Pansies...in the summer? They lasted past January?

Heat? Yeah, it sucks but the humidity is what's annoying me right now. After our freak storm/wet basement the other day I put a lot of rugs outside to dry. They're not really drying very fast.

Watering? I don't need to right now. it keeps raining and not drying out in between. At least I have lots of fresh rainwater for my orchids and all my new carnivores.

I just can't stand the cooped up feeling when I come into the house to cool off.

Maybe by "pansies" he means the gardeners who can't take the heat and are giving up for the season ;)

I had pansies blooming last week. They were covered in mildew and looked very ratty, but they were still blooming.

I know how you feel about the cooped up feeling. Add to that the cave feeling since all the blinds are closed all the time. Hate that. I still haven't put in the AC. If I can just make it through the next 3 days......

I miss cooking too.

Cooking-->We're still fairly new with our gas grill but I'm finding I really like the side burner. Wasn't sure how we'd use it but the other night when it was sweltery we had dinner guests and it was nice to be able to boil corn on the cob without steaming up the kitchen. Another night we pan-fried some walleye fillets and didn't have to live with a fishy kitchen smell the next day. Tonight we're going to grill up some fajita fixins as an excuse to have margaritas.

I actually like having the blinds down when it's really hot. It at least contributes to the psychological coolness. We've got the A/C on but we've got it set high enough that it hasn't actually run in a while. The basement seems to be dried out pretty well.

I just got done mowing, I can really complain about the heat. Then the edger wouldn't start. While I was fighting with the edger the sweat band on my hat decided it was saturated. Couldn't wipe the stinging sweat out of my eyes with gas from the edger on my hands. Got pissed and threw the edger across the drive. Came inside to order a battery operated edger.

Pansies in July/August? Most plants around here are taking a break until it cools off, except the damn grass.

Good lord Kevin, no AC? I keep mine set at 85 which is too high but even I can't not have it on. I'm thinking of installing turbines on the roof to help vent the attic.

Shady, the best way to cook corn on the cob, I mean the absolute best way is in the microwave. You wrap the corn in plastic wrap and cook for a minute and a half or 2 minutes per cob. I rinse the corn off and use only the water that's on it from rinsing it to cook it with. You can also stick some butter and/or salt on the corn before you cook it. If I'm cooking two cobs I roll them in the plastic wrap from opposite ends. Works great and tastes fab.

You can cook any fish on the grill by placing it in a foil "tent" and doosing it good with sake. Tastes great.

Time to give the dogs a bath.

That grill sounds wonderful. I always thought it was kind of a bummer that at this time of the year there is all this great stuff to cook and eat, but it's too blasted hot to do so. With that you could do it all outside.

I think grass cutting has to be the worst outdoor job in the world. I'm glad I have just a tiny yard. Everything is now garden, which in my mind is much easier to take care of. Takes maybe 10 minutes to cut the small patch of grass I have.

AC - I think I've held out long enough. It's going in today. Right now at 5 am the temp in my house is 84, but the humidity is 86%. That's the killer. If it does reach 100 today, IÂm going to cook. Usually during a normal summer even if the temps get into the low 90's it still cools off enough at night to cool the house off. By closing windows and closing blinds during the day it stays comfortable. Not the last few days. It hasn't cooled off at night.

I've resisted the AC, because for me it's like a drug. Once you turn it on it feels so good you don't want to turn it off. Around here there are so many people who have it running full blast when it's 70 outside. Energy conservation anyone? Anyway, when you don't use it the body does adjust.

Corn on the Cob - I think I'm going to buy some today and try the microwave method. That sounds good. Here's a really good recipe I've made on the grill. I bet you could modify it for the microwave.

1 stick butter
2 T Dijon Mustard
2 tea. Horseradish
1 T parsley
salt and pepper
6 cobs corn

Melt butter and add other ingredients. Smear all over the corn, wrap in foil and grill.

Kevin that recipe for corn on the cob sounds yummy. I think I'll try it tonight. I don't have fresh corn but frozen will work and it will thaw while on the grill.

