I’m going to go out later and yank more ol tomatoes, and seed green beans, sugar snaps, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, cilantro, dill, and a few flowers. The new tomatoes look good. I should put down fertilizer so it gets rained in.

Right now I’m baking macarons. Fingers crossed. Trying to perfect them for the Christmas goodie bags.

Thanks so much, Dawn, for thoughts to keep in mind entering the second week. I was very appreciative, reading it. Rebecca, yesterday I DID think to add fertilizer to plants who are rebounding; thinking what you're thinking. I expect we'll get SOME kind of rain in the next couple-three days, though not today. Cloudy and not too hot, however, so all is good.

I just had to do it--went out and lopped off/cut back the lantana, which now was about 5-6 feet in diameter and tall. WAY too big for its appointed space. What a nice problem to have, considering I thought it had died over this last winter.

Vine borer got my last yellow squash plant, even with Sevin powder out. 3rd generation, really 2018? Anyone think I have time to replant, or should I cut my losses with green beans?

Went out to start seeding, but started itching almost immediately. So I just got the pots ready for the greens, put out fertilizer, and trimmed a couple tomatoes. Maybe I’ll go out in the rain tomorrow and do it. Only half kidding.

Got my first cucumber of the year. In mid-August. Really 2018?

I need some bedding flowers.

Y'all seem to be staying pretty busy. Lots of growing going on over here. The 5 acres I planted is gorgeous. I don't go close to it but from a distance it is amazing.

My little patch is doing so good. I was down in Denton/ Ft. Worth for 10 days. Poor sophie thought I abandoned her. The neighbors were so sweet and took care of everything for me. I have all but 2 pots on drip. When I came home there were tomatoes, cucumbers, ONE beautiful melon, butternut babies, flowers and swiss chard going crazy. And lots of grass :/ okra hibiscus and other melon vines look good. Apparently someone sprayed. My stuff is pocked and I was sick for 2 days after getting back in this house. What's a girl to do.

We got my mother moved in with my sister the 30th and mother went to hospital with pneumonia on Wednesday. She's been there ever since. Smoking for 70 years is tough on the ol gal. She had to quit now moving in with sis. She won't allow it.

I have been keeping up with all of you but my brain wasn't working very well, side of effects of low thyroid.

Keep your prayers thoughts going for me to find a job. It's getting tough. But then...

I forgot to say our weather is more wonky than ever. We had high of 72 !!! And tonight 68!!!

Is this payback for the crazy May. Whatever I will take it.

I have tomatoes on 3 vines. Would like to see the last one produce as I am trying to perpetuate my seed. Snow white is the only one ready to pick.

The okra I am growing is from jen ty it is a beautiful plant. I read the other day to take your large fresh okra get the seeds out and dry them for a nice addition to granola. I love it, use every thing.

So good to read everyone's posts.

I should fertilize my tomatoes. Keep them going until the first freeze. That's what I've done the past two years. The plants look rough, but are putting out new healthy growth and are setting fruit still, so there's no good reason to pull them out. Some of them are completely brown on their bottom half. But look healthy and lush on the upper half. So strange looking. And some are putting out new green at the base of the plant.

Okra is finally coming along. Peppers still doing well. Southern peas look bad for a couple of reasons, but are producing a little. Melons and cucumbers yes, growing and looking good. Green beans are starting to make beans, but the plants are awful looking. I have a hard time with beans. Ah! I just thought of something! A weird random plant that looks like a pea came up in the okra bed. It doesn't look like any pea I've ever planted. JUST remembered. Just 30 seconds ago...in the spring, I planted edamame seed there. It never came up....I'm guessing that is what it is. How about that.

So, all the hens are back in the main coop. Dolly is very submissive and got picked on a bit. Rosa fights back. Both babies are together in the old coop. Poor little things. They don't understand. They'll be fine though. Stormy is bigger (8 weeks...I think I called her 6 weeks on my last post) and Jules is 5 and a half weeks. They aren't picking at each other and that's good. They each have a sibling now and that will be good when they are introduced to the main coop...and so they're not lonely. Dolly was ready to go back. Like I mentioned on my last post, she has started laying eggs again. Rosa was still upset by her chick's peeping and stood by the old coop in the rain. But, she put herself up tonight. I feel good about it. For anyone who thinks a chicken is just a chicken with no personality, they are wrong. It's so interesting how each one has it's own unique personality. If people knew this, they would hopefully be more respectful and mindful as they are enjoying an animal as a meal. And thankful.

I'm really down about having a bad foot. I was on it most of the morning...trying to sit as much as possible. But at my job, I have to be on my feet a lot. Trying to rest it more, but there's so much to do. Maybe Tom will take out the dogs before he goes to work in the morning. But, there's supposed to be rain...and that means a lot of in-and-out with the dogs. And Kane has special considerations right now. I realize, that my issue is small compared to what other people are dealing with. I'm mindful of that. But, I'm still disappointed because a lot of people depend on me for a lot of things and I don't want to let them down.

Hope everyone has a good week. School starts back for us this week, so it's fixing to get extra busy.

I'm bummed for ya, HJ, with your foot. Patience, and it is what it is. Let it rest and get better. You know you must.

And Kim, praying for you mightily. Of course, I know worry does no good, but just know that I'm thinking of you, and worried about you, and praying for you.

I love hearing about the chickens. I've noted one little thug ruby-throated hummingbird that guards one feeder so zealously I don't know when he finds time to eat. I can even see the differences in them. I'm sure I'd note it in chickens, too. I SURELY note it in our (eeks) three cats and Titan. I was so nervous about Tom and Jerry, but with Dawn's good advice, first about getting them both, then about dinner feeding time, in terms of keeping them around the house, we got through it all. Those two now year-old cats are good as gold. I go out onto the deck at dinner time (about 6) and call, "Tom, Jerry, come in. . . dinnertime," and they both show up within about 2 minutes. Those two cats are so precious. And until Tiny showed up, I didn't appreciate what wonderful cats they are. They were both pretty shy and uncertain when we got them at about 3 months old. Took some time. Tom often was hiding. And most of our friends and family haven't to this day seen them. Especially Tom.

Tiny, not an ounce of shyness in him. He thinks he is adorable and assumes everyone else thinks so, too. Pretty much. Company comes, relatives come, there's Tiny, front and center, prancing around. He adores Titan, Tom, and Jerry, Garry, and me. He is miserable when I let all of them out during the day and GDW and I are out, too. So just this past week, I've been letting him out. His problem is that he's so inquisitive and adventurous, I worry. But I notice that when he goes out, Titan stays close to the deck, and Tom and Jerry almost seem upset. THEY stay near the deck, too. And I notice he DOES take his cue from them. So I think it's going well. I laughed so hard tonight. Tom came in. And Tiny was attacking him nonstop. So Tom would take him to task, and Tiny would be howling and screaming. Tom would let him go. Two minutes later, Tiny would be back dive-bombing Tom. And then screaming and howling. I laughed and laughed and laughed. This little Tiny is the funniest thing GDW and I have experienced in a good long while. What a gift he is. But also made me realize what a gift Titan, Tom and Jerry are. Good good sports they are.

I cannot believe the rejuvenation of my beds. A little slack in temperatures, the gift of enough rain in the past 1-2 weeks, and it is a JUNGLE out there. Crabgrass the only bad weed, and with the heavy mulch, easily dispatched. Not the garden I envisioned, but thrilled with what I have, nonetheless. I need to go into the herb-growing/herb-selling business. I got more happy herbs out there than anyone deserves. LOLOL

HJ, a couple of my tomatoes are coming back at the base, too. I just cut the top off to let it have a better chance.

Larry, Wildseed Farms sells zinnia seeds in different quantity sizes, ranging from single packets to 1 lb. quantities and their prices are pretty good. They carry mostly just the basic old-fashioned zinnias, not fancier and newer hybrids, but I've learned that the pollinators and butterflies prefer the older, open-pollinated types to the newer hybrids anyway. I don't think I'd ever need a pound of zinnia seeds, but I might buy a quarter pound.

Here's the link in case anyone wants to grow a zinnia patch for the pollinators and butterflies:

Wildseed Farms Zinnias

Robert, It has been a struggle with the watermelons this year in this drought. I have tried to get the water right---enough water to keep the plants alive and growing but not so much that the moisture interferes with the flavor. Well, that's been hard! I cut back a lot on watering at one point (after getting a water bill for July that was out-of-this-world) and a few melons got blossom end rot. I knew it would happen if I cut back on watering because I felt like I was barely watering enough to keep them alive anyhow (not because I wasn't giving them a lot of water, but just because it was so dry that even large amounts weren't enough). I will give the Gold-in-Gold credit because they did not develop BER so they seem more tolerant of fluctuating moisture levels than the icebox melons. I would like to see how they do in a water year when our rainfall isn't 9-12" in the hole. I love the way Gold-in-Gold looks. I hope I love the way they taste. In a normal year I can pretty much grow watermelons dryland style with little to no irrigation and they do great, but this surely has not been a normal year. After I saw the BER develop, I cut off the affected fruits and tried to increase the amount of irrigation to that bed. New melons still are setting, which is one thing I love about the icebox melons---they keep blooming and setting on new growth much better than large melons do. Gold in Gold hasn't set any new ones, but considering how hard these plants had to fight to overcome our neighbors' over-zealous use of herbicides, I'm just happy the plants survived and produced at all.

