July 2011 Dry and Hot!

Love the bear!!

I've been trying to read up on Joplin myself. The Kansas City Star does a good job of interviewing survivors and talking about their recoveries. I need to also read up on Japan.

I'm not enjoying this heat!! My brother is getting married on Saturday and it's supposed to be just as hot. It's an outside wedding and there's not much shade where the wedding is at so we will be sweating like crazy. I ran the soaker hose for an hour tonight on my garden.

omg pepper a wedding in this heat, everyone will be miserable! Hope they aren't doing the lace gown, and tuxes, they will melt! I don't understand outside weddings especially in Missouri, we only have 2 good days a year and who knows when those are going to happen. I have frozen at outside weddings, smothered, been rained on, and actually even had some snow fall. If I hadn't been so darn cold, the snow fall when of been pretty, but the poor bridesmaids teeth were chattering so loud you couldn't hear anything else....rofl.

She will be in a heavy dress but the bridesmaids thought ahead and got lightweight dresses. My brother and the men will be in tuxes and the proper shoes at her instistance. LOL. They are country boys who would rather wear dark jeans and nice boots instead of slacks and dress shoes. LOL!! I told her to make sure there was shade for the older people but things fell apart at her original venue and the ranch where it's gonna be at doesn't have much shade. Everyone just has to suffer for a few hours. I'm even wearing a dress as a concession to the heat and I loathe wearing dresses!!!! Gimme jeans instead!!!

Well you might take umbrellas to use before the ceremony starts. Course don't want to block the view for others during the ceremony. Course they may luck out and get 1 of the 2 good days in Missouri...rofl.

I just mowed at 8:30, my hair is soaking wet. I don't remember the humidity being this bad before. I am sure it has been but.

A Water Garden tour would be nice. I worked on ours more today, that is a muddy, nasty job! The stagnant water in it stunk, then it and the mud would splash on me. I was desperately trying not to slide into the deep, muddiest hole that was full of stale rainwater. I think I got the 2 sides/shelves about done. I need to complete that job so I can plant about 50 plants in and around it.
Here it is after I was done working on it for the day. - I read that concrete blocks can leach out chemicals into the water, they will be under the liner. I ran across a photo of that hole from last Summer, (over a year ago). That kinda got me more motivated to finish it, I was thinking, "this is taking me too long!".

I agree, living in Joplin with so much to rebuild would be a major setback. When a big part of you're house is destroyed or the whole house, where do you even begin, and all you're stuff is also ruined? I like the bear too. Where does one even get a concrete bear?! I'd like to get a bear too someday! Alas, I'll have to settle for a little concrete placard that says, "Welcome to my garden"!

Well, I finally sold my pickup truck! I sold it on Craigslist, I got less than a third of what I paid for it 3 years ago. I got burned when I bought it then, I wasn't told about the oil leak. I disclosed that this time, but my honesty was appreciated, the guy even said he appreciated it. I said, "thanks, it should be part of selling a vehicle, I wish I was told".

A wedding in the Summer is gonna be a hot one! My brother got married in the Summer of 05', in Dallas, TX., I won't forget that, it was quite the scorcher!

I'm gonna have to get a new sweatband, the one I have is like a permanent light brown. Thats what happens I guess from touching it, wet, so much with dirty hands over 20 years or so!
Will

I need to mow my place in KS., it has been 3 weeks since I've been there, but I sure would like to keep the chiggers off me this time, I still itch my feet occasionally from the last time. I might be getting me some panty hose! Altho, my friend here says OFF should work if it's on thick enuff. Heres my "bear"! lol -

We had an outside wedding, but it was April 23rd. Was a little windy and cool, but really quite nice. But in July!!!! Ummmmm, don't think so!

We set another high yesterday of 107! We have triple digets up to 105 predicted for the next 7 days. Please pray for rain for us. It is soooo dry. They are showing 9 days of 100+ and 11 days of just below 100 (98 or 99), not counting the next 7 days. OH MY! This is ridiculous! Our normal is 11 days 100 or above for the entire year!. Suppose to be 106 today. Pastures are burning up. We are going to have to start buying hay for them.

Rusty, how awful to lose so many people! That would be almost half of my town.

Happ, you're right. The storms have made us so much more aware and much more fearful for those we now know. I had a lump thinking Rusty might be gone. It was so close.

I'm glad the tour was fun. Sometimes things move too fast. I like to see everything. Was I the new person? LOL!

Rusty, do you like Missouri better than California? Were you born in California?

It would be good to find where the businesses are now. I can imagine the clean-up will take a long time. I hope people had insurance so they can rebuild.

