The aftermath

I got a good look at the trees and bushes last night. The last time I got to water them was Friday evening. The Saturday and Sunday we were gone the temperatures were 106° F and 110° F respectively. Because we missed those two evenings of watering I am afraid I will lose the dwarf Peach tree I have in the garden. I will also lose one of the two plum trees in the garden. I have been unable to get it to come back to full strength since one of our cows got into the garden and ate all its leaves last spring. Other than that, I am fairly confident that we will be able to save the rest of the trees and bushes. However, when we are out of town this weekend, I may have to ask Brittany Wycoff to water for me on the evenings she will be staying at the farm. I do not think they can survive another long, hot weekend without help.

Also, while we were gone, one of the older chickens succumbed to the heat and died. The problem is that it died under the coop building. I will have to rig something up this evening to reach the carcass and get it removed. It is putting off quite a smell. I did not get it last night because Mama and I were coming to the office and I did not want to lay in the yuk of the coop yard and stretch myself under the building to try and drag the carcass out. Mama reluctantly granted permission to delay the extraction, but I will not be able to put it off any longer than today. The forecast for this coming weekend is for temperature to barely reach the 100° F mark. That should make enough of a difference that I will not stress over the stress the weather will put on the plants we are struggling to keep alive through this summer. Ultimately, if I lose any of these plants, they can be replaced. It is just a pain to have to start over when we have invested so much time to get the trees and plants established.

It almost looked like it was going to rain yesterday evening. The skies have been very overcast. Almost dirty looking. Yesterday evening, it clouded up to the point that you could almost smell rain in the air. Almost. That lasted for about three hours then things cleared off, the clouds dispersed, and the wind died away. The humidity has hovered at 35-40%. Not exactly the atmosphere where rain would be expected. The dewpoint – the temperature at which dew will form – is somewhere about 65° F. Since our overnight temperatures are in the high seventies and low eighties, we have been without even a morning dew for several weeks. Things are dry. One of the old-timers around here told me recently. “It’ll rain. Eventually. It always does.” And as my friends would have said years ago, “True that!”

Since these drought situations often require a severe atmospheric condition to get resolved, I have been watching the Atlantic radar for signs of a tropical storm or hurricane, but nothing yet. Despite the frantic predictions of the alarmists. No, I would much prefer a slow moving gentle rain like we got in West Virginia, but we are a little far south for that. Or the predictable afternoon shower, we used to get when I was growing up in Houston. But we area not in the right area for that either. Oh, well. We will take what we get and supplement water to the plants as long as we are able.

The weather is not the only area in our lives where we need a big solution right now. Right away, if possible. Fortunately, we have a big God.