.com at 4:22. Excessive heat warning. I see heat advisory warning for Norman. I'm gonna guess those warnings are state-wide. Yep.

https://www.mesonet.org/index.php/weather/map/oklahoma_heat_advisories/advisories

Got kitten inside; that's where he'll stay for a few days.

93 degrees here with a heat index of 100 something. Heat advisory.

okay. I'm going to read everything that I missed (and I'll probably still miss posts).

This summer, we mostly keep the AC at 75. Tom will make it cooler, but I turn it back up. I hate high electricity bills. And it's not good for the thing to run 24/7. At night, once he falls asleep, I sneak out of bed and turn it to 76. I like to be cool too...I just want to give it a break. Today, it's getting no break. It's set at 75 and it's 77 in the house. Dinner will be simple. I'm not heating up the house further.

Nancy, as I'm waiting for it to "cool off" a bit, I'm going to research pepper recipes and such.

I'm craving okra now. lol

Rebecca, so sorry about your tomatoes!

Shoot. I hit submit and didn't finish..and then I made a new post and lost it. Ugh. I blame the heat.

Jacob, I love that your rooster is doing his job (then I rambled on about my two chicks and wondering if boys or girls)

Amy, I said some stuff about pimentos, but can't remember what I said. Maybe that mine are turning red now.

I don't remember the rest.

Its 104 here, dropped from 105 a few minutes ago. I watered some of the plants this morning, I need to water more after sundown, or maybe in the morning when the heat is not so bad.

Some of you probably had a higher heat index that I did today (it hit 111) but I doubt any of you had a higher max temperature (110). As the hours dragged by, our dewpoint and relative humidity fell really low, which was nice because by late afternoon our heat index was only a degree or two hotter than our temperature.

Larry, I'm going to water the garden early tomorrow. It still is 100 degrees here now and almost dark. I will try to water in the morning when it is only 80 degrees or so.

Jacob, I bet that is pretty hot for y'all? Our heat advisory is in effect through the evening of the 22nd, but they overrode it for a few hours today to replace it with an Excessive Heat Warning.

Many new heat records for this date were set here today. Our official high of 110 beat the old record from 2006 by several degrees. Tomorrow is expected to be worse.

Nancy, I let the cats out at 7 a.m. for a couple of hours. I don't have much trouble getting them to come back in around 9 or so. The big challenge for the next few days is to open the sunroom door and let the cats go through the mudroom and outdoors without letting the chickens go out with them. I'm sure I'll find a way. This morning was easy because the chickens were nervous about being in a strange place and stayed at the north end of the room. By afternoon, they were at the south end, near the exterior door, wanting to go out. If I have too much trouble with them, then I just won't let the cats out any more until the chickens have returned to their coop, which might be Monday night or Tuesday, depending on what the weather does.

Megan, Solar Fire is just your typical red hybrid, nothing special, and it only seems to set fruit at slightly higher temperatures than standard tomatoes---maybe at temps 5 degrees higher at best. I hated them. Tough skin, kind of mealy....they were fed to the chickens.

Amy, I agree that any other southern pea tastes better than black-eyed peas. I haven't grown them but once or twice, and once I found better types of southern peas, the blackeyes were gone forever from our grow list.

If it is like this through all of August, I don't know what we'll do with the chickens. I don't especially like having them in the mudroom and cannot imagine 5 or 6 more weeks of it, but I surely do not want them outdoors on days when we are hitting or exceeding 110 degrees. Hopefully it won't become a perpetual thing. If I have to keep them in the mudroom for the rest of July and all of August, I guess we'll put up a temporary wall of something---maybe chicken wire---to keep them confined in the north half of the room so we, the cats and the dogs can come and go through the doors at the south end. Normally I'm pretty comfortable with them just having a fan running at night, but we are staying in the 90s until almost midnight, and that's just too many hours for them to stay so hot without a break. It has been years (maybe 2012?) since we really had to worry about them and the heat like this.

Usually our worse summer heat hits about the first week or two in August and then it is over. Having those sort of temps hit in mid-July is worrisome. The big cool-down that they're talking about arriving next week? All is does is take us down to temperatures that are somewhat cooler but still above average. Really? They can't even let us have a below-average day or two? I am so over this heat.

I wouldn't try lettuce yet. It would melt away in the heat if you even could get it to germinate. You could start it indoors if you have lights or a southern window that gets lots of sunlight.

dbarron, That's part of our problem. Very little cloud cover. Very little rain. So pretty much no relief from anything. Our relative humidity today bottomed out at 18%, I think, and that is pretty low. We don't even dream of having rain at a time like this....we get deliriously happy if we have one big cloud pop up and come between us and the sun for a little while. I wish I could put shade cloth over my whole garden (never going to happen) and the whole house (never, ever, ever going to happen, lol).

Jacob, I gladly would trade forecasts with you. Our forecast high for tomorrow is 109 but I expect we'll exceed it. Today our forecast high was 107 and we went up to 110. At our son's house 1 county north of us, they hit 111 officially, but his thermometer underneath the carport showed 113.

Our chicken flock is down to almost nothing (from 80 a couple of years ago) because they love to go down into the woods....and run into bobcats and coyotes and then before you know it, you're losing 1 or 2 chickens a week). We lost two in the last week. After the predators get the rest of ours, we may be done with chickens. The predators seem worse every year and our woods are so filled with venomous snakes that they are a no man's land in summer, so we cannot even go in there to find and shoot the bobcats and coyotes.

Our very first summer living here, in 1999, we hit 110 degrees in early August and thought we were dying. Where I grew up 80 miles south of here in Fort Worth, a super hot day maybe hit 105, and they weren't even that common---like we didn't have them every year, and an unimaginably hot day was maybe 108 and we might have one of those every 8 or 10 years. Since then our summer weather fluctuates all over the place and some years are worse than others. This one is worse than most. I knew we'd pay for the cooler weather we had in 2015 and 2016 and for part of 2017, and we are paying for it now.

We went out for dinner tonight because I declared it too hot to cook. We're going out tomorrow night---I don't care if it is only for fast food---I am not going to heat up the kitchen---and Tim doesn't care what we eat as long as we eat. We may not cook all weekend. It is just painfully hot.

Tim said when he left for work this morning his car thermometer showed 86 degrees. I think it might be worse tomorrow morning.

I'm counting the days until fall.

