We got a nice shower last night, starting about 11:00. It did not rain long, but we had a couple of inches a couple of days before. We also got a lot of thunder and lightning, but no strong wind or hail. With the heat that is coming up, the rain wont last long.

When I was a bacheior, cleaning house was very low on my list. I did not clean the house the first time Madge came to see me. I was remodeling, the house was full of tools and supplies, but my health was fading fast and I never finished the project, I just bought a used mobile home and placed it on the other side of the property, we got married and have lived in it for 14 years. I really dont like mobile homes, but I also dont like being in debt.

I need to get out and spray round up and do some weeding, and it I can get to it before it gets too hot I need to string more electric fence wire. I also have a leaking tractor tire that needs to be patched, I will have to take it to town for that, and I dont like going to town. I have too many tires to keep repaired, so "airing up" is something I do often. I also have a tiller tire that has to be aired up each time I use it, which needs to be very soon.

As soon as the ground will dry a little I would like to try planting a few seeds, some are old and may not come up. I was so late getting other things planted, that I really dont have a spot ready.

Good Morning! Thanks for starting the weekly thread! It doesn't have to be me who starts it every week.

I'm glad some of you received rain and hope everyone was spared the worst of the storm damage and power outages.

dbarron, Oh, you have to do what we call 'company cleaning' where you kick everything up a notch for the incoming visitors. Pace yourself and don't try to do too much in one day. At least this is a good week to do it since it is going to be too miserably hot and humid to be outdoors doing anything else.

The rain largely missed us, although we had some sort of Severe Thunderstorm Watch notification set off our weather radio and phones during the night, waking us up and ruining what could have been a good night's sleep. Then we had thunder, lighting and some wind. Rain? Meh. Not enough to mention. I don't understand why we get the decaying storms in the early morning hours after everyone else has experienced the joy of the rain, and it happens over and over again. Just once I'd like to have some good rainfall roll through with the thunder, lightning and wind, but we almost always just get the noise of storms that are dying down and falling apart.

I have no garden plans for this week other than keeping the containers, in particular, well-watered. Oh, and the new plants, of course. The reason I hate planting in summer is that the recently-transplanted plants have to be checked daily and carefully watered, but doing so has kept all the transplant shock away so that's a good thing.

Larry, It is smart to stay out of debt and you know that! I didn't have many places ready to plant this year either because of all the rain, and I've made peace with that. A gazillion reseeding annual flowers have sprouted within those unplanted places and they now are a riot of zinnias, cosmos and salvias, so I just ignore the grass and weeds among the flowers and pretend those beds are intentional. Maybe they'll serve as a good buffer between the beds I did get cleaned up and planted and the grassy field of tiny grasshoppers beyond the garden. While we still are largely pest-free (and I ponder that a lot, feeling like the rain may have drowned a lot of overwintering pests and their eggs) and have plenty of beneficial insects, I still expect a big influx of grasshoppers in this heat. It always happen when we get really hot in July and they come in a big surge, seeing irrigated areas.

Tim went out around 8 pm and mowed the lawn area closest to the house last night. The temperature still was near 100 and the heat index was well above 100, but he mowed enough to make himself happy and to feel he accomplished something.

We've been wondering where the big supply chain issues would be most apparent this summer since Chinese imports largely aren't happening. Down here, they are most apparent in the items people need to keep their swimming pools running---filters for pool pumps, replacement pool covers if a storm tears yours up, etc. and the kids/grandkids happy. Anything you put out in a yard is in short supply---above-ground swimming pools, wading pools, bikes, lawn furniture, trampolines, swingsets and jungle gyms, even treated lumber for building outdoor projects. People apparently have turned their yards into family retreats in this awful summer of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tim couldn't find anything he wanted yesterday, and even the pool supply stores offered no hope and said "next year". He looked online and couldn't find any pool supplies there. Then I suggested "E-Bay?" and he told me those were too expensive. (sigh) He needs to think like a gardener and be happy to pay the price for what he needs. Don't we do that when we finally find that certain plant we've been looking for and couldn't find? We know that once we've found it, we just need to splurge and get it, right? I encouraged him to just go find what he wanted on E-bay and get it, because we weren't going to have those items at all this summer if he didn't. He found the items he wanted (pool filters and a new pool cover) and ordered them, for a premium price of course, but it beats waiting until next year. Friends of ours had their microwave go out this week, and have to wait several weeks for a new one to come in. They borrowed the microwave from the fire station to use temporarily. We have friends who are on a months-long wait list for a new deep freeze.

I stocked up on everything possible I thought we'd need to get through this pandemic if the supply chain broke, and did a pretty good job of it, including pool chemicals, but didn't get enough extra pool filters or a spare pool cover. I did the same thing with lawn and garden supplies, and haven't run out of Espoma fertilizer or garden trowels (perpetually misplacing them) or seeds yet. I have been buying seeds for next season right now because I think one way or another, they could be in short supply next winter/spring.

This is a good week to stay indoors as much as possible and to stay cool.

Have a great week, everyone.

Dawn

ditto from last thread:

Jennifer I just back in Norman this morning after the storm. The power is out at my house , just got through emailing you from work email. Trying to find out how bad it was but no power.

Need me to come over and help out let me know somehow.

HU

I haven’t been on much lately, largely from being away from home.

It’s hot, what else can I say? It’s July lol. For us, that means low 90’s most days with lows right around 70. Autumn isn’t really all that far off though. Ugh. I hate summer. I’ve said before how hard this summer has hit me in terms of depression, and it certainly doesn’t get much better as the summer progresses!!

That being said, I’ve been working hard to keep my weeds down this year, and it sure has paid off. With regular weekly hoeing early on (which only took like 15m a week really), even in bare dirt, the top few inches have dried out so much that weeds are virtually not a problem. Anything that grows now in this heat is a big weed which is super easy to yank out. I do need to strim around the edges though.

I harvested 3 4lb cabbage heads and 1 2lb head this morning. Those are still from the early Copenhagen markets. They’ve produced a fairly spread out crop, which surprises me. Soon we’ll be picking early Dutch and Brunswick. Filderkraut is doing soooo well, and it seems to love this heat. I don’t expect harvests from that variety until September! Huge heads.

The Brunswick and Early Dutch aren’t so good as the other two. They get eaten up easily, and I missed a few BT sprays when I was gone for a week or so. I took a trip up to my grandparents for a week, which was great. They’re about 180 miles northeast of us (which was more like 250-300 miles with some fun detour routes I took). Only thing is my cabbages looked like they’d been through a paper shredder by the time I arrived home. They’ve mostly recovered. I suspect they would benefit from some fertilizer, so I’ll be foliar spraying with fish emulsion from now on.

I haven’t watered my garden once this year. Potted plants are the exception. We went for 5-6 weeks without any rainfall, and even then everything did fine. Now we’ve had an inch or two of rain over the weekend so everything is even happier for it. I’m planning to pick up a couple acres for market gardening this fall, so learning how to dry garden like this isn’t a bad thing. This year has been all about experiments. I want my garden to be as self-sufficient and care-free as possible. Wider spacings, less water, etc. I’m finding flowers REALLY attract beneficial insects. Pest control normally takes a lot of my time during the summer. This year it’s nearly nonexistent, except for some like cabbage worms. The pests are there. I see them and sometimes get concerned, but then something comes from my flower beds and kills them! Just last week, I witnessed what appeared to be a hornet. It was enjoying my Mexican sunflowers, and before it left it happened to kill a Japanese beetle on the plant. NEVER seen that before. What?!?! I’m still shocked. I can tell I will be doing a lot of experiments next year.

Then there’s trap crops. My one rose bush has been a magnet for Japanese beetles. But then again, they’re so focused on that Bush that they aren’t touching anything else. I’ll just let it be.

