Will and I have been sweltering in the nineties lately. We’re just not used to it. But, to top it off, our granddaughter, Ava, had a horse show on the weekend, inside a very hot arena. I don’t know how she did it. Fortunately, it was not a formal show, so she could show in a shirt and jeans. But, despite the heat she did very well. She ended up with a Champion trophy and plenty of nice ribbons, most of which were blue.
Will got the big tractor tire back on and then discovered they had not mounted it correctly. The tread was pointing the wrong direction! This does matter as you need the tread for traction. Ok, the tube was filled with beet juice to prevent freezing, and the tire weighs over 1,000 pounds. So, in the heat, Will had to dismount the tire, load it back on the trailer and drive 30 miles to get it redone. Fortunately, they did it while he and Hondo waited in the waiting room, so he didn’t have to go back and pick it up.
Yesterday I went out and tilled the empty plots in the Wolf Garden to keep weeds down while it remains fallow for the year. Boy, was it hot! I’d planted two 100-foot rows of onion sets I had gotten on a killer sale. So, I tilled in between those rows too. Then I was all done!
Our new dog, Gypsy, is settling in well. She and Hondo are getting along well and this morning, she did zoomies around the living room to impress him. He just yawned. He’s 13, almost 14 and has never been a real playful dog. I feel bad for Will as he is trying hard to make friends with Gypsy. But I think somewhere way down in Texas, on the street or even before, a man or men hurt or scared her badly. She doesn’t trust men at all. She plays lap dog with me and follows me everywhere. But she will barely take treats from Will or Drew. I’m sure this will change with patience and lots of treats. Sarge is terrified of her. She barked at him when she was new and he’s a big marshmallow. Like the fear of men, I’m sure Sarge’s fear of Gypsy will pass as he gets to know her. Then they can play as Sarge is just two and still a puppy at heart.
We’re praying for rain, both for the gardens and to help with the forest fires. — Jackie
This might take a while to work and put down a T-shirt he has sweated in and put treats on it.
It might work.
Take care
He’s got her coming to him for treats now. She’s getting more used to him.
Hi Jackie, tell Will to completely ignore Gypsy.
Tell him to sit in his chair and drop 2 treats down on the floor and just ignore her. Then when he gets up to go into the kitchen take her over and show her the treats by his chair.
My cat – Tig got hurt by Pebbles ( cats) and this happened in April and today Tig wanted me to hold him again. He hurt his back and I had it X-ray and it showed bone spurs. He fell backwards on a ceramic bowl really hard. Tig is part Main Coon and you didn’t even look at him because he would go under the bed crying. And you couldn’t give him anything for pain.
I’m really proud of Ava, gosh, she’s really doing good!
A Trophy 🏆 and blue ribbons!
We got more rain total since July 9= 8.5 inches!
Tomorrow the heat is coming back – heat index 105°
With it being so humid here in Southern Illinois I am not doing so well! It just zaps me.
I got to finish cooking supper
Take care ❤️
It isn’t much better in Northern IL temp wise plus we have wildfire smoke. Air quality was 500 this morning. It is down, for now but will go back up tomorrow. Hopefully after we get some harvesting done.
Yep, the heat fries us too. It’s so impossible to work when it’s so hot!! The smoke from the forest fires doesn’t help either! We got a little rain, but 1/3″ doesn’t help the fires any. The gardens did appreciate it though, as we did. It’s cooled down some at night, which we are very grateful.
We’re doing very well, getting Gypsy used to Will. She now is associating him with treats and even lets him walk slowly up to her and pet her. It all just takes time.
Beautiful photo of Gypsy and you Will isn’t having a great time- tread wrong- heat! Gypsy wary. Time and patience Will pay off Ava! Way to go! Showing in heat , even in casual wear is tough. Enjoying the 54! Degree morning. 100 degree is forecast for the next several days. So many wildfires Wheat, range land loss God bless the firefighters Everyone stay safe out there
Our thoughts are definitely with the firefighters out there in this heat, trying to keep people and structures safe. I can’t even imagine working fires in this heat!!
