Well here we are. The end of August and still no rain. It’s been a terrible month. Larry my roselle doesn’t look as good as yours. I didn’t grow any at home this year, only at work. As careful as I have been I still got so sick and dehydrated. It’s just too hot out there. Today’s forecast 109. Jennifer their channel is The joyful gardener. I don’t remember when I found her but she is a very sweet lady. As I was watering last night I took inventory. I have lost stevia, 30 strawberries plants, one whole herb container and several other pots not sure what was in there

Kim, are you feeling better at all? I know the heat makes it difficult.

I looked for her channel and there were 2 or 3 Joyful Gardener channels.

So...as I was coming home from work today I saw smoke. Worrisome. Then felt more worried when I realized it was coming from our neighborhood. A guy's backyard was on fire. Called 911. They always struggle with figuring out where we are. Then noticed his dogs were in the backyard. Pulled in and have 911 on the phone which connected me to the OKC fire dept. (Moore, Norman and OKC always wanna be the ones to come to our neighborhood. We're unincorporated). Then the homeowner came around the corner and said that he had it handled. He was burning an old coop on PURPOSE!. So, I told the fire dept guy that he was burning on purpose but the fire dept guy said they were coming out anyways to put it out because we're in a burn ban. DUH! Is this guy stupid? It's so dry and hot here, although the winds are lighter today. This could have gone really bad. He asked, "we're in a burn ban?" Where the heck have you been, dude? Yes. We're in a burn ban. He said, "well we had that rain" so I thought it would be okay." You mean the less than a 10th inch of rain we had the other day? The sprinkles?

Anyway, he probably got a ticket.

Shawnee did get rain. Lots of it. But we did not.

I have the sprinkler on the garden now.

My roselle stash will run out this summer. Next summer I won't have any. It's one of my favorite summer teas. I've been making it with lemon balm and stevia.

I'll start seed next year and will have roselle tea the following summer.

Kim, I'm also losing plants. Even with watering. Some things bounce back after the summer heat but it's looking like some things won't.

Part of me want to tear it all out. But...that's a big and sweaty job.

So far, the fall green beans are hanging in there. And so is the zucchini. Maybe after tomorrow (which is supposed to be 104) I'll start carrots and lettuce. It's time for the broccoli to go in. It's outgrowing the light shelf. I'm keeping an eye on the forecast. Looks like it's mostly going to be in the 90's after tomorrow. So maybe the broccoli can go in with a shade cloth in the afternoon.

Fall gardening is always tricky because of the late summer/early fall heat but this year is especially difficult.

My second job might slow down after this week for awhile so it's possible I'll have some time to work on the garden then.

Kim I'm glad you weren’t any sicker - this heat will kill you literaly.

Jennifer I was plagued by what I call sugar ants. They come up from the drains and any tiny crack in walls or foundation. They were in the kitchen around the sink and in the main bathroom. I tried everything- cleaning with bleach and orange stuff, spraying insect spray ,all I could think of. I finally found Terro liquid ant bait. Make sure it’s the liquid and read the instructions.

Within 3 days they are all gone and not been back.

We got .39” Saturday morning and thankful for every drop. Going out now to water the few things I have left and shut my chickens up. Our daughter lives less than 1/4 mile from us. A coyote or something got one of her miniature goats last night. She was so upset. I’ve picked up a coyote several nights on the game camera.

Praying for rain. Too many crazies out there setting fires in purpose.

at least the rains around us give hope that the heat dome is less. Maybe soon

They've changed our forecast high today for 106. And tomorrow at 102.

And then the rest of the 9 day is below 100. Maybe, just maybe I'll get out tomorrow right before dark and plant those carrots and cover with shade cloth to help keep the soil cool enough to stay damp. Maybe that will work. My Pilates teacher is out of town so we won't have class tomorrow evening.

I want fall carrots.

Even if I have to keep them alive through the winter until late winter/early spring.

Glenda, these pharaoh ants are just so difficult. From what I understand, most ant colonies have one queen, but the pharaoh ants have several and when they sense danger from chemical treatments the split their colonies to protect themselves. I think it's called "budding". They're so tiny that you almost don't notice them because they look like crumbs on your counter. However, all ants are a pain to deal with and difficult.