The TH350 transmission in my truck is leaking a quart of fluid every few weeks now. That’s expensive!! Going through and replacing any seals this next weekend. Somebody previously overtightened the pan and bent it all up so it likes to leak. I’ve tried to bend it back before, but it’s just too far gone. A new pan costs $40-50, so I’ll just silicone it. I’m not overly concerned about long-term heath of this tranny, because last I changed fluid there was a good 1/4” of metal shards in the bottom. LOL, I’ll be finding a TH350 to rebuild while I wait on this one to go out. That being said, it’s going strong 10 months after I found that. It shifts beautifully, even under really heavy load. I’m amazed at the abuse these transmissions can handle. Being a 3 speed, it gets loud on the freeway, but it doesn’t negatively affect it. I thought about going to an overdrive tranny, but I sure love the grunt that the 3 speed with the low rear end gearing gives me. Somebody really built out that motor, and it definitely moves fast. It loves the highway. And others complain about it setting you back in your seat a bit, but I sure love it lol. I manage at least 12 M.P.G. on the freeway. I’ve been told that it’s SMILES per gallon...It did great up to my grandparents....I know it, the hood needs fixed. If only people kept the hinges lubricated before they bend the hood...

oh, and the glass from those vent windows I got from the junk yard is falling out. I guess weatherstrip adhesive should fix that....I’ve not had great luck with modern glass-setting rubber. Maybe it was better back in the day?!

My big overgrown center bed looks like a rat's next. (A phrase commonly used with female humans' hair when they get out of bed or are in a storm. LOL That's what the center bed looks like.) I do believe it's going to be time to start all over when it cools off enough. It's crazy messed up. And we only got a little over a half inch of rain. John said the garden at Lincoln is fine. I'm thankful for that. Garry and I are going to go work in it tomorrow evening--doing what, I'm not sure. maybe planting more stuff. I need to get the fall seeds in order.

I am so impressed, Amy, by your efforts! I still haven't even figured out the new truck's music stuff or my iphone. I really hate spending time on tech stuff.

I had no idea so many things were in short supply, Dawn. Interesting. I'm kind of getting used to not going anywhere--it's not bothering me at all. I like the few times we've seen company, but am not entirely at ease with it. It's almost easier just not to have company. I was just thinking how much easier it would be to mow at 7 or 8 pm. But I'm always so full after dinner, I know that's just not realistic for me. Still, it's pretty shady here after 5 pm, so I might try that. Just have to make sure dinner will either be fixed earlier or have sandwiches.

I laughed at your house-cleaning story, dbarron. And Larry. I was divorced and had my two sons. I used to say that when they left home, maybe I'd have a clean house again. Well, when I finally had the house to myself, I found out that the messy house just might be partly due to ME. lol

We have had 2 surprise rains - Friday almost 2” and LOTS of thunder & lightning. We planned to cut hay that day so very fortunate he got a late start and it wasn’t cut yet. This morning about 5:00 another 1” - what a blessing in July! We had a little wind and some blinking electric but nothing like down Moore/Norman way couple nights ago.

I ordered wildflower seeds this morning from Wildseedfarm.com - they have free shipping if you order before 7-19. I ordered several seeds from them last year and was very pleased with the price and quality. I have blue flax, bluebonnets, blanketflower, and butterfly weed blooming right now from seeds I got from them.

In the garden I have squash, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, okra, and PEPH peas. Just wish I had the tomatoes the rest of you talk about 🙄

My late plants are setting a few tomatoes but very sparse, maybe they will make a good Fall crop.

I have been out weeding, really a beautiful morning. I think we were to have a shower come through about now, it was head south east, must have petered- out before it got here. I needed a rest anyway.

I am really happy about the way my butternut and cantaloupe look, got babies forming on both.

Well my daughter just called, they got electricity now, so I better go get my generator before it starts raining.

Just heard word from everyone in my neighborhood that our power came back on just now (actually 30 minutes ago). I am at work, but am thrilled that we are back up. It's no fun to be without power when it feels like 100. OG&E told my neighbor last night that it could be until Wednesday, so I was "gearing up" for that. So glad I can take that concern off my list.

HU brought out his generator for us to use because the power came back on at his house. I am SO grateful for that. It was able to keep our shop freezer and refrigerator going as well as the house ones. Also, we were able to use a fan while we were sleeping last night.

I did not sleep the night before so slept like a log last night...and even had to put on covers because it became delightfully cool early this morning. With the windows open and the breeze blowing and the light rain along with the fan...that was good sleeping. I wish I was still there right now.

That storm that came through was nuts. It tore through the one nursery coop, but a plant I have sitting on my garden cart was undisturbed. It's a medium sized plastic pot--not heavy at all. We found Tom's grill. It was moved to the other end of the shop porch. The dogs houses were blown to the fence as well as buckets and stuff. I found one dog bowl. Can't find the other.

I woke up yesterday and first thing checked on Stormy and babies. Our friends gave us a nice dog kennel that will probably be repurposed into a chicken pen. Thankfully we had that up already. (it never moved from it's spot during the storm and it was right next to Stormy's nursery) I put them in that new kennel, but then was worried because it didn't have a top. Hawks you know. So I stretched a shade cloth over it and felt good about it.

Then, I didn't' do much other than clean up stuff, take the shade cloth off the fallen/bent trellises, harvested a few things and just tried to stay cool.

The mother hens went back to the main flock. Dolly sat next to her baby outside of Chicken Nursery #1 all day until it was time to go to the roost bar. It's so sad. She lingered for as long as she could and then left. Stormy is a high strung hen and didn't stay near her babies. Something about laying an egg while still caring for chicks messed her up. Add to that the trauma of being tossed around by storm while trapped in a box. Last year, she would not leave her and tried to sneak them out...and was successful in getting one out. (It was the bantam rooster when he was a chick btw) She was back on the nesting boxes this morning. I guess she's confused and thinks she needs to sit on eggs again. Poor thing.

The chicks are doing okay.

I'm not finished with broody hens this year and need to fix that nursery that was damaged and start this process again.

HU, Kevin has 14 tposts that he will give to us.

With the power back on, if you aren't too tired and would like to can those peas tonight, we can do that. Things are piling up.

dbarron, what fantasy novel were you reading? I love to read but just don't do it much nowadays.

Jacob, your garden looks great!

Farmgardener, we didn't get that much rain, but got a nice 1.5 inches. That is a worthy amount that I am thankful for.

We paid for it, though, in destruction, discomfort, and time spent cleaning up/repairing and time lost that could have been spent on other things.

Dawn, did you get to plant shop yesterday?

Nancy, my hair looks like a rat's nest most of the time and if I try to brush it, it makes it worse. I have to scrunch it with product or roll it with the thicker curling iron if I want to look presentable.

Larry, we have small cantaloupe and good size butternut too. This is a first for cantaloupe for me. The butternut vines look awful. Probably from squash bugs, although I'm killing them when I can. The fruit looks good though...and the plants are making new leaves.

The storm knocked a Penn Dutch CN squash off the vine. It's pretty large but hasn't changed colors yet. What can I do with it?

When do I know if butternut or PDCN is ready?

Jen and Kim, y'all okay? Haven't seen you around lately.

Ok , I'll be over to can peas after I get off work.

Might be around 5 or so .

HU

I’m here. Waiting on the results of my COVID test. Probably later this week. I’ll get a couple pictures of my storm damage up later. Couple huge limbs came down right at the power line connection to the house. Handyman cleared enough to get a look at the damage, then PSO fixed the lines today, now handyman will come back to clear the rest of the tree. I never lost power, just the connection to the house was loosened. There’s a couple tomato plants, a pot of basil, and my rosemary shrub underneath it.

Think I lost a couple other tomatoes to wind and excessive rain. I still had the 3 new plants I bought before the storm and COVID, and a neighbor picked me up a few more and left them on my porch. So I can replace and hope for fall tomatoes. Every single Heidi fruit has some level of BER. Most of the Porters do now. I hate to see how it’s going to look going forward.

Lost one yellow squash to SVB, despite being militant with spraying and BT. Will replant. Two others ok, but need BT shots. Cantaloupe blooming! Got 2 nice cucumbers so far, most of the vines are either stunted or too fungus-y and need to be yanked. Pointsett is a great surprise. Forgot to check the eggplant.

I have a lot to do, and it’s hot and steamy and I’m probably COVID-y. At least I’m safely distanced within my property lines. I think I can handle 15-20 minutes outside in the evening shade per day, as long as I hydrate well. After the tree is cleaned up. But hey, more sunlight, right?