Oh, I did have some fun in the garden this morning too. I snipped a bunch of leaf-footed bugs in half with my scissors. Usually, they see me coming and fly away. This time, I sprayed them with a mixture of soap and orange oil, which coats this heavily enough that they cannot fly away (I don't think it kills them though) and then, since they couldn't fly away, I snipped them in half with my scissors. Then I did the same with two squash bugs I found on the watermelon plants, and with stink bugs I found on some of the zinnias. The I snipped some grasshoppers in half when I found them on plants while deadheading flowers. So, it was a murderously good time in the garden this morning.

I only plan to be out there from around 7 am to 9 am tomorrow. That should give me time to do all the things that need to be done, which isn't the same as doing all the things I would like to do.

I cannot even look at the garden at mid-afternoon because it looks so pitiful, Most of the plants usually bounce back by the next morning.

Our temperature now has dropped to 98 just a few minutes before 9 p.m. That's not much improvement but it is better than nothing.

Dawn

Hi all

I am still alive and kinda hot. It hit 108 today so I thought it was a good day to run errands with no ac. I ran a flush on my radiator and hope that keeps it from overheating when the ac is on.

Garden is okay. Some of my stuff had been hit and all the new growth is miniature. Thankfully not my edibles. My hyacinth bean has a pod about 1/4", the leaves are even smaller. My plant I used to call hens and chicks until I was corrected because that's not the real name had a whole mess of mini growth. It looks weird. I keep watering and giving them tea going they will pull thru. I included a pic of my all time favorite. If I only ever grow 2 flowers it will be this and borage. So cheery.

I have been pretty sick for a long time but did not realize how bad it was until I got my labs back. It is all fixable but my thyroid was dangerously low. I am taking 1 and a1/2 x so hopefully next lab will be better. The Dr at the clinic does not believe in self medicating or self diagnosing so we got along really well lol.

I honestly do not remember last time I posted or what. I should have researched before I started rambling.

I will be moving towards Denton as soon as I can. Probably September. I have been praying and this is what I need to do. Currently I have no where to live but hope that works itself or soon.

It had been very difficult here watching them harvesting tons of beautiful produce. I am working the market on Saturdays and a few weeks back i came around the corner and THEY were set up in my old spot. The air left my lungs. Talking to my vendor buddies they were disgusted that they did that. It was hard to take. And they have no clue. She thinks we should be best buddies.

I have not found a job but I have lots of small stuff to do. Tues am I pick and then take to sale on evening. Friday am I pick and give to farmer and tomorrow night I am building fence. Plus my Saturday gig it keeps me busy.

I am sad this heat is being so brutal to y'alls gardens. Hopefully next year will be better.

Kim, so good to hear from you. I'm sorry you're sick. This is probably a dumb question...and you've probably already told us, but who do you work for on Saturdays? It's not the same farm, right? And the market is the one you did last year? Or is the one you started doing this year with that farm?

Pretty flowers

We walked the dogs during twilight. It's 95--heat index of 103. We are sweaty.

Something I've noticed. My laundry actually smells during the summer since living out here. Normally I do not sweat and in the winter I rewear clothes before washing--no smell. Not here. Not now. Not in the summer. TMI

Kim, It is good to see you posting. I'd been wondering where you'd been. I'm sorry you've been sick.

I love moss rose too and it usually reseeds itself in my garden so then I can dig up the new ones each Spring and put them where I want them.

So your garden was hit by herbicide drift? At least your edibles weren't hit, and perhaps your plants will outgrow the damage.

I'm glad you went to the doctor and found out what was making you sick so that now, hopefully, with the right medication y'all can correct it.

Those people are so clueless. I couldn't go to the market and watch them knowing they are profiting off my labor after treating me that way. You're a better person than I if you can tolerate that without telling them off every time you see them. I'm glad you're having enough small jobs to keep you busy, but I just hate the way things all worked out this year.

Denton will be a good move and a fresh start and all that, so I'm glad that moving there is part of your plan. I know it will be nice to be closer to some of your family members even though it means you'll be further away from your son and grandson.

Jennifer, Being sweaty is part of country living. I think it is because we spend an inordinate amount of time outside with all the plants and animals.

Our dogs are funny. They are so very used to being indoors in the AC that now that it is hot, they don't want to go out at all. It is like pulling teeth to get any of them to walk out the door. Usually, they'll stay out a couple of hours in the morning---roughly the same amount of time I'm in the garden, but now they run out, do their doggie business and are back at the door barking to come in 5 minutes after they went out. Forget walking or playing, they just want to chill out and watch the squirrels and birds through the windows. Jersey loves to lay out in the sun (she's naturally long, lanky and thin, so probably thinks Tim keeps the house too cold), sometimes for hours, even when it is 100 degrees. She wanted to go out yesterday afternoon as usual to lay in the sun. She curled up in the shade and lasted about 10 minutes and that was enough for her. I am glad she has the sense to know when it is too hot and to tell me she wants to come back in.

I'm about to venture out into the garden. I have 5 more bags of mulch destined for one of the pathways beside the now-empty squash bed. I couldn't mulch those paths when the squash plants were there because the plants were hanging over into the pathways, so now is my chance to add mulch before planting the tomatoes in the bed for fall. After I do that, I'll hand water the containers and do whatever deadheading I can before it gets too hot. These all are just simple maintenance tasks, and I could walk away from the garden and ignore them if the weather gets too hot to be out there at all. I just hate to let the garden get away from me because of the heat and the snakes, so have been trying hard to stay on top of everything. Those blasted morning glories and bindweed sprout every time I water and I have to pull them and get them out of there. They'd take over the whole garden if I let them.

The garden is full of butterflies every day. It seems like the hotter it gets, the more butterflies we have. There's many kinds, but my favorites are the swallowtails and monarchs.

The best-looking or at least the happiest-looking plant in the garden right now is the Pride of Barbados. Because it is a zone 8 plant, it is in a pot and will have to go indoors to the sunroom or into the greenhouse for winter, but I don't mind that. Its cheery blooms are worth the trouble it takes to overwinter it.

Have a great day everyone.

Dawn

I miss posting but my thinking is so out of whack I dont make sense to myself. The drift is in the farm. Dicamba is the drug of choice now and it hovers for days and drifts on the wind, especially in the heat. It can hover and drift for days. So glad I saw the potential for this and planted most of my food on the east side, field of cotton is west within spitting distance

This is all I've gotten done in the past several days. Picking tomatoes and peppers and entertaining cats.

