Most of the month of August and the first half of September were unbearably hot and dry during the days. As September approached you could feel the air cool nicely in the evenings which made it comfortable to sit outside by a fire. Talk about good camping weather.
Over Labor Day weekend we spent some time with my brother and parents and he made a bonfire. OH, what a bonfire it was! The flames shot what looked like 50 feet in the air and made baked apples of the apples still hanging on the trees nearby. The leaves and branches that faced the fire were completely scorched. We’ll have to see in the spring if the little guys make it. We were afraid that we’d have to call the fire department. Gladly, the fire was far enough away from anything large and flamable, aka, house, car, field full of dry crops. Also, surprisingly there was enough moisture in the surrounding trees to keep them from catching fire.
My brother had no idea that the pile of brush would catch so readily. It had been sitting there for at least a year and my parents had bugged him to just burn it. He wanted to have a party though and so he invited us and my husband’s niece with her husband to join us. There weren’t a lot of people but it was a nice excuse to relax, roast marshmallows (and apple trees) and camp out. At six months pregnant – and never having “camped” before – the experience was a bit awkward. But it was fun.
About a week and a half ago it rained before Ike hit the coast full force. It only gave our region of the Midwest about 1/10″ of rain. The ground was so incredibly dry that after a few hours you couldn’t even notice that it had rained. There was not a trace of mud and the soil was still hard as a rock. Needless to say our plants have suffered the worst. Many if not all have died back to the ground already. I’ve not had the energy or strength to go out and water them by hand. Though I have babied the plants that are in containers near the house, like my tomatoes, basil and few annual plants.
Finally, this week we got some much needed rain – about 2″. Sadly, this comes at the expense of our neighbors along the Gulf Coast. They get too much water just so we can get a little.
Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