Before handyman

After handyman

Hi all. It’s been a wild few days—we’ve had a good three inches of rain this week, and that wind! I’m still trying to wrangle the jungle back into some semblance of order, though I think I am past controlling it now. I’m awash in tomatoes and the peppers have started to ripen, so things are looking good. Just trying to keep ahead of the cracking, the pests, and the inevitable heat. Going to try and get some salsa put up tomorrow and make some space on the counter. Hope everyone is safe and sound this unusual July!

—Marleigh

I took advantage of a 77 degree high (cloudy) today and mowed both front and back yards (never do them on same day..but temperatures!). This is much better than mowing at 90+ some other day.
We had a chance of rain, and it did drizzle just a bit..but it didn't 'rain'.

I'm hoping for a better day today, weatherwise, which in our case means less heat or a lower dewpoint or both. When you wake up and discover your overnight low is 80 and the heat index is 83 about 90 minutes before sunrise, it doesn't give one a lot of hope for a cooler day, does it? Usually we don't hit the point where 80 is the overnight low until August but the hot nights are early this year.

Like most of you, we have a Heat Advisory today for the umpteenth day in a row. Yesterday morning, they converted ours to an Excessive Heat Warning fairly early in the day and we ended up with heat index values along the Red River as high as 118 (at Durant) though most of us were only in the 112-114 range. The poor HVAC system works hard 24/7 to keep the house cool, but I'm grateful for it. The wildlife and plants don't have the benefit of that cool indoor air that we have.

I'm sorry about all the storm damage and the power outages, but at least y'all got some rain. We'd be happy to have rain down here, though it doesn't seem likely to happen. They throw a 20% chance into the forecast here and there, but no rain falls. All the plants here are starting to get pretty crispy.

Jacob, Your plants look great and it sounds like your truck is doing a good job of keeping you busy. I love old trucks---at least you can work on them yourself, unlike so many of the newer ones. Our truck now has achieved a bit of old truck status---we bought it in 1997, the same year we bought our land and we broke it in pretty well driving back and forth from Fort Worth to Marietta every weekend for a couple of years until we got the land cleared and the house built. I hope this truck lasts forever. It has a lot of miles on it, and we've had to replace the transmission twice but other than that it has given us very little trouble. The newer trucks they make today are too pretty and our friends who have them worry about actually using them to haul anything because they might get them dirty or scratch or dent them. Ha! We can throw anything that needs to be hauled into our truck without worrying about any of that.

Amy, I hope you can make that Echo Show work so your dad can video chat with everyone and not feel so isolated during this whole Covid-19 thing.

Nancy, I had heard rumbles of odd things being in short supply, especially anything that anyone can use outdoors. Apparently a lot of new gardeners have kept the store shelves stripped of gardening supplies and tools, it is almost impossible to find pressure-treated lumber to build decks (we've tried, and would be building our deck now if we could get the lumber), etc. but I didn't know pool supplies would be impacted. I guess it makes sense---the stores here sold out of above-ground pools by May. We had plenty of pool chemicals purchased and all, but Tim changes the filters too often (he is rather OCD about that) and used up what I thought was a summer's worth in half a summer, so he is paying the price for that now. Some people are having trouble getting HVACs repaired or replaced because all that stuff apparently is in short supply, and expensive if you can get it. When our friend called and asked Tim if he could borrow the microwave from the fire station, that was my first clue that microwaves have become hard to find. I did know that folks who wanted or needed to buy a deep freeze were on months-long waiting lists, and expecting their deep freezes to arrive around October 2020.

I think there may be some of that same panic shopping going on down in Texas again with the resurgence of Covid-19 cases because the Costco and Sam's Club stores are out of toilet paper again, after having plenty of it in the stores for the last couple of months. We don't need any, but it was a freak-out moment to see that section empty in Sam's this weekend in Denison. I guess we hadn't been there in about a month. They filled up the paper products section with cases of bottled water stretched out thinly to try to make the area look full . You know, you can tell a lot when you are walking into Sam's, and we haven't been there often enough this summer to keep up with what is or isn't in stock, but when you see families coming out of the stores as you're entering, and they all have big boxes of commercial paper towels (the loose folded ones that fit into wall-mounted towel holders in commercial store bathrooms) in their baskets instead of Bounty or the Sam's Club store brand, that's a clue that the store is out of everything related to paper.

I don't like being in any big box store nowadays when it is busy, but if you can arrive there pretty early in the day before it is busy, you can get in and out fairly quickly without getting too close to anyone, at least until you're in line at the check-out area. We weren't there when the store opened, but we weren't too far behind. By the time we came out of Sam's, it was just too hot to even think about plant shopping. All we wanted to do was head home and get back into the relatively cool air at home. Everyone was masked up, and no one was coughing, so it felt fairly safe, but I hate being out in any sort of crowd anyhow right now and don't do it often. We had to stop at Walmart to get the few things we needed that we don't buy in large quantities at Sam's or Costco (I miss going to Costco!) and that store was just too busy for me. I noticed they had all the school supplies in now, mostly in the same place where all the summer merchandise and Fourth of July stuff had been, and new backpacks and school clothing and all that stuff. I wonder if the schools can safely resume on time a month from now? With the resurgence of cases in Texas, I don't see how they can do that. They're having a lot of trouble as it is with high school athletes testing positive down here on both sides of the river as they attempt to come together for their summer workout programs. My friends who are teachers are not excited about having in-school classes during a pandemic, though they long to be back in school with their kids again.

farmgardener, I've been trying to not go order more seeds. Our TX/OK wildflower mix and the extra bluebonnet seeds we bought to add more to the mix, have done very well this year, but have hit the wall with the heat lately and gone to seed, so Tim is excited he is going to get to mow down the wildflower pasture now. He knows he has to wait for the flowers to go to seed, and now they have.

They are haying across the street from us this week, and happily so, having been delayed by the rain we had about 3 weeks ago. With so little recent rainfall, everything is getting pretty dry here but it does make it possible for everyone to get their hay cut and baled. We never had a big hatch of small grasshoppers like so many people in other parts of OK were reporting over the last couple of months, but now that the fields are drying out, the garden is filling up with big hungry grasshoppers that are flying in from elsewhere and I'm not happy to see them in the garden.

Jennifer, I'm sorry to hear about all the damage. Poor Stormy sounds storm-traumatized. I hope she'll be able to calm down and relax.

Your winter squash are mature when the rind is hard enough that you cannot dent it with your thumb. When you harvest them at that stage, they are not necessarily ready to be eaten right away. They'll still be pretty starchy and not as sweet at that point, but after sitting and curing for a couple of weeks, the starches will be converting to sugars and the flavor will be improving. We never harvest and use them as winter squash right away---we always let them cure for a while so the starch-to-sugar conversion can occur. Depending on how far yours are towards maturity the ones that were separated from the vine by the storm might be usable as summer squash.

Rebecca, I hope your Covid-19 test comes back negative, and I hope you feel better soon (that is the most important part). When Chris was quarantined and waiting for his test results, which were negative, he was as sick as a dog and had trouble breathing. I think he waited 5 or 6 days for his test results, and was largely recovered by the time he got the test results back. We've always wondered if his test results were a false negative, because he's never had a virus make it hard for him to breathe like whatever he had that time did.

That's a lot of damage! Was Audrey freaking out during the storm? My cats would have been hiding under the bed or something. We had a couple of hours of thunder and lightning the other night as we got the outflow boundary storms from collapsing thunderstorms further north, and Jersey had to go hide in the walk-in closet all night because she hates thunder. We didn't get the rain though, and those strong winds that flew through here so quickly did various forms of damage all the way from here down to the DFW metro area, which also got the wind but not the rain. I just don't understand your BER this year because I know you are attentive to watering. It is just one more weird thing about 2020. I have a feeling this is a year we're all just going to want to forget, if we can.

I only venture outdoors early in the day to hand water the containers and the new plants in the garden, so I'm not out for very long at all. I do need to harvest the produce this morning. If I'd stop watering, the plants would stop producing and then I wouldn't have to stand out there in the heat and harvest. Yep, my mind is going there already.....The hot, steamy weather is exhausting and one doesn't have to stay out in it for long to turn into a hot, sweaty mess. Even the morning hours are not especially pleasant at this point and the house doesn't even cool off much overnight. It feels like August, and we're still a long way from August. There's no more weeding here now because of the tendency for snakes to be out and about in this heat. Oddly, we are seeing more rattlesnakes than copperheads. Last year and even the year before, there were a lot more copperheads and fewer rattlesnakes.