We're taking "tiny" to vet this afternoon. She/he--IT---is a character in spades! We have tried out many names, including Amos, HJ. We just keep calling it Tiny, as it is so tiny! But spunky, very funny, loving, and not afraid of Titan one little bit. Titan may finally have a real playmate. It's about 6-7" long when standing up, maybe 5" tall. TINY. Can go like a bat out of hell, and does. The little stubby tail tends to mostly stick straight up, which is cuter than cute. We finally just turned it loose in the house, as it was so comfortable and inquisitive about everything. We've heard nothing from Lost and Found pets. We need another cat like we need holes in the head. But little one has personality-plus and we laugh at everything it does. But it will be confined to the inside of the house for now. I am not going to spend time worrying about whether it's going to wander off. And it seems to love being inside. So win win.

I'm telling the tomatoes, DIE, tomatoes. Really. You can DIE now. Thank you for your service. Peppers are just getting going really good.

The yard's a disaster, the garden is too. The corn was an experiment; we got a few ears, but they weren't as sweet as we'd hoped, and won't be re-trying corn. Takes up too much space.

Kim, it WAS good to hear from you. I so hope you can get your health on the right track. Worry about you.

Between the fox and the kitten now, I have spent entirely too much time on critters since the first of July. I'm thrilled Wildheart has been good about letting us now how little Ozzie the fox is doing.

Now I'm just throwing tomatoes in the freezer as they ripen, and will deal with them one of these days. Maybe one more batch of salsa, the rest just canned whole or in sauce. It has been the loveliest year for them, and gives me a good idea for what I want next year. Mainly, ONE cherry tomato plant; more Cherokee Carbons and Carbons. George's Family Heirlooms are the interesting ones of the bunch. The rest are really wanting to quit; the Baker's are just really beginning to get going. And very healthy. I picked the first couple just today. But there are several more waiting. Not impressed with Mortgage Lifters, New Girls, but Big Beef was surprisingly juicy and tasty. A real nice slicer. Think I'll try Black Krim next year since so many of you like it. Heidis have been spectacular.

I'll let the horseradish go this year but it's very happy out in the raised beds, near the tansy and comfrey. Although I'm terribly disappointed in many, if not most of the flowers, they will make GREAT green additions to the composti, and it has been great giving so many a trial, to see which will work well.

The lantana bush, however, is now about 5"feet in diameter and at least 4 feet tall. It really needs to be relocated if it's going to live through winters, as it did this past one. Fails are 2 of the 3 brugs, which have gotten decimated by grasshoppers and Japanese beetles and haven't made a "Y" fork. Same with the datura. The ammi, I did not realize, mimic dills; they flowered beautifully and are delightful, but then died back. That's okay. So thankful for your verbena bonariensis recommendation, Dawn. I have five or so healthy clumps. Not impressed with the hardy hibiscus, really. Like flowers that last more than a day. At least it keeps getting new blooms.

It's too hot to do a lot out in the beds right now, so the weeds are getting the upper hand in a few of the beds. The only thing that makes it better is knowing when I DO get out there, the weeds will come out easy because of all the mulch.

I laugh at you, Dawn and HJ, and others, who are taking such good care of your walkways, and I understand why. Here, there are no walkways to worry about. The ones out in the raised veggie beds are mostly gravel, the weeds can be taken care of easily by a half hour of weed "eating." I moan at the idea of having to use my precious wood chips on walkways and will just keep adding them to beds this fall. I'm glad not to have walkways to worry about.

Laughed at your comment about black-chinned hummingbirds, Amy, and in my defense, remember I said my eyes couldn't see fast enough. I'll try better and get back to you on that. There are about a dozen here currently.

Our yard is also overrun with pretty butterflies. Mostly Swallowtails. They should be very happy; there was a lot of fennel for the cats to feast on.

I enjoyed your rooster story, Jacob. It reminded me of the chickens on the ranch so many years ago. We had two; both were very protective and got along with each other, too. One was great; they other one very mean to the little kids. It's funny I can remember them so well all those years ago. We had about 30 chickens back then. I love fresh eggs so much. We also had a milk cow then, and I loved dealing with all the milk, cream, and butter. We gave a lot of milk away to friends who wanted fresh milk.

What is the altitude where you live, Jacob. I feel like you're mostly straight easy of us, but you're so much cooler. Altitude here is about 600 feet.

And, Megan, sounds like you're being able to grow some stuff? I hope so. SO bummed for Rebecca and Sharon and the blankety blank squirrels!

HJ, I was SO much more often in the summer than in winter. A PITA! But oh so necessary!

Okay. . . GDW and I have a lot of stuff to do today, including the trip to town.

Nancy, it's about 1500 ft. here. It averages above 2000 ft. in the Ozark National Forest, and close to 2800 feet in places. That's where it's really cooler.

In truth, I think it was probably 96 at the house. We went to the lake yesterday and on the road the car thermometer read 93, then 90 once at the lake. Higher elevation and cooler lake effect I guess.

Of course, our elevation is nothing to 14k in Rockies. More comparable to Appalachians. Look up Appalachian Mountain climate compared to surrounding low-lying areas. Amazing.

That explains it. I lived near Denver (5280 feet) for a few years long ago; and went to college at the U of Wyoming in Laramie and lived there for a few years, 7100 feet. My hometown of Buffalo WY was 4600-4700 feet. Minneapolis, oddly, is only 830 feet. So this is a new low for me. LOL Having spent most of my earlier years in CO and WY, I was astonished when I moved to Mpls and it took a fraction of the time to boil eggs and potatoes! :)

Nancy, I'm not sure you can call all my neglect "growing" but I a few of my tomato plants are hanging on and I have several peppers that are doing well. They're overloaded with peppers that need to be picked and pickled despite my mostly ignoring the gardens as I've been super busy the last couple weeks. If it weren't for my driplines, I wouldn't have anything growing but maybe some succulents! That's how much I've been neglecting things. On the flipside, my mom is over and capitalizing on the situation because she is enjoying snagging the ripe sungolds as a snack.

Dawn, thank you for the feedback on the solar fire tomato. I don't have chickens so it doesn't make sense to grow chicken food. In other words, I'll skip them. I'm thinking that I'll try all the same varieties next year as I have going this year. It was my first time with all but my Cherokee Purple and I don't think this year is a good year to use to decide something doesn't work for me. All the issues I'm having are performance. Of the fruit I've gotten, I've been satisfied.

Nancy, If you want to stick with a "mythology" type of name like Titan...how about Rhea for a girl and Apollo for a boy. They are both "Titans" (If I remember correctly). If you want to keep it simple, Tiny is a perfectly cute name too...and funny if s/he grows up to be a huge cat. Or choose another cartoon cat--Garfield?

