Have y'all noticed the day length is getting visibly shorter now? At first I was only noticing it in the early morning hours because I couldn't go out to feed the wildlife and chickens as early as usual, but now I'm noticing it in the evenings too. We have to get out earlier and earlier each week to close up the chicken coop before dark. It may not feel much like autumn is approaching, but you sure can see it in the day length.

Rebecca, I'm sorry about the flare and also the bone spurs. I hope they come up with a good solution for the bone spurs that is not too painful or too invasive.

I thought of you today as we were walking into the Southlake Central Market----I was thinking how much you'd enjoy being there too. Granted, it was a Sunday afternoon so it was really jam packed with people and the produce section was pretty much standing room only. I love this store so much and we brought home some great food, soap and elderberry cold/flu products so we're ready for whatever hits us next. The bakery was really packed too so all I did was grab a loaf of sourdough and then push my way through the crowd. We were in and out fairly quickly, mostly because we had a list and totally stuck to it (which is rare when we are in that store).

If your peas are in the shade for the hottest part of the day, I suspect they'll be okay. Hopefully September will bring us a meaningful change in temperatures, though I do not believe the 8-14 day forecast shows that. I need to look at it again.

Jen, You sure did a lot of work today. Who needs to go outdoors and work after already putting in a full day rearranging the room? You'll have to tell us what the animals think about it all----our dogs and cats do not like it at all when we move furniture around. Anyhow, it was too hot to work outdoors today anyway. Tomorrow will be the same but windier.

Nancy, I'm glad that both the Black and Bloom salvia and the verbena bonariensis have done well for you.

You know, I think my garden looks crappy now because I know what everything looked like back when it was at its peak, before many drought-killed and heat-decimated plants had to be pulled and thrown on the compost pile, etc. Other people, though, who aren't me, keep talking about how spectacular the flowers look. They only see them while driving by, though, so they just see blooms from a distance and that distance hides a lot of the imperfections. Chris even asked how I have kept the flowers looking so good this year, and I suggested he get his eyes checked or at least wear his glasses. As it turns out, he and Jana pulled out dead boxwoods at their rental house a couple of weeks ago and planted flowers (I didn't ask what kind). They were very excited about it. Well, the flowers all are dead now. He said he watered at least twice.....once after they planted, and then again when he realized they looked dead. Ooops. Of course, planting in August is always risky. I guess I'll have to ask him what they planted and try to figure out where they went wrong. It is a townhome that faces west, so that probably complicates things a bit as well because the heat would reflect from the driveway and the brick house......maybe I can help them find some replacement plants for autumn in a couple more weeks after the weather cools off a bit. Their backyard is tiny and has huge clumps of crinum lilies that I adore. We just need to figure out what would work in the tiny front beds that run across the front of the house in what is otherwise a concrete jungle.

Your celosias, if deadheaded, should rebloom well. I've deadheaded mine three times this summer and they have put out new growth and new blooms following each round of deadheading.

Today I noticed the stores think it is autumn......all sorts of autumn decor like silk flower arrangements and wreaths, tablecloths, fake pumpkins (some look pretty realistic), etc. Oh, and the stores have candy corn. Now, what says autumn more than candy corn???? I looked at all that autumn stuff and thought of my seasonal decor, packed away since last year when I switched over from fall decor to Christmas decor, and told myself that I'll get it out soon and turn our house into an autumn wonderland. Still, while it sounded like a great idea when I was looking at the autumn decor in the stores, once I walked outside into the 97-degree heat, autumn was the last thing on my mind....other than wishing it would hurry up and get here.

There were tons of hummingbirds visiting all the flowers this afternoon, and the dove population is getting huge, as it always does at this time of the year. I put out extra cracked corn for the doves---they have to eat all they want before sunset because the deer, coons and bunnies will come gobble up everything still there at twilight.

My son scared me today, and scared himself. He was at work out fighting a fire somewhere and looked up to see a live electrical wire dangling about a foot above his head. He and his partner got away from that wire quickly, but were shaken to realize how close they had come to possibly being electrocuted. He told me about it right away---probably afraid his dad and I would hear it first through the office gossip grapevine if he didn't tell us. (He hates it when anything happens to him at work because right away one of his big bosses calls Tim to tell him that his son was injured and is going to the hospital......but I've told him that is just going to happen because those guys have known his dad for up to 37 years and are going to tell him something that they think he needs to know.) I am just so thankful the two of them saw that wire today before they made contact with it. Firefighting is dangerous work and I try not to think of all the danger he's in on the days that he works.

And in more sad firefighter news, two families in our county and one VFD lost a beloved member today, killed in a motor vehicle accident in another state. He was so young and had his whole life ahead of him, and the news of his death is just staggering to an area already hit hard by similar tragedy several times in recent weeks. Sometimes it feels like this is the smallest, quietest county in the state and that nothing ever happens here---but this year has been, unfortunately, exactly the opposite. I do not know how much more grief our community members can handle. 2018 has been a horrible year here.

I want to work in the garden tomorrow, but it will be very hot, so I'll stay inside and clean house instead. I might go out there long enough to harvest peppers. Or, if it is hot too early in the day, then maybe not. We only hit 97 today with a heat index of 104, but we got pretty hot pretty early, which I think feels worse than when it slowly builds up to the higher temperature by very late in the day.

Our soil moisture is down very low again. There's some new cracks in the ground. In fact, there's a spider webbing of cracks near where we set up the wading pool for the girls. So, when we drained out the water, it went rushing down the new network of cracks, forming little whirlpools where the water was going down the cracks/holes. This totally fascinated the girls. They thought it was the coolest thing ever. I think it would be more cool to just not have the ground cracking that close to the house. I'm not sure why the ground here is cracking. This is one area I always try to keep watered so the grass near the house, at least, is green.

We need some drought-breaking weather and we just aren't getting it.

Dawn

Funny, you said Hotter than Hell... The annual HHH bike ride and race was on Saturday in Wichita Falls Texas. Lots of my friends participated, and lots skipped it because of the heat.

Today is my last day in Bucharest Romania. I am all done with resting, and am anxious about getting home. Bet my yard is a mess, and am not looking forward to it. But I want to go and visit the grands.

its been hot here, according to the locals, in the 32-35 degree Celsius range.

Moni

Hahaha, what a riot. Tonight JERRY is giving Tiny a bath, only this time Tiny's not asleep and is not happy. So J has him pinned down, and T is protesting mightily.

I was researching today how to best move/propagate the obnoxious Miss Huff Lantana that is in exactly the wrong spot for me. . . apparently a perfect spot for it. I think I have more perfect spots for it, though, so plan to move it. I'll take cuttings right away, and then dig it up in a wide fairly deep circle later, and divide it and move it. And then pray it survives the winter! LOLOL. Risky proposition, gardening here. No venture, no gain. Dawn, or other lantana experts, what say you?

There is NOTHING like experience in gardening. In YOUR place. I rely so much on your tips; I rely SO much on reliable sources online. But in the end, what works anywhere else may not be what works here--and vice versa.

Jen, was it you, who brought me reinforcement Rose of Sharons? We had a little transplant gift from a neighbor 4 years ago. Deer ate it to the ground two years in a row. So year 3, I put a big cage around it, plus the extra one from SF. Now it is nearly 12 feet tall. I MAY set it loose this fall, thinking the deer can't possibly eat it all (which is what our neighbors said. . . considering.) Either that or make a far bigger cage. In any case, it is beautiful and makes a GREAT statement in the back of our yard.

Still waiting to see the dreaded white poofs of American burnweed before I tear the plants out.

Rebecca. my tithonia were terrific last year. This year, nearly nada. After we had one big storm come through that laid most of them over, and I tore them out, still have 2-3. So tithonias THIS year get a C-minus. But the zinnias, which mildewed out, in 2015, 2016 and 2017, get an A-plus this year.

