The best part of waking up....

.....is not Folgers in your cup.  It would be keeping my lazy backside in bed.  Until, say, Fall.

But with summer here, daylight streaming through the curtains at absurd hours of the morning and Pickles screaming her stupid head off for no apparent reason, there's little rest.

It's been hot the past few weeks.  Like in the mid 90's during the day.  Not suicidal squirrel weather, but hot & humid enough.

I know, I know.  It's Arkansas, what did I expect?  But this is what we have to deal with in exchange for that earlier Spring and later Autumn.  And being able to gloat tell Mama Pea that I just ate my first snow peas before she can even dig through her snow covered beds only feels good until I have to admit that just yesterday I had to rip those same peas out of the garden because they are already starting to wilt and die from this heat.

I have to do my weeding in half-hour spurts, then come inside for a glass of iced tea, wipe the stinging sweat from my eyes and wonder if I should really change into another pair of shorts because I've already got swampass but then figure I'd run out of shorts by the end of the day so just go back outside in sticky, sweaty garments to weed some more.  Thank gawd I don't get many visitors here.

We've had enough rainfall that the first cutting of hay went well for the area, and the goats are able to graze on fresh greenery.  But only in the early morning and late evening.  They are all back in the goat pen by 11 or they start to slow cook, even if they're laying down in the shade of the tree they're tied to.  The rest of the day they hunker down underneath the barn or in one of the numerous goat huts.  And stay there.  I can hardly coax them out with an arm full of fresh weeds or handful of grain.

Even though there is over thirty-five gallons of water in several buckets, I still have to go out there and top them off with cool water.  With the exception of the newly planted fruit trees, I've only had to water the garden every other or third day.  I'm sure in a few weeks I'll be having to do it every day.

My mystery squash is still putting out fruit, but the damned squash bugs are back with reinforcements.  I've been picking them off, shaking them off into a bucket, trying to scrape the eggs off the leaves without tearing huge holes in the leaves.  I'm going to have to dust them with some DE or something before I lose the entire squash section.  Technically, I wasn't going to plant squash there this year (because of the squash bugs), but these were volunteers and I didn't have the heart to pull them up.  So now I get to fight another few generations of squash bugs.

Well, this post has taken me through two outside/inside cycles already and I most definitely need to put on a nonswampass pair of shorts.  Or better yet, I think I deserve a little break.  I'm going put on some sunscreen, hop in the car & join Grandma and Rhiannon who are already down at the beach.

Smell ya all later!