My garden is/was one big tilled area that has different types of beds in it. AND where some of the empty/pathways are NOW, they could possibly be beds in a couple of years. Letting the wood chips break down on the spots can only be good, right? In Norman, you can get all the free wood chips you want. OR there's that chipdrop website where they'll drop them at your house for free. OR, even better, Asplundh was cutting trees in my neighborhood and just plunked a entire batch next to my garden. I'm mostly trying to get this thing build to I'll just have maintenance in the future. I have other projects to do, you know? Like beekeeping. Wait. Did I just say that? lol

Nancy, I'm sorta doing the same thing with tomatoes and other plants...trying things and making decisions for future gardens. Although, I can see me experimenting a bit more once Ethan is out of school and the garden is built.

I need to pull up the eggplants. They were severely neglected by me this year, thought they were on the soaker hose, but they weren't..and never really recovered from being so dry. They are sad and it makes me sad. Honestly, I'm just going to pull them, weed that bed, and cover with several inches of leaves. It will be ready for next spring.

Mom is taking Ethan shopping for mission trip clothes today. Then we'll go get a few more items tonight and eat out. Even fixing E's quesadillas last night, heated up the kitchen.

Misters are on the hens. Fans too. Poor Stormy and Dolly are without either but their pen is in a better location for breezes (hope we have some) and shade. Even the little chick got too hot last night. I readjusted the fan so it blew right on the spot where Rosa put them.

Dogs were out for an hour this morning. They are in their crates now with a fan. Our utility room gets hot. We should have put in another vent, I think.

Back to work now.

We're in for the rest of the day now. Titan's in, tiny dude is in; it hasn't gotten hot enough out there for Tom and Jerry, though they come in occasionally to cool off, then back out. Apparently, they have important jobs out there. Temp's supposed to max out about 5 with 104-ish and 112-ish for index.

Meanwhile, there is not one single tomato, pepper, clove or garlic or onion on my counters now. Sungolds roasted up, and everything else bagged up and in the freezer. I looked at the jalapenos and thought, "Who are you kidding. You have a dozen or so bags in the freezer." So they are now in the compost pile. We don't eat jelly here, so not even going to go there.

I expect its name WILL be Tiny, HJ. We went through a few dozen names yesterday. GDW came up with Stubby. Funny, but I said that would be too mean. So he altered it to "Tiny," adding that it could be our little joke, that it's in reference to its tail as well as to how tiny it is now. Dear friends of mine, at great cost to their hearts, began fostering children 3 years ago. Because they protect their identities, they referred to their littlest guy (less than a year old when they got him), as Tiniest Dude. I've been thinking Tiniest Dude with reference to THIS little one. So it will most likely be Tiny.

I mostly just came here to whine. At 12:45 pm our high temperature for the day already has hit 105 and our heat index is 108. This sure makes me wonder what it will feel like by 4, 5 or 6 p.m. I hope the rapid escalation of temperatures that's been going on the last couple of hours slows down. It should. Now that we've gotten to the middle of the day, the relative humidity and dewpoint should start dropping, and that means our heat index won't keep escalating too much above our temperature. By late in the afternoon yesterday, there was just a 1-degree difference between the two, which is one advantage of being so dry.

Kim, Dicamba is the big thing at the moment I guess. I'm so glad I don't live in a farming area. It used to be a farming area here, but now it is mostly ranching. Out at the west end of the county they still grow a lot of wheat, and everyone grows hay, but it isn't the same as field crops with a heavy reliance on herbicides.

Just know that we miss you when you aren't commenting here!

Nancy, We have a cat named Tiny Baby because he was a tiny baby when he showed up here, which I think was in 2010. I just call him Tiny now because he really isn't a baby any more---he's sort of a big cat. Not fat. Just muscular.

Your Tiny is cute and precious and will add so much joy to your lives. I bet Titan will love having a little buddy.....and, somehow, Titan and Tiny sounds just right.....like an animated children's adventure movie about the big superhero, Titan and his little sidekick, Tiny.

Big Beef is just about the best-flavored hybrid tomato I've ever grown. Generally I don't like hybrids, but I do like this one.

If you're tired of harvesting tomatoes (or any thing else) just pull the plants and compost them. That's what I do. The garden is for my convenience and so are the tomato plants----so I get to be the queen and say 'off with their heads' for whatever reason whenever I want....whether it is that we've eaten and preserved enough, I don't want to water them any more in this ridiculous summer heat, the stink bugs/leaf-footed bugs are decimating them or they're getting diseased or whatever. No one says every plant that we plant has to be allowed to grow until frost. When I pulled a bunch of tomato plants (not all of them, of course) a couple of weeks ago, the feeling I had most was relief that I didn't have to deal with such a surplus of fruit any more. I was at the 'enough is enough' stage, where all I wanted was for the flood of tomatoes to slow down to a reasonable trickle now, and all the companion plants I had growing there with the tomato plants are happy now as they are less crowded and get more sun. I already had so many in the freezer that I didn't want to add more, and this is my year off from canning, so I was bound and determined that I would not can them. If I'd known this heat was coming, I could have left the plants in the ground, not watered, and had sun-dried tomatoes in the blink of an eye.

I do love verbena bonariensis. Even if it gets covered with spider mites, I can just hack it back to the ground and it regrows just fine. Spider mites, always a big problem here in the extreme heat, almost never manage to kill it and it doesn't need much water. It attracts extreme amounts of butterflies. What more could I ask for?

I love hardy hibiscus and their huge flowers. I wish I had a hedge of them all around the garden like a wall, but all the deadheading needed would drive me right out of my mind, so I only have 3 of them. Even with only 3, it often is hard to stay caught up on the deadheading in the summer.

Jennifer, I couldn't stand the thought of not having a home-cooked dinner for a third day in a row, so I put a rack of ribs in the crockpot this morning and they'll be ready for dinner. I will microwave some veggies to go with them and mostly avoid heating up the kitchen too much. I'm not saying we won't eat out tomorrow since tomorrow is supposed to be as hot as today....because we probably will.

Megan, It may not be your usual style of gardening, but I'd say you and the driplines are growing things just fine---getting the harvest is the part that really matters and you're doing that. You had to have all the right components in place....good soil, plants planted at the right time, plants properly maintained (even if you feel you are neglecting them right now), etc. in order for them to be producing now, so give yourself credit for that.