I'll try the stuff you mentioned. I know it's recommended that a slow acting gel is best for these. We have a friend who does pest control and he was able to get rid of them last year for about a year or so. It seems like drought brings them into the house, although supposedly they're living indoors, hiding in walls, etc.

Yuck.

Speaking of bugs, I got bit by a spider yesterday. Didn't feel it, but it started itching and then I saw the thing. I was nearly the same place as where the wasp got me last week. What's up with the inside of my left wrist being a bug magnet?

I'm really sorry about your daughter's goat. I would be SO upset too!

It has cooled here, but it is still very dry, and a wind is blowing. The cooler weather make me want to brush hog, but the dry weather and the wind tells me not to.

I should be able to spray water on the sweet potato bed to help soften the ground, that is about all that I am in the mood for. This weather, and the moving has me so depressed that I had rather just sit in this recliner and let the clock run out.

This heat is definitely sickening. I went to work this morning and within an hour I had a headache and was feeling dizzy. So I went to the car turn the air conditioner on and sit until I felt better. All I had to do was water today until we get under 90°. That’s all I’m gonna do. I am not planting anything else yet. Tomorrow I get a break cause I’m taking the car in to get the control arm fixed. I’m sure coyotes have some purpose, but I hate it when they get into peoples farm animals and pets. We have had lots of fires around here this last week or two. Today I had to take a completely different route home because they had a fire on the road where I was trying to go and they had it all shut down. I know a lot of these fires are started with people throwing out a cigarette. I used to smoke, and that was one thing I never did. The one fire was only 40% contained last time I checked. And the rain that we had on the forecast disappeared.

Oh, I forgot to say Jennifer yours is your wrist. Mine is the back of my knee. If I go outside in shorts, something is going to try to get the back of my knee usually a mosquito.

We got a little rain last night, it was not near enough but every little bit helps.

I drove over to the wildlife garden yesterday, and jumped a pretty good size deer. Something has been eating the wildlife garden, there were busted pumpkins everywhere. It appears as tho the deer stomp the pumpkins, and eat what they want, then the other critter come in and sample whatever they want, I also picked 5 or 6 butternut in the pasture garden. Madge's daughter is coming today, I expect that she will take the butternuts that I picked yesterday. Madge said that she saw our neighbor driving around the wildlife garden late yesterday. I expect that he was trying to find some pumpkins that the deer had missed. Neighbor says the deer have cleaned everything out of his garden. When it get hot and dry like this the wildlife have a lot harder time finding food, and I expect that it will be a lot worse this fall and winter.

I hope to plant a good size food plot this fall before we move to Fayetteville.

I think that the rain last night well be enough to reduce the risk of fire, and maybe I can go brush bog while the grass and weeds are still wet.

A forecast high of 92. It will feel like fall! lol

Larry, I'm glad you found a few butternut. I have one. Seriously. Just one. And I noticed that it has a crack in it. I'm glad I froze some last year. Both pureed and in chunks.

Trying to figure out the issue. It is not squash bugs. Although we've had a few, we've not had the numbers that we usually have.

I'm going to blame the weather. Little fruits would develop and then dry up...which indicates a pollination problem. But, somehow it's the weather's fault. My bees haven't been as abundant in the last month. I should have planted melons and squash earlier.

As it is, I'm going to get one cantaloupe. We're getting to the time of year that there's not time for new fruit to form and develop to harvest. Then the Karjari melons. I got two. Normally those things are so productive.

If any of you saw my video of the pollinator garden--just yikes. It's a dry, dessert-like place right now. No wonder the pollinators aren't around.

Kim, in this heat, it's not a good idea to plant anything. I'm sure your bosses understand that.

I went ahead and sowed carrot seed last night and covered it with a shade cloth this morning. We'll see if I can get them to come up. It wasn't smart to plant them but it's past time.

Welp, it's time to get to work.

Well, the fire near Possum Kingdom is up to 92,000 acres burn and less than 20% contained. We are seeing some of the effects of the smoke but not much.