This HAS been a very strange year for me, year 4 of the the past 4 years I've lived here. Strange but very interesting. And, again, I have to say, that gardening here is unlike what I have ever been used to.

Well, I'm weeks and weeks behind, but thought I'd drop in to let everyone know I'm doing alright. I'm not planting for fall - there has just been too much going on to worry about getting things started.

I did cut my tomatoes way back when it was blazing hot, just to see if they would bounce back and they are going crazy. My thought was if they died, I'd let them stay and allow snow peas to grow up the dry stems in the fall but they came back gangbusters. My sungolds are definitely going to produce better in the fall than they have all summer. I'm really happy with a random heirloom beefsteak (the actual name - no other monikers) my MIL started from seed. It set quite a lot of fruit in the cooler temps recently. It really tried hard in the early spring, but I got it in a little later than others, then the sporadic weather was a challenge for it, when the heat set in and sprinklers failed so I lost at least a dozen fruits off it. Whatever it is specifically, it appears to set fruit at a slightly higher temp than any other beefsteak I'm growing. Currently, there is little activity from the other beefsteak/slicers but we'll see what happens. I'm not heartset on anything, mostly observing. By the way, since everyone here is a big fan of the Cherokee tomatoes, there is a great podcast episode you should listen too. Margaret Roach (A Way to Garden) interviews Craig LeHoullier who is responsible for bringing them to the seed markets. You can read the transcript or listen to it here. Fair warning - you'll want to try ALL the Cherokees next year. And egg yolk cherries (which I can't find seeds for anywhere!)

On a later episode, she talks to an ornithologist and I learned that Mississippi Kites' primary diet is cicadas and dragonflies. Since mosquitoes are a problem, I'd like them to leave the dragonflies alone but cicadas I don't see us running out of anytime soon and I'm not sure what benefit they are - other than drawing some soil microbe activity to the surface when their bodies decompose. Anywho, while I was moving my $400 mulch (more on that later) to the backyard this weekend, I apparently disturbed a cicada who went screaming out of the tree. Two of the nine Kites circling overhead swooped down and the cicada became dinner to the faster bird. Pretty awesome to see just 10 yards in front of me. As I worked, I noticed that when the cicadas were quiet the birds circled over different areas of the neighborhood, but as soon as the cicadas got noisy again there were the Kites overhead.

Dawn, on the way to Dallas for Jacque's funeral we stopped in Davis if memory serves and the grasshoppers were horrible! I was having to hold my dress tight around my legs to keep them out of my skirt while I went into the gas station to potty. Between them and a few questionable looks I was getting, we decided to head down the road to fill up on gas. I didn't notice them so much in Marietta when we filled up but I imagine they were there.

Jacob, I feel your pain on the tree removal. We just had the top half of a maple cut out because it had southwest injury about 30 ft up into the tree. Arborist said it still isn't safe to be under in a storm, but if we baby it, we'll get another 20 years out of it... long enough to get a couple oaks established nearby. When we had that done, we also had him thin the matching maple opposite it in the yard plus remove 2 of 3 bradfords that were creating a windbreak along the south end of the yard. The man we hired to do it is a retired arborist who does this occasionally for some extra money so his price was reasonable. I got hosed on the chipper rental though. I called a month ago and it was going to be about $220 for a 1-day rental. Then call back to schedule it and it's going to be $300. Well, that didn't include all the "fees" so it ended up being close to $400. When it was all done, I have what I'm estimating to be 50-75 cu ft of woodchips. Or somewhere in the ballpark of $100 of bagged mulch and all it cost was $400. <deep breaths> I didn't look into what it would have cost to pay someone to remove the limbs but the arborist doesn't do it and said everyone he knew would have charged at least that or more.

When I've had time - which hasn't been much - I've been sketching out plans for taking over a big chunk of the backyard for a dedicated vegetable garden. I have been reading the Rosalind Creasy book and it's given me lots of ideas on tucking in the this-and-that edibles that I don't need to grow a ton of. However, it did reveal that to get the volume I want of many plants, I need dedicated rows, not disguised flower/edible beds. The hubs made a deal that if I give him the front yard to manicure and have his swath of a golf-course-like space, the backyard is mine. So, I've marked off the top of our slope which gets full sun from about noon thru sunset and started planning. Even still, I won't have room to grow all the things but I'll add about 500 sq ft of growing space, less what I'll lose to paths and a part sun area that I'll use for composting. This doesn't include the space I already have for my tomatoes. I'm not sure how I'll keep up with it all, but I'll be happy as a lamb trying! OH! OH! OH! The hubs has conceded on insect spraying. We have a service coming out to inspect for termites today. If they find no termite damage, they'll "certify" us for a year, come back next year, inspect, cerify another year. If we end up with activity, they spray at no charge to us. The service is $125/year. This came to be after I talked to hubs about what I'd seen in my tomato beds with the beneficials eventually balancing out the bad bugs and he is willing to give it a go throughout the yard. NWF certified backyard - here I come!!! If you're interested you can find out about NWF certification here.

Back to my garden dreaming and sketching... Where the bradfords came out, I'd already started 2 swale/berms using huglekultur techniques. With the trees gone and the extra wood, I've started a 3rd. They're getting full sun now so the bermuda, which was already trying to creep in on my nice soil, is making a full attack. That's where the 2 oaks will go and I plan to grow sunflowers there next summer to make up for some of the privacy we've lost along the fence. I haven't decided for sure what I'll do with them long term. I've thought about strawberries that could fade away as the oaks create too much shade, which would coincide with when I'm also too old to crawl around harvesting them. I've also thought about letting the bermuda have it but it's some damn good dirt - or will be to let that happen. Ultimately, that's not something I'm trying to figure out right away.

More day dreaming... At the low end of the backyard, I have started a bit of a seating area where there is some shade from the one remaining Bradford and a handcrafted bench we were gifted as a wedding present. The area currently sits up a little higher than it should and creates drainage issues, so I plan to dig out some of the dirt to regrade and use it on the new swale/berm. Next to the fence, I plan to add a rain garden that drains along the property line so we no longer have to wear waders for a week after a heavy rain if we want to use the gate - which is where the rain currently pools.

Some days I'm not sure if I'm a gardener or a landscaper. Either way, it helps me stay sane.

Other updates... my mom is doing well. She found a job as a cashier at a grocery store but I hope will continue to look for something with a little better pay. Regardless, I'm happy for her. She went to church yesterday and made a friend, so I was fit to be tied yesterday. Of course, Crabby Daddy thought this weekend was his opportunity to play mind games with me since he's not getting anywhere with her. I put the kibosh on that immediately - which is SOOOO much easier to do when I don't have to worry about my mom having to deal with the fallout.

Little one started 5th grade! I'm not ready for this, but for some reason I don't get to slow her down. Her BFF isn't in her class this year. Both myself and his parents were worried about this because they tend to balance each other out in the classroom. He's more reserved and she's more rambunctious, but having each other around forces them to meet in the middle. So far, that is going okay and we've committed to making more opportunities for them to get together outside of school. We took him with us to an OKC Energy (local pro soccer) game Saturday. If nothing else, it made me realize that I cannot "boy mom." He started some game where he was blowing snot bubbled, then had giant buger hanging - which was apparently big fun. I was about to puke, so I went to the concession stand for napkins. When I came back I handed them to him and my daughter without even looking and just told them to clean it up before I threw up. But I couldn't sit down because in the 1.5 minutes I was gone to the concession stand he'd basically painted the bleachers in snot and even wiped some on the handrail. <gag!!!> If I hadn't promised to get him home by a certain time I would have found the cleaning crew and made he and my daughter mop the whole section. Hubs got to hold his hand when it was time to cross the street after the game and I was given quite a bit of grief about that but I don't feel one bit bad about it. LOL

Rebecca, I hope you get some good news about the bone spurs. I don't even want to know what that feels like. My hysterectomy was put on hold pending the opinion of a urologist whom I see next week. Overall, I've been in the least pain I've had in a year, so maybe I need to get zapped with CT radiation periodically.

