Daybreak, daybreak on the land

Tweaking with the Weather Eye did the scurs little good as it only became hotter. Will our conditions moderate or are we in for more heat? Starting Thursday, sunny with highs in the low 90's and lows in the low 70's. Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the low 90's and lows in the low 70's. Sunny on Saturday with highs in the upper 80's and lows in the mid-60's. Sunday, sunny with highs in the mid-80's and lows in the mid-60's. Mostly sunny on Monday with highs in the low 80's and lows in the low 60's. Tuesday, sunny with highs in the low 80's and lows in the low 60's.

 

Mostly sunny on Wednesday with highs in the mid-80's and lows in the low 60's. On July 20th, we fall below 15 hours of daylight for the first time since May 22nd. The normal high for July 20th is 81 and the normal low is 61. The scurs will be attending the Farm and City Days Car Show after eating flapjacks.

 

Last week's rainfall events seemed a bit excessive at the time, but in retrospect, we may be glad we got them. They left a mark in some of the soybean fields, but the corn soldiered on with wholesale tasseling. The color remained a lush dark green from the road and didn't disappoint once in the fields either. Disease pressure remains light as of this writing anyway. Not to say it can't change, but conditions are not favorable for an outbreak of tar spot and the southern rust that had everyone in a tizzy last year remains well to our south. We've lacked the large amount of Gulf moisture that brought it here last year, so keeping an eye on it and spraying fungicide when it is warranted rather than when it fits the checklist remains a solid management plan. Conditions for development of white mold in soybeans also remains unfavorable. Hot and dry doth not a white mold outbreak make.

 

Many weather aficionados continue to call for a dry finish to July. With the heat dome hovering over the top of much of the Midwest, it's been hard to argue with that. There is potential relief in sight, however, with a cooler late July and early August called for by several weather outlets, one of them being NWS. Also leaning below normal temperature-wise on their last three-month prognostication with even chances of above or below normal precip. That is due to be updated soon, so we'll see how confident they were with their original guess. As mentioned, there are areas of the country that weren't blessed as we were earlier with precip, and those chickens could come home to roost before this is all said and done, particularly if rainfall continues to be limited and high temperatures persist.

 

It has been an interesting summer watching the projects unfolding east of town. Last fall when I heard they were replacing all the power poles on the Lake Road this summer, I wasn't real impressed. After seeing what happened to some of the trees on the building sites along the way, I was even less impressed. When spring and summer arrived, I feared the road would be fraught with delays as traffic would be halted. I was pleasantly surprised. Work continued steadily and there were seldom delays. Before I knew it the poles were all in place. The county tiling project has also been interesting to watch and also caused little to slow traffic, except perhaps for the gawkers. Who would've thought we'd have a gawker slowdown near Bugtussle?

 

The birds are beginning to wind down their nesting for the season. The robins appear to be fledging some of their second brood and the orioles appear to be moving on, leaving their young behind. It's been a little different since the weather turned hot and we no longer open the windows at night. It was pretty common to hear the robins start singing away at daybreak. As we've moved into July, that's declined significantly. There seems to be a change overall in the behavior at the feeders as well. Too many unwanted guest house sparrows have ruined the experience, so I've let the sunflower feeders run dry for a while in hopes that they will go elsewhere. Fat chance.

 

Coming off of a drier than normal May, I was confident that this might be a summer without mosquitoes. After all, the two years prior they had been ferocious. It started raining with more frequency in mid-June and suddenly a few of the biting insects started appearing. Heavier rains the last half of June and early July provided excellent opportunities for the females to lay their eggs. The warm temperatures only expedited the process. Now it's become impossible to be in the backyard shade before they come looking for a person. Likewise mowing lawn or just heading to the barn to do chores. I've been bitten so many times I feel like a pincushion. I find it much easier to sit inside in the AC and scratch my mosquito bites.

 

Poppy hasn't enjoyed the heat or the mosquitoes either. She's content to stay in the AC as much as possible, only going out when it's absolutely necessary to do her business. Even then, sometimes you have to pry her loose because she's settled and doesn't want to be disturbed. There are always squirrels or turkeys to be chased of course. Once that task is complete, she'll sleep on the back porch sometimes. If that happens during midday, it usually doesn't take much coaxing to get Poppy to come back inside where the temps are in the low-to-mid 70's. I don't think we'd get any argument from her if we decided to spray the backyard, especially when the little bum is fast asleep on her couch.

 

See you next week...real good then.