Obviously I'm done with the garden for today and only intend to step foot in it this weekend just long enough to check everything in the early morning hours and water as needed. I came indoors about the time the temperature hit 95 I think. I'd had enough, the cats had had enough, the dogs had had enough...so we're all just chilling indoors. Well, all of them are chilling, and I'm cleaning house and mopping floors and such because somebody has to clean up the mess of pawprints and pet hair that everyone else seems to leave everywhere. If I could train the pets to clean house.....oh, but that is a pipe dream. If I could train them to do something useful, I'd train them to pull weeds.

Dawn

Well I've been outside most the day so far. It's hot, but it's not humid today, and there's a cool breeze blowing so it's not horrible. We are expecting rain later from some isolated thunderstorms, and are supposed to max out at 99 at 4 or 5.

Were expecting low temps in the 60's for as far as I can see starting early next week so I gave me tomatoes a heavy dose of fertilizer and watered them in. I'm getting fruit set, amazingly, because of the early week's cool temps, so they're definitely staying. I also got them tied up. I'm having some fungus come in so after it cools off a bit I'll go out in the dark one of these nights and spray with Daconil.

Out of all 14 asparagus, only 1 has survived so far. I've been really keeping them watered. The remaining plant is really healthy and I have a feeling it'll survive. I really should not have put these in in the middle of summer (June is when I did), but I didn't have many options. My grandma gave them to me on a monent's notice so I threw them in the ground. They were my great grandmother's plants originally, so they are at least 76 year old plants, being that she had them before my grandmother was born. Let's hope they don't kick the bucket. This winter may be tricky with them being put in so late and not having enough time to store energy. I have ways to protect them though.

Since the rest aren't coming up after almost a month or month and a half I'll plant bush beans in the remaining spots.

A few minutes ago I had to pick my car up from the mechanic. Coming back to work it said 110 on my dash, jumping to 111 for a short stretch. My watch/weather app shows 109. This is hotter than we were supposed to be from any of the sources I trust and they haven't updated their hourly projections so I'm curious if we'll hold here or climb a smidge more before it starts cooling. I'm on the road this evening so it would be nice if it cooled down. I saw many overheated cars on the shoulder coming back to work. I don't want to be in that situation. Maybe I should collect phone numbers from you guys before leaving so I can call whomever I'm closest to for rescue if something bad like that happens. I actually had something like that happen once - back in the days of pay phones, landlines and phone books - and was able to locate the number of a friend's brother who rescued us from being on the roadside in the heat.

I don't know if I should be the bearer of this news and you guys might already know it, but the heat index/feels like temp is calculated in the shade. Being in direct sun makes it feel 10-15 hotter just from the rays beating down on you. I was researching this for a heat safety article a couple years ago and wondered what "genius" decided to calculate temps in the shade!?! I knew it felt 10-15 cooler in the shade but didn't realize that also meant they were calculating the "feels like" temps there.

That's crazy, Meghan, and thank you for the clarification. I always wondered!

I'm quite excited. The moonflower vine began blooming this evening! Was trying to be patient as you advised, Dawn.

I think it is a good idea to have numbers, and call a friend and let them know when you are leaving and where you are going. My wife called me about half hour ago and said she would be home in 2 hours. We both think that is a wise thing to do.

Jacob, As near as I can tell, no asparagus plant has ever actually died, so perhaps yours will bounce back in the autumn, or maybe they're just in shock now and they'll pop up out of the ground at the right time next Spring.

It sounds like you're about to get that important break in the weather.

I guess we aren't, but next week we should see our highs go below 100 and our nights go below 80. That's progress....but the high temperatures for us next week still will be above average, so it isn't great news either. It is just that our weather will be slightly less miserable than it has been this week.

Tomorrow, Dallas and Waco, Texas will be making a run at setting an all-time heat record. Nope, don't want to go anywhere near either one of those towns tomorrow, but Chris is working and expects a really busy day---whether it will be fires or medical calls or whatever. He's been dreading tomorrow all week, but it actually has been hotter at his house here in OK than it has been down in Dallas where he works. Well, that could change tomorrow.

Yes, I did know heat index values are calculated in the shade. That's why I have a movable beach-type umbrella in my garden---so I can take my shade with me. The problem I have found is that if I move the umbrella back to the area where we have the table and 2 chairs and if I sit down in a chair to rest and cool off for a moment, I then lose my motivation to get up, move the umbrella back to a raised bed and get back to work. I cool off for a few minutes, decide being cooled off is good and call it a day and go indoors. It is the walking in the sun part that gets me. I was just thinking yesterday that I wish I had shade cloth over the whole garden at this time of the year.

Nancy, Moonflowers are so spectacular. I love to watch them unwind as they blossom. Southern Living magazine, maybe 2 or 3 decades ago, had a story about a guy who wanted to wow his bride with an outdoor wedding. So, he built an open-air chapel on family land---picture it sort of like the framing of a chapel. I can't remember if it had a roof. Then he planted moonflowers so that they in essence served as the chapel walls. He and his fiancee' timed her walking down the aisle during their wedding to occur while the moonflowers were unfurling. Can you imagine? This was so long ago it would have been before YouTube and all that, but a video of it really would have been spectacular.

I cannot even describe what multiple days of 110+ heat is doing to my garden. Every day something new dies, and I don't even blame it. I'd be doing the same thing if I had to be out there in that heat day after day after already enduring too much heat since May and too little rainfall, overall, since October. The real surprise is not that some plants are dying perhaps, but rather that more of them aren't dying. I've grown balsam for years, trying to place it in morning sun, afternoon shade, and it has done really well. I've always wondered exactly how far its heat tolerance would stretch. Well, apparently it will stretch to 106 degrees or so, because mine began looking like crap after we had that temperature for a high a few days ago. Maybe Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. I noticed they looked really tired and wilted and watered them the next morning but then they got hit by 111 degrees two days in a row here and I believe they are just done with this weather. If they are, I'll take them out and sow some other seeds in their spot. I've actually been surprised how well they've held up to several months of below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures because they are not, technically speaking, real heat lovers.

We always stay in touch with one another when either of us is out on the road. Even when we are headed to a fire while Tim is at work, I let him know where we're headed and what route we're taking. You never know when you might break down or run off the road into a gully or whatever. Not long after we moved here, an older lady ran off state highway 32 west of Marietta and ended up pinned in her vehicle upside down in a creek bed. Her vehicle wasn't visible from the road. I think she was there for about a week before she was found...alive. This was before the use of cellphones became so popular, so she didn't have one and, thus, had no way to call for help.

Because we have so many snakes and predator animals, we don't even go outside without our cell phones. We want for whoever is out there working to be able to call the other one and holler for help or whatever.