This week's much-needed rainfall could be a disaster for the melons. The Gold in Gold are close to maturing, albeit smaller than expected, and we don't need for a lot of rain at one time to either water down the flavor or make them crack, so I'll be watching closely and trying to harvest them as soon as they're ready, hopefully before excess rain can harm them.

Good luck with the bees. Please keep us posted on how they are doing. We have a ton of bees working the garden every day, much harder and longer than usual--sunup to at least sundown and sometimes beyond. I've never seen them put in such long days. I suspect the heat and lack of flowers in the fields due to drought have been really hard on them. A lot of our county got a lot more rain than us last week and I noticed those areas are rebounding, greening up and growing again really quickly, so am hoping for good autumn wildflowers for the bees.

Nancy, Some lantana varieties can become huge monsters when they are happy. Miss Huff is like that and so is the old-fashioned Confetti variety. Since I do not have well-drained soil here due to its high clay content, they usually die in the winter here due to waterlogging so it isn't a problem for me. Friends near us who have dreadful sandy soil (full of nematodes, so they completely gave up on growing veggies) have an amazing Confetti lantana that gets about 8' long by 4' wide by about 4-5' tall most years. It is gorgeous and carefree and they have had it for decades. If I didn't have voles here in the back garden, I might be able to grow lantana like that back there, but the voles eat the lantana in the back garden about every other year, though they never touch the ones growing in the clay in the front garden. Sometimes I can keep lantana happy for a couple of years, and then we'll have one of those years where we get 12" of rain in one day or 20" in one month and that's the end of the lantana.

Rebecca, I wish I were confident enough that rain would continue (and heat wouldn't) that I could yank out some old tired stuff and plant beans.

I'd just stop trying with the squash this year. Daylength will be getting so short soon that they grow incredibly slowly, and the SVBs will be around until October at least. Each generation usually lasts a couple of months. The first generation usually covers June-July pretty well and the second generation August-September. Karl, over in Bryan County, has had what he believed were 3-5 generations some years, or at least what we would think of as 3-5 waves of them. I am beginning to blame his location near Lake Texoma for this because otherwise it doesn't make sense that he gets such relentless waves of them right up until frost. I think a third generation of them is possible in OK, but scientists insist we only get 2 here in the south. I think when the first generation appears early (in May, like they did this year) that we definitely can get a third generation even if the scientists don't agree and seem to think our 'third' generation is just a long second generation (how can they tell it is not a third?). I'm starting to think that Lake Texoma keeps the surrounding area slightly warmer in winter and that Karl's multiple generations can be blamed on that. Or, it might be that the native squash plants in wild, untamed land around the lake cause worse than average SVB populations in his entire county. I'm not much further from Lake Texoma than he is, in terms of mileage, but never have the SVBs for as prolonged of a period as he does. On the other hand, I mostly grow C. moschatas, so that helps since the SVBs cannot infiltrate them easily. He grows a lot of C. moschatas too, though, so that cannot be the only reason I see less than he does.

Macarons are our 9-year-old granddaughter's favorite cookies. She likes to get them at a little French-themed bakery at the mall in Denton when we go there. They have a lot of different flavors of macarons there, as well as Eiffel tower shaped sugar cookies, so it is her favorite bakery so far.

Kim, The break in the heat is awesome and we do deserve it after having all the July type weather in May. I hope it lasts a while, but the forecast doesn't offer much hope for us---as soon as the rain is gone, the typical August heat comes back. That doesn't scare me too much. After all, we survived July. The first half of August is usually our worst weather, but it isn't this year, and once the rain is gone, if we only have typical late August weather, then we won't get much worse than the mid- to upper-90s. I'm hoping enough rain keeps coming every week to keep us even cooler than that, and I hope the temps in the 100s are done for this year.

Old time settlers used to save all the okra seeds and grind them to make a coffee substitute. That sounds like a ton of work to me, but coffee was very scarce back then and pricey in what often was a barter economy, so I suppose okra seed coffee was better than no coffee at all.

Jennifer, It sounds like your tomato plants are rebounding nicely. I think if you just fertilize them, they'll be fine and will do well since you're seeing new growth emerging near the base now. I think that sometimes we give up on tomato plants too early. After all, they are perennial in their native climate, so they are used to rebounding from bad weather and disease and just continuing to grow in frost free areas. I left 3 summer tomato plants in the ground in the main garden, and still have 8 that were planted for the hornworms near the northern garden fence line. Those don't look as good as the new plants I put in the ground for fall. Now, we're all just at the mercy of the fall weather and hoping a first freeze won't come too early and shut down the tomatoes.

Chickens definitely have their own personalities, but the predators are hard on them, so I just don't name them and don't get too attached to them because then it hurts too much when a coyote or hawk gets them. I think the rooster personalities are even more apparent than the pullet personalities, but I guess that is not really surprising. I also think that the chickens are smarter than most people give them credit for being. Mine are aware of every move I make, and they know to check the compost pile daily for new material. They follow me around when I am working in the yard, hoping for 'treats' of one kind or another, and if the deer come and try to get their henscratch, they throw a fit over it.

I hope your foot gets better soon. No one expects you to be a super-human super hero. You have to take care of your body and let it heal. I know how busy you get when band season starts up and y'all are cooking for them every week, so please keep resting it now as much as you can.

Nancy, I love how Tiny is livening up the place. He is so much like Pumpkin that I think they must be brothers from another mother. Our cats are hilarious and keep us in stitches all the time with their antics, but our Pumpkin (like your Tiny) amps it up to a whole different level. One of his favorite things to do when I let him come into the main house (instead of being confined to the sun room/cat room) is to get up on top of the refrigerator. He looks like he is just hanging around watching the world go by, but I think he likes it most because he can sit right beneath the AC vent and chill. Plus, he likes to "pat" humans on the head as we walk by, which is really startling if you don't know he is up there.

I guess there will be no gardening for me today. Around 5 a.m., I awakened to the sound of raindrops hitting the roof. Once again, it is the best kind of rain---slow, steady and with no thunder and no lightning. If our forecast is to be believed, this is our day (and tonight and tomorrow as well) to finally get real rainfall that will punch some holes in the drought conditions. So, if the rain lasts all day, there will be no gardening, but it is more important to get the rain. I hope it revives a lot of the plants I've struggled to keep alive up to this point. Our forecast shows us getting up to 3" of rain. I remain skeptical about that, but will be relieved if it happens. Any rain still is better than no rain, and the ponds and creeks need to get some water back into them. A new crack has developed in the ground in our yard right outside the sunroom, so when we empty the girls' big wading pool, the water rushes to the crack and just totally disappears into it, forming a little swirling vortex as it does so. That is sort of scary. We've never had the ground crack in this exact area before, and I don't like having that crack in that location. If we don't get enough rain this week to close it up, I guess I'll put down a soaker hose and try to soak and soak and soak the ground around it so the crack will close up, or at least no progress and move closer to the house. When you have clay soil that contracts and expands mightily due to moisture fluctuations, you have to really really keep an eye on it or it can cause your house to shift enough to get hairline cracks in walls or ceilings or even to crack the foundation of the house. We work hard to avoid that as we've seen friends in Texas with similar soils go through very extensive repairs after their foundations cracked during drought years. I'd love to take the auger and do vertical mulching there, not for any of the plants, but for the sake of the soil, but I think Tim would send me to have my head examined if I even suggested it. I might suggest it anyway just to see the expression on his face when I explain the process to him.

Dawn

Our gray cat was named "the ghost" when my brother lived here. He hides any time someone comes inside and most people have never seen him. I think my brother was here 6 months before he even caught a glimpse.

Cotton has several bolls on each plant, peanuts are forming (some were poking above the soil so I added a little extra soil to them), and the gourds that popped up last week are a couple inches now. And all my sungolds split from the excess rain the past couple days. As long as they aren't too cracked I can still use them, but I'm thinking about picking all of them and bringing them inside. If nothing else I can make slow-dried green tomatoes for later use.

Thought this was interesting. A letter from my great grandpa to my grandparents.

Jen, did you plant cotton on purpose or is from cotton seed hull mulch? I have some coming up in the front flower bed, but it's from the mulch.

Many of my SunGolds and Offspring-of-SunGolds are split too.

That's a good idea, Rebecca, for my plants that are making new growth at the bottom.

I love your cat stories, Everyone.

Nancy, I have a feeling my gardens will look like a jungle by the end of the week. So glad most of the pathways are finished. Just the beds will need to be weeded a bit, although they're not too bad. I need some ladybugs to show up. Aphids on my southern peas.

Dawn, I don't think everyone should name their chickens. Many people use their chickens for food--eggs and meat. I can feel good about that because those animals generally have a better life than most animals that end up at the grocery store. Mine are pets, though. At this point. IF Tom wants meat birds, he'll have to do the care of them. But then again, I have friends who name their poultry AND eat them. Whatever works for the individual.

