Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Fall? What Fall?

Several days ago, I had my first pot of hot tea in the morning and I was actually a bit saddened by it.  The fact that Summer was coming to an end just seemed depressing. 

And yesterday was 96 degrees.  Preceeded by a 92 degree Sunday.  The last "significant" rainfall we had was May 23rd, measuring a pathetic 1.43 inches.  And since June 1st, there have only been eighteen days under 90 degrees and at least twenty-five days over 100 degrees. 

The entire summer, barring a small handfull of days, I've had to water the garden and fruit trees.  Every.  Stinking.  Day.  I'm sick of it.  I'm sick of the crispy lawn.   I'm sick of wondering if I'll lose any more livestock from the excessive heat.  I'm sick of the layer of silt-like dirt dust covering everything.  I'm sick of buying / feeding hay in the middle of grazing season.  And speaking of hay....

I've been putting off calling our Hay Dude because honestly, I'm afriad to hear his reply when I ask him when the hay is coming.  The particular field was supposed to be cut three months ago, but because of the drought, they have been waiting for it to grow long enough to justify the costs of cutting / baleing it.  I'm beginning to wonder if it will even be cut this year.  I'm also preparing myself for him to tell me the cost per bale has gone up.  Maybe it's a good time to let go of some of our hay-burners.  (OMG, did I actually type that???)

What the heak was I thinking???  Depressed because Fall was on it's way?  Saddened that this heat-scorched, wilting garden, is-it-ever-gonna-rain season was coming to an end? This Summer ab-soooo-lute-ly S.U.C.K.E.D. Well, garden & weather-wise at least.  And in all actuality, we haven't had it as bad as some of the other states (can you say, Texas???).
I'm more than ready for Fall. 

Paul's Take
She's ready for Fall???  I'm ready to move about 1,100 miles North!  She keeps thinking I'm only joking about moving to Montana; I don't know how many more times I have to mention it before she starts taking me seriously.  She gets to go indoors when it's 115 degrees outside, but I'm stuck in an oversized sheet-metal oven cranking a wrench over a hot diesel engine 10 hours a day.  We don't sweat at work; we render.

8 comments:

  1. Hey! Move to upstate NY! It was 54 degrees this morning. Wait! DON'T move to upstate NY or anywhere else in the Vampire State. Let's ALL move to Minnie Soda. Actually, I am right there with Paul. I think that Montana is sounding pretty darn good right now. In any event, you need to move north. Your summer sounds hellish in every possible way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope you get good news on the hay soon.

    I also wanted to tell you that I'm passing an award along to you.

    Our Rustic Roots

    ReplyDelete
  3. Been pretty hot down here in Arizona too! We did get a good rainy season this year though, it started on July 4th and looks like yesterday was the end of it. Over 10.5 inches of rain here at the Lazy J Bar C!! Let's not talk about the price of hay, okay?!?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have to hand it to you for being so diligent with your watering. I haven't been and will pay the price! I have to say if my DH said let's move to Montana, I'd take him up on it! (Hasn't been a piece of cake in SC either).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Render...good one!!

    Not sure that I have ever heard NY as the Vampire State, but IL wasn't too much better. Well, better than your weather, but still a bad year.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My feelings exactly ... except for Montana. I think their winters aren't so nice.

    Be shocked at the price of the hay. Here they are getting $50 a large round (l000 lbs) bale for 'marginal' (aka. crap) hay. Thankfully we booked ours early and just paid $30 for it; same as last year.

    Now they are telling us a second La Nina is coming.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Would love to move north. Love the snow, cold winds and nice warm fires and hot cups of tea... now if I could just convince William that he would love the cold winters. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can understand your feelings. This has been a long HOT summer, even though it took it's time in arriving. But the heat has seemed to just drag on more than normal.

    ReplyDelete