Gypsy is getting more comfortable with Will and now views him as a non-ending source of treats instead of the boogeyman.
Congratulations Ava! Well done!! The heat makes everything so much harder. We have been in the 90’s here in North Missouri and are forecast to be 98 on Monday. That’s just brutal! We have been seeing some haze from the Canada wild fires and I sure feel for those that are close to that disaster. I went out yesterday and mowed around the edges of the garden and in between some rows, (yes, Im ashamed to say the weeds are that bad) and I was beat when I got done. Pushing the mower seems like it is more work than it was a few years ago. That was crazy about the tractor tire. I hope they redid it at no charge. Those things sure slow you down when you are racing the clock to get things done anyway. Gypsy sure looks cute. Hopefully she, Will and Sarge will soon be best friends. Take care in this heat. Sending prayers for a blessed week.
Hey, don’t feel bad about mowing your weedy rows. We’re doing exactly the same thing. It’s all you can do sometimes. And it does help! The weeds are especially bad this year due to the heat I think.
Yep, he got the tire back with no charge and it was a lot of work to change it, pumping out the beet juice, putting in a new tube, then remounting and filling. Whew!! It’s back on the tractor and ready to go.
Gypsy is now best friends with Hondo. We’ll work on Sarge next. I don’t want to overwhelm her with new stuff.
Thank you for your prayers. We join you in praying for those folks in Canada and the US affected by the wildfires.
Dear Jackie, I am saying prayers for all of you being affected from the smoke. It makes for beautiful sunsets around the US but really hard on your locals & breathing. Stay safe. Praying a good rain will come for all of you soon. Here in southern middle Tennessee, we have had tons of rain, and we are no longer considered in a drought. The corn, soybeans and all the crops are so green that it hurts my eyes to look at them. We are having a bountiful crop this year; but I am canning up a storm. You never know what the next year will bring so store up during these fat years.
I’m so glad you’ve got enough rain to make the crops green and nice. Our canning hasn’t started yet, but as the crops grow and get more mature, it’s coming. We’ve got plenty stored up already, but I sure won’t stop as world and our country’s economic state is kind of scary right now.
I’m in North-Central Wisconsin and the smoke is bad here. Jackie, I can’t imagine how bad it is up by you! Stay safe!
Oh Jackie! Yesterday the smoke in Ely was so bad you couldn’t see to the top of the hill as you come into town. It was raining ash all day. One of my foodshelf volunteers told me yesterday that her garden in town had burn marks on some of the leaves from the ash! Many of my volunteers have been evacuated from their homes out the Fernberg trail. Town is eerie. Our poor broiler chicks had to endure 104 degrees on Monday. We set up a sprinkler so that the prevailing wind could blow the moisture toward them but not on them and I think it saved the day. I had a few potatoes that didn’t get i the ground until just a couple of weeks ago and I am already seeing buds starting to form. I working on getting some fall crops started so they will be ready to put out when it cools just a bit.
Thank you so much for your chatty posts. I enjoy hearing about the everyday events in your lives and I always learn something.
Yep, we’ve been keeping close track of Ely and the fires. It’s so bad!! I’ve heard about folks being evacuated on the Fernberg Rd, as also on the Echo trail. I pray for everyone affected, including and especially the firefighters working in this ungodly heat, trying to stop this dragon. We couldn’t see across our beaver pond the other day and Cook was also under heavy smoke blankets.
We got a little rain, but only 1/3″. We’re praying for more. For everyone!
Just a little haze here in central MO from the fires. It is very cloudy and we are waiting on pop-up storms. We don’t need rain for our fields/gardens, but the raised beds could use some water.
It is hot here, but typical Missouri heat and humidity. I feel blessed that we are between the extreme heat and the floods.
Praying for all of you.
CRAZY WEATHER!