We had one grass fire in our fire district today. That's not bad considering what a hot, dry day it was. Our grasses our browning really quickly now in this heat, so things are going to get worse, but it might be a while yet. So many different parts of the county have had differing amounts of rainfall, so the conditions change every few miles and we're all just waiting to see where trouble really starts breaking out.

Dawn

Tonight I’m ready to give up till Fall - maybe not then. I went out and watered for 3 hours this morning. Things looked fair for this time of year. It hit 111 here today. Tonight the garden looks like I took a blow torch to it - literally. The squash and bean leaves are brittle and look like brown scorch marks on them. The big tomatoes have sunscald and rot, the little Sungolds have already soured or look like they’ve been in a dehydrator. The new beans and peas shriveled up. The okra was wilted but looked okay except I STILL have not even one bloom or one pod of okra. After Dawn told me I was pampering it too much I gave it the “talk” and ignored it except for watering once a week. Still nothing!!!! I think I’ll just stay in the house and have houseplants for awhile.

There's always next year, farmgardener! This is a weird year...and in a worse way for gardening...at least since we've been in our current home. We moved here in April 2014. I didn't garden in 2011 or 2012--I'm sure those who did can tell you the horror stories of those years. We've had a pretty easy time these past few years--easy for Oklahoma.

Nancy, you are the winner there in Wagoner! Just saw on the news that your heat index was 117 today. (I wonder how ol' girl's "boyfriends" goats are doing in this heat.)

And I just saw that Norman is supposed to be 103 tomorrow. So much for a cool down. Darn. I was hoping to get that one raised bed made.

How's your chickens doing, Dawn? How many do you have in the house? I sure feel bad for mine. I might put an ice pack under Rosa tonight. Or next to her. The baby isn't sleeping under her today (or yesterday).

There's really not much to report in gardening news. It looks sad and hot.

Not a whole lot here. Only got up to 98 F. I was outside the entire day, working in the garden, helping my dad with an engine, and mowing. Well I actually thought I'd almost caught the mower on fire!! I didn't though, and it's alright after some work done to it. In other words, I didn't get much mowing done.

Now through the first half of August is normally the hottest time of year for us. I hope it passes quickly. The cicadas have been out since June, but they only just got up in the trees loudly and clearly this past week. They're really loud now.

The tree frogs have been so loud, I doubt I could hear cicadas above them, Jacob. I much prefer the tree frogs' singing! But I expect the cicadas will set in soon.

How'd you almost catch the lawn mower on fire? Gotta know so I don't do it! We stayed in today. Even I know better than to work out there with a heat index of 115-118. Did water stuff, though.

Nancy, in the spring when we have our pool cover on the pool in the backyard, it collects water and the frogs will live in it, mate (Why, God, WHY do their mating calls have to be SO loud?!), and produce tons of tadpoles. It is sooooo loud every spring. With all the windows closed we sometimes can't hear the TV, granted this is right up against the house. They leave in summer and I tend to have many frogs and toads in my garden. Benefit I guess. Actually, our neighbor had an armadillo (alive) in his pool the other day.

The mower was pretty simple. I hit a rock not knowingly (made hardly a noise), it flipped the mower belt and jammed it. It made a real weird noise, which is when I first noticed. Then I heard the hot smell. Looked down and there was smoke flowing out everywhere!! My dad had me get the hose because we didn't know what it was and it didn't stop even after I shut off the mower. But guess what?' I got the hose over and my dad had found the rock inside with the flipped belt, problem solved. As Id said, I'd thought I'd almost caught it on fire, but it didn't lol. It startled me.

Upon taking it apart, we found that the deck is going to need some parts replaced (not from me by the way; my dad's rough with the mower. He doesn't move sticks....). Grrr

(By the way, I'm joking about my dad. He's not THAT rough. I just tease him a lot)

Oh, that could so easily happen here. I'm glad to know this! hahaha. . . we had a gravel "driveway" that extended far beyond where it needed to. and I talked GDW into letting grass, weeds and Bermuda grow over the back part. AND the front part. Showed him pictures of Frank Lloyd Wright house in Wichita and said, now THIS is what we need to have. And for the life of me now, I cannot find the picture!! Wonder if they changed the driveway. But here is the description. https://www.gardensalive.com/product/weeds-in-stone--gravel-driveways-a-superior-solution

The reason all this happened was because GDW had been indoctrinated into the idea that he had to spray all the weeds and grass growing in that immense gravel area. He hated having to do it, and I didn't want any weed killer anywhere. So I showed him the picture, and he was happy as a clam that he didn't have to kill weeds anymore. And I am happy as a clam he doesn't either! Admittedly, there would be pavers to put in to make it look "beautiful." LOL And that's probably never gonna happen, so we have tons of gravel and some dangerous larger rocks out there.

I'm jealous that you have a pool. Swimming and riding horses, my two favorite "sports." Oh how I wish I had a swimming pool. Apparently tree frogs don't need water. We have a zillion of them, and I'm happy for them, but yes, they are VERY loud. At times so loud I can't stand it.

We're sitting a boston terrier this weekend and oh my word he has not stopped for more than 10 minutes. He makes Tigger (our puppy) look like Eeyore. Eleven hours and he hasn't slowed down yet! We're definitely earning this money!

Yard work in the morning, then recover inside where it's cool. I need to work on church stuff, our VBS is in a couple weeks. I'm used to going overboard on decorations & this church never has seen a need to decorate for a one day program. I'll corrupt them, tho!

Jen, have been in the company of FAR too many Boston terriers!! LOLOL. I know you're telling it true!

We had a bad storm last night with hail. Garden is shredded but looks alright. Florida Weave held up. At least an unexpected cold front came through with this, dropped us in the mid 60's, and were now forecasted for upper 80's the next couple days.

Isnt it amazing how older cabbage leaves will break and drop over cabbage hearts to protect the heart? I surely would have lost my brassicas if it weren't for that. They took a LOT of damage.

Jacob I am so sorry to hear about that hail. glad that you got cooler temps tho. That is allot of hail. 2 years ago my garden got hit and it amazed me how quickly everything bounced back.

Kim, baseball sized hail was reported just miles from us. It busted windows (house and car), destroyed lights, took out trees. Trees are down everywhere. The trees next to us lost a lot of leaves so the forest looks really open now. I never imagined I'd have to rake leaves in summer.

They reported 66 F at the weather station, but my parents say that when they woke up they were sure it was a lot colder outside. Normally I'd say I didn't believe them, but I might. I was shivering a bit when I got up at first light. Hahaha

Wow, Jacob! So sorry your garden got hit, but glad it looks alright!

it was 90 at 3 am! What?!