I really don't know what this week will be like so I may or may not check back in. If I don't - have a good week everyone and don't overdo it in this heat. If you believe the weather channel, it looks like we're making up for the 2 cool weeks in August before we get to return to the 80s.

I went to Joplin for PET scan, then to Bourbon Mo. to visit with my uncle. I had the best visit with him, we both had a ball.

I got bock home and the deer had knock down the electric fence that I had put up thu. evening. I only put a wire on two sides of the south garden, but there was no more damage to the sweet potatoes in the south garden. I would not care if they eat a few in the north garden because they are getting in the way of the lawn mower.

My west garden is pretty much history, I do have radishes and peas coming up over there, but I dont expect much from them.

I have about an acre of millet to knock down and the clover is beautiful, with much growth and blooms.

The pups are divided as to the new living room setup. Our older boy doesn't care about anything as long as he can get on the couch when he wants to, and our girl doesn't care as long as she can get in "her chair" (aka my husband's recliner). Our younger boy is miffed because now he can't sit on the couch and see the back door & front hallway. So now he has to patrol the whole house instead of lying on the couch. And the poodle is old, deaf, blind and senile, so he can't find the couch without assistance. Poor guy, I do feel bad for him.

Moni, I did have the HTH race on my mind when I used that wording, but I didn't think about anyone here (well, duh, obviously you can relate) relating to the race. I hope the time you have spent resting has paid off and that you have a smooth trip home. It's never really too hot for the HTH race, though I think that in 2011 it probably was too hot.

Jennifer, Is the pool in the shade for part of the day? If not, I don't know why the water feels cold.

Some years the nights cool off towards the end of August and some years they don't. Down here, usually the last truly awful temperatures are the first 8-10 days of August and then after that both daytime highs and nighttime lows begin to drop. How quickly or slowly they fall varies from year to year. Sometimes we have nice nights before the end of August, and sometimes not until October, and anywhere in between.

Jacob, Your garden is going to miss that shade, I'm guessing, but it is good to take down old trees at the timing of your choosing rather than letting Mother Nature bring them down on the house while y'all are sleeping. I kind of understand your mom's concerns about y'all doing it, but Tim and I are very much do-it-yourself types, so I imagine we'd look at the tree removal estimates and do it ourselves too.

I'm glad your weather evened out and gave you some milder conditions.

It is hard to believe it is the end of August already, but I'm ready for the seasons to change, and it won't really happen here for a while yet. If we're lucky, the first small leaves will fall in mid- to late-September---from trash elm trees along fence lines. Beyond that, most leaves here won't turn colors and fall until November.

I consider the Farmer's Almanacs curiosities more than anything. They are wrong on my region's forecast a lot more than they are right. They are interesting reading, but I don't base any planting decisions on them. If you have three different ones published by three different companies, you'll usually have three different forecasts....so how to pick and choose which one to believe?

Nancy, I don't know if it is possible to kill Miss Huff, other than by moving her in the dead of summer or by planting her in slow-draining clay soil. So, do whatever you think you need to do and I suspect she'll be just fine.

Forced cat bathing! If you notice, it almost always is the older cat who forces this upon the little one---like the little one maybe needs a bath and refuses to admit it---just like a human child who doesn't want to stop playing to go take a bath and get ready for bed.

I think every gardening year is weird in its own way. We haven't had a normal gardening year in so long that I think I've forgotten what normal is, or what normal used to be. Every winter keeps getting warmer than the year before, except for 2010 which reverted to cold, so about the only trend I expect to continue is the warmer winter thing. I just try to observe the winter weather and make/change plans accordingly depending on what is going on.

Megan, I'm well familiar with Craig's story. Have you read his book Epic Tomatoes? It is awesome. I learned when I read it that he and I have a lot of the same favorites, and also have the same problem coming up with a list of favorites that isn't book-length too. He actually took a year off from growing tomatoes this year so he could travel---that may be in the podcast. If not, it is in one of her other podcasts with him. He's on there with her a couple of times a year.

I've grown all the Cherokees that came out of CP--Cherokee Chocolate is my favorite but it doesn't seem to produce as many fruit per plant as CP doe. I didn't care much for Cherokee Green---but I don't like most green-when-ripe tomatoes anyhow. I simply grow too many different varieties and have a hard time remembering which ones are the GRWs, so never harvest them early enough because I keep waiting for them to break color.

I'm glad you're busy dreaming and planning and have made a deal with hubs for the back yard. Also, congrats on the insect spraying advancement. It sounds like you're making a lot of good progress.

It is so good to hear that your mom is doing well, and clearly you do know how to deal with Crabby Daddy.

You can't slow down your sweet baby girl---fifth grade! She is growing up so quickly. Whether we like it or not, time marches on.

Larry, How wonderful that you finally got your PET scan and also got to have a nice visit with your uncle.

My whole garden pretty much is history. I keep trying to water the zinnias and a few other flowers to keep them going for the pollinators, butterflies and hummingbirds, but I'm not really watering enough to counter the heat/drought so it all still looks pretty pathetic.

It is so hot here already! It isn't so much the temperature as the heat index, which already was 98 degrees by noon. There's nothing I want/need to do outdoors enough to be out in that sort of heat that early in the day.

There's nothing new to report here.....hot and dry, hot and dry, hot and dry. Oh, and my sister went to the hospital this morning with a raging headache (not unusual for her because she has Intracranial Hypertension) and now is hospitalized in the ICU with meningitis, awaiting test results to tell them if it is bacterial or viral. That's a lousy start to her week and I feel bad for her. When our kids were young (so I'm guessing we were in our 30s), a lady from our church who had children our age, contracted both meningitis and encephalitis while on a trip to south Texas and she was hospitalized forever down in San Antonio and then came home bald after all her hair fell out. I wonder if my sister remembers that? I don't want to remind her of that if she has forgotten it.

Dawn

Dawn, I have not read Epic Tomatoes and probably need to stay away from it or I'll be as tomato crazy as you! I have a number of books on my reading list just in case the surgery does happen and that has been added to it. I wish your sister a speedy recovery.

Larry, I missed that you'd finally gotten the PET scan. I hope they find or don't find - whatever is appropriate to the best outcome for you. I'm envious of your sweet potatoes and I can't even see them. I tried a new variety this year because I needed a bush type and I don't see homegrown sweet potatoes in my future. I grow them in mineral tubs and I'm not sure if I botched my soilless mix, if this variety is unhappy with my growing conditions or if they were too traumatized by shipping in the unusual early heat but they aren't performing. Thankfully, I hung onto the sprouts from last year's Garnett's which makes them 3 years from my own stock and they're doing okay. I didn't put them in until I realized how poorly the others were doing and will be happy if I end up with enough to get slips next year. Once again though, good luck with your gardening endeavors and medical news.

Oh, tree removal... Several years ago I decided that the tree growing about 4ft from my front window needed to come out. I couldn't do it on my own so i called a few tree trimmers for a quote. The cheapest was $1100, for a tree that really wasn't all that big. Then I found a guy on craigslist who only charged me 500. I came home the next day to 3 guys in my yard & the tree gone. Down side to city dwelling, any kind of service costs are astronomical.

I'd totally missed your post Jacob. Yesterday in Sunday School, GDW was saying how he needed to do more for our neighbors, and he should be better at asking them if they need help or trees cut down, for example. He's THE expert tree-cutter-downer in our neighborhood. I reminded him of what he said a few minutes ago and said, "You could go drive 90 miles to help cut a tree(s) down for a neighbor." He laughed when I told him it was your dad and you. He said, "Well, we could do that." Serious. I'm really serious. We'd be happy to do that. (We? Hahaha.) You two discuss it and let me know. ? (And I've never been to Arkansas, either.)