Thanks Susan! I’m so glad you’re not experiencing crazy weather at your place. We’re having it tough this year. And we thought last year was bad! We do have very nice weeds, however. Ha ha!
Almost forgot, Jackie, I want to order all of your books from you in September. Some will be duplicates, but that’s fine. But I was wondering if you will still willing to autograph them. I’m getting a settlement then and your books have so helpful. I also want to try your Western series. I want order them directly from you if possible, for your autograph. I’ll be buying more from Backwoods Home. Despite having electronic copies I feel having paper backup is important. What if we had another Carrington event or a blizzard arrives and takes out power lines? I will buying seed then too. Some for me and some for friends. Take care ❤️
Yes, you can still order books from me in September and I’ll be happy to autograph them for you too. But we are turning over the seed business to our friends, Lynn and Jesse the first of August so I won’t be selling seeds then.
Jackie and folks,
I moved from the Texas Hill County to the mountains of SE Idaho a few years ago due the heat making me sick. I’m very familiar with floods in Texas. I did rescues of people and animals there when I was younger.
Idaho is generally cooler than Texas in the summer. Not this year, it’s been high heat indexes 90+ heat and instead of cooling off at night, it’s staying in the 60’s, very warm for
here.
I wish I was growing ing peppers and sweet potatoes amongst other things though this year. We had snow on the beginning of July again this year. That’s why I need a green house. To park really sensitive plants in there. The neighbors here were out with blankets and plastic trying to save sensitive plants.
I think this weather is what they had in the dust bowl days. My Great Grandparents lived through it. My Step Mom had to move to Canada because of it as a child. I looked at records of the time looking for the hottest days for the Midwest. Most of the highest heat records are from the Dust Bowl days. Despite what people say weather is cyclical. That’s why the Old Farmers Almanac works on weather prediction.
We’ve had fires here in Idaho and surrounding states. People are stopping to try to put out the roadside ones. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled here in our little town. I want to let the volunteer fire department know if one kicks up. I may be able to help with small ones down low on the mountains. Some of the thunder storms that have come through are wild with lightening. We worry about lightening strikes in the mountains.
We’re hoping temperatures drop down to normal in a couple of weeks, with the highs in the 80’s and the lows in the upper 40’s.
Stay safe and drink lots of water
Yes, the trouble with getting rain to help the fires is the lightening that often accompanies the storms. We’re blanketed with smoke some days from the fires, not only in northern Minnesota, but also those horrible fires in Canada. Today, however, the wind has shifted and we have blue skys. So grateful to be able to breathe clean air again. The air has been full of particulates and in the danger zone. We tried to stay inside as much as possible.
I don’t know what to think of all the strange weather I’ve seen and heard about all over our country other than I will never be convinced the chemtrails I have seen especially the last 2 years haven’t affected what we’re experiencing.
You have a devoted dog and I am so pleased for you. She reminds me of a type of greyhound that my dad liked. Sleek and pleasant.
I’m praying for America and our leaders and for your safety with all the wildfires.
Have affected, not haven’t. Sorry.
We’re praying for all the folks affected by the heat and wildfires, all over the country and the firefighters who are fighting to keep everyone safe. We’ve already lost several. It’s so sad.
Gypsy is wonderful and very sweet. She’s chosen me to be her personal person and would live in my skin if she could.
Gypsy is beautiful! I love brindle.
I do too! She just shines. And so sweet and friendly. I can’t wait to begin training her after she settles in well.
We can smell the smoke from the wildfires and it’s made the days hazy and not nearly as hot as the weather people had forecast. I’m happy with that. We’re also getting a nice, steady wind, which is super nice in summer.
We’re getting rain, not tons, but just enough and at regular enough intervals that I haven’t had to do much watering besides the initial drenching for transplants which saves me a whole lot of trouble since the vegetable beds are a good walk from the house. And this being Vermont, there’s not an inch of flat ground, so walking anywhere involves a hike up- or downhill. Even small inclines get tiring after you’ve hiked them a bunch of times a day.