How's the fire, Kim? I haven't had time to keep up with the news.

I'm going on 7 days straight of work. By the time I (should) get a day off it will be 9.

I'll try to post more then.

Alrighty. Taking a late lunch break and thought I would catch up here....but there's nothing to read! Lol

Everyone must be as busy as I am. Day 9 of no days off. But, tomorrow should be a day off. Looking forward to that.

I've decided that much of my garden is going to by pulled out. Many of the plants are pretty toasty and even if they could come back, by the time it cools off enough, they won't have time to produce. I do feel a little disappointed that there will be no green tomatoes to bring in right before the first frost--that's always fun to me. But, overall, the they did well. Most of those will go. The noodle beans will go. A lot of the zinnias, the 2nd round of green beans that never did produce. Maybe even the cantaloupe vines.

I had one cantaloupe that was nearly ready. Went out to check it last night and something had eaten most of it. I'm guessing our skunk friend. Maybe I'll leave the Kajari melons.

Anyway, many of those beds will be cleaned out and compost added.

I'm going to get up with the sun tomorrow and get out to pull stuff for a couple of hours.

My garden and property in general is making me overwhelmed right now and I know I'm not the only one.

Interesting thing this year....pest pressure. Very few aphids and squash pests.

And very few bees and butterflies for the past few weeks.

On Sunday morning as I was taking Josi out for her morning walk around the yard, I saw a skunk in the pasture next to me. And, then, I was a was carrying the broccoli plants to the hoop house, I turned the corner another one was standing there. I had a feeling I would see one so was singing loudly on the way to the hoop house. It saw me and ran off. Pretty sure it's the one digging under the shop. I've filled the holes in several times but it keeps coming back. We're going to put some hardware cloth around the shop soon. I don't want to trap it under the shop, so bought a critter cam so that I can keep up with it's comings and goings.

The broccoli plants badly need to be planted so that might get done tonight or tomorrow. I might as well take the shade cloth off the butternut squash and use it for the broccoli.

The carrot seed hasn't germinated yet. The fall green beans and zucchini are still looking good. Lettuce, parsley, and other greens were started last night. We're noticabley losing daylight hours now.

I lost another hen. All of the 2017 hens have passed now: Jolene, Sunshine, LuLu, Dolly, Buttercup, Rosslyn Kaye, and now Rosa. I stil have Ida, a 2015 hen.

We're down to 15 hens and the 2 roos.

I can't think of anything else really to talk about. How's things going in your garden and life?

Jennifer, I am off tomorrow too. The fire that they call Ross fire near Possum Kingdom is 89 to 93,000 acres depending on who you watch and it is 20 to 35% contained. This heat is so ridiculous that I am trying to be really careful. Today I worked 5 1/2 hours and then went and picked a few pears maybe a bushel. I really want to get some watering done tomorrow and figure out what I am doing with GS. I have two and for some reason I have grass growing up in one of them. I want to get a big tarp and start dumping each layer into the tarp and pick through it and get all the grass roots out and then put the soil back. That sounds like a very hot project. I have some tomatoes growing at work and I am going to be putting those in the greenhouse. I think I have 50 or 60 plants which obviously I don’t need that many plants but the strongest will be selected for the greenhouse and I imagine the rest will get trashed because nobody wants tomato plants this time of the year. I might try to do a little weed eating tomorrow if I can find my charging cord. Hope everybody is doing great and staying cool. I got a little overheated today, but not bad. I knew when I was picking pairs it was time to shut it down even though I didn’t have as much as I wanted. There’s always another day.

This is the latest info I could find.

So glad to hear from you Larry. I know that we don’t have much to say right now, but I do worry when people don’t check in regularly.

Hey Larry. It's a rough year for sure. Good to hear from you.

Kim, so this hurricane/tropical storm....will it reach you or your workplace? Will it reach that fire? The news just said that it won't make it to Oklahoma because the heat dome is so strongly in place. It makes it to Dallas and they said it will be like hitting a brick wall and can't go any further. BUT, we do get the humidity from it. Yay, us.

