hot weather

I do not like hot weather. My plants are enjoying it but I am not. I have
never seen such happy thriving tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and melons. If
they don't get hit by one of the awful fungal diseases floating around
harvest should be good.

Our weather has been hot, humid but just on the edge of being too dry. We
get browning grass then a moderate rain helps out. I water for a few days,
then get a day or two off. Everything is 2 weeks a head of schedule in
blooming. By the end of summer there won't be any flowers left in the
garden. But I should be too busy canning and freezing the harvest to worry
about that - right?

Our oldest of the new hens are starting to lay fairly well. I am having
trouble getting them to use the nest boxes though. We have lost all but one
of the barn cats to some disease, even the cat we call the "visitor" seems
to have contracted it, she is still alive but has difficulty with balance
and walking and seems to be hanging around here full time so I can bury her.
I always thought she was immune to those diseases.

The barn swallows have came back to the nest they had last year over the
light in the horse stall. They are adding long hairs from Lily to the nest.
I am seeing a kingfisher on the pond quite often and that seems odd. It
doesn't seem like the habitat they would prefer. I also have a pair of
night herons nesting somewhere down there.

Saw a doe with a new, still spotted fawn on the way to town this morning.
It was a rainy, dreary morning and deer were in all the fields. The people
who think that deer are scarce- the stupid ones- should just take a drive
down our roads on a day like today. Deer are smarter than you think. If
you just drive by them and don't stop they ignore you pretty much- except if
they are trying to commit suicide. But if you stop and try to roll down
the window to take a picture they take off. I snapped a couple this morning
but they aren't very good.