The scurs called the end of the heat wave and not a moment too soon. Sales of deodorant were topping all-time records. Will it return again soon? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of rain. Highs around 85 and lows near 70. Partly cloudy Thursday with a continuing chance of rain. Highs of 80 – 85 and lows around 65. Mostly clear skies both Friday and Saturday with highs of 80 – 85 and lows of 65 – 70. Clear becoming partly cloudy on Sunday with a slight chance of rain. Highs 85 and lows of 65 – 70. Mostly sunny and warmer on Monday. Highs of 85 – 90 and lows around 70. Partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy on Tuesday with a good chance of a thunderstorm. Highs around 90 and lows near 60 when the system moves through. The normal high for August 1st is 83 and the normal low is 61. The sun will rise at 6 a.m., roughly the same time as it did back on the 6th of May. The scurs will be sawing logs with their newfound extra minutes of morning darkness.
Last week was brutal weather for humans. It is considered the warmest week of the year and it lived up to its billing. With air conditioners keeping it comfortable inside, the decision to stay indoors was easy, especially after opening the door and feeling the blast of sauna like heat and high humidity. When your glasses steamed up that was a clue. In general though the corn and soybeans didn’t seem to mind. Much of the corn was starting to pollinate although there was probably more this week judging by the smell of corn pollen in the air. Soybeans largely pushed into the R3 stage, by definition largely making glyphosate applications off-label. Soybean aphids are more easily found but nowhere near any kind of threshold levels. Small grains are turning rapidly and the heat has done it no favors. With the wet summer, wheat has suffered from a bacterial leaf streak from which there is no known treatment other than selecting for more tolerant varieties. Same scenario with the peas as yields turning sour on the remaining fields from the root rot and heat.
Peas in the garden have followed suit. The snap peas that showed so much promise earlier failed to set pods after flowering profusely. The vine crops loved it and are staying ahead of the weeds for the time being. There are plenty of weeds however with warm season weeds such as waterhemp and crabgrass having an absolute fiesta. Sweet corn in the fields has tasseled on the short side and can’t see anything different in the garden either. String beans have appreciated the heat too, and it shouldn’t be too much longer before seeing the first flowers on our later than normal planting. Tomatoes are looking good but again since they were put out relatively late, not much for fruit set just yet. The direct seeded zucchini has come through and it won’t be too much longer before the five-county area is overrun with this wonderful source of livestock feed.
The lawn has been nearly impossible to stay ahead of this summer. It’s either raining, too wet or the mosquitoes will carry you off if attempting to mow in the evenings. Trying to find daylight hours when the wind is blowing seems to be the best idea although that isn’t necessarily foolproof either especially if one happens to be mowing in a windbreak or around the bushes. And just like in the garden the crabgrass has come through. Given the high moisture of the crabgrass, the mower deck becomes a portable cow pie carrier.
We continue to feed what appear to be several families of orioles. It looks like at least two groups of Baltimore orioles and one family of orchard orioles. They can really gobble down the jelly with consumption approaching that of the spring migration. They’re going through a couple of the 32 oz. jars a week so one may as well just buy two at a time and get it over with. The hummers are sticking around this year so not sure if there was a nest in the area or not. There seems to be some smaller ones now and they spend much of their time dive bombing each other while circling around the feeders. They may be the young from this year’s hatch, perhaps not from here but from somewhere.
During my Mom’s brief hospital stay this past week, we had the pleasure of keeping Fudgie. She seemed to fit right in after a good old fashioned brushing to help keep the hair shedding to a minimum. Doesn’t seem like nearly eight years have passed since she was just a little wriggling puppy playing in the wading pool filled with cedar shavings. It didn’t take her and her playmates long to get out of it either as I recall. Border Collies start out active and stay that way, at least until they decide it’s nap time. Ruby was being Ruby and bouncing off the walls during much of Fudgie’s visit here. Someone to play with and to attempt to herd. Once she got tired of Ruby’s antics she’d repair to the solitude of the utility room to take a snooze. Funny thing, there are people who make me feel the same way.
See you next week…real good then.