I got outside for a couple of hours. Three beds were cleaned up. The jalapenos were surrounded by tall, dried up zinnias and I've found that the new sprinkler isn't reaching that bed. So...between being squashed by zinnias and lack of moisture....maybe the jalapenos will make it? They look really bad. I watered them deeply. I have to do better next year. Sometimes I make the stupidest choices in the garden. The okra also had tall, dried up zinnias all around them. They're free of those now and also watered deeply. Those beds are on the far east side of the kitchen garden. Then, another bed with noodle beans and a single Isis Candy tomato. The Isis is gone, but I've decided to leave the noodle beans because they are still producing and now that they've gotten a deep drink maybe they'll pick up production a bit.

Other than that, I cleaned zinnias out of the pathways along with some grass. It looks a lot better. I'm not working tomorrow either (Yay!) so I'm going to do a repeat of today and clear out more.

You know when you're over busy and it's so hot and dry...it sorta makes you feely and emotional (or is that just me?)....well, right before dark, I pulled the shade cloth off the carrot Vego bed and there were little sprouts. I really about cried because I was so happy. I left the cloth off so they can get some good sun while it's not too hot, but need to remember to replace the cloth in a couple of hours.

The seed that was started on Sunday evening is beginning sprout. Probably the arugula. It seems to be the first thing to sprout.

So...there's a ton to do inside too but I'm going to sit for a bit first.

So...day 2 of garden clean-up. Again, got out early and already back indoors. Today, the zinnia/cosmos bed was cleared as well as some of the zinnias that grew up in the asparagus.

The bed with the Kajari and Dr. Wyche was cleaned up too. The Dr. Wyche was pulled and their cages taken down. The little bed next to it had the 2nd round of Jade beans that didn't grow right probably due to the heat. Those plants were pulled too and the bed was weeded.

Also, the long bed on the south side where more of the Jade beans (2nd round) and cantaloupe was partially cleaned up. The beans were pulled. The cantaloupe vines were left. I can't see them having time to produce anything, but just in case.

Also put the sprinklers on the east and west sides of the house and watered half the kitchen garden deeply.

The broccoli was pretty sad looking when I planted it on Monday but it's actually looking pretty good now. I've had the luxury of allowing them to get sun in the morning and covering in the late morning the past two days. That probably helps a lot. Same with the carrots.

My favorite hose busted yesterday. It was at least 4 years old maybe older. It's been a good one. It's been outside year round. It's the one that I use for the hoop house and "back garden" and native garden. Rick used to drag it over to the Survivalist Garden too. I wish I could remember the brand. It might be one that Ethan sold us when he worked at Lowes.

You know, it's amazing how much better I feel when I've been in the garden. Of course, I was out before it got hot and that matters.

Yesterday after coming indoors, I strained my elderberry tincture. It's ready to use now. The drying herbs were all put into jars and labeled too. I messed up AGAIN and tipped the drying rack and mixed up the mint and stevia. Did not want to spend time separating them out so just made a mint/stevia blend for tea. Just like when I messed up with the lemon balm and stevia.

The chamomile isn't coming back like normal. It's just been way too hot. Around mid July I saw the tiny seedlings but they've long since dried up and died. I sure didn't get enough harvested back in the spring and might have to order some from Mountain Rose. And I might have to start more seed next year.

It's interesting to me that all bugs--beneficial and pests are nearly absent in my garden. Other than ants. I see a butterfly here and there. I see wasps too but not as many.

Is anyone else noticing that?

I'm trying to decide if I should leave the Sungold just in case it ever cools down. It's looking really bad. Same with the Big Beef....but they're not dead yet and still have green foliage. Oh well. That's a decision for another day. The only other tomatoes are the Black Brandywines. They didn't do well at all this year and will be pulled out. They made fruit but the fruit was weird.

I'm about to sort through my seed and organize it so it's ready for next year. Everything that I ordered a couple of weeks ago is here. Just waiting on garlic.

What are y'all up to today?