Marleigh, I hope you are doing well and are able to get your salsa made.

dbarron, Tim has been mowing late in the evening and finally mowed enough after a couple of days of doing so that now feels a little more in control of all the wilderness, but only up close to the house...not farther away. It drives him mad that he cannot go outdoors on a Saturday or Sunday and mow for hours at a time and get it all done at once, but as a concession to his age and the heat, he is learning to just be happy with whatever he is able to do before the heat drives him back indoors. You know, when the morning starts out at 80 degrees and fairly high humidity, it feels too hot to do much even before the sun comes up, and this weekend was especially awful. Today's dewpoints are supposed to be lower than they have been the last few days. We'll see if that proves to be true. The temperatures will be about the same, but at least with some lower dewpoints, maybe it won't feel quite so bad.

I'm contemplating doing some online seed shopping (for next year, while stuff is in stock now) or even online Christmas shopping today. It is too hot to do anything outdoors and the house is clean and the laundry is done, so I need to find a way to keep myself busy and out of trouble. I'm going to put dinner in the crockpot this morning and let it cook all day so I don't have to use the stove and heat up the kitchen this afternoon, and I might make an icebox pie. I feel like the dreadful dog days of summer are here 4-6 weeks early this year and do not like it one bit.

Stay cool everyone, and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Dawn

H/J, when the Korean Squash got ahead of us and got a bit too big, we would slice it and cook it on the grill. It was really good that way. When borers got the acorn squash I think I just sauted the immature squash in a pan. Ron was working, he didn't get ANY.

Not exactly Covid, but in order to visit a newborn in the hospital (daughter due in Oct) a person must get a pertussis booster shot. I guess they quit requiring them for school and now it's back.

Ron made a joke yesterday, when he saw the meme: my wife didn't order anything from Amazon yesterday, so the UPS driver knocked on the door to see if she was ok. He says that's you. Well, no, there were no deliveries yesterday, but, there will be! Ordered 4 times yesterday, HA HA HA teach him to make fun of me! I ordered the bluetooth speaker that I hope will help him hear the TV better. (I had gotten headphones, but they had to be paired with a phone.) We'll see if this works. Then I decided my dad needed a table to put the Echo Show on. It needed to be light. So it was cheap. Then, found out the surge strip his TV is plugged into has a dead plug in and the other wall socket may or may not be working right. My brother thought it might be linked to a wall switch and not working because the switch was off. So, ordered 2 surge strips. The other brother wonders if the wi-fi/internet available at the retirement center is good enough to do video chats, and if not, how would we arrange internet service when the place was locked down? I made a successful video call. I know it can work. Logistics are making me crazy.

No gardening happened yesterday.

We did get a little wind in the storm, had to tie up some tomatoes. But I guess the house and shed blocked a lot.

My son's dog, Buddy, who lives with us, is terrified of thunder and fireworks. We have a gate in the hall to keep dogs out of the bedrooms and grandkids out of bathrooms. It also means the cat is safe in the back of the house. Buddy has some how been opening that gate and hiding in the bathroom. Honey wanders around the living room like "no, we're not supposed to go back there."

I have to go, XOXO

Dawn, if my test is negative, the doctor will repeat the test. By symptoms we are sure of what it is. I’m mainly feeling pretty meh right now, most symptoms went from bad to medium. The GI symptoms just started.

But honestly, I’m more worried about getting my new tomato plants in. Thinking about going out and doing one per day until they’re in. That will only take a few minutes. I did go out and yank two of the 3 peppers yesterday (one had a couple babies on it, so it got to stay), grab the rest of the onions and two full sized cucumbers, and hacked the Heidis back to stems (did pull one plant) to give them another shot. That plus poking in a couple more squash and cucumber seeds did me in. 30 minutes was too long, so I’ll keep it to 15 this week.

And like Dawn, thank God for air conditioning.

Morning. I guess it's almost afternoon now.

I'm off work today. :D

Dawn, a co-worker is trying to build a deck as well and is also having a difficult time finding lumber. I do think he located some somewhere over the weekend. Someone told him there was a shortage of yellow pine? He didn't believe it...and I don't know anything about it.

I'm watching the news now and it looks like both you and I have a 30% chance of rain tonight. We had a few sprinkles this morning. HU came out early before work and we fixed the trellises that had been blown over.

I got the shade cloth back up, tomatoes tied up a bit, and harvested the okra and green beans. It was cloudy and not hot yet...just very muggy.

Dawn, do you know if the winter squash that falls when it's too big to eat as a summer squash, but not "finished" as a winter squash....will it finish up off the vine? Does that question make sense? I just don't know what to do with this one that blew off. It's pretty big.

Maybe because the hot days are here early, they'll leave early! Wouldn't that be nice? As long as it doesn't come with an October freeze. Honestly, it seems like mid July to mid August have been our hottest time out here.

Hi Marleigh. Salsa sound yummy right now.

dbarron, 77 sounds delightful.

Rebecca, you must be SO frustrated by the BER. That would make me nuts!

Okay...I've sat long enough. Green bean canning this afternoon. Really a nap sounds so good. Tomato canning tomorrow night with HU.

Tonight, I'm going to cook up some of this beautiful summer homegrown food. HU, Tom and I were talking about how it seems like we often don't enjoy the actual food we grow while it's in season. We are too busy watering, harvesting, canning, freezing to fix it for our meals. AND it's so hot that we don't feel like cooking. But, I'm going to do it. Maybe squash and zucchini and green beans...maybe even some fried green tomatoes--just a few. I have plenty of onions and garlic to use as well.

Tomorrow night we're eating some of the sweet corn.

Stay cool, y'all.

Yes ,thank God for air conditioning. Just took my first step toward mowing. Got the shop key off its hook and in my pocket. Then I thought. Wait a minute. I have a bunch of tomatoes to make sauce and they need to be made up now! Yep, so I'm off the hook for having to mow today. We were supposed to go to Lincoln last night to plant some stuff--but Suzanne called and said they have had nearly 9 inches of rain in the past 3 rains and there are puddles everywhere. When I Tod GDW that, he said they must not have emptied the rain gauge at some point. He might be right. Might be fine this evening, since I'll be planting in the raised beds.

Jacob, I'm amazed you haven't had to water. Your garden DOES look great, and you starred in Amy's dream last night, along with me and others. You were growing giant cabbages. That wasn't much of a stretch, was it? I was growing cosmos that looked like little glowing pearls on the ground. Wonder whaat drugs she was on yesterday! I showed your truck photo to Garry and ready your truck stuff to him. Got to the part about the metal shards--he grimaced and said, "That's not good." Then I read the rest of the paragraph to him. lol.

Who else besides me was growing Egg Yolk tomatoes? I am LOVING them. They're not quite as sweet as Sungolds, but almost. What I love about them is the unformity of size. And SO productive. I pulled out a couple gallon-sized bags of tomatoes in the freezer to add to these ripened ones for the sauce. That bigger yellow one in this photo is Mr. Snow. They're fine--not superb, but fine.

Wow, Amy--Honey is learning to behave??? So excellent. I get aggravated with myself when I turn in an Amazon order and then remember 2-3 other things I need.

Rebecca, bet doc and you are right. Please keep us posted. I hope you continue to feel BETTER.

What's in the crock pot, Dawn. I'm always wanting to hear what folks are eating. An old old friend of mine posted a pic of hamburger/macaroni ghoulish the other day asking if anyone remembered it. I told him thanks, "It's what's for dinner tonight." I kinda fancy it up some, but it's one of Garry's favorites, so I tend to make it on a monthly basis, pretty much.

Yes, I think buying seeds is a grand idea. Maybe I'll do it too. If I have any money left from buying books.

I am so crestfallen about the flower/plant situation in our yard. The fennel is all knocked down as are the echinacea and what's left of the bee balm. I can't cut the fennel down, as I spotted a dozen or so caterpillars on it. Can't cut all of the echinacea back as it's one of the few nectar plants I have right now, until the side sun raised bed flowers get some growth. So. It just gets to stay a mess for now.