How is your predator situation? Have you lost anymore since their time spent indoors? Do y'all eat many eggs?

I love the letter posted above. They were hot that year, huh? And probably no AC. They were much tougher than I. I've recently been in contact with a 3rd (?) cousin who has done a lot of genealogy. He has spent 40 years working on it. He's retired, but probably worked near both of my parents at some point at FAA...and they didn't know they were cousins. My Glover side owned a farm (which is probably why they didn't starve in the 30's) near Gotebo. The Ward side lived in a half dugout across the road from their farm. Three of the Glover siblings married three of the Ward siblings. My Grandma Stella (Chicken Stella was name after her. lol) was one of them. Double cousins? A lot of my family lines go back to Kentucky--the Mammoth Cave area.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm forcing myself to sit. Took Garden Monday pics last night. Do need to get up and check on the baby chickens.

Jen, We have a semi-feral cat like Ghost, or maybe he has us because he is the one in control. We certainly are not. Ours is named Chip. He comes and he goes, and he really has trouble with the transition from indoors to outdoors and back again, so once he comes in, he'll hide in the guest room and stay indoors for months, but then once he goes back out, you almost cannot get him to come in again---often it takes days or weeks to get him to walk in through that door (and he'll shred the arms and hands of anyone who tries to pick him up and bring him in). He needs a cat psychiatrist. Many feral cats are like this--they never really loose all that feral wildness, even if you eventually can mostly tame them.

Jennifer, So far, the six survivors still are with us. They must be the smartest ones of the flock because they've survived while many others obviously did not. I know that some people can name animals, slaughter them and eat them. If I name them, I cannot do that---they will be with us until they die of illness or old age. This is why we don't raise cattle on our property to slaughter for beef---we'd just end up with geriatric cattle that lived here until they died of old age.

The letter was interesting, and is a reminder to us all the brutal heat waves have occurred regularly in our state's history. My grandmother kept a diary and faithfully recorded the weather in it for decades, from the 1930s, I guess, until at least the 1980s. They were farmers and ranchers back then, and I guess keeping track of the weather helped them to understand their weather patterns because weather coverage back then was not as comprehensive as what we have now.

SunGolds and Sun Sugar both are bad about cracking, but I think Sun Sugar is not nearly as bad as Sun Gold, so if I was smarter, I'd only plant Sun Sugar and that would be fine as they taste about the same. I always pick all the ones that are breaking color in advance of forecast heavy rain. If I can't get them picked before the rain falls, I pick them as soon as it finishes falling because I know they'll start cracking if I don't.

Sitting is good, and family history always is so interesting to learn.

Our rain here this morning was a bitter disappointment. It rained forever and forever and we only had about 0.20" in the rain gauge after it stopped.

After the rain stopped and the skies began to clear, I went out to the garden and deadheaded a ton of salvias, zinnias, daturas and celosias. Then I picked a couple of watermelons and came back indoors. We had blue sky (some clouds still around though) and sunshine. That was around 10:30-11:00 a.m.

At noon, the local TV met showed rainfall totals from around the area---and others had 1-2" while we had 2/10s. Then he said everyone's temperatures were in the 70s, except Marietta who was in the 80s. Naturally. That's the story of our summer. I was getting depressed. I went and looked at our NWS point forecast and they had cut our chance of rain today from 90% to 50% and had cut our 3-day rainfall total for today-Weds from 3"+ to 0.75"-1.50". Then I was really depressed. Then, very suddenly it clouded up, and now we are having a monsoon in the midst of a thunderstorm. lol. I'm laughing. Our weather is crazy. Of course, now that it is raining hard, the cops and firefighters are having to deal with people sliding off I-35 into the median because (I guess) they are hydroplaning or just cannot drive in rain. And, now, as is typical when a thunderstorm hits us here, there's fire departments on their way to a home filling up with smoke. No, it isn't the same one as last week. What is up with the weather drama? Can we not just have a nice heavy rain without everything else going nuts? They have put us under a Flood Watch through 9 p.m. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry, or maybe just laugh until I cry.

At least rain is falling though. I'd rather have it than not have it. The chickens are sitting on the porch watching it rain. They don't especially like rain, but I guarantee they are more comfortable now than they were in all that hot summer weather with little rainfall.

Dawn

Well, I'm very pleased Dawn is getting rain. Looks like it might rain for a while (knock wood). I checked this morning and there were big storms on either side of her, but not much over her! I thought "not again"! Dawn, you are forever teaching me things. Vertical mulching. I had never heard of it.

I went out and picked all the dried cowpea pods before the rain. I have a couple of okra plants, but darn they're small. I could put bush beans in there...

Not many tomatoes, but I suppose we'll have fruit set after this cooler weather. So, to cut them out or not, that is the question. I did get some brassica seeds started (late). The plan is to start the Kale today. 2 cukes survived Sasquatch. There are flowers and at least one baby cuke. I have moss rose flowering in front. I didn't think any germinated! Suddenly, there they were.

You know I named my chickens, but the names never suited them. The ones left are called Stupid, Almost as Stupid and The Other White One. Only one is laying. Why? One just came off of being broody. I believe we got them in the spring of 2016. Are they too old already? Ron cleared their yard yesterday and didn't find any outdoor nests.

Rebecca, I don't think anything stops vine borers. I have, in desperation, injected Bt into vines. Only works if you're close to the larva. And, not sure I want that INSIDE the plant. Some one once told me talcum powder. I wasn't sure I wanted that washed into my soil. I didn't grow squash this year. Maybe they'll have a harder time finding me next year.

H/J, I hope your foot is better, do you have a "boot"? Cool letter!

Kim, Dawn got rain, there is hope for you yet ;) Seriously, I hope you find something soon, and somewhere less likely to be sprayed.

Everyone have a good week!

Amy, when did they stop laying? It's possible they are about to molt. Have they ever molted? I got my first ones is the spring of 2015. They still lay except Marjorie. She had that weird illness about 3 months after beginning to lay and hasn't laid since. She always laid giant eggs--double yolks. Some people love that. My gut told me it wasn't good. She thinks she still lays eggs though--she chortles and sits in a nesting box almost every day. No egg though. What breed are your hens? Peggy, another of the originals, doesn't lay often. But she never did. She is a Cochin. The other two--Ida and Stella are still going strong. Stella's eggs are very distinct. She is a buff minorca and Ida is a black sex link.

My okra is small too!

Dawn, glad you're getting rain. And glad your chickens are still with you. Are they all hens?

The cotton was intentional. I started one last year that finally bloomed mid Oct, so I decided to try again this year. I got 2 red ones from seed and the green one from Dawn. I just want one or two bolls from each one, just to say I grew it.

Our cats are strictly indoor only. I'm not much of a cat person (though they are growing on me), but Cliff doesn't want them outside so we have extremely spoiled cats.

My grandmother had a box of old letters from her parents, brother, & siblings. As a kid, I was amazed at people writing about traveling by wagon and train. I think that is part of the reason I'm drawn to history.

Cotton on the road side. Cotton in the ditch. We all picked the cotton but we never got rich. Daddy was a veteran...a southern democrat. They oughta get a rich man to vote like that....

Really, when I was very small, they were still growing cotton at the farm. It wasn't much fun to pick. BUT, I like the plants growing in my flowerbed. I hope you have success with yours, Jen.

History is so interesting especially when you read it through your ancestors wills and letters, etc.

I typed up and posted a response a few hours ago. It's strange because the post shows on my phone, but not laptop. I dunno.

This just popped up in my fb. Last week we did get almost an inch here but it didn't register at airport that way, which is 1/4 miles east.

Just sitting out here on the deck in long sleeves, twiddling my thumbs, trying to count hummingbirds. THAT's a hard thing to do! Well, in fact, not doable. Got no idea. More than 10--beyond that, I give up. Could be the same ones or another 10. LOL

Dawn--so how much rain did you end up getting yesterday? Says rain the next five days, Who knows, though. We haven't gotten much with this latest round, yet. Just enough the past couple days to keep things wet. I was out yesterday weeding in the shop bed and center bed. I have seeds out ready to go, and of course that's when it resumed raining, so they're still sitting here. Nasturtiums and lime 4 o'clocks are soaking, waiting to go in the ground somewhere.

I recall you talking about how slow lavender is to grow, Dawn; since I had the seeds, I went ahead and planted them on the grow cart; yep, they are slow. :) But I see three of them are well on their way. The one little tiny cumin I managed to sprout is growing. Lavender has been fast compared to it. So now it's about 6" tall and a little scraggly. And I'm thinking now it's not going to stay hot enough for it to do anything, really. That's one herb I'd use a lot of. I never see any cumin bedding plants around--have the rest of you?

Just for fun, I walked carefully through the yard, trying not to get shoes wet, and counted up basil plants. 22, unless I missed some somewhere. And five rosemary plants out there--two that overwintered, with the help of lots of mulched leaves over them.

I have a question. There are all these plants in the bed that will self-seed. Question is, how many will poke up if I put 3-4 inches of mulch down this fall? Well, for sure I'll be mulching, but am hoping some of the seeds will grow through?

Have the rest of you gotten any or a lot of rain? Ever since our 100s dropped, we've had enough rain. How lucky.

