Saturday, August 23, 2014

Crunch, crunch, crunch....

No, that's not me munching on a granola bar (although if there were any in the house, I probably would be munching on one now).

That's the sound of me walking in the front yard.  The heat and lack of moisture has finally taken it's toll on the vegetation.  And of course, my Fall Garden seedlings are taking a beating.  They are literally fighting for their lives.  I have to water them twice a day or I'm afraid they'll keel over.  The temps have been in the upper 90's for a week, it's supposed to get to 99 today and 100 on Sunday, and no sign of the 80's until Thursday (and the upper 80's at that).  I don't recall the last time we had any rain.

My poor mulberry trees (which are in pots, waiting for cooler weather to plant them) are almost dead.  I forgot to water them one day and although their leaves still looked nice and green, when I went to water them again, half of them were dried up!  Apparently it was so hot they didn't even have time to brown up and fall off, they just got blasted by our furnace-like heat and crisped up green!  I moved them to a sheltered location and watered the crap out of them, hoping they will pull through until Fall.

Everything else in the garden is crispy.  My strawberries are fried to nothing and I'm hoping that the ones that have been migrating out of the bed will survive in the weeds until I can transplant them back into the beds in the Fall.  Tomatoes and peppers are doing just fine though, even with minimal watering.

The animals, although not crispy, are pretty much unhappy  (although I wouldn't mind some crispy goat ribs out of Pickles the screaming jerk).  I mean, who wouldn't be?  Their water buckets get almost too hot to drink, the grass in their paddock is getting brown, the dust where there is only "dirt" is dusty and dry and hot and there's a family of horse flies the size of a cantaloupe that have been pestering them (and me) relentlessly.  I was able to smack one as it landed on Nettie yesterday and I heard it scream.  It was that big.

Well, it's starting to get light outside.  Finally.  I used to be able to go out and milk without a flashlight at this time in the morning but the sun if taking it's time getting out now a days.  Fall is officially just a month away, can you believe it?  Hopefully it will usher in some cooler, and wetter, weather.

In the mean time, if you want to find me outside, just listen for the crunching of vegetation and follow that.

7 comments:

  1. You are always good for a laugh!

    We're in for another murky weekend here. Stand still too long and the mold will creep up on you. {{{sending rain your way}}}

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  2. We all just aren't very good at sharing the weather, are we? We can't get our grass mowed because it's so wet. Sounds like you can mow yours just by shuffling across it. Geesh. Needless to say, we could go for some of your dryness. My beans are heavy, lush and green but I stick my hands into great clumps of mold when digging in the vines for the beans. Lots of the raspberries are molding on the canes. Like I say, wouldn't it be nice if we could just even our environments out . . . ?

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  3. This week has be the worst for temps in the last few years with upper 90's all week and today 99. I've trashed my fall garden already except for the green pepper plants that have a good crop of peppers going so I water twice a day trying to save them. Next year I'll think about using some sun shade cloth over the bucket garden to help reduce the blistering sun from the plants.

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  4. You described our place exactly! even down to the potted plants waiting for better weather to get planted. I may have let my dogwood go too long....it looks very iffy.

    I did water the strawberries yesterday so I could possibly dig some starts out for a new bed later.

    Oh well, this too shall pass (I hope).

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  5. I found your blog through a blog, very nice! I'm going to follow, because I am very interested in your seed saving techniques as my husband and I are in our second year of saving.

    Ahhh, The Ozarks! We lived for many, many years in central Arkansas before moving to Florida. I remember the crunching sound of grass and leaves in August so well. Don't miss that heat one bit!

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  6. Sending you some good energy for rain...

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  7. Nobody likes the heat and it sounds like you're having more than your fair share. All my chickens are panting with their wings slightly spread and the pigs have been running around knocking over every water bucket they can find to have a little DIY mud. Can't wait for fall!

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