Speaking of neighboring, I saw the nearby woman and who I took to be her father, moving stuff into his truck. This was the home of the domestic disturbance the other day. I said to GDW I hoped if one of them were staying in that house, I hoped it would be her. The husband had been largely not employed, and I'd grown a little suspicious of him. Well, I just walked down to ask her. Met her Dad, a nice guy about 10 years younger than we are, I think. I told her I was sorry about what seemed to be happening in her life, and asked her if she would be staying. She said the house is hers, so yes. I asked her if she needed any help whatsoever, and her Dad laughed and said, "That's what I am--the "help." But he said he'd make her promise to let us know if she needed help, like with fixing stuff. And I made her promise the same. I'm just finding all kinds of jobs for Garry Dean! Isn't that nice of me? LOL I heard the story in brief. Seems there are some drug problems in the neighborhood. Great. Just great. And her Dad said this was too long in coming. He is relieved. And she is, too, apparently. She's been friendly with us in the past, and is a hard worker, I know. Has a 14-year-old son. (This fellow is not the son's father, and they weren't married, though had been together for quite a long time.) She is also a volunteer for the nearby fire department--that's how we got to know each other.

I'll be anxious To watch your links, Megan. This evening, probably. Oops, gotta run. Later, all!

Nancy, I was walking the dog after returning the wood chipper and noticed someone in our neighborhood - a woman whose grandson was in the little one's class last year - had done some heavy pruning of her trees the weekend we had the chipper. She had - gasp - rented a small dumpster to dispose of them. I imagine the cost was probably cheaper but it still hurt because I would have happily chipped them and kept the chips. I'd considered posting on the neighborhood page that we had rented a chipper and would chip anything anyone managed to drag to our house. However, I couldn't shake that "no good deed goes unpunished" feeling and imagined being overrun with tree stumps instead of chippable limbs. If I still had access to a log splitter, that would have been different, but as it was, I opted not to take the chance. Not very neighborly of me, maybe. I'll just look for other ways to be a good neighbor like GDW.

Haha, Megan. I'm still reeling at the expense of the wood chipper! You might have ended up paying $600 instead of $400, with a bunch more limbs! I told GDW I was having lots of fun trying to find jobs for him. :)

Nancy, I’m afraid I can’t give you an answer in relation to you helping us cut down the tree as of yet, but thank you for the offer nonetheless!! We’ll discuss it.

Have you seriously never been to Arkansas?! Lived near the border for 4 years and not been across yet!! Haha.

I feel like since I missed the Spring Fling, we need a fall fling, or another word that rhymes with fall. Ha!

Kim--wouldn't
that be HEAVENLY! Wow, the thought of it is incredible.

Dawn, you must be so proud of Chris--and I understand your concerns about his line of work. I got a chuckle out of his flower story. . . shoulda called Mom. :)

Rebecca, how many bone spurs? I hate the sounds of that; I hope you will better now after the flare up, too. Grrr. Thinking of you.

And Larry, so glad you had a great visit in Bourbon (I'd not heard of Bourbon MO! Wonder what the history is there. lol) with your uncle. I pray your PET scan was decent. Best to ya. And dagnabbed deer!

Jacob,
seriously, haven't been across yet. Everyone keeps telling me I need to
see it. In fact, the neighbor I was discussing earlier--her Dad,
who I met, lives in Mena, Arkansas. He was telling me how beautiful it
is, and I just googled. Wow, he's surrounded by the Ouachita
Mountains. How cool THAT must be. I felt a little silly offering to come assist with cutting trees. Was picturing your Dad's reaction (WHO ARE these crazy people); heck I can imagine my own reaction had my 16-yr old son come home and told me something like that. BUT we absolutely would
come help. GDW uses his come-along chains; he really is good at it. Cutting trees down is no small matter. Besides, it'd be better later when it loses most of its leaves. Keep the offer in mind.

Yes, a fall fling--minus all the plants--would be fun indeed. I was sitting here thinking how hard everyone works for the SF, getting their little plants ready for each other.

There's an abandoned trailer on a jungle of a lot about a mile from us. Before it was abandoned, at least one older gentleman lived there. During
our horrible storm a year ago in July, a large oak fell on the trailer; a month
later it was still there, and GDW happened to see the man out on his porch, so
stopped and offered to cut the tree up for him. The man was mentally
unstable, GDW decided; was paranoid and pretty freaked by GDW stopping, and
actually wouldn't even talk to him, so GDW left. He felt bad about
it. Well, someone or somehow, the gentleman was removed from the trailer
about 5 or so months ago, and the whole big mess is just sitting there now. And we have a joke. There's another house several houses down from that one, with a life-sized beautiful white horse statue. The house and yard are in fine shape. But since I've been here, he has gotten very dirty. I love that statue and keep threatening to go wash him down and clean him up. Yesterday, as we were going past, GDW asked me when I was going to go give the horse a bath and I said, "Soon. And when are you going to chop up that tree on the trailer?" We laughed. He said he'd been thinking about it. Told him he better call the sheriff first to see if he could do it. Bet they'd tell him no. We have no idea who owns the place.

HJ, I was looking at Tiny's profile the other night and thought, "I think he looks like Finbar from this angle." :)

Fall haul

Seeds and bulbs only

The Great Squirrel War 2.0 has begun. Last night I stood at the kitchen sink and watched a squirrel stare me straight in the face and chow down on a fat green tomato. Ammunition has been deployed.

I caught up on this thread. (not last weeks).

The other observation was about cats. This is weird. In our neighborhood all the dark cats seem to survive. Plenty of black cats. Also gray. Charlotte was a tortie. She only died because of feline leukemia not because something killed her. So...I wonder. Do you think lighter colored cats are more vulnerable to predators? Especially night predators. I watched a video a while back, and this particular farm only raises dark chickens now because lighter ones are more visible to predators.

I'm only thinking about this because Finn is orange/buff. And he needs to go outdoors. I've never seen orange or buff or white cats in our neighborhood. I'm worried he won't survive.

Perhaps, HJ. Kinda sounds logical; but from personal experience, have not seen it. I would think in a city, color wouldn't matter. . . . cars and other city dangers are color blind. Little Daffy stuck out like a sore thumb here, being long haired orange with lots of white. Because she was so tiny, I always worried about eagles, owls or hawks. But needlessly worried, as it turned out. But I had fun just now reading about colors in cats. Check it out for yourself--lots of fun articles. https://www.catster.com/cats-101/different-cat-colors

On further reflection, I think the idea black is better camouflage would only be accurate if kitties are out in the night. My cats are never out at night. And haha, think of folks, say, in Minneapolis in the winter. There, black against the snow would be a real disadvantage! LOL So. Nah, no problem with colors.

Rebecca, Dang it! Those darn squirrels just won't quit. Good luck getting rid of them all.

Kim, Ha! As if I could dig up anything but snakes in the fall. You all who do not have a snake community on your property have no idea how lucky you are.