The tall plants that Jason pegged as burn weed. I have to see this through, you know. I won't be surprised, of course, but as I said, don't see what was labeled NE aster anywhere else, so might as well just leave it sitting there for now, And in both places, it is getting BIG. It kinda clumps out.

The pineapple sages have finally taken off and are growing fast now, as well as a few datura that were late to make an appearance. The earlier datura got eaten by grasshoppers; one perished, the other is raggity and not in enough sun, but blooming, nevertheless.

Ahh, I am just dawdling along here. I guess I could maybe go do some work.

All is good here, rain started about 8 pm yesterday, raining most of the time since.

I busted up a large area in the wildlife garden for water pentatrartion, working well so far, no erosion yet.

Hazel, I remember 1952, it was the year we moved onto this small farm. I think someone mentioned Ac back then, we did not even know what it was. I remember our first radio, our first electric fan. our first refrigerator, our first phone with 6 or so to share the same partyline. We were so turned on about electricity. I still laugh when I think about my baby brother telling mom that when he got big he was going to get her an electric chair. He really wanted her to have the best in life.

Dawn, thanks for the info about wildseed farms, I am thinking that I will want about a pound of zinnia seeds, depending on my health.

I just got off the phone with Sparks administration complaining about it being over 3 months since insurance approving me going to Joplin and sparks still does not have me schuled, called Joplin, they tell me they are waiting on Sparks. I am a very unhappy camper at this point.

Dawn, I think I will be looking for honeysuckle vine seed also because the neighbors on each side of me are putting up deer stands, they both want the 12 point that is sleeping in the thicket in my wildlife area. Can anyone recommend a fast growing honeysuckle vine?

Larry I am so glad you are back here. I love your stories

Larry, it's so cool that you remember all those firsts.

It is pouring here. Really pouring. They chickens aren't put up, Tom is on the way home from a band meeting that I couldn't attend, and it's just a mess. I love the rain, y'all know that. It's such an unfortunate time for me to be unable to walk. The rain causes extra work regarding animals...and I'm unable to do any of it. My foot finally just gave out late last night. Had to crawl around. Took one of Ethan's pain pills from wisdom teeth removal last night and have been sleepy all day--which is good, I guess, it kept me from being fidgety. However, nothing is helping the fact that it is pouring and my chicken doors aren't closed. The babies windows are open and if the rain is going sideways, it's blowing in to the coop.

David Payne just said, "If you're fishing, get off the lake". No one is fishing, David.

I feel extremely cranky.

Obviously, no garden news. Just watched garden videos today.

Jacob, have you seen Root and Refuge YouTube channel? They are in Arkansas. I've watched a couple of their videos. Pretty good. It's funny 'cause my YouTube name is Root & Roost. I have no videos yet. lol. Had the channel for at least a couple of years.

So, now on the news, theyre going to make fun of the people who get stuck. The weather guys are mean.

A lady in my neighborhood was diagnosed with West Nile virus. Too close for comfort.

Hj

I have been binging on that channel. the best I've seen.

Kim, I saw on facebook that you found a job. I hope the details are buried in here, so I can get caught up. However, CONGRATS!!!

HJ, the whole reason I popped by is I have a new hypothesis on the plant that looked like mimosa/sensitive plant. Did you consider coffeeweed? Someone posted a plant in the OK Natives group on Facebook and it has similar foliage to the sensitive plants but gets tall and has a pretty hardy stalk plus beanlike pods.

While I appreciate the rain, if we could all hope for a dry day tomorrow that would be awesome. Earlier this week it was supposed to be dry and hot, now they're calling for cooler and rainy. I have to drive to Dallas for mom's friend's funeral. It's the first day of school for us tomorrow as well, so not getting the first-day clothes and brand new shoes wet/muddy would also be nice. I will miss all the excitement because we have to leave at 6 a.m. to make the funeral on time, but the hubs has already received a demo on how to fix LO's hair. Wish him luck. We'll see how it turns out. LOL I've taken Friday off work so we can do the usual first day rituals (mom drops off/picks up and ice cream after school) on the second day. LO has such a loving heart that she's okay with it. Admits she's disappointed I'll miss her actual first day - I am too - but hasn't launched a single complaint about it, not even a "but..." when I first told her.

The craziness that surrounds me doesn't seem to be settling down, despite my proclamations to the universe that "I'm done." Eventually, I'll have my bearings and get back in here to see what everyone is up to and fill you all in. In the meantime, add another family to your prayer list - The Hudsons. My god twins lost their grandma this weekend.

Amy, Have you been having hot weather? Chickens will stop laying in extreme heat (like those highs around 110 that we had back in July), but usually resume laying well once the heat subsides. Sometimes it can take them a month or so to get back into the groove after crazy-hot summer weather.

Jennifer, Four are hens, two are roosters---a big beautiful Cooper Maran and a tiny little Mille fleur d'uccle. Actually, I haven't seen the Mille fleur d'uccle this morning. I hope something didn't get him yesterday. Tim puts up the chickens at night and he usually mentions if one is missing, and he didn't say anything last night, so maybe the little banty rooster is just lying low. On the other hand, I have the flu and all I did last night was lie on the sofa wrapped up in a blanket, coughing and feeling miserable, so he could have told me something and it likely would have gone in one ear and out the other. I knew I'd come down with something because both the girls have had constant drainage, runny noses, allergy or cold type symptoms, etc., and we've been seeing them virutally every weekend so I knew I'd catch whatever they had or have. Yesterday I felt like death warmed over (now that is an old phrase from the 1980s or 1990s that you don't hear any more!) and today I feel slightly better. Or, maybe I feel like death warmed over twice, so my plan is to stay on the sofa and take it easy and fight the symptoms. Thank God and modern pharmaceutical science for the miracle that is Nyquil Cold & Flu Liquicaps. With it, I at least feel like I am still alive. Yesterday I had my doubts about that.

Kim, That pitiful rainfall is why I couldn't live out there in west Texas! I have got to have rain and green plants, and preferably without having to do a ton of irrigation. I'm glad y'all got the rain but you sure do need more.

Nancy, We ended up, when all was said and done, with 1.55", which sounds like a lot (and surely is the best rainfall we've had in ages), but with a 9-12" deficit for the water year, which ends at the end of September, it isn't enough. Everything literally greened up overnight and looks so much better now. If only the wildflowers now will come back to life and start blooming so the bees, butterflies and other pollinators will have something to carry them through fall. We may or may not get more rain. Those little 20-30% chances daily are mostly all about overnight storms further north in OK, which may or may not hold together and stay alive long enough to travel this far south and drop some raindrops here. Generally they do not, but the forecasters leave that 20% or 30% chance in the forecast daily just to torture us. We will need a lot more rain to heal up the cracks in the ground, but at least we got some rain. I expect the burn ban will be allowed to expire on Monday if the county commissioners don't cancel it earlier than that. The counties on the Texas side of the Red River, all the way down to Waco, got tremendous rainfall over a period of days, and their burn bans are dropping like flies now.

Y'all know that the downside to all the rain is higher dewpoints, higher relative humidity values and higher heat index values, right? So, that will be the price we pay for August rainfall. Prepare to sweat it out over the next few days.

Reseeding is tricky. I mulch heavily and get lots of reseeding of most plants anyway. Remember that the 3-4" of mulch you add in the fall will settle in and begin decomposing pretty quickly. If there's something you want to reseed and you're worried that it won't, just collect the seeds this fall and then broadcast sow them where you want the plants next Spring. For whatever reason (and this seems odd), I often get the best reseeding in some beds, and not in others. The flower border that sits along the south Garden fence always has plants reseed like crazy, but some other beds have very few. There's no rhyme or reason to it. They all have similar plants. They all have similar mulch. Some deliver a lot of volunteer seedlings the following year and others don't. Some years I find the most volunteers in the pathways, and not in the beds. It isn't a problem---I just dig them up while small and move them where I want them. Basil usually reseeds really well here. I think it is because I deliberately let it go to seed for all the tiny little pollinators who adore it. I don't really have to start any basil plants from seed any more---I can just be patient and see which ones pop up in Spring.

Larry, I love all the things that you remember. Some of our neighbors here can remember to the week and sometimes the exact day when they finally got electricity lines extended to their house. It was such a big deal to have one single light bulb illuminating the inside of their homes and everyone waited and waited and waited for the local electric co-op to finally get the poles and lines up and running in their part of the county. It truly was a big deal.

I am frustrated on your behalf. What is wrong with all those medical people? It is ridiculous the way they keep you waiting and waiting and waiting.

Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is the native one I have that spreads well but is not monstrously invasive like Japanese honeysuckle, which is Lonicera japonica. I did not grow it from seed, as I understand the seeds are hard to stratify and start. We've had this honeysuckle for almost 20 years and it never has given us one seedling from seed, but it will creep along the ground and root in and give you new plants that way, and then you can dig them up and move them where you want them. We bought our honeysuckle plants from Lowe's, and we got the named variety "Pink Lemonade". To me, they look virtually identical to a similar variety called Goldflame. Major Wheeler is another coral honeysuckle that flowers very abundantly.