Marleigh, I'd love to be making salsa right now, but got no peppers! We're not that far from each other, I don't think. . . but we've logged maybe a total of 3/4" from the past 3-4 days. Mesonet says 2" around our neck of the woods but nope. Mesonet doesn't do us a lot of good, anyway, since Wagoner doesn't have a reporting station--and even if it did, we're 10 miles out. Which is okay, Love the trust rain gauge. Also love the min/max weather thermometer we got, too.

It was nice and cool yesterday, but rained lightly the entire morning, so couldn't mow! AGGHH. Okay, as "they" say, I'd better get going. Those tomatoes aren't going to fix themselves.

LOL, having a good laugh over that dream Nancy!!

I promised myself that while I was sick, I’d walk the garden once a day, especially knowing I’d need to eventually start watering again. I had to go out early this afternoon to give another snot sample to the doctors office (handling error at the lab), so I did it right when I came home from that. In 15 minutes I threw 3 tomato plants in the almost empty onion/pepper bed, dumped captured rainwater on them. Filled one of the empty tomato pots with cherry tomatoes and basil sprigs to bring in. Carried the profusion zinnias to the front yard to the shade, so I can plant them when I feel up to it. Done! Have 5 more tomatoes to plant, so I think I can get them done over the week.

Here’s the squash that isn’t finished but too far along to use as a summer squash.

Just me, but I would probably peel it and use it..I don't think it will keep. Appears to be something like an acorn squash, so good to bake, esp with honey and spices.

I would expect it to be in the butternut group, but the same advise, I would try to eat it. I expect the seeds and rind will have to be tossed, but I expect the rest can be fried or baked and seasoned to your liking.

I have fried green tomatoes often, but fried squash needs more doctoring to make my taste buds happy.

Looks like we have some hot days ahead. I have been trying to run hot wires around all my gardens, the deer just wont leave them alone. I may get some butternut, and possibly some Seminole, if I am lucky. Without the electric fence I dont stand a chance at getting anything. I have a wire around 4 areas, and have 3 more areas to fence. If this covid mess means I will have to grow more food, I must get it all in one area to reduce my labor.

You're right Larry, that's what I meant (lol). I confuse acorn and butternut sometimes, though I do know the difference (because they taste similar to me).

Thanks, dbarron and Larry. It’s a Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck— C Moschat.a.

it’s doing great, really.

.

My daughter brought me dinner from the local chicken place last night. First thing I did was grab a fried zucchini, as she says I didn't think you'd like fried pickles. Eyeroll. It wasn't as awful as I had imagined, but it was a shock.

H/J, I think you could peel that squash and grill it. My guess is it will never be as sweet as a mature one, but brushed with olive oil and garlic salt or the seasonings of your choice I think you will enjoy it.

We walked the gardens in the heat of the day. Yuck. Took pictures. It's not as pretty as it was. Greens (even chard) are getting eat up. A wasp flew into the kale bed as I was there, go get those caterpillars. Tried to get a shot of the mystery cucurbit, but couldn't see the screen well enough to get the whole fruit. It is currently about 6" long, bigger around than a cuke and dark green stripes. I'm 90% sure it is offspring of the Asian mellon I grew last year, which may have been a hybrid. Otherwise it is musk mellon. I told Ron to let it grow. He liked the first one he picked which was like a mild cucumber.

Honey IS behaving better. She forgets herself when people come over and wants to jump and sit on their laps. Her nails are too long. (She goes in the end of the month for shots and nails.) She tries really hard, you can see it in her facial expression. She hates for the cat to sit on my lap, and will climb into my lap so the cat has to leave. When she wants something it starts with laying her head on my knee. If I ignore her, she puts her feet on the recliner foot rest, which tips the chair and gives me that "it must be done NOW" look.

My dream this morning involved mowing down some sad perennials and throwing down zinnia seeds. They didn't glow. But I was doing this on TV.

I forgot to mention we got the bluetooth headphones paired to the TV. I also got a bluetooth speaker, but there is a lag, so it echoes the TV if TV isn't muted and if TV is muted and you listen through the speakers the mouths don't match what you're hearing, like old kung fu movies. I can pair it to Alexa in my tablet and take it outside to listen to the radio, but I'm really not impressed. The lag isn't as bad in the headphones.

Jennifer, those look great. I must check them out, I dont think I have ever heard of then till this year. I have gardened for quit a few years, but not with a lot of different items. I want to grow items that will store long without a lot of work.

I have been over in the wildlife garden trying to get a spot ready to plant. Would you believe the ground is so wet that I could hardly pull the pasture cultivator through it. I will probably plant brown top millet or Elbon rye there because it is too wet to risk planting food there. I took a large bucket of compost farther up on the 8 acres, where the cornfield pumpkins are planted, that may be an area where i plant some cole crops, that area already has a hot wire around it.

My first Seminole bloomed today, that is, the first Seminole on a trellis. I have had some bloom that I have plant around the brush pile, but something has kept them eaten back, I doubt that they do anything. If there is something living in that brush pile eating my plants, like my neighbor thinks, there will be a very large fire there some day, we may have a groundhog roast, and you all are invited. It will sorta be like " a pig in the ground, and beer on ice, all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight." We will roast that groundhog about the time the turnips are ready, YUM, YUM.

Hahaha, Larry! Indeed, all your rowdy friends! And I've got friends in low places! What a crowd we could have.

dbarron. . . speaking of acorn squash--the summer squash and acorn squash are my two favorites. I have got to plant Acorn squash NOW. First I guess I have to find some. No prob. I can do this. Just did it. I ordered them from Johnny's. Okay.

One more try on carrots. Tell me once more, please, how to grow carrots. I should think they' do fine at LIncoln in the raised beds. The biggest trick will be to keep the soil moist until they sprout.

Jennifer--you must be so excited by your bountiful gardens this year! I'm excited for you. Loved seeing your hanging squash. We grew butternut our first year. No bug problems--we had ONE plant that produced 8 big squash. (And Garry doesn't like winter squash. Haha.)

Now we're going to the school tonight--Suzanne said it was still too wet last night. I'll take the OSU fall planting guide and see what John thinks he'd like to plant. Suzanne already said carrots.

Well, we finally took Tiny in to see the vet. We thought he was doing really well, but he was pretty punky yesterday, so I made the appt. He got a timed-release antibiotic shot (really?) and a steroid shot. For any of you who pray, please pray Tom doesn't get sick. LOL What a nightmare it would be getting him in to the vet. They'd have a fight on their hands--so would we.

None of my flowers are glowing either, but I can hardly wait to see the cosmos and zinnias at school. Taking pics tonight.

Rebecca. . . hope you're still improving--keep us posted.

Dawn, I hope you all are well. Are you taking a little sabbatical from the garden in your umpteenth days of heat advisories? I watered today. That's it. Picked a few tomatoes.

XOXO

It is hot. I watered. That is all. It is too hot to do anything else, not so much the temperatures, which are hovering just under 100 degrees most days, but the heat index. What bothers me is how it just doesn't cool off much at night. You go to bed and it is 83 degrees and feels like 90-something and you wake up and it is 80 degrees and feels like 90-something. lol. Consistency, I guess, but consistency of the wrong kind.

Rebecca, I'm so sorry you're ill. I have marveled at how long you have avoided catching it considering your place of employment and also considering how bad some people are about wearing masks. One of Chris's coworkers only had the GI symptoms and not the respiratory part. Some have had the respiratory part and not the GI part. It amazes me how differently it can affect different people.

Jennifer, I am about to give up on building the deck this summer. (sigh) All my landscaping plans have come to nothing between the weather, the pandemic, the supply chain shortages, etc. However, we are fortunate regardless---happy and healthy and secure in the knowledge that if we can't get landscaping projects done now, then we'll get them done later. I'd say we will get them done when life returns to normal, but I wonder if it will...or if they will be a new normal of a type we can not yet foresee? So, I'm doing some Christmas shopping now online while stuff still is in stock. Why not? Who knows what the retailers will be running out of by the time the holidays roll around, and I have no intention of being in the stores during flu season when both flu and Covid-19 likely will be around. I'll just get as much shopping done now as I can online, store it all away in closets, and hope I remember where all of it is when the holidays arrive.