Nancy, I don't know what is worse---knowing what he is doing at work or not knowing. When I get a phone call from him that says "Don't freak out and don't head for the hospital, because I'll come home as soon as they check me out and release me...." then I know something has happened....he has fallen off a ladder, torn up his shoulder rescuing a co-worker who was drowning, torn up his shoulder doing something/anything else like lifting someone or whatever, inhaled fire into his lungs, etc. He was an easy child---didn't care too much for sports and wasn't much of a daredevil. Our Worry Level was relatively low throughout his childhood. Then he discovered firefighting when he was about 20 years old, and nothing has been the same since then. Oh, and there was the time (a couple of months prior to Dallas' one and only Ebola case) he and his crew treated a very ill person who might have had Ebola, so they had to wait for test results, remain isolated just in case, etc. He was horrified that maybe he might be bringing Ebola home to us, so shut himself up in his room, gloved up whenever he left it, and tried to have minimal contact with us, etc. It was 4 or 5 horrible, scary days/nights until we got the results back that the patient did not have Ebola (but had another serious disease that mimics its symptoms). I bet we are the only family in Oklahoma that has all the fancy medical/hazmat clothing, masks, etc. to wear if there's ever another Ebola scare. He ordered stuff online like mad so we'd be prepared if the worst happened. I swear, he was a really easy child....and is not such an easy adult. (grin) It is all good though. He has chosen a dangerous profession and I just have to deal with it.

Jacob, What I need at the end of summer is a Fall Flood. I need a foot or two of rain so I can relax and stop worrying about how dry it is. Can someone arrange a flood for me? (We never get fall floods---we only get an occasional flood in spring or occasionally summer.)

Kim, We could start our own city. Where shall we put it?

My uncle, who was a real estate agent, tried to get all us kids (his kids and all their cousins) to build our own neighborhood in the mid-1980s. He had it planned out where we could put down something like $10,000 and get your standard 3-2-2 house on 5-acres (I don't remember the total cost) and all live close to one another in our own neighborhood where there would be nobody who was not related to us. We loved each other, but not that much, and said 'thanks, but no thanks'. Had we bought that land and built those homes, we could have sold out for big bucks a few years later when Alliance Airport was built in far northern Tarrant County/Fort Worth. We all missed our chance to (a) live together and (b) get rich off our little real estate investment. Oh well, that's life.

Megan, Megan's Wood Chipping could be a new venture for you...but I'd be worried about getting old stumps and not a lot of chippable wood too. I am reminded of the phrase 'no good deed goes unpunished'.

Nancy, I am glad the neighbor is getting that man out of her life and hope things start looking up for her.

Jen, I agree with you. After we bought our first home in 1984, we decided a huge cottonwood planted much too close to the front porch (was lifting up the sidewalk and the home's foundation) had to go. We were so young and very stupid and knew nothing about cutting down trees, but had just bought a house, had a baby on the way and couldn't afford to pay someone any amount of money to cut it down. Tim bought a chain saw and he and a friend cut down a 60-70' tall half-rotted cottonwood in one day without dropping it on the house or anything. I believe the cost, in addition to buying a chain saw, was one six-pack of beer that the two guys split while working. We were just plain lucky, though he'd argue it was skill that brought the tree down without destroying anything else. Several years later, our neighbors hired so-called professionals to cut down a tree too close to their house (and said tree was also too close to our house), and they dropped their tree right down on top of the east side of our house. We were not happy campers that day.

Today was not too bad of a day except it was so hot and so very windy. It is unusual to have such strong wind in August. So, of course, late in the afternoon we had a fire, only it wasn't one fire, it was a series of fires that, ultimately, ran in a linear manner for about 4,000 feet as the wind pushed them along. Only about 12 acres burned, but it was long and narrow like a snake......and so I spent my late afternoon out in the heat at a fire scene, instead of cooking dinner as planned. It was hard to get drinks to the firefighters because they were working alongside the interstate, so we just parked in a location next to a tanker that was not on the interstate but instead on a road just off the interstate (not near an exit, but we sort of had our own exit and y'all don't want to know......). That hot wind was brutal. We expect more of the same conditions tomorrow.

I am going to try to get out into the garden early and at least deadhead flowers for a while. Well, in some cases, I'll be pulling out entire dead plants because a lot of things died while I had the flu for two weeks and wasn't watering the garden or even thinking about it.

In other interesting news, the 9 year old GD joined the Boy Scouts, finding them to sound more interesting to her than the Girl Scouts. And, since they will have the girls in one troop and the boys in another and need a bunch of volunteer leaders to pull off having dual troops, our son signed up to be a scout leader. This is not surprising. He was a scout himself as was Tim and Tim's dad before him, but I suspect Chris never expected he'd be a leader for a troop of girl Boy Scouts. I wonder how all this is going to work out? Their first outing is in a couple of weeks and their first overnight camping experience will be in October. So, he's following in our footsteps as a scout leader.....and I hope it goes better for him than his first experience planting flowers on his own. (grin) It is so weird to watch your child go through the whole array of adulthood type experiences, but it is enjoyable too.

I noticed today there's a ton of peppers to harvest and thought about going out and harvesting them either right before or right after dinner because by then the garden is mostly shaded, but then the fire happened and I didn't get to do that harvesting since I had to go to the fire, so I really, really need to harvest peppers tomorrow.

This weather this week reminds me of typical August weather in the worst way---we are hardly cooling off at night. It still is 80 degrees or higher when I wake up in the morning, and then drops to 79 or 78 while I'm outside feeding the chickens and the wildlife before the temperatures start climbing again. It is pretty bad when your overnight low doesn't even happen until the sun is up and you're already outside.

Dawn

I feel like I've been running for days. Maybe it's because I just finished Moni's blog and I am vicariously exhausted. It has been busy, preparing for the grandson's first birthday party Sunday. In 3 weeks he's gone from a couple of steps at a time to running. He got 3 parties, one on the day of his birthday, one in Stillwater Saturday and one here Sunday. He's pretty well got the cake thing down.

I had a follow up doctor's appointment Thursday. All bloodwork normal. What ever might be wrong with me, it's not what they're checking for.

Yesterday was an adventure with the Wild Women of Owasso. Lunch at McNellies (possibly the best salmon I have had at a restaurant). We then toured Glacier Chocolate's facilities nearby. They have the equipment set up to process raw cacao beans into chocolate, first roasting, then removing the outer covering, then sizing the "nibs", and various other processes down to liquid chocolate. They've only made one batch (new facility) and the venting system is wrong. Roasting the beans put the chocolate smell into the lofts above. Daughter offered to live there. Anyway, we got lots of delicious samples. Are you all aware that chocolate is going extinct? The owner of this place is currently in Belize planting cacao seedlings. Here's my idea. Retire to Belize and grow cacao. They planted seedlings, and the tapers came and rooted them up. Tapers are a protected species, unlike squirrels ;) so they put yellow tape (like crime scene tape? IDK) around the seedlings. The tapers come to the tape and turn around. (Tapers don't like tape ;)).

We went to vote this morning and out to lunch.

This morning there was a humming bird visiting cowpea flowers. All these things I've been trying to grow for them, and they go to cowpeas. There isn't much blooming, though. I need to dead head. The cosmos, mostly. I never got any of the zillian zinnia seeds I bough planted. There is one sorghum plant in the bed I spread a whole packet of seeds in. DH thought a bird planted corn. Speaking of odd plants, I should know this, and think I do, but confirm it for me, please.

Ron found a real nice cucumber hiding low to the ground, our first of the season, and he greatly enjoyed it. My little leaf has not produced yet either Rebecca. Sorry to hear about your back issues. Bone spurs suck.

Tree removal: we had 2 removed at rental house for $2000. But they had a crane that held them and lifted them from the back yard. The pears at our house, $700 for both and they ground the stumps. Keep checking.

I really don't want to talk about shorter days. The only good thing about the hot days of mid summer is the longer days!

I'm glad Chris only had a scare. I kind of get a stomach ache thinking about it.

There was a picture on FB of a guy going around filling the cracks in the ground with water and his chickens chasing the bugs he displaced.

Cutting tomatoes back. Is this better than letting them go and hoping for better luck in cooler weather or are you doing it mostly for esthetic reasons?

And Megan, glad to hear Mississippi kites eat bugs. We have several in the neighborhood right now. They seem to be interested in my yard and I was worried about my chickens. I'd been trying to ID them, and couldn't catch them in good light. The other day I was hearing their call and decided to find a Mississippi kite call on line. I played it, and I'm pretty sure the one here answered. Probably upset them to hear a stranger call.