Jennifer, I wouldn't say that the weather guys are being mean intentionally---I imagine they are frustrated. They warn people and warn people and warn people to not get out there in heavy downpours and drive into standing water, and people do it anyway. Then you see a lot of other people---cops, firefighters, medics and tow truck drivers (and often private citizens) out there trying to help those people who voluntarily put themselves in a bad situation. We see it here all the time. Well, all the time when it is raining. There are certain roads they are pretty low and always, always, always flood, and you'd think that people would know to avoid them, and yet they get out there and get stuck in high water, or even worse, washed off into water-filled bar ditches or creeks, etc., putting their rescuer's lives at risk. It is extremely aggravating and I can understand why the folks on TV poke fun at those folks---trying to use their situation to remind the rest of us why we shouldn't attempt to drive into or through standing water. It only takes a few inches of rushing water to carry a car off the roadway and I think a lot of folks are clueless about that. When you live in a state where rainfall is often a feast-or-famine type deal, you've got to be smart enough to avoid high water when heavy rain is falling. Turn around, don't drown.

So, based on those comments, I guess the OKC metro had heavy rain and flooding? I was so sick yesterday I didn't turn on the TV or get on my computer at all. I got on my phone a few times to check the local news or to respond to text messages and such, but mostly I tuned out the world and struggled to breathe without hacking up a lung. I am so ready for this flu stuff to move on, but since yesterday was Day 1, I guess I have a week or more of it to go. On the bright side, when I get the flu this early, I usually sail through the rest of the winter flu season with virtual immunity. I don't know if that will happen this year....with the girls around a lot and being at that age where upper respiratory infections run rampant, maybe Tim and I will have a lot more colds and such. I remember those days when Chris was very small and we seemed to catch everything that he got.

Everything looked so green this morning when I was out feeding the chickens and the wild things, but you could feel the humidity in the air, and not in a good way. I looked at the garden through the fence briefly while putting out the cracked corn for the doves, and some of the zinnias are not recovering, so I'll pull those when I feel well enough to go into the garden again. I'm ready for autumn to get here. I've had enough summer, rain or no rain.

Dawn

Dawn, I watched David Payne on my phone last night, the weather coverage. It was bad. Streets had waist deep water, homes and businesses flooded out, water rescues, wind damage, even I-44 was closed in a couple places due to standing water and the road buckling. It was mainly the southwest and south side and the Norman and Moore areas. Hopefully Paula and HJ will check in that they are ok. We got a nice heavy rain overnight here, but haven’t checked the gauge yet. Nothing like what they got. Coffeyville Kansas and surrounding areas had a good 10 inches yesterday, bad flooding there too.

Rebecca, Thanks for the update. It sounds like it was really bad.

Why oh why can't we drought-plagued areas ever get rain like that? I promise I would stay inside and just watch it rain and rain and rain. I wouldn't go out and drive in it or anything.

Ten inches of rain (or even 6-8") in one day is not good---too much rainfall at once still is too much. All joking aside, we always say it takes a flood to end a drought---and it does. Our drought of 2008-2009 ended on April 29, 2009, when 12.87" of rain fell in one 24 hour period here. It. was. not. pretty. The amount of damage done to rural roadways (which often are barely better than dirt roads) is unreal from that sort of heavy rainfall. I imagine Norman has some roadway issues today.

Oh, and to give all of you a good laugh---our VFD just got paged out to a lawn mower on fire on I-35. I assume it is more of a tractor than a mower because I cannot imagine the state contractors mowing the interstate right-of-way with a lawn mower. It actually is hard to imagine a tractor or mower on fire in the green, wet soggy mess we have today. I guess sometimes rainfall isn't the savior we think it will be. The first unit is on the scene and reports one mower fully engulfed in flames. I guess they aren't meant for mowing wet grass. Murphy's Law and all that.....

Dawn

So, being a weather geek, I had to go see what the Mesonet was showing with regards to last night's rainfall, and found Gary McManus' Mesonet Ticker from this morning. I'll link it below. He addresses the monumental and record-setting rainfall and recaps recent OK rainfall.

Mesonet Ticker

If y'all read this a day or two later than I post it, he may have a new ticker up that replaces the current one I've linked.

I'm okay. I was on my couch watching it all on TV. Stupid foot issue.

However, both Tom and Ethan were out and very near to the places where flooding was the worst...but not quite. They were at Western, in between 119th and 134th. The worst was a few blocks north of there. I will say a lot of people don't go driving for fun in the rain. They mostly aren't expecting it to rain so hard that it floods. Last night was back-to-school night for several metro schools....and parent meetings and such. It came so hard and so fast and people weren't prepared. Pretty sure no one expected it to rain that hard. And it was dark. Sometimes you're just in a bad spot at the wrong time. That's why the weather people were rude in my opinion. The south metro was very traffic busy last night for sure, but I'm pretty sure most of them weren't just out to be out. They were meeting their kids' teachers and buying school supplies and the like.

There was flooding down the street from my work, but it was all clear this morning. Ethan went to the OU campus today to meet with a trombone professor and he didn't mention anything about the roads.

Dawn, I'm so sorry you have the flu. The cough is the worst.

The coral honeysuckle that I got from you, Dawn, is alive and well, but didn't spread this year. It had a rough start, but is looking healthy now. I'm sure it needed to establish itself and next year it will take off.

I have a meeting and then am finally getting a hair cut. Then home. Foot is doing okay today. Thank goodness. I was really worried about it.

Dreading the humidity that I know is waiting for me outside.

We had a flash flood here. No real damage I know of, but I have never seen the water as deep as the flood marks in our front ditch. The creek is still overflowing east of our house and the wet weather creek south of the house is still rolling deep. I think the low water bridge is still there, but I know it will need some repair.

The flash flood happened while we were in Ft. Smith visiting mom. When we got home there was large pickup in our driveway with the hood up. They said that they drove some water too fast and round their truck out. While they were waiting on the towtruck we went out to the garden and picked them a sack of veggies.

Dawn, when I started cleaning things up around here, I was trying to get rid of all the honeylocus, honeysuckle, and cedar . I may take honeysuckle off the list because of the wildlife.

It has stopped raining and the sun is shinning, I think I will go check on damages.

Well, I should have stayed in the house. I went over to my neighbor's to check if he had damage, he has a produce farm and said nearly all his fall planting washed away. I had told him about erosion, he knows first hand now, he told me that it rained 3 inches in 45 minutes. We live at the foot of a mountain and can get a lot of water off of that hillside. I am fine as far as erosion, but I went to back side of my place checking for damage and got my tractor stuck. I can't walk very far and had to call Madge to come and get me.

Thank God for cell phones sometimes, Larry!! Sounds like perhaps you had minimal damage? I do hope the tractor won't be too hard to get out.

(When I lived on the ranch and we did contract haying, we were at a neighbors, with 3 tractors baling and stacking. One got a little too close to a swampy area after a heavy rain and , BAM, stuck. By the end of the day, all 3 tractors were stuck trying to pull tractors out. Duh. Nothing to do but wait two days for it to dry out. I still laugh about it.)

Loved the story about the electric chair. HAAAHAAA. I enjoyed that story a lot more than the SUCKY story and your totally unacceptable health care. Pretty ticked off about that.

I am so sorry you're sick, Dawn. Wishing you lots of rest and a quick turnaround. I'm so glad you got some decent rain; I hope you get some more soon. AND thank you for your words on re-seeding. Added greatly to my thinking.

And HJ, frustrating about the foot--I hope it's REALLY REALLY better by tomorrow.

AND Kim. . . . best to you with your situation and work. Still thinking of you. And you, Megan. And Paula and all of you!

We missed out on the past 2 days of possible rain, and all is good. We got no rain yesterday (or today), but it was lovely for weeding. And I'm back on the deck again til midnight with the cooler temps.

I'm glad you all mentioned the coral honeysuckle. I gotta start hunting some down. Wish me luck.

My little elderberry bushes are growing. They are little, but they are growing. Good. Cannot believe the rejuvenation of some of the other things. The zebrina look plusher than when they first started blooming, and have nearly as many flowers. They were pretty beat up last month, and had plenty of insect damage, as well. They've grown new bugless leaves and look terrific. Gotta love that one. And the moonflower vines (ipomoeia), and they DO smell divine. Can smell them from a good fifteen feet away. I have some scarlet coleus and other ones in the corner shady bed. Put them in as small small plants and they stayed that way for two months. NOW they are taking off big time. Hydrangeas are monstrous, and bless their hearts, they are actually producing a few flowers, after having lost all the initial ones because of late frosts. Most of the bad bugs are gone for now, so the plants are all very very happy. Grasshoppers still hanging around, but many fewer. (Boy some of them are BIG, though.)

Verbena bonariensis did very well! They started out skimpily, but several of the clumps have grown a bunch of other stalks, and all are looking good.

I got a shipment from Kitazawa a few days ago. Amy, Eileen and I put in a single order. Since they came to ME (hahahaha), I kidnapped seeds from the others, and will have to get those bunching onions and some of the delectable-looking greens in very soon. Have any of you grown sesame? Gonna try those this next year. I'm excited to try. Probably be like my tiny but growing cumin.