Sometimes an immature winter squash that detaches from the vine early will go on and mature and sometimes it won't. My experience has been that most of the time it will. I just put the ones like that in the garage and forget about them, and then one day I walk in there, and they are their mature color and hardness. One autumn, in advance of a big hard freeze, I harvested dozens of Seminole pumpkins, and about half were still green. I must have had 60 or 70 in all degrees of maturity. I lined them up on the garage floor on top of boards (to allow good air flow) and the immature ones continued to mature very slowly over time---every single one of them eventually turned the mature buff color, which is better than what I had expected. We had squash for the next year from that squash stashed in the garage.

The night time rain missed us. It always does when it is a 20 or 30% chance. It dies before it reaches us, or it goes west, east or north of us. Our local TV met is pretty blunt and tells us "it is going to fall apart before it gets here" and he's always right. Tonight he told us not to expect any rain in the foreseeable future. I hate to think about what he calls the foreseeable future: a week? two weeks? three weeks?

Nancy, In the crockpot was Mississippi pot roast, only I was out of Manzetti pepperoncini peppers, so used a can of Rotel instead, and we liked it just as much. It was a 3.3 lb roast so we'll be eating it for a couple more days yet. Mississippi pot roast made in the crockpot is a favorite recipe because it tastes so good and is so easy to make. I made au gratin potatoes, yeast rolls and carrots to go with it yesterday, and a banana split pie for dessert. Tim could tell when he walked into the house that I hadn't been out working in the garden or yard because he got a full-fledged, home cooked meal with no whining from me about how it was too hot to cook, which is a sure sign I was indoors pretty much all day long. Today I made mashed potatoes to take the place of the potatoes au gratin, so the meal would be slightly different.

Rebecca, Now you are sounding just like Chris when he was quarantined at home awaiting his test results. I'd talk to him and he'd say he felt like crap, had shortness of breath from just walking across the living room and would stress each time he'd never felt so ill in his entire life....then the next time I talked to him he'd say since he was just sitting around doing nothing, he went out and planted his garden. I know he really felt awfully ill, as have you, but nothing could keep him (or you) out of the garden. : ) I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing---gardening makes anything feel better.

Larry, The deer stand in our neighbor's woodland to our south, and watch me come outside in the morning. They watch me put the deer corn out west of the garage for them, and then they watch me put out chicken scratch for the poultry and sunflower seeds for the cardinals and other song birds closer to the house. Do the deer go and eat their deer corn? Nope. They head right for the hen scratch and sunflower seeds as soon as I go back indoors. I do have one feisty rooster who challenges them, but they ignore him and eat his food while he stomps around and has a hissy fit over it. We are not raising tons of produce this year, but we have lots of flowers and are raising a fine crop of deer and turtles.

Amy, I've only had fried pickles once and we all liked them. We had them with Ranch dressing, and now the only place around here who made them has closed down for good due to Covid-19. I guess they didn't have the financial capital to withstand closing down for a while, so we probably won't have fried pickles again...if ever. If I am going to fry something, it will be okra or squash or zucchini, not pickles.

Nancy, There's no real trick to raising carrots. The hard part is getting the seeds to sprout, but they sprout a lot more quickly in summer's warmer temperatures than in winter's colder ones, so I think they really are meant to be a fall plant in our climate. Carrot seeds will sprout well any time that soil temperatures are between 40 and 95 as long as you keep the seedbed moist and prevent the seeds from washing away in heavy rainfall, but definitely are quicker in warmer soil. Good luck with yours. As long as you plant your fall carrots at least 90 days before the first freeze, you should get a great harvest.

We are at the worst part of summer here--the 'we are sick of eating tomatoes' stage. It takes a lot to get us to this point, but y'all have to remember we've basically had all the tomatoes we can eat since early May. While we appreciate having them, we're sort of at that point now where it is getting really hard to appreciate them. Instead we find ourselves looking at them and counting them and thinking that we have a lot of tomatoes to "get rid of". lol. If I'd plant fewer plants we wouldn't hit this point so quickly every summer. I guess I'll start freezing most of them for winter cooking.

Hopefully Tom will stay healthy. When we have a cat who instantly recognizes that going into the cat carrier means going to the vet, we just trick it by putting it into the larger dog crate....which is a pain to transport, but the cat stays calmer at least until the crate is opened in the examination room. Jesse is our vet problem child---he doesn't like to be examined and he doesn't like to be placed on the examination table. He doesn't bark, bite or snap at anyone, but he runs in circles trying to escape from the examination room. He is so big and strong it is hard to hold him down. On his last visit, he was having minor in-office surgery, having a cyst removed from his back, and the vet put a muzzle on him "just in case" and I don't blame him one bit. I keep hoping his hyperactivity is basically a result of his youth and that he'll settle down some. He just has too much strength and energy. He does try to be a good boy and behave. You can work with him and teach him commands, so I have hope that he'll settle down more over time. I'll ask him "who's a good boy?" and he'll run across the room and leap into my lap (all 50+ pounds of him) and rub his head against my head (I accuse him of trying to break my nose) and practically purr with joy. He is getting better around the cats, and he is fine with Jersey. The two smaller dogs, Ace and Princess, are not overly friendly towards him and he is not overly friendly towards them, so we are working on that. The problem is that Ace thinks he is the alpha male, Jesse thinks he is the alpha male, and Princess, with her sharp little teeth, KNOWS that she is the alpha dog even though she is a female, so it is a constant issue of who's the boss with the three of them. Cats seem to work out these issues between them over time, but the dogs are a bit more hard-headed. You know, if these two male dogs would accept that Princess is the boss, all would be fine. The problem is that they have no intention of letting a girl dog boss them around. It is either a circus or a zoo here everyday. Sometimes it is both.

It is a little cooler tonight and the heat index already is below 90. That gives me hope. I think the heat cranks up more tomorrow than it did today, so the hope is short-lived.

Dawn

Nancy, soil needs to be loosened for carrots. I've trialed a lot of carrots and gotten the best crops from Napoli and Muscade. Kids would like the rainbow carrots. Shade the area to be planted for a couple of days to cool the soil. Water deeply, you want the moisture deep, so the carrot taproot goes deep immediately. I always end up planting too close together. If you don't want to be out in the heat spacing carrot seeds you can make seed tapes with cheap toilet paper (think one ply) and a little school glue. I made mine in blocks on cheap napkins. But I couldn't trust that it would work, and added extra seeds, so of course everything sprouted. You can sprinkle compost over the seeds or vermiculite. Then lay burlap over them and water through the burlap. Keep the burlap damp. Check under the burlap daily for sprouts. Remove the burlap as soon as you see sprouts. You can clothes pin it to tomato cages to make a shade for a few days until the carrots are established. There are 2 reasons I use burlap. Oklahoma soil tends to form a hard crust in the heat and laying something on top prevents that. You could use cardboard, or even wood. It also prevents rain from floating seeds away. I like burlap because it stays damp and you can water through it. (They sell it at home depot.) I don't go to this much trouble in. Spring. In spring I plant a few radish seeds with the carrots, they sprout first and break any soil crust so the carrots can come up. Avoid over watering at first. As I said, you want the taproots to go deep so you get long carrots.

Hope Rebecca is feeling better.

The parade of Amazon delivery men has begun again. The dogs don't even bark any more.

I watered a couple of beds last night. Ron didn't work outside this morning because storms were approaching. They have now dissipated. No rain.

Thanks, Amy. I was sure you used burlap, but I appreciate your directions!

Speaking of fall planting, I would love some accumulated garlic wisdom from the board. Varieties you’ve had success with? Any tips? Anyone tried growing Creole garlic here? Especially interested in knowing how well garlic stores for y’all. We go through a lot of garlic in a year.

Just peeled and chopped tomatoes for a big batch of salsa. Gonna make steak salad for dinner and then do the hot canning part this evening. It always feels like so much work until you pull those jars out of the water and have the satisfaction of knowing that food is all yours when you need it. 😆

I have some fall seedlings started that need to go in the ground, but it’s just been too hot to be out there digging at 37 weeks. I have reached the early rising/disrupted sleep portion of the program, though, so I am going to try and take advantage of it in the next few days and get outside with the sun. We’ll see how that goes.