Happ, trees are so worth it. I wouldn't be able to be out if I didn't have them.

Bernie, it's all about the now. They even embellish stories just to keep the news on 24/7. I can't stand the constant talking and if there is something interesting they go to commercial and never do come back and do the story till a couple hours later. I just look it up on the internet and walk away from the TV. I am not a slave to it.

Thanks for the newspaper link Rusty. Cleaning up would be hazarous.

Happ, all my news comes from the background. DH usually has it on. I have no patience for it.

Oh, that bear is adorable!!

Pepper, I got into the storm chaser's story. Pretty intense!

Oh no. Let's hope the weather liars have it wrong!!

Happ, two good days a year, LOL! That's pretty depressing!

Pepper, you will be a Belle for a while :o) If you're like me you will be out of it and into real clothers as soon as it's over.

Will, it's a shame you got so little for your truck, but in the long run you are better off.

Yeah, ick! That is a muddy mess! Kudos for you to get in there and try to get it done.

Smiling, my ''Welcome To My Garden'' has birds on top. It says what it needs to say tho :o)

Crit, wow! What is happening to the South half of the States? I sincerely hope you get rain!

Our rain passed over us this morning. It just upped the humidity. There will be no driveway work this week, so let it rain :o(

A couple kegs of beer will take care of the heat at a wedding!

2" of rain here Sat & Sunday nights. With this hot weather. corn is catching up fast.
Our garden is really producing. Picked cukes, summer squash & Zucchini earlier. Then tons of beans. Will pick broccoli later. It will all go to market tomorrow afternoon.
Radishes, onions, beets & other things get picked tomorrow morning.

Wow CG that looks beautiful!

Rusty, my DH was in California and actually stopped to ask directions, I can't repeat what they said but it wasn't nice....last time DH asked for directions...rofl. So you come to Missouri to miss the earth quakes and now they are threatening us with earth quakes..... ;)

Bernie, how can you tell when when summer squash is ready to pick? I have one that is just under a foot long but it's a deep yellow, not a light yellow. I've never been able to figure it out.

Yeah, we will be sweating for a few hours for sure!! And funny you mention 2 kegs of beer cause my brother has 2 kegs ordered for the reception. LOL!!!

Pick them when 4" to 6" long. Bigger they will be full of seeds & not tender. Keep them picked & they will keep coming.

Ok, thanks!! I have a few that size now so will pcik them and see how they are.

Well .... I'm singing the same old depressing song. 107* yesterday, 105* today and forcast for the next 7 days is the same. This is terrible. I hate to see my water and electric bills this month. It is so intense here, we went into burn ban all over the state today. Going to take quite a bit of rain before that get lifted. Please continue praying for us for rain!

CG ... that produce looks wonderful! I'm going to have to stop at one of our roadside stands and get some fresh veggies. Haven't even had a 'real' tomato yet. My patio tomato plant is fizzled, even though I put it under the awning during the blazing afternoon sun. Just the heat drains them. A lot of my plants wilt down during the day, then perk back up at night.

Crit, I really feel for you all, it has been burning hot down there for a long time now....gosh. The thought of the electric bill is scary to say the least, but oh my gosh if we didn't have air. I grew up without it and sometimes wonder how we made it. I can remember laying up on the second floor so hot, I would sometimes open the screen and go out ontop of the screened in porch....rofl.

That sounds like a good plan to me happ.

When we custom harvested, my trucks had no air conditioning. It was miserable! The combines had a/c, but not my trucks. UGH!

I got some rain!!!! Not much but some of my plants will be happy. Still have soaker hose going though. Need to turn it off in a bit. Been going since just after 5. Crit, hope you get some rain soon!! We don't need Oklahoma to end up like Texas.

I'm sitting here eating some summer squash from the garden. Yum!!! I will have another one ready in a couple days. Another cuke will be ready by end of week.

Is anyone around here getting red tomatoes yet? Mine are still green but a guy my dad has been doing work for has big red ones already. I have Beefmaster and Mr. Stripey. Peppers aren't ready yet either but they are kinda buried between the 2 rows of tomatoes so that's my fault. lol

Eek! 105° F is hot! Pepper, maybe you got the same deluge there as here, it stormed like crazy here yesterday evening. If I had known it was gonna do that, I wouldn't have had to fill the waterpond up by hose! Me, Tomatoes from seed? No. From bought plants? Yes. The ones from seed, it appears I might be lucky to have red Tomatoes by October! lol
Well, I finally got the liner in place for the waterpond and the thing filled up with water. Here is what the pond looks like now. -
Yes, that produce looks delicious! I love broccoli sprouts and sour cream!
Will

I think our whole area got hit with rain since we had a big system come thru overnight. My garden is good for a couple days that's for sure!!