Tiny was a crack-up this morning. I let him out for the whole morning. He mostly shadowed Tom and Jerry. I found it interesting that neither of them took off very far from the deck when he was on their tail. This is fascinating for me to observe. They ARE caretakers. Animals are so cool. However, I took Tiny in to feed, and when I let him out again, Tom and Jerry were gone. As was Titan. GDW was in the shop. So Tiny was wandering on the deck and close to the deck. I went out to the veggie beds and was checking things out, contemplating whether to pick peppers or let them be for a little longer, when I suddenly heard Tiny Dude wailing, LOUD and frantic. I hastily headed back to the deck, and saw him standing at the edge of it, crying. Then he spotted me, quit crying and RAN to me. I swear--he was frantic because none of us were there with him. I scooped him up; he was just beside himself purring and licking my hand, saying, "Where WERE you???" Then I decided to go in and do paperwork so he could chill and be with someone in the house, and he was one happy little guy. I couldn't even touch the computer or paperwork for 15 minutes, for his wrestling and loving.

Garry was laughing at me today while Tiny Dude was out. He said, "I notice you don't worry about him anything like you did with Tom and Jerry." We both laughed. I said, "I know. Well, YOU know, when the third kid arrives, blah blah, no big deal." Hahaha. Part of it, though, is that it has become clear that little cat is one spoiled little brat with all his lovely creatures around him--Titan, T and J, G and I, that he wants our company. He is not a solitary creature. HE loves his family. He is adorable. Makes me smile, Dawn, that you know his character, based on your experiences with Pumpkin.

Last night I seeded green beans (Provider and Jade), Cascadia snap peas, Shelby spinach, Detroit beets, and a mix of lettuces. Even though there was just under an inch in the rain gauge, I had to water them in. Still need to figure out where the carrots will go.

Fall tomatoes looking good, except one that’s shriveling up, for some reason. The spring EGs are starting to set again with the cooler weather. They look like crap, but are still going.

Dawn, when do I harvest the PEPH? Just when the pods feel chunky?

Jennifer, But this is Oklahoma where we all know that rain can drop some big downpours on any given day. It happens all too often, especially in portions of central OK. People need to watch the water rising around them just as much as they're watching the time or their own schedule. That's all I'm saying. I'm glad you weren't out in it and sorry that Tom and Ethan were. I hate getting caught out in heavy rainfall, especially when visibility gets so bad that you cannot see the roadway ahead of you.

I agree. The cough with the flu is the worst---it makes people look at you like they think you're going to cough so hard that you're going to drop dead on the spot or something. This is Day 4 and I am starting to feel like I'm going to survive, so maybe the worst is over. It is the first day I've managed (so far) to stay awake all day.

Coral honeysuckle's growth is like any perennial---the first year it creeps, the second year it sleeps and then the third year is leaps. It should be fine by year three. I remember mine seemed a little sluggish their first couple of years but then they took off and grew like mad.

Yesterday's humidity and heat index values were bad, but today's are blowing them off the charts! It is horrible out there. Here's the max heat index values at each Mesonet station so far today:

Maximum Heat Index Values

Larry, That is so unfortunate about the flash flooding. That sure was a lot of rain in a short time. At least now your neighbor understands what you were warning him about. How typical of you to go out and harvest a bag of veggies for someone!

Our first flash flood here that I remember was 5" one Saturday in the summer---maybe our second summer here. We went from bone dry to waterlogged with balls of fire ants floating in the water in the blink of an eye. It was shocking how quickly the water rose, the creeks and bar ditches flooded, and the roadways had water flowing across them. We learned right then just how prone our area around our home was to flood in heavy rainfall---a lesson that has served us well ever since. We have had days of much heavier rainfall since then, but none of them have shocked us quite as much as that first one did.

Tim has gotten stuck in mud before (why he got off the driveway to begin with, well, I have no idea....) and had to be pulled out. He is stubborn and pigheaded and had to get stuck in our clay mud at least 6 or 8 times before he learned his lesson. He still gets stuck in wet sand or wet clay at brush fires. When I hear someone say we have a brush rig stuck in mud at a fire, I always assume it is him.....and 9 times out of 10 I'm right. Nowadays, when he leaves to go to a grassfire or wild fire after we've had heavy rain, I always yell as he's running out the door "hey, don't get stuck in the mud!". I might as well be talking to the wall because my words go in one ear and out the other.

One of our son's friends got stuck in our driveway once when heavy rain washed out the driveway. He was stuck right by my garden and our efforts to pull him out seemed to do no good at all. If anything, it seemed like he was getting dug into the mud deeper and deeper. Fred saw us working as he drove by, went home and got his little ATV (it did have 4WD) and pulled out that car in the blink of an eye. I've never understood how he did that.

Nancy, We've had that happen with tractors trying to pull out fire trucks that get stuck in the mud. After you get 2 or 3 tractors stuck, it is starting to get ridiculous, but it seems like there always is a superhero with a super tractor who comes along and pulls out everybody else and gets everyone out of that mud.

Nothing in my garden really is recovering as well as I had hoped. It doesn't help that we're up close to 100 degrees. If the heat would stay away or if more rain would fall.... but, honestly, these plants have been so drought-stressed that I should just quit hoping and pull them out of the ground. Once a plant has had all it can stand, that's it. I know that, but the optimist in me wants to believe there's a miracle cure that will revive them and there isn't. We got enough rain to put a dent in the drought, but it wasn't miracle rainfall or anything, and I guess I keep hoping for a miracle.

Tiny cracks me up. He and Pumpkin are kindred spirits---just so lively! Your poor Tiny must have had a panic attack when he couldn't find any of his human or animal security blankets. The only time that Pumpkin ever has cried like that was when he fell into a pond. Thankfully he was able to jump on a log and get back to shore, but he whined and wailed and carried on, and I had to chase him all over the yard so I could get to him and calm him down and dry him off because he was so panicky that he wouldn't stop running.

Well, crap, I thought I felt so much better today so I spent a lot of time cleaning house and doing laundry this morning, and now I think I did too much. In fact, I know I did. I feel totally exhausted again and sick as a dog. Clearly I should have learned by now that my body does not recover from illness as quickly at the age of 59 as it did at 40 or 50 or even 55. Maybe one of these days I'll learn that lesson, but it won't be in time for this round of the flu.

A terrible tragedy occurred in our county today and it will hit everyone hard. I wish I'd had my fire radio turned off so I'd never heard it. Sometimes, you just don't want to know.....

Dawn

I posted this on FB today because I thought it was so funny. . . know many of you aren't on FB, so I thought I'd share my laugh with you. SOUND ASLEEP:

I want to snuggle his little tummy, Nancy!

Well, the rain that OKC got the other day, we got today. Same pattern, same huge dump of water, even the equivalent parts of town. I only got maybe an inch or so at my place, but at my mom's house about 6 miles south, she got about 3.75" in a little under 2 hours. Lots of flash flooding in the south part of Tulsa, wind damage, power outages. Apparently it was just our turn. Before the storms fired up, we were around 93 and heat indexes between 105 and 110. Just the perfect summer storm scenario. So, I guess I could have gotten away with not watering in my seeds yesterday.

First. Megan, I'm so sorry. I'm just now seeing your post about the coffeeweed. It does resemble my mystery plant! Thank you! I'll research it.

Wow. Today's FB was only my friends posting back-to-school pics of their kids. Me too. Last year I didn't get one and I sure wasn't going to be the loser parent THIS year and not post a first day pic.

Oh, Nancy. I love his belly. It reminds me of Finbars!

Sorry about your community's tragedy, Dawn. I agree, sometimes it's best not to know. I tend to wake in the middle of the night in a panic when something tragic happens even to people I don't know.

I sure wish I could look at my garden. I don't dare. I overdid it today at school. Can't make that mistake tomorrow. Did look at the chickens. All seems to be well. Stormy is taking care of Jules, the younger chick. Rosa has gotten over it--I think. I haven't had a chance to really observe. It's so funny...only not really. More interesting. The lower roosting bar is the 3 youngest hens (the ones I got at the end of February) and Dolly and Rosa (the two moms). I'm sure Rosa will make her way to the top roost soon enough. Not sure on the others. Both Buff Orpingtons are far from being top girl. I'm pretty sure they don't want to be top girl either. Everyone is laying well. All good.

Kane not so much, but I don't want to talk about it now.

Dawn, I'll plan on the coral honeysuckle to not be crazy next year. That's good to know. I can plan on planting something else to provide shade. Thanks for the info.

Nancy, I'm going to need to start over with the elderberries. So sad that they didn't make it. I might need to start with plants instead of sticks. Obviously I'm not so good with elders. I somehow killed 5!

LOL, HJ. You probably paid too much attention to the elderberries! LOL. I just dug a little hole in the middle of the lawn out front and plunked em in right away. I guess your foot's not better. So bummed for ya. But this, too, shall pass. XOXO

Had to laugh at you guys talking about Tiny's little belly. By the way, he has a hernia in his little belly. We're trying to time it so that when he is neutered, they can take care of the hernia at the same time; probably in the next two weeks. He has certainly brought a lot of joy and togetherness with us all, including Tom and Jerry and Titan. I am most amazed at the pets. He is merciless with Tom and Jerry. He is either attacking them constantly or lying on top of them. What it has done for me, is that I love Tom and Jerry SO much for their gentleness with him. What wonderful kitties they have turned out to be. And every day, I have one or both of them pestering me with lovings and cuddle naps. They are cat saints. Tiny's just as merciless with Titan, and he has responded just as T and J have. hahaha just one big happy family here. Tiny is simply adorable, we seem to all agree.