—Marleigh

Marleigh, I tried Creole garlic one year. A friend in Africa was wanting garlic that would grow well over there, and said the supply where he lived was very limited. I ordered a bunch of different kinds to try, Creole being one of them. I dont remember any details, all seemed to grow okay, some better than others, but I did not fine any that I thought would take Africa by storm. I decided that he should try his local supply of what ever would grow there. I was surprised at what would not grow well in an area that never got down to 50 *

I wish Madge used more garlic, what little I have grown seemed to do well. Madge uses a lot of onions and it seemed that the couple of years that I grew both, the garlic was more fool-proof.

I dont know how you handle this heat. I had rather do things early in the morning also, but I hate wet feet, and because my feet are somewhat deformed I cant wear any slip-on shoes. This just leaves me with my leather slippers ( which I seldom tie) to work in. It seems as though if I get them wet in the morning I wear wet shoes all day, and wet shoes dont seem to last very long. I do have some winter boots, but they hurt my feet and I have to pull them off after a short time.

Marleigh, bless your heart. Ethan was born 3 weeks early so it could happen anytime!

Garlic....I've never had great luck with it for a variety of reason. This year should have been the winner year, but I thought garlic was like onions regarding harvest....but it's not. The garlic is fine, but won't store well. Honestly, I just planted store bought garlic. It was from Natural Grocers and is soft neck. It would have been great had I harvested it earlier. :(

Larry, can you get some "outdoor" leather slippers for early morning and then change when you come in. I hate wet shoes too! I change my shoes around several times during the day, depending on many things including outdoor chores...and how my feet are feeling. I have feet issues too and am going to address this during the winter.

Amy, thanks for sharing all the carrot advice. I just pulled my spring carrots a few days ago. I want to do more for the fall.

Nancy, I'm thrilled with our bountiful gardens. We've really filled up the new pantry and will need to buy another one, I'm afraid. We've had our issues too. Our cucumbers--even the Armenian cukes are way behind. They're just now starting to bloom and it's really too hot for them now (except the Armenian). Weird. I joked with Tom and Rick about it being a good thing really...we would have to add a 4th night of canning if we had bountiful cukes.

Sorry about all of your landscaping plans, Dawn. That is frustrating. I have a lot of things I'm putting on hold this year too...but nothing as big as your plans.

I was happy to stay home today. I did go to my Mom's so she could touch up my white hairs. Early this morning--only not too early because I slept until 8 (for real!), I harvested okra, beans, tomatoes and took her all of that plus some squash, zucchini and peppers.

Also got caught up on my laundry.

It took an hour to clean my kitchen today. I had pots/pans/dishes/buckets from canning tomatoes last night. (Canning tomatoes makes a mess!) AND I cooked dinner last night using lots of garden produce and each "dish" needed its own skillet or pan.

My chickens are really bad right now so I had to clip wings tonight. Not my favorite chore at all.

Kane got a bath too. He has itchy skin and the heat is so hard on him. I bathed him and put a fan on him and he feels better, I think.

Diana is insisting on sitting on my right arm as I type and it's uncomfortable so this is all for now. Bye!

Not much to say here. I had big accomplishments, though. Took out the trash (what little there is) for pickup tomorrow, ran the dishwasher, and ate a whole PBJ for dinner. That took all my energy, so I just binge watched Masterchef all day. Test probably won’t come back until Monday.

Jennifer, I pretty much have to change shoes a lot also. I wore special inserts for a few years, but that was double hard, to keep enough inserts and shoes. Madge has bought me many different styles of shoes to try. for the past few years she has been buying me the same style of Clark shoe that does better than any other I have tried. They dont last as long as I would like for them to last, but they are much lighter than the shoes I use to buy. Madge will buy me a pair or two each time she catches them on sale at Penny's.

I have had arthritis and gout for over 40 years. I think that I do pretty well, I just have to adjust, that is one reason I ride the tractor or lawn mower as much as I do, it is not as painful as walking.

Marleigh, Any and every garlic variety I've ever planted has performed about the same, so I am not convinced the variety matters other than each of us just picking one that appeals to our individual taste buds. I have grown a lot of the varieties available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, including Inchelium Red (which we really liked when I grew it), German Red, Italian Purple, Chesnok Red, and German Extra Hardy. I've even grown the plain old California White type varieties from grocery store garlic. If you want specific varieties, the time to order is now before they sell out, and they'll be shipped to you in the fall. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has some great mixed packs and samplers (their choice of varieties) that allows you to try more varieties at a lower price.

Garlic stores a long time if properly cured, but I say that from the vantage point of someone who usually grows in drought and dry years and I do always grow it in raised beds, so our garlic never is that wet at harvest time. It might not cure well and store as long in those years with persistent rainfall carrying into the summer months. You don't have to store it all fresh. You can chop it and dry it or freeze it for use in cooking later. I do that a lot with onions and garlic, just because it streamlines cooking later on when I can reach into the freezer and pull out pre-chopped frozen onions and garlic. Freeze the garlic in the snack-sized ziplock bags in portions that correlate well to how much you use when cooking and put a ton of those little ziplocks inside a gallon freezer ziplock. I didn't plant any garlic last year because garlic-planting time fell in that time frame after Mom died when we were cleaning out her house and putting it on the market, etc., and I was preoccupied with family matters. Last year is just a blur now.....

Be careful working out in the heat, even early in the day. We still have all that dreadful humidity hanging around. My morning work consists of feeding the animals and watering the containers, and I'm usually back indoors before the heat index hits 90 degrees....if I hurry.

Jennifer, I had one rule when I was canning and I always stuck to it---I didn't go to bed until every dish was washed and the kitchen was clean. It just made a difference (in a bad way) if I had to wake up to dirty dishes and a dirty kitchen. I was not as obsessive as one of my sisters-in-law who always mopped her kitchen floor every single night before bedtime. Nope. Not that obsessed with a clean floor. Sometimes it seems like I barely fell into bed (lol, but with a clean kitchen) before Tim's alarm was going off to wake him up. One thing I don't miss about growing less and getting off the constant canning treadmill is wiping tomato spatters off the backsplash and countertops. I don't miss that at all. I didn't have a job outside our home though, so staying up late and doing dishes and cleaning was, in that sense, my job and I could stay up half the night if I needed to. It must be so much harder to try to cram all the canning and cleaning into each day when you have to leave home to go to your job too. Sometimes this summer I find myself with too much time on my hands and contemplate thawing out some of the tomatoes in the freezer and making salsa and canning it, and then I stop myself. We still have salsa in jars, so I don't need to make more yet. I can only fit so much food into the pantry and I've been keeping it full of long-term storage goods so I can avoid the stores whenever Covid-19 flares up too much locally.

Rebecca, I'm glad you are conserving your energy (as if you have much of a choice) while you await your test results. There's no sense in pushing too hard to do other things when your body needs to have the energy to recover.

There is nothing new here. Hot and humid, hot and humid, hot and humid. It doesn't rain here, no matter what we hear from other areas or see on the radar---the storms fall apart before they reach us. Yesterday, just to be clear, our local TV met said several times that there is no rain in the 7-day forecast. I guess he really wanted to drive home that point! lol Now, that is our typical summer forecast so not at all surprising, but also disheartening as a gardener to know that Mother Nature is not sending any relief in the form of rainfall.

Dawn

Marliegh, I experimented with a lot of garlic. I bought hard neck varieties at the Tulsa farmers market. The truth is we didn't like it. Last time I grew garlic I got a couple of soft neck varieties from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They were acceptable, but didn't store well for me. (Could have been operator error). What tasted best and stored best was grocery store garlic planted in January as an afterthought and I don't even know if it was organic. That was the first time I grew it. Since it was planted late, the bulbs were smaller than they could have been, but they kept a long time. They tasted like what we were used to. Ron complained the hard necks didn't have enough garlic flavor.

Larry, I don't know how you do it.

I'm so sorry you're going through this Rebecca!

Yeah, my carrot advice sounds impressive, huh. Dawn explained most of it to me. But I have had good luck with burlap. I have used it in the spring, too, to keep rain from washing the seeds to the edge of the beds.