Ha I would enjoy a good shiver. These 111 108 days are hard on a ol girl

Farmgardener, I'm sorry you're having such a rough time with the garden this summer. It's this darned weather. Some years we just get to a point where you cannot water enough to keep the garden producing, and it sounds like your area is at that point now. (Mine is getting closer and closer to that point by the day.) There's no shame in walking away from the garden and waiting for better weather---either in the fall or next year.

Jennifer, The chickens are fine. They are bored and they are aggravated with being held hostage in a nice climate-controlled area (and I don't care that they are aggravated because I want them safe from the extreme heat). I'm thinking we'll let them out tomorrow because our forecast high for tomorrow is only 106.

There's only six chickens left, courtesy of the heavy predator population we've had the last two or three years. The predators get 1 or 2 chickens a week except when I lock them up in their coop/run and don't let them free-range. This is why I'm about to give up on having chickens. We have a much, much, much worse predator problem these last few years than we had when we moved here 20 years ago. The chickens get hot or bored or whatever and wander off into the woods, despite my efforts to stop them. They ignore me and just keep going, and if you try to pursue them, which is dangerous in snake season anyway, they just run deeper into the woods, which is more dangerous for them. Then, something gets them in the woods and we never see them again. If I didn't have these 6 locked up in the mudroom, we probably would have lost at least another one this week. I call these six the smart ones because now they stick close to the house when they're out, but I don't know if they're being smart and cautious or if it just has been too hot to roam around and get very far from the house. When these are gone, I doubt we'll get more. Losing them is hard to bear. If we ever do have chickens again, they won't be allowed to free-range. If chickens are never allowed to free-range and are always confined to a fenced chicken run, they're fine with that because they don't know what it is like to be free ranging. Once they've free-ranged, though, they hate being looked up permanently and it is stressful to them to be confined. So, I try to keep these as safe as possible while still allowing them to free-range, but I'm resigned to the fact that the bobcats or coyotes will get them eventually. We went many years with only losing a couple of year, but for the last couple of years it has been 1 or 2 a week.

Jacob, You've had a very adventurous couple of days. I'm glad the garden held up to the hail, and glad the baseball-sized hail didn't fall at your place. My childhood home got hit by baseball-sized hail when I was about 20 or 21 years old, and by the time all the damage was repaired, my parents practically had a new house (and new cars). I'm envious of your cool weather.

When we moved here, we thought we'd be able to sleep with the windows open in nice weather. Well, that didn't work out so well as the frogs made such a racket during mating season that you couldn't sleep at all. So, the windows stay closed now.

Jen, That Boston terrier sounds very, um, energetic. I hope y'all survive the weekend.

Nancy, I like gravel that has been taken over by grass (and/or weeds) just like Mike McGrath described. He's one of my favorite garden writers, and Organic Gardening magazine never was worth reading after he left his job as its' editor. You can have the appearance of a grassy lawn, but the ability to park on it no matter the weather. I'd like to gravel over our entire side yard that sits between the house and garage one of these days and then let the grass grow up through the gravel. The dense, compacted clay in this area holds puddles of water forever after it rains, turning into a lake when it rains a lot, so gravel on top of the clay would be a huge improvement.

Kim, I agree with you. For the 3rd or 4th day in a row, we were over 100 degrees by noon. It might have been the same at your place out there west of us. This is ridiculous heat! I'm ready for a break, even though our break here still will include highs in the upper 90s. I bet 97 will feel fairly cool after so many days between 106-111. Tomorrow should be our last triple-digit temperature day for at least a week, if the forecasters are correct.

I looked at the garden about an hour ago when I went out there to check on the plants in containers. Considering the excessive heat we've been having, it looks fairly decent. Not great. Not good. Not nearly as good as usual, but mostly still alive and likely to recover if the temperatures will drop down to normal or average July temperatures. Of course, August awaits, and our hottest weather usually occurs in the first half of August so it isn't like I think the garden's hard times are over. They aren't. Maybe, though, we'll at least get a few slightly cooler days. No chance of rain though. If the drought continues to deepen and worsen, though, all bets are off.

Dawn

Got out early this morning, went to Cherry Street, and Riddle's for 6 new EG plants. Their plants look good, if rootbound and somewhat dry. They're soaking in water overnight, then I'll plant early tomorrow. Need to feed, too.

Had a hummingbird at the zinnas this morning. First time I've ever seen one here.

I have a tithonia that's pushing 6 feet tall, and no flowers.

Think I'm going to nap while the laundry launders.

Rebecca, my tithonia are that tall, too, and I have a FEW flowers. Very strange. Nothing like last year. I'm tickled for you that you see a hummingbird. With your flowers, maybe you'll see more this year and in the coming years!

I guess high winds, tornadoes and hail are my most unfavorite things here. I'm glad the bigger stuff didn't find its way to your place, Jacob.

Kim, all that hot weather! And down where you are, Dawn. Well not a picnic anywhere in OK, come to think of it. I was sitting outside for a while later last night, and thought, "Hmmm. Bet I could heat stroke even at 10 pm when it's dark. I did not feel well. Duh.

Farmgardener, that's just how I feel about the yard and definitely the veggie garden. Except the peppers. Everything else is coming out and I will just begin throwing straw, compost, grass in them for now. And think about it all. :)

Dawn, I'm so tickled you liked what we're doing to the gravel. I am guessing all our neighbors think we've gone to hell in a handbasket, letting all that grass and weeds take over. Thing is, it is an enormous area. And even if we could afford to put blacktop down, that would be a disaster. Our neighbor has a blacktop driveway. Their driveway and ours slope down onto our property. His garage is flooded every time we get a big rain. Ours would be too, with blacktop. As it is, the first two years I was here, 15 and 16, the rains washed gulleys through the gravel. I really disliked seeing ALL that area on our property being one big gravel area. And would hate seeing it black-topped for that matter. So much of THAT particular area does get full sun.

The gravel used to go all the way back to the wood chip pile. Can you all BELIEVE that. They guy who built the house had a big boat and big RV and certainly wasn't into keeping a yard.

Now THIS shows the entire area. Picture that as ALL GRAVEL! I'm kind of excited. This is how far the yard has encroached. Started letting it go two years ago. This is it's 2nd and a half summer. What we've realized is that the weeds and grass will also help keep the gravel from being washed away.

Well see how it goes. I have second-guessed myself a time or two, but it's one of those things that once we committed, there's no going back.