We missed the big Tulsa rains today; we probably got about .2 inches, but we didn't really desperately need rain, so it's good. At this point rather have not so much than flooding rains. I'm not that keen on flooding rains after 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Dawn, of course I had to do google searches on tragedy there. . . . very sad. VERY sad.

Wish all of you in the dryer parts and hotter parts could be sharing our weather now.

Will be poignant times with Ethan this year, HJ, but try to remember it is not the end, but simply the real beginning of his life. And YOUR new one.

One thing I've learned from our "zoo" is that animals have a sense about them. Tigger definitely lives up to her name (bouncy, bouncy, bouncy) and in the beginning would try to play with my 17 year old poodle like she plays with our 2 lab mix boys. But a few weeks ago we were puppy sitting an 8 week old pup & she was so gentle with him. She'd almost let him win when they played tug, and even redirected him when he tried to play with the poodle (the poodle was the only one smaller than him so I understand the attraction). Our oldest, Whiplash, was the same. He's 6 so he's done playing with puppies, but he still lets them crawl all over him to a point. This was shortly after we got Tigger, as you can tell he's THRILLED to have a little sister.

Nancy, How typical of a kitten to think a keyboard is a good napping spot! This photo just cracks me up.

Rebecca, You know that you made it rain there by watering your seeds. If you wouldn't have watered, it wouldn't have rained. That's Murphy's First Law of Gardening in Oklahoma. It only rains after you've watered and don't need the rain so badly. Y'all did have killer heat index up there yesterday. I hope the rain took the edge of the heat.

Jennifer, My FB was the same today---I always enjoy seeing the students dressed up and ready (smiling or not as the case may be) for their first day back. One of our dear friends, who also is a firefighter with our VFD, is a teacher here at our local elementary school and she posted a lot of photos of her cute classrooom (decorated in a firefighting theme....getting fired up for education...) the day before school started. I loved seeing her photos of her empty classroom, and then knew to expect a slew of back-to-school photos the next day. It is amazing how much the kids change from year to year. FB didn't even exist when Chris was a kid, but we always did the first day back to school photos and still have them.

It is horrifying to hear a tragedy unfolding and to be unable to help. It tears me up---particularly when you are at the point that they go to total radio silence and you realize that there is no verbal traffic on the radio because there's nothing anyone can do to change the outcome. I tossed and turned all night, hoping it was not my favorite electrical co-op lineman, but as it turned out it was him. He lived near our fire station and was just such a kind, friendly man and very capable/very experienced at his job. Our whole community is grieving and in shock. In little towns where, as the saying goes, "everybody knows everybody", these things hit extra hard because it isn't happening to some anonymous person---it is a person you pass on the streets, see in town, see working at your fire station (he put up our storm siren for us), see out mowing the yard or working on his truck or whatever....it really does hurt. I cannot even imagine what his family, close friends and co-workers are going through. I'm praying for them all.

I hope that Kane is going to be okay. I'm worried about him.

Don't be so hard on yourself over the elderberries. It has been a really tough and bizarre weather year.

Nancy, Isn't it amazing what the older and bigger animals tolerate from the smaller, younger ones?

Half our county awakened this morning to thunderstorms and locally heavy rainfall and flash flooding.....but (naturally) it wasn't in my half of the county. I hope they all stayed out of the high water and just enjoyed the rain. At least it was in western Love County where they need that moisture in the soil for whenever they plant the winter wheat. We got a free sprinkles from the far eastern edge of their storm, but it won't even add up to a trace in the rain gauge.

All afternoon I knew what had happened because when you're listening to a medical call on the radio, it progresses in certain ways.....only this one never progressed once the first responder arrived on the scene, so I knew a long time before we officially knew, and I just felt heartbroken and sick about it.

I thought Chris' senior year was such a mixed bag of happy/sad moments---so many things that you do that you then realized "this is the last time.....". Life goes on, though, and the college, career and life adventures that were out there ahead of him that senior year have happened/are happening and bring just as much joy. It is just that your kid isn't such a kid any more after they get out of high school. Still, they're always your kid, no matter how old and mature they seem.

Jen, I agree with you. We had a smooth fox-haired terrier named Sam who could play like a wild, rowdy dog with the rest of them, but when a mama cat had kittens upstairs in the spare bedroom, he would pick up each kitten gently in his mouth and carry it downstairs to visit us until he had all six kittens tumbling around on the floor around us. He was like a proud grandpa and he wanted to have the kittens with him at all times. I would have to pick them up, put them all in a box and carry them back upstairs to their mama (they were very young and still nursing). This caused him endless distress because he loved them so and wanted to be with them always. I had to keep the door to the spare room closed to stop him from fetching his favorite cuddly kittens all the time. Every time someone went in and out of that room and left the door open, he brought down all six kittens. As they grew up, he became just a big cat bed for them and they'd sleep sprawled all over him.

Pets add so much to our lives, but they sure can be destructive when they're digging up gardens and plants and such.

No gardening for me today. I just hope to get over this flu thing as quickly as possible so I can resume normal life. Now I wake up with energy and all kinds of plans, and within a half hour I realize I've expended all the energy for the day and just sit around kind of worthless for the rest of the day. I haven't cooked dinner all week and probably won't cook it tonight or tomorrow either. I'm tired of fast food. Right now, opening a can of soup qualifies as making a meal.

Dawn

Crazy cool this morning. 72. . . . brr. I believe we'll have a pot roast. A pot roast! Hope it doesn't get up to 90 by supper time.

We somehow have had 1.25" of rain over the past couple days. One half hour downpour this morning, but we must have gotten rain during last night or night before, too. I was surprised. Last night's rains from Tulsa went mostly north of us and south of us through Wagoner. Funny how that happens.

I was sad, Dawn, reading about the lineman. They all have a special place in my heart. Worked with many of them in Mpls, and now have a son-in-law who is one. I can imagine the pain everyone is going through.

It's too wet to do any planting today. Maybe tomorrow. It's almost reveal time for the big American burnweeds (likely) or my hope they are asters. Maybe another week; seeing little tiny buds coming on. I've been laughing about them ever since Jason's ID, but hey; brought em this far, may as well hang in there til the bitter (or beautiful) end. I'll have the loppers ready, for the former.

The malabar spinach is going crazy. Good for it! It tasted just fine eaten raw, and I understand its packed with nutritional goodies.

I enjoyed the Sam-with-his-kittens story so much. And love little fox terriers. So smart, and sweet dogs, too--and tougher than many small dogs. Haha, Jen, yes, Whiplash looks thrilled! You have a houseful of dogs, with those lab mixes! LOL Your poodle has been with you for a long time!

I suppose I must go inside and clean the kitchen and dining floors. I promised myself yesterday I'd get to it.

Its too wet to do anything outside.

I went to town and got 4# of purple top turnip seeds to plant a few in the garden, the rest for the deer, I will get different kinds of seed later. Some of the kinds of seed I want have not made it into our local farmers coop yet. I also got a part to install on my neighbor's brush hog. A real boring day sofa.

Pets can really steel your heart. We have a little Yorkie that will be 12 next month, but he has Cushing disease and is sick a lot. He loves raw carrots and sweet potatoes but does not have enough teeth to eat them, so daddy has to chew them up for him, but daddy is too slow, he can shallow faster than I can chew..

I have been on my feet too much today sharpening gardening tools. This was just busy work because it too wet to do anything and hate just sitting around.

We have had a little rain today with more coming in. The weather has been cool today, but yesterday was very hot and humid.

I am bored, I think I will go over to my old house and to get my tractor unstuck. If you hear of a missing person in Sebastian county, just tell them to look in the old garden spot for a mud pit, it will contain an old worn out John Deere and an old worn out man.

Dawn, looks like you and I both are stuck on the couch. I really dislike this. But, at least I'm not coughing. Hope your cough goes away soon. Have you tried Vicks on the feet, covered with socks?

Nancy, I'm not sure what I did or didn't do for the elders. I will try again though! So glad yours are doing well. I love reading about your kitties and pup. They are so entertaining. Mine are slightly annoying right now. They have this new things where Juno gets behind the curtains on the window sill and they play fight. It's in the bedroom around 6 am. Not cute. And it tears up my curtains. I'm so happy they love each other though.

It got hot here today. I was good and stayed on the couch, but feel bad for the animals. Heat index in Norman was 109 at one point. Actually it still is. Hope Tom filled the chickens waterers. They certainly get extra attention when I'm able to be out there. They would have a mister, fan, and frozen fruit. Trying to let it go. The little bit of movement I can afford is focused on Kane.