Down here, people use gas grills year round. It's incredulous to me that there are people on this earth who don't own them. I rarely use my oven and never use the broiler because of the grill. For chicken, I'll start it in the microwave and finish it on the grill so it doesn't dry out, except for whole chickens that I cook in the oven. Large roasts cook wonderfully well on a gas grill too.

On another note, if you own a gas grill and the electricity goes out for a period of time, you can still eat pretty good. I drag mine into the garage if a bad hurricane or ice storm is predicted.

grrr. I'm sick and tired of the sweat falling into my eyes while I'm trying to do anything outside...I know..that's what headbands and bandanas are for....right...

I'm also disgusted that I can't get the last of my perennials in the ground....it keeps on raining! Either thunderstorms which dump 1" plus making flash floods or something else....

Then...today I decided to move the biofilter back on my fish pond so I could rock up the wall and hide the rubbermaid stock tank....well, the waterfall then hit the rock and the back splash was avoiding the epdm "apron" and I was loosing water...fast...so, I turned it off, took all the castle wall rocks off (at 19 3/4 pounds each) and put more rubber and something to deflect the water...and built it up again...and...it is still leaking. Not as fast, but too much water to be lost...

Well, at least the fish pond was cool...although it was a wierd feeling to have the fish nibbling at my legs and toes.

Oh, Lisa--what a visual! I'd give almost anything to shuck this damn wheelchair for a day and play "fishy kisses" in the water along with you! You are one hardworking gal!

Oh yes, I can't remember going swimming in area lakes and feeling the baby sunfish pecking at out toes and legs. A very odd feeling.

Or frogs nibbling on my butt and toes as I was floating in an inner tube in a muddy pond.

Does anyone know what to do with calla lily seeds?

My Thompson and Morgan seed sowing guide says: 24 soak in warm water, surface sow at 70-80 F, light is needed for germination

Also found this below:

Here is a link that might be useful: Calla

Oi. We turned the A/C on yesterday afternoon. There was a big thunderstorm that came through around 8:30 am and cooled us off to the 70's. By 3 in the afternoon it was back up to 90. Back to the cave- which I also hate. It's supposed to be 98 today.

Last night I made my DH salmon- I am not a fish lover so I had chicken. You make a marinade with the juice from 4 or 5 lemons, marsala wine, capers and fresh rosemary chopped. Each fillet goes into tin foil with the marinade poured over it with two more lemon slices on top. Seal the tin foil and throw on the grill covered for 15- 20 min.

I have a charcoal grill with a gas lighter, which means I just have to stack the coals over the gas 'arm' in the bottom of the grill and turn it on for about 3 minutes. The coals are perfect in about 6 minutes total with no lighter fluid. I love it! It was a wedding present. :) My Dh was married before and I had lived on my own for about 6 years so we didn't need to register for anything. Our friends decided to buy ME this grill because he got gifts from them at his first wedding.

You guys are amateurs..every day for the last month has been 98+ and our low hovers around 80 or so degrees... ;)

Kev, I can't imagine the extremes you submit yourself to. Though, I do admit that in the winter the night temps in my bay window do get to 55 on most nights...

Yes, we do use the a/c..but I pay for it dearly..House stays about 68 degrees at night and 80 by day. My elec. bill was around $200 last month. (On the bright side..it's only about $60 from November - February...)

I'm with Alberta! What a visual - LOL. Thankfully, the temps here have returned to the normal 70's & 80's. But for about 10 days it was in the high 90's around here and it was horrid. I was born in Seattle and have lived in this area all my life. Anything over 85 degrees, I turn into a puddle.

During the peak of the heatwave, the little town I live in had it's annual wing ding. I'm a vendor at the local farmer's market and the market entered the parade this year. Our market managers made a 20 foot long carrot that has made appearances in other parades, so it was the 'centerpiece' for our group's entry. I have a rack on my truck so I was the designated carrot hauler the day before the parade. It was 95 degrees out as we three mighty women lashed the giant carrot to my truck (that doesn't have AC). Then we made the trek into town - I had pilot cars front and rear with the proper signage "Organic Carrot Pilot Car". We deposited the carrot where it would spend the night and I went home to whip up my friend's costume for the parade. She was our token farmer. I had decided to be a giant sunflower. It was a fabulous costume that I'd worked on for a couple weeks. It was flippin' awesome!