PS: GDW thinks it's hysterically funny, as he's the weed-whpper guy, I'm the mower. Hard mowing those weeds on a gravel bed. LOL And is enlarging my mowing area greatly.

Rebecca, I saw my first hummingbird here too! Was so happy to see it. The flowers did their job!

Congrats to those of you who now are seeing hummers. I'm so happy for you. I feel like these darling little birds add so much joy to our gardens.

Want to see a hummingbird up close? Just wear a shirt with a red flower print and you'll have hummers hovering in front of you, trying to decide which red flower to visit.

When I want to make the hummingbirds especially happy, I set up the lawn sprinkler near some orange trumpet creeper vines and some trees. The hummers zip in and out of the spray from the sprinkler, or sit on the vines or the trees and just let the water wash back and forth over them. They make all kinds of hysterical little sounds, and if you sit or stand quietly near them, they let you watch them cool off and enjoy themselves.

Rebecca, I've always found tithonias to be a little late to bloom. About the time I am ready to give up on them, they finally bloom....so hopefully yours are about the same.

I'm glad you found the EGs. At this time of the year, if a person can find tomato plants that are half-alive down here, they're going to buy them because pickings are slim in late July and early August. By the time fall tomato plants arrive here as a fresh crop, it is mid to late August and too late to be assured of getting a crop. I guess the stores figure no one is going to want to buy them and plant them in this sort of heat.

I have all my fall tomatoes in the ground now, but I'm going to start rounding up empty containers that are scattered around the place, start filling them now with hugelkulture topped with a soil-less mix and have them ready when the new batch of tomato plants arrive at the stores here in a few weeks. Than, I'll buy and plant a few in containers, knowing that I can move these containers into the greenhouse in autumn if needed and keep them going after the first frost.

Drought-type and high fire danger type conditions are escalating rapidly here now and there's more fires, more dangerous ones where firefighters are becoming overcome by heat, little fires getting big quickly, etc., so I think everything here is quickly going from bad to worse. A lot of places near us are enacting emergency burn bans and such. This is the part of summer that I hate.

Our poor bermuda grass lawn that I watered just last week is now a fire hazard. The grass first turned from dark green to light green and then to a light gray. The next color is going to be tan/beige/wheat-colored. (It already is that way in areas I don't water.) I've noticed the last couple of days when you walk on the bermuda grass now it does not spring back. Instead you leave your footprints in the grass as you walk across the yard and you still can see them the next day. The grass just lacks the energy to spring back up again. This extreme heat is just making a huge mess of everything.

We had another blazing hot day. The temperature was 103 by noon. That doesn't leave you much hope for the rest of the day. We ended up hitting 111 degrees with a heat index of 113, making it our hottest day of this summer so far. There was a difference though, that you could feel. We made it back down into the 90s pretty early (I think it was around 8 o'clock) so that was a nice improvement and were in the 80s before midnight (a huge improvement).

The garden's grasshopper population is exploding, and it was huge to begin with. I am going to have to do something about that, but I really really hate the thought of spraying anything because birds are in there eating the grasshoppers, and I don't want to spray anything that will hurt the beneficial insects.

Oh well, I can deal with that another day.

Dawn

Blistering hot, here, too. And the grasshoppers are enormous. And everywhere. I was just commenting today that I'm shocked our lawn is so green. I haven't really watered that much this summer. I guess that is one of the benefits of shade from those tall oaks.

Mowed this morning, and I felt like my legs were going to fall off the rest of the day. I finished by 10:30 and the temps weren't that bad then, but I still had to take several short breaks because of the sweat running down. GDW weed whipped, bless his heart. He has felt so much better this past week that he has spent too many hours weed whipping in the place. I was kind of whipped myself the rest of the day.

I am not going to have a fall garden, I decided, unless I can plant a couple things when it cools off just a tiny bit, and it might just do that next week. Peppers are flourishing, however. The positive for me this week was seeing moonflower vine flowers. I'm anxious to see if they DO put off the smell enough that I'll smell them on the deck. I was reading up on them today in another forum, and many people were commenting that the scent didn't waft through, that they had a very faint scent. I'll be anxious to see if that's true here, too.

I'm thankful I caught the zinnia disease that you were trying to spread, Dawn. This year they have performed splendidly. I certainly have noted which flowers the insects devoured and which are oblivious to them. And most of the beds are looking very full; only those in the know would recognize that half of the foliage they see are weeds. Unfortunately, I am one in the know.

The elderberry bushes out front are very small; haven't grown much, but look healthy. So good.

Much time in the past few days with the Tiny Skippy cat. What an adorable little character. Tom and Jerry don't like him much and usually just scowl and growl at him. But he races up to them and turns somersaults anyway. And he does the same to Titan, who seems to like it. He's gotten far closer to and even touching Titan, than Tom and Jerry ever did. And in fact whenever the tiny dude is awake and carrying on, Titan is close by. They often touch noses. I guess we have not found his perfect name yet. Garry called him Skippy the other day by accident. I don't dislike that name, because he certainly is skippy. I'm glad I decided he will be an indoor kitty until he has enough sense to know home and to stay home, like Tom and Jerry. In fact, Titan just reached down and licked Tiny's ear.

We are going to try to go fishing, for the first time in 5 months, on Monday. Forecast isn't bad, if we get out by 7 or so. I so hope it will work, since Garry is finally feeling better.

Larry, That is a gorgeous pepper. Its' symmetrical shape reminds me of a flower.

Maybe the plant will give you another similar one later and you can save seeds from that. I've occasionally seen a pepper with five lobes, but I don't know that I've ever seen one with six. The number of lobes usually is linked to a variety, so if you know which variety produced this one, you can watch for future ones on the plants of the same variety.

Nancy, Why is it that the tiniest kittens often are so fearless, I wonder? I am glad Titan is so accepting of the tiny little guy.

I'm so glad Garry is finally feeling better and hope y'all have a fun and successful fishing trip tomorrow.

I did start a thread for week 4, and it has disappeared twice, so I just started another one. Hopefully the third attempt will stick.

No break in the weather here as forecast. I am so mad about that.

Dawn

Dawn, thanks. None of my garden has done well this year. The jjalapeños have done better than anything else, they are about 4' tall, not load, but a good crop. The bells are very small with the largest being just over knee high, the other 3 about half that tall.

I picked a Walmart bag over flowing of peppers. One 6 lobed, one 5 lobed, the rest were 4 lobed. The jalapeño were nice but nothing special.

Going "no till" and using tree trimmings has put me into a tailspin, but I did get a good harvest from the 7 plants with fruit left on the plants