I'm not okay with my kids being grown. But, I also know the alternative. So...I'll accept it. Last week, my daughter's boss needed a sitter for his child. I had a lot of fun with her. My foot was hurting and it was hot the day she stayed with me, so I was hoping she would get bored with the chickens quickly. Nope. She wanted to stay outside the entire time. Playing with the chickens and Josi. Inside, she kept putting the cats in a dog crate and "taught" them how to get out. Taught the turtle how to dance. Finally, I let her water the flowers (although we had just gotten a ton of rain). She played with the nozzle settings more than anything. No watching TV or coloring for her. But to be fair, I had a meeting at work that morning and she had to sit in my office during the meeting. She watched Netflix and crafted then. (If I've already I told this story, I apologize). She is six. Six is such a wonderful age. So fun. She was disappointed that she was going to another sitter the following day.

I want to go to the garden. The entire property looks rough. Tom did a quick, messy mow last night because he thought it was going to rain. It's a wreck. I have so many inside and outside chores to do. I was so close to finishing the pathways...just need a couple of nights. It's not going to happen anytime soon.

Hmmm...what to do. Maybe read?

Always was a big Yorkie lover, Larry, as I said. My life will likely end without having one. Kinda sad. But with 3 cats and a dog now, I've probably come to my limits with my husband's kind patience. :) And though he says he hates pets, guess who they all flock to. (This is because he stays in one place for more hours than I do.) He is their couch pillow for lovins. I am who they shadow when they're awake. And I am, after all, the magic food-giver.

By the way, I , too, was BORED today. I tell you, it has been years, many years, since I was bored. It is a horrible waste of one's time on earth. Mad at myself. I could have been cleaning house. Or better yet, painting, or finishing up a quilt. Ridiculous. Pouting because it rained so hard and everything was too wet. I REALLY need to readjust my attitude.

HJ, my garden's a wreck too and yet not. It is a glorious jungle. I DO have most of the crabgrass out of the center bed, and have piles and piles of it right IN that bed. And other beds. Not that much Bermuda, except the two back beds that are overrun by it. I consider that a huge victory.

I was so touched that you babysat your daughter's boss's little one and that she loved the experience. I'm sure any young one would, with you.

And, still, HJ, have you been to a doctor about this problem? I don't do doctors except in emergencies, as you may know. Broken bones are one of them. I like orthopedic folks. Fix the bone, all is good. LOL. 20-30 years ago, I had 3 broken wrists in one year and a broken leg, too. (One of those wrist breaks caused complications; right thumb tendon was ruptured by healing callouses, and I spent, in total, about 6 months without the use of my right hand. And I'm right-handed. Fascinating and rewarding. I can now write left-handed or right-handed, and I can draw left-handed. It was kind of a "fun" challenge.) DIL laid down the law. No more rollerblading for her MIL. That was the wrists. She was so ticked off with me, rightfully so. The broken leg was innocent. Just playing tag with DIL and son's dog, running in a park where it had recently rained and was slippery. I put on the brakes to trick him and foot slid awkwardly under and "SNAP." I had to crawl up a few hundred steps to get out of that low-lying park. Otherwise, would have had to been helicoptered out. But I did it, with Steph and Brisco with me. This doctor had already seen me 3 times with the wrists, and now the leg. I asked him, "Do I need to be worrying about osteoporosis?" He laughed and said no, I was good. I seemed to just be going through a clumsy spell.

Yeah, have no beef with orthopedic folks. The rest of them? Uh, not so easy.

I love that so many of us are going through the same things with our gardens. . . . kinda like, yeah, minimal maintenance.

My great pot roast. Was a riff on what I think was called Mississippi pot roast. Yeah, it WAS 90 degrees by dinnertime. BUT it was exquisite. Highly recommend it. Tastiest pot roast I've had in a long long time. I don't like using not-natural ingredients. But had them here from ages past, so used them. (Like powdered ranch-style dressing, for example.) Called for pepperoncinis. Got those in spades. Garry LOVED it. And I did too. Despite 90 degrees.

This is a picture of our little boy tearing up a paper towel. He has never torn anything up other than tissue paper.

He is old and not in good health, but he is still our baby.

Nancy, I can understand about Gary not being an animal lover. Madge never was either.

We got Hercules when he was 3 months old. Her granddaughter wanted us to keep him 3 months, when he would be able to shipped to Hawaii, where she was moving. He became so attached to Madge and her granddaughter could not bear to part them.

What a cute little yorkie! He is adorable.

Nancy, I hope your nice weather lasted. I wasn't watching the weather much last week other than trying to keep an eye on our own.

Tim said something to me yesterday that reminded me what a tough summer it has been here. He said he couldn't think of any community in our county having two such awful losses of members in such a short time, and after I thought about it a while, I think he is right. We are in a little unincorporated rural to semi-rural area of Love County in between the towns of Marietta and Thackerville, and our neighbor who was the lineman was the second tragic loss of a community member here in the last couple of months. The first was a gentleman who perished in a fire after the gasoline tanker truck he was driving was cut off in traffic, overturned and burned. Two horrible losses suffered by two families in such a short time in such a small community as ours....it is unfathomable. The first was one of those things that your brain refuses to believe when it hears it, and then the second one was exactly the same.....too horrific to be real. I think all of us here are just so done with 2018 and trying to remain positive and look ahead to what hopefully will be a better year in 2019.

I wonder if your burnweed will be burnweed? I still think when Jason IDs a plant, you can take his ID as gospel. I don't think I've ever seen it here, but y'all have such different soils and different climate up there in some ways that it is like we are in a whole different country----ha ha, at least you are in the Green Country and we're in the Mostly Brown Country. That would be funnier were it not so true.

Larry, In August of any year, I still think it is better to be too wet than to be too dry. We had good rainfall last week, but the dry ground slurped it right up. Well, at least the rain did fall.

Since you came back and posted a photo of your little Yorkie (he is so adorable!), I guess you and the tractor survived the mud and are not stuck out there in it.

Jennifer, I didn't try Vick's on the feet because we didn't have any and I wasn't going to go anywhere for any reason. I am starting to feel better but it was a rough week, and I think the recovery is going slowly. I am bored, but that's a good sign, because I don't start feeling bored until I start feeling better.

It sounds like you had a really fun day babysitting that six year old. I bet she was disappointed to learn she was going somewhere else the next day!

There will be time later to catch up on outdoor work. Just take care of yourself.

Nancy, Heavy rainfall in August is such a gift that you just have to get over the pouting, you know! My grandmother always admonished us to never look a gift horse in the mouth. If I whine about rain in August I know what will happen----the following August we won't get any rain at all. So, I hope you got the pouting and all out of your system and can appreciate the gift that August rainfall truly is. Sometimes when we say we are bored, I really think that what we mean is that we aren't able, for whatever reason, to do the things we really want to do. Sometimes I'll be whining to myself that I'm bored, but it isn't because there aren't things to do---they just aren't the things I want to do. Because of that, I don't do them and just sit and say that I am bored.

Your 90 degrees sounds nice to me (unless the heat index was, like, 99 or 100). We were 97 on Friday and 96 yesterday. I think today is supposed to be closer to your 90, but I guess I haven't looked at the forecast in a couple of days so I'm not sure.

Larry, Hercules is so precious. I love Yorkies but we always have medium to big dogs. I'd have a Yorkie in a heartbeat though.

It is hard to watch our furbabies get old and sick. We have been down that road with so many dogs over the years, and our black lab mix, Jet, who is now 13, has chronic kidney disease and, according to the vet, is in the final months of his life. He is on medication and a special prescription diet and I try to treasure every day we have left with him because there likely won't be too many more of them. He was never supposed to be ours. Born to a stray dog, Honey, who followed me home when I was walking our other dogs, he was one of a litter of four. Tim's best friend picked out two of them, Jet and Duke, to adopt as his own when they were only two days old. He got the pick of the litter and we promised Ken we'd reserve them for him and not give them away to anyone else once they were big enough to leave their mother. The following week, Ken was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor. Again, we promised him we'd keep his two puppies with us until his treatments were done and he was ready to bring them home to his ranch. Sadly, his cancer progressed quickly. Diagnosed in late March or early April, he was gone before the end of May. By then, we were too attached to "Ken's dogs" to let them go, so we kept them. His wife didn't want them, as she felt she couldn't cope with two new dogs while coping with his death and trying to keep the ranch running full time while also working full time in Dallas. We understood and were happy to keep Jet and Duke ourselves. Duke left us three years ago and I've been all too aware ever since then that Jet's time is coming too. It is hard. I wish they aged at the same rate as we do, but they don't.

As hard as it is to lose our furbabies, I have accepted that we just have to endure the pain of losing them----it is the price we pay for having had such wonderful pet companions to share our lives.

Dawn

Dawn, the tractor,Herc, and I made it through the mud. Herc was sick for a couples of days and would only ear baby carrots that I chewed up for him. But he is doing better now.

I managed work the bucket on the tractor to roll it to higher ground. It was stuck in our old garden spot that has not been tilled for 12 years,the soil is very deep and soft there, but if stays too wet for an early garden. Because there is also an artisan well there, there is an endless supply of water to be used when needed

I have not been handling the wet weather very well. I am needing to repair equipment, plant some fall garden and cover crop, but I ache so much it is hard to get motivated.