Pond looks good!!

We had a couple freak showers yesterday. Got 1/4" yesterday afternoon and 1/4" this morning. Drop in the bucket, but thanked God for it anyway. Chance of scattered showers tonight, then nothing for quite a while. Still triple digets in the 7 day forecast.

We got missed by all the freak showers and I was out watering again. It is super cloudy tho and maybe we will get something today. I was driving the car around with the lights on so I could see to water, got home really late last night....hate that but it works. Hope I didn't miss anything.

I have been eating cherry tomatoes but my big tomatoe plants got out really late so I will be eating tomatoes the same time Will is really really late.

No red tomatoes here. We look often. Farmer's Mkt doesn't have home grown red tomatoes either. Today is their day, I think I will check them out. We usually have ripe tomatoes by July 4th.

Sometimes, I carry buckets with me when I plan on weeding. It helps
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My daughter brought home an article written by someone at a hospital in Joplin telling about what went on those first few days. It makes the hair on your arms stand up and brings tears to the eyes. They have endured so much. My church has done some activities for them. We also had a community drive to send stuff to Joplin.

My Carolina Wren has made a nest in my tuberous begonia hanging plant. She has really torn it up. Today, I tried to water it, and she sat about five feet from me and scolded me. I finally put a big saucer of water on the bench and set the plant in it hoping it will draw up enough moisture. Earlier this Sp, they had a clutch in my hanging Christmas Cactus. We had a deluge of rain and it drowned two of the babies. They tossed them out onto the deck floor. Only one survived. Then, they raised a clutch in my clothes pin basket in the garage right next to our door that goes into the kitchen. We walked right by it all the time. Last year, they raiised a clutch in a box in the garage we keep batteries in. There was holy cane going on when they fledged.

We're getting lots of cukes, yellow squash and some zucchini. I don't understand why the tomatoes aren't ripe yet. We're having plenty of heat. They originated in South America, so, you would think they would be okay with the heat.

Just said on the news 23 out of 24 days have been over a 100 in Okla. City. Wow.

I believe it birder

More heat wave until July 19

http://www.accuweather.com/us/mo/joplin/64801/watches-warnings.asp

We still have triple digets forcast for the next seven days. Every few days I think it will change, but it doesn't. Just keeps showing triple digets for the next 7 days!

Thanks billyp, that pond digging was a muddy mess, glad it's over. Yeah, it hasn't sunk in how neat it is to really have that truck gone. It is so nice to have a big part of the driveway back now.
I got lucky, the guy that bought it just had limbs and a small tree fall in his backyard due to a storm we recently had, all he had was a small BMW, no truck.

Haha! Speaking of Wrens. We have House Wrens, I think, nesting in the more traditional gourd bird house, they were none too pleased about me hitting they're house repeatedly and shaking it all the time today when I made the old unused clothesline post into a trellis for a Hall's Honeysuckle plant, (not the nasty old bush). I thought I might get divebombed by the pair! I could hear them all around making noise! After I was done, in about 2 minutes they were back checking out the nest, I think they like the new trellis, it has places to perch. I got photos of them too, but of course those photos are blurry, never get a cheap camera!

Thanks Pepper. I hope it stays good!
Boy, is it ever gonna warm up, today isn't terrible, but it's supposed to get around 99° to 100° for several days straight starting in 2 days or so. Not like more southerly though, that would be excruciating.

Glad I'm not the only one not getting ripe tomatoes yet. I don't feel so bad now. lol

My tomato plant had 3 tomatos on it, about the size of a large marble. They shriveled then turned red. The plant looks horrible. I gave it some tomato plant food. Bought 2 more plants that I am going to pot. May have some by October if they live. SUCH a bad gardening year! And it was in a pot. A patio tomato

Rusty, how interesting!! I wouldn't care to be in an earthquake either :o)

I think us in the Heartland do have more heart :o) We are more open and friendly, but even the larger towns has those who can't say hi when meeting someone on the sidewalk.

Bernie, how true, for those who drink :o)

The broccoli is beautiful and huge!! The rest is nice too!

Happ, that's terrible when a person can't give directions!

Pepper, LOL!

Crit, you have my prayers and sympathy! That's awful.

Happ, I never went thru heat that bad. I grew up with no air till I was a teen.

Crit, that would be miserable!

Pepper, smiling over you chowing down :o)

I have a few cherry tomatoes ripening. We actually are two yesterday. My big tomatoes are losing the dark green color, so maybe in a week I'll have table tomatoes. I have one green pepper set on, but it's supposed to turn orange so I'm trying to not pick it.