You are really on the ball this year, Jennifer. I have my seeds for my fall garden ready but not anything for next year. The Garden at work is full of bumblebees and ants. At home I have lots of red wash, yellow jackets, dirt Dobber, and bumbles. I have water out for the critters at home so I think that helps. I also have lots of Hummers and other birds at work. I was very pleasant to sit in my car and watch them. It’s hard to believe that a month from now it’ll be completely normal temperatures for a while. These hundred degree days are wearing me out. soon as it cools down I will be tearing up so much stuff in my yard. Gotta get back to work.

Kim, I'm not sure where our bumblebees went. We had them early in the summer. I do have a birdbath in both the backyard and kitchen garden. Recently added a tub in the back with some upturned terracotta pots for places to land. I've seen birds and wasps use them all. We do have lots of birds and I've seen a few hummingbirds.

I'm glad you have your car to sit in for a cool off. I'm sure that is helpful. Did y'all (work or home) get rain?

Are you still getting things ready to move?

Kim, last year it worked well for me to order seeds in advance so I did it again. There's probably something that I'm forgetting but after sorting through everything, I should be set. I've gotta NOT take extra stuff at SF this year. It's so tempting but I don't have the luxury to do that any longer.

It was such a fun time in my life, planting stuff willy nilly and having extra time in the summer to care for it all. It was even fun with Rick for the first couple of years that we gardened together. I'll always think fondly back on those days.

It's still fun. A lot of fun. But, too much to care for makes me feel overwhelmed and that's not fun.

The heat and drought have made it less fun, of course.

I've enjoyed myself a lot the past couple of mornings. Tomorrow it's back to work and then we have Gray Saturday and Sunday. Next weekend Ethan comes in. Praying he brings some rain with him. They're having rain in Portland this week. Their fall rains seem to have come back early this year. Normally it's October. Maybe it's heading our way soon.

Anyway...Kim, I suspect my life will get even busier over the next year. We have a potential building to move into at work. The moving process will take extra hours... and redesigning the building to work for us will take some doing. SO, getting a plan now for Garden 2027 is a good thing. I'll even draw out a map of my garden soon. I did it last year and mostly stuck to it. Until I let all the zinnias come up everywhere. Which was pretty but did cause issues too.

Jennifer, that sounds like the season I am in. I got overwhelmed with my Garden at home and it suffered drastically in this heat and drought. Next year if I have a garden pots or whatever it will all be on one drip line that I can turn on and leave and turn off. Moving a sprinkler around or hand watering is not an option when it’s 110° outside. Of course I don’t plan on having double pneumonia next year but we need to be prepared and take care of ourselves as we get get older. We expect rain today coming off Eduardo. Currently it is cloudy overcast and only 90°. Absolutely delightful. My coworker found a 6 foot bull snake in the garden and moved him to the edge of the property for me.

I am depressed, the weather is so hot and dry, and I don't feel like getting out and working. It seems as though the house is falling down around us, and I don.t feel like repairing it. It is near impossible to find anyone to do the work. Anyone willing to work already has more work than they can get done.

I don't expect to have a garden next year, and that depresses me also. One of my grand daughters stated that if I had any extra seeds, that she would like to have some, I stated that I had a lot more seeds than she would be able to use, but maybe she could use some for bird food.

Larry, I sorta feel like that too....that the projects are just piling up. I'm sorry you're depressed. This hot, dry weather makes it worse, I think.

It's cool that your granddaughter is asking for seeds, tho!

You might never see it, but I think you've inspired future gardeners. That's just great. I hope to do that someday too....even if I never live to see their gardens.

Kim, are you feeling any better? Praying you get the rain you so badly need. And glad you're getting a cool down. I felt a cold coming on last night as I was watering. I came in and took the elderberry oxymel, the zi-cam melts...and probably something else too. Oh, vitamin C.

I feel okay, but it's still there in my throat a little. And I'm slightly more physically tired. But, I'm continuing with the zinc, elderberry, and vitamin C. My last two weeks were rough and it's catching up with me.

Glad your neighbor so kindly moved the snake for you.

I'm trying to decide what to do with my evening other than watering. I want to do something more than that. We're having leftovers so I don't need to cook. I went out this morning to get veg to add to my salad and sadly there was nothing.

Maybe I'll weedeat around the garden areas.