DH wants to buy a chipper. Have I mentioned how much he loves tools? Like I love seeds.

Larry, so glad you finally got to MO and that you had a good visit with your uncle.

Everyone have a good week.

Well, crap, really long post disappeared when I went to the bathroom.

Highlights: think DH and I should retire to Belize and grow cacao (chocolate).

Hummingbirds on cowpea blooms this morning.

Grandson's party for first birthday was Sunday.

Moni's blog wore me out.

There was more, and I've read all posts.

Have a good week.

I've tried twice to post. Is it disappearing or will it show up later?

I see both posts

Amy, I see both posts too.

Moni's blog wears me out too, but in a good way. It is fun to hear about all her adventures and see her photos. Two thousand miles on a bike is incredible.

Where did the sudden idea to move to Belize come from? Just think how far away from the grandkids you'd be.

When I cut back tomatoes, I cut them back in mid- to late-July to stimulate new growth. That way, they can put on the new growth in late July and in August and be ready to bloom when the weather finally cools down, which usually is September here. They may bloom earlier than that, but it usually is too hot for fruit to set. If you cut them back this late, it would be for the same reason---to stimulate new growth and also to keep them a manageable size. However, since it already is almost September, if you cut them back now, they may not make enough new growth to bloom and set fruit that will have time to ripen before the first freeze. Of course, with fall tomatoes, the first freeze always is the big risk since some years it comes in November, but other years it can happen in September or October. There's been plenty of years I've had tons of green tomatoes that had to be picked green when the first hard freeze came far too early. That's the way the ball bounces, so to speak.

Never mind, I'm reading posts backwards bottom to top and now know where the idea to move to Belize came from.

I still feel sick thinking about how easily Chris could have lost his life the other day. Why couldn't he pick a career that was less hazardous? It will be a long time before I can get the dangling live wire over his head out of my mind.

It was hot and dry and windy again today. I pulled a few weeds early in the garden and watered a few things I'm trying to keep alive and that was it. We still look really green for August, but it is deceptive. The grasses are rapidly turning to a very dry green mixed with some tan and some brown. I guess all-brown will be next. It startled me when multiple fires started along the interstate yesterday---I didn't think we were quite dry enough yet for a spark to start grass fires but I guess we are. Then, today, I took a long hard look at our front and back pastures, which never get water and must rely on rainfall alone, and they already are more brown than green.

I'm looking forward to autumn weather, but the kind of cooler, milder weather that feels like autumn may not arrive here until October.

My sister is hospitalized in a Fort Worth hospital in ICU with bacterial meningitis. She is very, very ill and they'll be doing surgery tomorrow....removing a PV shunt from her body and installing a PIC line to make the next 4-6 weeks of heavy-duty antibiotics easier to administer. She's going to be off work for many weeks and that is freaking her out more than anything. I tell you, nothing makes you appreciate only having the flu like having a family member who is enduring something much worse than the flu.

Dawn I am so sorry about your sister. I will be praying for her strength and healing.

Thanks, Kim. She's in terrible general health, so pretty much spends more time at hospitals than I do at the grocery store. It used to freak me out every time she was hospitalized, but I've gotten used to the frequent ER visits and hospitalizations. I hope everything goes well for her today and in her long, slow recovery from the bacterial meningitis.

I wish her general health were not so poor and that her life were different because she truly is one of the best people I know---she is so kind and loving and takes care of everybody except herself. That is her choice. I just wish she'd choose to take better care of herself. I love my sister and hate to see her going through this. Her life really has become just a constant progression of one health crisis after another. She deserves better. (sigh)

Nancy, I saw your FB post about Tiny. I hope he is okay. Keep us posted on what the vet says.

I hope some of y'all are getting the rain and the cold front. We aren't really expecting any relief here. Today will be about as hot as yesterday, with a heat index about the same (104-105). I feel like all I'm doing now is hibernating indoors waiting for the heat to break. September cannot get here soon enough.

The deer are increasingly hungry and aggressive. I feel sorry for them. They're usually in better shape than this going into the winter months. The drought has been as hard on them as it has been on the plants, and there's no end in sight. Our rainfall for the water year, which I think ends at the end of September, remains 8-12" below normal for our part of the county. That's a rainfall deficit we're not going to make up any time soon.

There's still a ton of hummingbirds in the garden and a ton of plants in bloom for them. The struggle to keep as many flowering plants alive as possible through the drought is paying off in the sense that there's still lots of blooms for the bees, butterflies and pollinators.

Have a good day, y'all.

Dawn

Dawn, I saw the post about Tiny too, but now it’s not on her page.

I'm also sorry about your sister's health issues, Dawn. Wish her the best.

I just finally finished turning in paperwork for Mom's Medicaid. That was SO stressful and took SO long. We mailed in overnight mail today, and had dinner in town to celebrate. I spent the past full two days tying up the details, and making copies of everything. Now maybe I can enjoy the garden again.

We have no idea what happened to Tiny yesterday; though not really himself today, he is much much better. So we did NOT take him to vet. I'd actually just made a vet appt yesterday for him (to get his hernia fixed, second round of shots, and neutered) for next Wednesday. Well about 10 yesterday morning, GDW asked if I'd seen him. I'd been doing paperwork and hadn't even noticed. Spent the rest of the morning looking for him. As it turned out, he'd been shut in the computer room since about 6:30 a.m. Both GDW and I had looked in there for him, but he must have been sleeping. I finally heard him crying at noon. I let him out, but then he was just as droopy as a wet dish rag the whole rest of the day; slept most of it and wouldn't even eat or drink last night. This morning he was much better, and his eyes looked clearer. So I'll keep an eye on him. I also am concerned about the hernia, which was why I made the appt.

There didn't appear to be anything he could have gotten into to make himself sick in the computer room. I just have a feeling that he might have become very stressed shut up in there. Like I said, will keep a close eye on him.

Thanks, Nancy. She made it through the surgery, went to the recovery room, woke up, ate ice cream and then went back to sleep. So, now they just have to work on using the right antibiotics to combat the specific form of bacterial meningitis that she has. Sometimes that can be the tricky part. She doesn't yet know how long they'll keep her in the hospital but I hope they keep her for as long as they need to, and that they don't send her home too early.

Congrats on finishing up that long Medicaid paperwork for your mom. I bet you're relieved all of that is done.

If he was in a room without a litter box, perhaps he held everything in, which left him feeling um, too full or clogged up, and maybe that killed his appetite and thirst.

The times that we have had a cat disappear for a prolonged period like that, they either were sick or snakebitten and trying to sleep it off, so to speak. I'm glad he seemed more like himself today. Does his hernia look any different? It could be giving him trouble if a loop of his intestines is caught up in the hernia---that will cause a cat to be off their feed and droopy. Maybe he just has a little virus or something that will clear up on its own in another day or two.

It was so miserably hot today---99 degrees and a heat index of 107. Really? Has our weather down here not heard that it is late August and things should be cooling down? I'd like to see the temperatures fall into the low 90s at least and then have the heat index maybe stay below 100. I don't think that's too much to ask, although, based on our recent weather, I guess it is too much. I mostly stayed indoors. Found a huge yellow jacket next on the porch railing so we sprayed it tonight after the chickens were up for the night. I know that the wasp & hornet spray is a wicked pesticide but I appreciate the fact that when you spray them with it, it does its job and they instantly drop dead. When I walked down to the mailbox this afternoon, I saw tiny, tiny helenium plants in bloom in the middle of the gravel driveway. Between the drought and the fact that Tim undoubtedly mowed them down last week, the poor plants were less than 2" tall and the flowers were about the diameter of a nickle. I suppose it is better to have them in miniature than to not have them at all.