Will, wow! The pond looks great! You have really been working on it!

Happ, smiling over using the car to water by, but you'll be glad you did!

Birder, I start with two buckets for weeding. DH just walks around and leaves piles.

I hope I never have to go thru any tornado. It would be awful.

The wrens will keep returning to a successful nest, but that is so sad about the deluge of rain.

Will, laughing, things happen for a reason and he really needed a truck after all!

I'll bet they will enjoy the trellis! Mine sit on the clothesline since the houses are on the posts.
The back yard is going to look pretty nice!

Pepper, love the flowers!!

Crit, I never had any luck with anything in a pot. I sure hope you get a bettere tomato. Forgive me for laughing, but the mental image of them shriveling and then turning red got to me :o)

Oh no. I'm going to giggle all day now!

They change the heat wave until July 22!

http://www.accuweather.com/us/mo/joplin/64801/watches-warnings.asp

Went to Farmer Market today and brought full basket of tomatoes (7 for $6)...

I have no more tomatoes on my plant only I got small 5 tomatoes that tornado damages to my peach trees (no peaches at all) and only I have is beets and turnips...

Excessive heat warning til next Friday for much of the Midwest. It's hot and only gonna get hotter. I don't remember it being this hot for this long before. Usually we get several breaks between bad heat waves.

Statement Oriental Lily blooming. Had 3 bulbs but am down to 2 now. The blooms are smaller too. Oh well. Still smells good!!

this is first time for long time for heat wave last week and again this week only I got 1 day raining.... It pretty drought here again ground dried up and crack...

7 day weather forecast is 104-106 towards the end of the week. THis is just awful. Besides no rain, the heat is terrible.

Do Oriental Lilies bloom more than once a season? I got one flush of blooms and that is all. Of course, they did just get planted this spring.

They just said our heat index right now is 94*, which is normally our high this time of year. UGH

Our temp right now is 92. But there is a breeze which helps.

My orientals only bloom once. Actually all my liles only bloom once.

I thought I lost my Casa Blanca lilies. They just bloomed a little later than the Star Gazers. They are right next to each other. Lilies are pretty dependable plants and don't require much care. I am trying to plant more of them.
I have to pick Jap. Beetles this evening. It's so hot I hate to go out there. Whine!
Raccoons visited again last night. This time, they really did a number on my window box plants. They took some out and tossed them down below on our patio. I had to re-plant a bunch of stuff today and water them back in. Grrrr. This evening, my husb. is going to set the trap. It's probably a couple of cubs. They tore up a pot of Amaryllis too. We also had about four squirrels on our deck this am. nibbling on my plants.

squirrels tore up one of my bird feeders I had for the finches. Scratched the perches until one of them fell out. So I put some duct tape over it. They scrated their way through that and also the perches until they made a hole big enogh to get the seed out of. I have a set of regular perches to put on it also, so guess I'll do that. I bought a metal finch feeder that they won't be able to tear up. They also had been coming to the deck and drinking out of my fountains, knocking the solar lights over, so I put an old pan with water in it out by the back fence for them. They don't come to the deck anymore. But something dug up one of my Astillbe's in the middle of the front flower bed. Odd.

Rusty, we are all going to heat up now :o(

That's sure a shame about your tomatoes and peaches. I don't think any of us saw the heat wave coming, and lasting so long.

Pepper, Statement is so beautiful. I've sure been smelling all of mine!

Rusty, for the first ime, I have deep cracks too.

Crit, you have it bad!

Oriental and Asiatics bllom just once. I've been breaking the seed pods off as soon as the bloom is done and trying to get water down to the bulb. I usually don't water. I wonder if that's why mine end up dwindling?

Birder, my Casa Blanca have done well for years and they are actually under a water sucking Maple tree. I do notice one of them dwindling so I need to get them out and into better dirt. I have Stargazer too and love it!

I've seen one Japanese Beetle so far and I killed it. I am suprised I don't have any yet.

Grrrr on all the wildlife! After the raccoons drug the trap we set out, they haven't been back.

Crit, you have had your share of ''fun'' with the squirrels. I'm giving up on the finch feeders. They all like the sunflower seeds so I am going to just feed them those this winter.

I think we got just about everything watered before the heat wave. It took days, but it was worth it.

The ''Rocket'' is doing nicely and I can keep it watered now that it's closer to the water :o)

After my Orientals bloom, should I keep watering them or stop and let the foilage dry up? I'm still watering but wonder if I am wasting my money.