Heat index is 97 here at 9:30 am. It is thick out there, the air is so heavy. There are a few showers out there, but looks like I am in the donut hole again.

The mosquitoes, oh the mosquitoes! They are worse on "pool row", because of course these aren't perfectly level and hold rainwater. I don't know where I'd put a dunk. There is one Ron put pots in that have built in saucers, so they don't soak up water like fabric pots. I should have him take those out of their pool.

We're getting toward the end of phase 2 in the garden. That's where I've cut down all the nicotiana, ammi majus, half the echinacea, and weeds have won in 2 of the beds. We're getting plenty of tomatoes daily now. Just picked our first Arminian cucumber, a bit of summer squash every couple/few days. Peppers, come on peppers, you can do this!'

Hot and humid here, too, Dawn. How odd. Not. One good thing about hot and humid. And this is a stretch. When I go out away from the fans and deck and actually go do something, like move the water or mow or weed. . . I soon am drenched with sweat. So walking back onto the deck and into the fans feels really cool and good! LOL

Garlic has been my best "vegetable." We use a lot of it, too, Marleigh. I planted 8 dozen last year and finally threw away the last drying-out stragglers last month. I was impressed by how long they lasted. This year I didn't grow as many and regret it. Silverwhite Silverskin and Nootka Rose. I put it in the last half of October last year. Got mine from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. . . and they have great directions for growing it.

I have no idea why alyssum is fine here in hot OK when they fried up in Mpls. I'm going to guess they get 3-4 hours of sun where they are. I was thinking of what you said debarron. But I'm very happy they AREN'T frying here, because I've had many flower failures here this year. Now Lincoln? Lincoln looks fantastic. I'm jealous. Ha. I feel like I have a split personality.

I was busy today. I play a game with mowing in this weather. I only mow the parts that are shady. Then when the sun moves, I can go back and mow new shady areas. Today I didn't even do that much. I got 90% of the back yard mowed--just a small area left, but I quit. QUIT. Tomorrow maybe I can get it and the front yards. I also got some weeding done and some of the flowers mess dealt with. I also found plenty of time to count swallowtail caterpillars in the back center bed (17) and take pictures of butterflies. And picked 8-10 biggish tomatoes and a bunch more egg yolks. In short, I was outside pretty much all day. Fans set on high, the shady deck's not. half bad.

Haha, yes, Amy (Dawn), your carrot-growing advice was awesome! Suzanne's the one who wants carrots. So I told them yesterday the trick would be to keep the bed constantly moist until they sprout. I like the burlap idea, since John has a lot more to do than just babysit ungerminated carrots, bless his heart. He is the hardest worker, and is SO happy and enthused about gardening. I love it.

I forget how Jessie came to live with you, Dawn. He just showed up, right? I'm so glad it has worked out!

Larry, I don't know you do it, either!

Rebecca--I think it's insane how long it takes to get some of these tests back. I hope you continue to feel better.

I'm gettin' a little sleepy. . . Garry, hurry up and get out here from your shower and turn our latest series on so I can promptly fall asleep.

I’m apparently still not all the way here. I posted on the bad tomato year thread. Go there and read plz? Thanks. Going back to bed now.

Hey!

Rebecca, hope you feel better soon.

It appears that everyone is busy now--not many posts.. It is the time to be busy for sure. Keeping up with the garden--watering, harvesting, preserving. IN THIS HEAT. Just ew.

We had to do some repairs to the chicken nursery...well, actually we had to get it back to the chicken yard first. And repairs to the fence and nursery. We have another broody that will need some chicks very soon. Hoping we can find some EE chicks...or some other blue/green egg layer.

The garden is watered. It is hard to believe that it's been a week since I ran like a fool out into a storm to find my chickens. And we did get a nice "over an inch" of rain. But, it was time to water again. So, it's watered.

Maintenance of the garden. It's been so neglected this year. I must find a way to do better.

Dawn, I like a clean kitchen when I go to bed too. BUT, I have to be reasonable. There are times that my dumb feet must sit after being on them for most of the day....especially if I have to function well at work the following day...like you mentioned. And by most of the day...I mean most of the day and evening....including walking the dogs and exercising. I won't give up those things because my crazy dogs need the exercise and *I* need the exercise too. Gardening is a great workout, but it's not the same as consistent workouts. It's just not no matter what people say.

It's something I feel is important for me, but understand it's not for everyone.

And ENJOY having too much time on your hands. It's a good thing. You can read, watch garden videos, plan for Christmas--like you're already doing...or nap! You deserve it!

Nancy, I'm going to order "proper" garlic this year.

Larry, I use shoe inserts too. ..always switching them around. Feet problems just suck. You can get "recovery shoes" online and those help in an amazing way. I only have one pair, but want more for sure. One for indoors, one for outdoors. Hoka One One is an athletics shoe that is supposed to be good for the feet. I have a couple of friends with bad feet who insist they are the best.

I'm rambling and have to work tomorrow....and have corn to can with HU in the afternoon/evening so better head to bed.

Tomorrow starts a new week and a new thread.

Nancy, I agree. There is not one good thing about being hot and humid---no redeeming social value whatsoever! I miss being hot and dry with low dewpoints. Hot with dry air is do much more pleasant than hot with moist air.

Jesse was dumped on our road by a previous owner, apparently right by our driveway. He loitered in the road/bar ditch/driveway by our gate for several days but could not be enticed to come up to the house and would growl at you if you tried to talk to him. He was just terrified and so alone. Finally he got hungry enough that Tim lured him up from the road with a bowl of food and a dish of water, and he's been ours ever since. I think he stayed near the gate (sadly) waiting for whoever dumped him to come back and get him, and didn't give up on waiting for them until hunger drove him to that point. All of our pets are rescues and throwaways because people suck and dump animals "in the country" all the time. Everyone out here could have 50 dogs and cats without batting an eye, if they could afford to house, feed and provide medical care for that many, because more are constantly dumped. It is sad that human beings do that.

He's a good boy who tries to please, but also is like a very rambunctious bull in a china shop. He likes to follow Lucky around the house, and when she gets tired of him and turns around and swats a clawed paw at him, he freaks out and runs. He did this yesterday in the living room, managing to get tangled up in a lamp cord, my computer cord, my smart phone (lamp, computer and phone charger were plugged into the same multi-plug surge protector), etc. and had it all wrapped around his neck and was dragging it into the kitchen with him. In the short time he was entangled, he managed to get the lamp cord knotted around his neck, and I had a hard time getting him to calm down and stand still so I could untangle the whole mess. I did manage to unplug the computer as he was dragging the lamp off the table, so at least the computer wasn't moving across the room with him like the lamp and phone were. About the time I got that whole mess untangled and had thoroughly scolded the dog, Tim walked in the door from work and the dog ran and jumped up on the sofa and looked at Tim with his "I've been bad" expression on his face. He tries to look as pitiful as possible so his daddy won't scold him for whatever he was doing that aggravated mom. I'm telling you, every single day here it is either a circus or a zoo, and I never know at the start of each day just which one we're going to have that day.

Jesse also is very loving and likes to sit on his human's lap and crush them to death. He is pretty much a two-person dog though. He loves Tim and I, and tolerates the grandkids, but barks or growls at pretty much every other human he sees. If he sees the same person over and over and gets used to them, eventually he just ignores them, so he is pretty used to our closest neighbors that he sees while out walking on his leash, but he abhors strangers.

Rebecca, I hope you get your testing results soon. I wonder if the labs here are as overwhelmed as the ones in Texas? Tim's employees who are awaiting test results are having to wait up to 2 weeks to get results back. I don't know how he even keeps track of who's out, who's back, who's coming back soon and who wants to come back but can't test negative, etc. Just today he got another phone call about another employee going out on pandemic leave. It seems like an endless merry-go-round, and I imagine you are so tired of waiting for your results.

I did minimal gardening today. It is too snakey now to weed, so weeding is off the table until around October, or whenever the cold nights return. I watered by hand this morning and Tim harvested tomatoes. Other than that, we bought groceries and ran errands early in the day, and then just tried to stay indoors and stay cool for the rest of the day.

Dawn