I sure hear you! When we lived in the mountains, in Montana, all I could do was walk up to this garden, down to that garden. Flat land was unheard of as it was, after all, the MOUNTAINS! I’m so glad your weather is cooperating this year. It makes everything so much easier!
The Weather is nuts! Dense smoke from Canadian fires. Here, we too need rain even hardy grass and even some weeds are browning out. I’ve to haul water to some of my vulnerable garden plants. I, too, had a reverse mounted tire-what a pain the kiester-off came the tire and I went back to have it remounted (40 mile round trip). At least they didn’t charge for the correction. It did take most of that day. Live and ?learn. Stay cool.
Yep, Will drove 60 miles, round trip and had to sit in the, fortunately, air-conditioned waiting room for two hours for them to switch the tire around, at least with no charge to him.
I’ve noticed that some of our weeds are dying from lack of water. Weeds! I didn’t think a blowtorch would kill them!
We’ve got the smoke, not only from Canadian wildfires, but from several northeast of us. For a couple of days, we were leery about even going outside. We finally got 1/3″ of rain, which helped a lot.
Here in far north California, my garden is having the worst full-coverage infestation of purslane. I won’t use round up or my 30percent ag vinegar anymore. Is there something I can spray to kill it? There is so much!
We had it bad in New Mexico and learned to eat it! It was my youngest son, David’s, favorite garden snack. Plus, I would pull the saucer-sized plants, cut off the roots, bread them and fry them for lunch. They’re very good! I found if I would go through a section at a time, after watering, I could pull a lot in a short time as the roots are small.
I have not seen any Purslane in any of my garden plots this year. Nor any carpet weed – grasses seem to be the major “weed” here in N. IL. Catnip doesn’t count lol.
The weeds in the annual garden are pretty much now under control. It will be hours of weeding in the perennial beds. Temps are going down and the air quality is getting better. Told the better half we need to make a buffer between lawn (which is some times crabgrass) and the asparagus bed.
When strawberry harvest time started, the bed was pretty weed free. Not any more. So I’ll go at it again (weather permitting) and come fall, I will be culling old plants/dead crowns. And yet again, having rows of plants not a twister game for weeding/picking.
As everyone else has said if you’re in the path of the smoke or fires, please be careful! 3 years ago the smoke from the Canada & Montana wildfires put me in the ER with a severe asthma attack. During covid I found a pattern to sew cotton masks, they are much more comfortable. I use them now because we live near a busy gravel road, lotta dust, and as I write this the airplanes are flying over our place spraying farm fields nearby. Glad I watered and picked beans this morning. Dear God, please send some of those rains from down south up north! Stay safe everyone!
Amen to the sending of the heavy rains from down south up to the north country!! We are very careful. A couple days ago, the smoke was so bad we couldn’t see across the beaver pond, so we stayed indoors with the windows shut as much as possible. Yes, it was hot as we don’t have AC. We did go get a small window unit last night, in case the wind changes and we get the heavy smoke again.
The weather is crazy everywhere this year. I’m in the Texas hill country and we are usually hot (90s) and dry this time of year but this week we have been in the 70s with massive flooding. They are evacuating everyone along the river. Fortunately, my place is top of a hill so it doesn’t flood. But all the roads out of my area are closed and underwater. Thankfully I have plenty of food and animal food stored up. I always stay prepared because you never know what will happen. But 15 inches of rain is really unusual now. I love your new pup and I’m sure she will adjust to your men folk. Stay cool if possible. Wish I could send you some of this rain.
Hi, Lana; from far north California. We, too, live on top a mountain. The lake’s dam is a couple miles away, as the crow flies. I don’t know how we’d fare, if the dam broke. Our mountain is in the top of the Sacramento valley, and in the foothills. In wildfires, however, we’ve never evacuated. Instead, firefighter commanders stay here to watch the progression of fires, if any in this area.