I'm hoping for a cooler day tomorrow, but not really expecting one. No matter what the forecast says we go hotter than they say we will anyway, so I should just ignore the forecast because it is just disappointing to think we'll be a little cooler and then we aren't.

I am so, so, so over summer, but it isn't done with us yet.

Dawn

It has been a long summer. It has been a very hard summer for me. After losing job I tried to figure out where I keep missing it. Chasing this dream of gardening and growing food to sell and help people. Why isn't it working. Why does it have to be so hard lol.

Well here I am much later I got a part time hostess job lost my part time pea picking job and got another pea picking job I start next week. And putting in tons of applications for jobs I really don't want but I need the income. I actually got down to my very last $9. Pretty weird cause i never thought it would be that bad. A friend asked which jobs feel like the ones to bring you some joy. Honestly none of them. Soon I will get to the place I want to be. Right now I sit in my chair and stare at my little garden and dream.

Kim, I love you. And I worry for you. I have been down to those last $9 and it was scary. I had a son with me. And as I keep saying to you, you can come stay with us if it would help. I know we're on the NE side of OK, but truly. Also, Kim, I needed the income, like you. I sold my true soul for the jobs I could make the most money with. I didn't have the opportunity to find the job i loved. I found the darned job that paid the best. I was a legal secretary/assistant for at least 30 years. Loved spelling, loved grammar, loved typing, loved words. So in that sense it was good. HATED the stress, hated what I WASN'T good at and always stressed about it (filing.) I love gardening, art, quilting, cooking. Instead, spent my time 8-12 hours a day working as a legal secretary/assistant. YEARS of not doing what I loved, but working to survive. It's so wrong. . . . keep dreaming and go forward with the dream. I never had the courage to do it. And when you just need a place to land, you get yourself to our house. LOVE you.

Tonight I believe cats are more like us than not. I am sure Tiny was stressed and made himself sick yesterday. Don't buy a virus or sickness diagnosis. Today he's with his peeps and though he has taken 2 long naps, was frisky and obnoxiously loving tonight. I wiped out eye mats out of the corners of his eyes today. . . his eyes were glassy and cloudy yesterday. Tom and Jerry circled around him yesterday, but didn't come in close to hug him. Tonight, they both, taking turns, smothered him with baths and lovings. I told Garry that I believed STRESS made him sick, after I'd researched reliable internet sites today. And that I believed his eye mats were because he was crying. There was NO other sensible reason for him being suddenly sick, except that he was isolated from his peeps and alone in a room. And now he is 100% himself, and won't unglue himself to me. Why wouldn't this be so? Cats, dogs, critters have emotions. He is fine, and I am confident in saying that the little guy was freaked out yesterday, crying tears AND tiny loud meows. All is right with his little world. And I have a new respect and love for the emotions of our animal relatives.

Kim, I wish, there was something I could do, besides crossing my fingers for you.

You guys are the best.

I am slowly coming out of this pit I allowed myself to get in. I truly believe we are where we are by our making, Choices, words. Now I have decided to fight harder and get out.

Nancy that poor kitty probably was terrified being so lonely. I am sure with all the love he gets he will be back to normal quickly

Love you too dear friend. I will be fine. I don't have any friends to distract me here lol so I can work pack and pray non stop.

side note

My farmer friend and his daughter disowned me :(

Its dumb really but here goes. First one night I got a flat tire and while I was sitting in my hot car praying I get a text that my Saturday gig canceled. Hmmmmmm so I text my friend G. the daughter. She text back that I could work with her and she would pay me. After dealing with flat which was a huge ordeal because I cant ge spare out due to broken back hatch lol I head home at 10 on fix a flat. I text G. and say no thanks so much, I better take care of the tire. End of that. 2 weeks later

her daddy V. calls me and has a great deal. The land he farms the house came open and he could get me moved in there no problem. He wants me to meet landowner and I say let me pray about it. I decline the offer. done. End of friendship. End of job.

I am too old to beg people to be friends. Besides I have you all :)

I did score a nice pea picking job 3 to 5 hours paid by the pound which should equal 15 an hour.

I don't really have any garden news. I am taking a break at work and read back a few posts (hopefully can truly catch up tonight--nothing planned. Thank goodness).

Kim, big hugs to you.

And, Nancy, glad your Tiny is okay. He probably was distressed and sad. Animals can cry. Poor little guy. I'll go back and read the story later--still not sure what happened. So happy he is not sick.

They do have feelings, which is why I always say to be thankful for the meat you're eating--really thankful. More than likely that animal didn't want to die to feed you. Although, I get the many reasons for eating meat, hunting, the circle of life, and the food chain. (not preaching or saying it's wrong, just reminding people to be thankful.)

Kane is much better. I think if he keeps healing at this pace, he'll be back to "normal" in a week with a few scars and missing fur.

So hoping to work outdoors tonight for an hour or so. Foot is better, not great.

Alrighty, back to work for me.

HJ--ever since reading Pollan's book back in the 90s, I am always mindful and thankful for the animals we eat. Thanks for the reminder.

I'm glad Kane's better. Tiny is back to full throttle today. In fact a little extra bratty. lol (I, too, believe he was totally stressed/distressed 2 days ago.)

Today brutal. I had the hardest time getting the lawn mowed! Garry did the north whole big strip. But I still had to take several breaks. And it wasn't that HOT! I re-grouped later and spent an hour in the Bermuda bed. AND cut Jason's American burnweeds down and out. LOL Sad face here. I need to get out in THAT bed again, it was plain to see, and do some weeding.

Nothing really new in my gardens; just lots of bigger and bigger things. GOT to get some herbs harvested! Agghh.

Hj did you say what happened to kane. I missed it if you did. Well I hope he has a full recovery. Poor babies and poor mommas too.

Okay. I think I am caught up. I had read the first part of this thread a couple of days ago, but reread everything. It's weird, but I'm sure I missed some of y'all's posts the first time.

I worked in the garden a bit tonight. It felt good. There's a bit of pathway that still is unfinished, so that is what I did. I hope my foot doesn't pay for it tomorrow. I also held the chicks. I want them to be tame...but because they had mothers who raised them, they aren't as used to me as the other chickens are. I tuck them under my arm (wing) and that soothes them. Still uncertain on Jules' gender. If Jules is male (leaning that way), we have a new name for him.

Those of you who are my fb friends saw my post about the disappearing watermelons. Eight ripe melons gone. Decided it's probably coyotes.

Kim, we really don't know what happened to Kane. We came home about a month ago and he was injured. He was on a cord, so he never left our property. He was pretty bad for awhile, but is much, much better. I haven't given details yet because it was all so upsetting. I'll share the details next week when I'm sure he's healed up.

No gardening news here. We have a houseful of pups for the weekend. Our 4 plus 4 guests. And my niece is coming down with her little boy tomorrow so they'll be here overnight. The science museum is holding some kids event, free admission to get in to the museum, so I sent her a link. I do feefeel sorry for cliff. He'll be home all day tomorrow with the whole herd. Only garden chore I want to get done is mowing the back yard. It's gotten shaggy. Other than that, I doubt I'll have much time to do anything.

The HOT drying winds are taking a toll this week. We live on a hill and as our daughter says “ when it’s calm and still everywhere else you still have gusty wind”. So far the summer hasn’t been too bad - we’ve had a few extra hot days but with frequent showers (for summer) and hand watering things still survived. This week plants are drying out and crispy no matter how often I water. I bought a small tomato plant at Lowe’s 2 weeks ago hoping for fall tomatoes but even with a wind barrier and slight shade it’s suffering. The other tomatoes in there were pruned a month ago and are growing and blooming again. Of course not settting fruit yet because too hot but maybe when nights cool off. Hopefully will be able to keep a few tomatoes in the hay feeder planter - it’s easy to wrap with plastic and hang a light bulb inside when frost threatens- gee that even sounds like a good thing today. Lol Pulled out all the marigolds as they were covered with spider mites - will replace them with mums for Fall.

Dawn, I’m glad your sister is better. It’s hard to worry when you know you can’t fix things for others. Also thankful your son is okay. My youngest children are almost 50 but you never stop worrying about them and we won’t even discuss the concerns for grands and great grands.

Hope everyone has a peaceful long weekend and maybe we’ll get some rain and cooler temps.

Kim, I am sorry it has been such a hard summer and hope things will continue to get better. Making a living in agriculture is so hard---many of the market farmers here in OK have had a horrible year mostly due to uncooperative weather and have been importing organic produce, especially fruit, from other farms in other areas/states so they will have something to sell at their farms or to put into their weekly CSA baskets. Importing produce like that from other organic farms means their profit margin is small to non-existent---I see so many of them appear to be in a struggle to survive and I wonder if every year is this hard for the small farmers here. They have chosen farming because they love it, it is their mission and it is exactly what they want to do----but it seems almost impossible to make a living doing it.

Nancy, I do think it is possible Tiny got himself all worked up. I'm glad he is feeling better and I do believe our animals have feelings. I also think there is a mind-body connection between health and illness---not that we can avoid every illness, but rather that we, and our animals, can make ourselves ill at times just by being stressed out.

Jennifer, I'm glad Kane continues to heal.

I wouldn't surprise me that your melons were carried off by coyotes. Here they will eat them in the field, but also will drag them off (and I have wondered if they drag them off because a car comes by or more coyotes show up or whatever). Back when Fred was younger, like in his early 80s, he'd raise an acre or more of melons, and some years the coyotes got most all of them. Of course, he was growing them on the old home place closer to the river and more remote than where his house is near us, and always had more wildlife issues out there because of it. I used to wonder why he'd plant an acre or two of corn or blackeyed peas or beans, but finally realized he had to plant that many to have enough for him/his family and for the wildlife. If he didn't plant a whole lot, the wildlife got it all. He hasn't had that much trouble with his garden in our neighborhood, but it is near a highly traveled road and likely that helps scare off the wild things.

Jen, That will be a houseful of pups. You're on the verge of running a puppy resort? Who doesn't love dogs, though? We had 8 dogs for a long time---some slept in the house and some slept in the garage. We're down to 4 dogs now, all of whom sleep indoors, and 2 of them are very, very old. I don't regret the days when we had 8 dogs, but 4 is a much more manageable number. And, when they all are wound up and barking, it doesn't feel that manageable either, but I love them anyway.

Farmgardener, It is the same here. All the beautiful green that the rain brought us is rapidly drying out, turning brown and curling up from stress. It is like the dry wind/heat are dehydrating the plants right in the ground. New brown plants appear daily as they continue to lose the battle to the heat and drought, and I blame this week's hot wind for a lot of that. New cracks are appearing in the ground. We desperately need for good rain to fall to keep the drought from worsening, which it already appears to be doing. We're about back to the point we were before the rain fell a couple of weeks ago. I think if we could get an inch or two of rain next week, that would help a lot, but our local TV mets keep emphasizing that the rain down here will be spotty and not everyone will see the moisture. Oh well, the rain has to return sooner or later. It always does. We have no control over the weather we get.

I have no gardening news---it remains hot and dry, hot and dry, hot and dry and is the peak of our venomous snake season here, so I am mostly avoiding the garden for safety reasons.

I have noticed the last couple of nights have cooled off a bit more than those that preceded them, but then the temperature and heat index zoom back up high very early in the day still. I'm looking forward to fall weather, whenever it finally arrives, and to cool mornings and cooler days. September can go either way here. I'm voting for cooler and wetter, but that doesn't always happen.

I thought about mowing this morning, but there's not really any grass tall enough to mow, and the heat index here already was 95 at 10 a.m. so I'm sort of glad there's no grass tall enough to mow because I'd probably be the fool out there mowing it despite the heat.

There's still tons of hummingbirds here so at least there's that, and lots of bees (and wasps, hornets, etc.) and butterflies. At least they are out there enjoying the remaining flowers in the garden.

Last week we took the granddaughters to IKEA to look at all the kids' furniture so they could pick out their beds for the spare bedroom (formerly Chris' bedroom when he was a teenager, and in recent years a weight room with a weight machine and treadmill). They looked at everything and told us what they liked the best, so tomorrow Tim and I are going back in the pickup to buy what they chose, haul it home and assemble it. (This also requires moving the weight machine, which is attached to the wall, and the treadmill to the other spare bedroom, so it will be a busy weekend.) I'm excited about having a room set up just for them when they visit and sleep over, which is about every other weekend. They've been referring to our house as "home" for ages and ages, but I think it will feel even more like home to them once they have a space that is just for them. I want them to feel at home versus feeling like a guest. Today I'm going to work on cleaning out the closet in that room so they'll have some closet space too. By the time they come to visit next weekend, they'll have their own room decorated and furnished just for them. It isn't gardening work, and y'all know I'd rather be out in the garden, but at this time of year with the heat and the snakes, I have to sort of give up on gardening and just wait for conditions to improve.

Dawn

GDW and I may be largely unconscious until 9 am or so tomorrow. We had a BLAST today fishing. (Especially ME! Nancy 9, GDW 1. But don't feel sorry for him. Last week was GDW 10,. Nancy 1. We stopped at 12:30 to have a beverage at the marina, and it filled up suddenly with neighbors. It was all downhill from there. We rushed home to clean the fish and check the critters, then made the mistake of returning to Whitehorn for dinner. Many more neighbors. LOVELY people and fun. Now, coma time.

Rebecca 2, Squirrels 0

Update on spring fling plants

Elderberries (2) are doing awesome. Gojiberry is going crazy. Laura Bush petunias are so beautiful and hardy. Daylilies are going strong.

The rest of the garden is okay, hanging in there.

Nancy, I hope y'all survived the coma.

Rebecca, Yay! I hope this means the odds are high that you'll get to enjoy your own fall tomatoes.

Kim, I'm glad to hear that your Spring Fling plants are doing so well.

There's really nothing new to report here. It is so dry that plants are withering and dying daily. Our soil moisture is 0.05 and I should be watering once it drops below 0.50, but you just cannot water enough to make up for the deep moisture deficit, so I'm not watering. One day I'll go boldly out into the garden wearing tall leather boots and pull up a bunch of dead plants. At least it will be easier to see the snakes with the plants thinned out some.

Our forecast has a lot of days in the next week where there's a chance of rain from 20% to 50% but we'll see---the forecast has let us down so many times this summer than I'm not buying into it until raindrops are falling on my head.

I hope everyone who has rain in the forecast for the coming week gets some.

At least we and our gardens made it through August and have arrived at September for whatever that is worth.

Dawn

Hey everyone.

Work computer is not working at my house. Ordered a new Home laptop. Won’t be in for a few days. Posting from phone is not my fave.

Did some watering and garden cleanup today.

Band seasonis upon us. Soaking in these “lasts” . It’s so hard.

Hope we all get a soaking rain or two this week.

I wanted to work in the garden and get food plot and cover crop ground ready but its too wet. I did finish brush hogging, all except the zinnias.

I went up behind our house about a mile and repaired driveways of neighbors that were washed out in the flash flood about 2 weeks ago.

I talked to Uncle in Bourbon today and we want a visit when I can stay a few days, that is going to be tuff with all we have going on, but I feel it must happen. We seem to be dealing with a lot of sick people and a lot of Dr. appointments.

Kim, I would like to report, my Iris are looking good, despite the heat and dry... and no care from me all summer long. Thank you again for bringing them last year to the Spring Fling.

Moni

Oh good to hear it Moni.

I have about 100 I will moving again soon. They are so special I don't dare leave them. They go where I go