I’ve seen on the news how bad it is in Texas, with the flooding. Boy, could we ever use some of that rain. Not torrential rain, but some decent rains without lightning to cause more fires than we already have though.
Isn’t it nice to have plenty of food and animal food stored up? Some folks think we’re crazy people for keeping stocked up. Until something unforeseen comes up, not letting them run to the stores.
The smoke is horrible here south of Superior. My two sons went to play disc golf in Croquet wearing N95 masks we had left over from covid! I don’t garden but I love hearing about others. Take care with all this smoke!
Yep, my oldest son, Bill, who lives 30 miles south of Cloquet, was baling hay with a commercial mask on. Smart guy! I will admit it looked kind of outer-space weird. But it kept his lungs safe.
Hey Jackie! Long time no write on my end. Farming has been busy this year for us over here in Brule WI. We were up your way in the beginning of June picking up our new bull from Cook and I had ideas of swinging in to saw hi- but we were short on time and had a giant list of things we were behind on as we put up a 30×60 hoop house this spring to help my plants along. It was worth the effort! My planted are magnificent and are going to produce earlier than usual.
I got the postcard in the mail about your seed treasures seeds transferring to the new couple- it makes me glad to know you and Will are passing on your love of seeds and plants to others to continue your legacy- though it makes me think time is relentless- and I am gonna send in one more seed order to you before August!
I haven’t kept up reading lately as thins have been just extra busy this year. We’ve already made about 800 round bales in the last 10 days, which for our two person operation is a ton, as you know. Praying you stay safe from the fires raging and for rain to come and clear the air and smother the fires.
I totally understand how busy things get. It seems like we’re always meeting ourselves coming and going these days. Wow! 800 big round bales in 10 days is some kind of record!!! You’ve certainly been busy campers, haven’t you?
It’s hard, as it’s been so hot and dry. Then, add the smoke and boy, we thought last year was tough!! We’re praying for rain constantly!
I was on the north shore for a few days and yikes- I started smelling smoke in the middle of the night! Be careful, it was pretty intense. That’s a new one for me, mounting tractor tires with the lugs in the wrong direction. Almost all tractor tires have arrows on them for correct installation!
Yep, ours does too, plus they put a yellow chalk mark on it too. I guess the young guy who did it wasn’t paying attention. Yep, the smoke is intense. Thank God, today we can see the sky and across the beaver pond!
Yep, this year, weeds are trying to take over the country!! Mittens and Buffy just melt away, staying away from Gypsy, as they don’t know her yet. Like Sarge, they have to get used to her and vice versa. Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherds have a high prey drive and will usually chase any smaller animals, so we have to be watching her, knowing where the cats are at all times.
This morning the smoke is really bad. You can’t see 1/8 mile away. It’s like a dense fog only very unhealthy breathing it. We’re very careful!
Well Gypsy isn’t the only animal with high prey drive – went through that with our established cat and the kittens. Only you can’t tell Gypsy the cats will get bigger lol. After a few weeks of the kittens being here, I was in shape for yard work! It has gotten better, established cat and the “boss kitten” will do a bit of chasing each other. It will be a bit longer before the kittens (who are almost a year old) will trust established cat. Her reputation still precedes her.
Yep, Murder Mittens, our old cat, still rules the roost and occasionally chases Buffy, just to show her who’s boss.
lol.. Sarge is not small by any means and I got a chuckle about her barking at him. She’s settling in quite well. And yes over time, she should be more at ease with Will and Drew.
How are Mittens and Buffy doing with the new member of the pack?
This weather stinks and those fires are affecting our air quality too albeit not as bad as north of us.
Better half grumps about weeds in the garden (well part the grass in the asparagus bed is due to his “experiment” a few years ago). Every gardener is fighting weeds this year, just not us.
Gypsy is settling in quite well. Will feeds her lots of treats and pets her a lot. She finally will let him walk up to her and pet her without dashing off. Buffy is getting used to Gypsy and Gypsy hasn’t tried to chase her. Mittens just melts away and is gone from sight when she is around.