The morning of the parade it looked like we might get a little reprieve from the heat but the sun burned off the cloud cover and it was almost 90 an hour before we were all at the staging area. My costume wasn't too bad from the neck down as far as the heat went. It was a long green dress and I was able to pour water on me and the dress to cool down. But my face was covered in heavy theatrical make up with the addition of some really long green eyelashes. And my 'petals' were attached rather tightly to my head with velcro and elastic. I thought I was going to die....................but look really funny when I finally expired. Even with the hell like heat, it was a blast and our entry won the trophy in the humorous/comedy category. We had a radish, a pod of peas, a couple fairies, a farmer, the farmer's daughter and a sunflower all escorting our giant carrot along the parade route.

I'm not computer saavy enough to add pics to a post yet. I know Kev knows how to do it, though. If I emailed you some pics, would you do your computer magic and post them here for everyone to see Kevin dear?

Hey Momma!

I'm dying to see them. You can email me the pics if Kev isn't available...

I sent them to Kev a minute ago. If he's around, they'll be here soon. If not, I'll fire them off to you.

Laurie

The pics from Momma

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Too cute! You guys all looked fabulous!

The top pic is the delivery of the carrot to town. I'm the one in the green shirt with the carrot tail hanging around my head. I'm still waiting to get the pictures the local paper took during the actual parade. There should be some great close ups. These were taken while we were hanging around in the staging area waiting for the parade to start.

It looks like you were having some fun despite the heat. Way to go!

I love the sunshine guy!! That looks like a good outfit for Clint. I doubt if you would see that from your Project Runway folk.

Clint - my last electric bill was $30. I know this stupid AC will drive it up a bit, but I've only had it on a few hours since yesterday.

So, from an energy standpoint is it cheaper to live in the north or south? You pay for all that AC. We pay for the heat in winter.

The sunflower was me, doofie:) I've always been a closet costume designer. And have made some pretty cool ones over the years. I used to start designing my Halloween costumes in July or August when I was in my 20's and used to go to all the bars for the big night. I liked it more than Christmas. There is just something about being outrageously dressed and most of the time, anonymous as well. One year I was such a gnarly, ugly witch my own brother didn't know who I was until I talked to him. I've always thought that if I was a man, I'd most likely be a drag queen.

I believe that we pay the highest for electricity here on the west coast. My last power bill for two months was $309. $60 of that was for water and the rest was for what little electricity we use during the summer. All of the major things in our house, like the dryer, hot water, stove, etc are all propane. We heat with a pellet stove in the winter. And don't have AC. We finally had the radiant floor heat hooked up in the sunroom (400 sq ft) last winter and the power bill doubled! It uses a 2 gallon electric hot water heater and we had it set a 68 degrees. I understand that the cost of electricity in CA is higher than it is here............

Wow! Orgasmic carrots! Way to go Laur! Love the peas too.... Well, 94 degrees, but with the humidity they said it registered 103....I went out at 1:30 (dumb, but it was when I could do it) with the goal of planting 10 more perennials....I did it, but I about fainted. I need to get back into the fish pond and make the apron, but my head hurt so much I couldn't do it. Here I am...with a nice big swimming pool, and I've been in the goldfish pond more than the swimming pool!

I was afraid I was going to 1. slip and fall into the deep part which is up to my eyebrows 2. drop a rock on a fish 3. step on a fish or two, 4. have one particularly curious fish swim up my shorts......

Kevin, thanks for the info on callas. I wasn't having much luck finding any info on my own when I googled it.

I'm going to have hundreds of them next year, even if the seeds don't germinate. Last year I started with 6 bulbs. They multiplied and this year I have 45. I can overwinter them in the ground here except squirrels eat the bulbs. Last winter they were in a pot and the squirrels missed them.

Hey, Laurie, cute costumes. Here in the south we don't have to go to all that trouble to turn into a sunflower. All you have to do is dye your hair blond and not put any spray or gel in it and by 10 a.m., it's frizzed out in all directions. And good lord, yes, your utility bills are high.

My electric bill with the AC on 24/7, albeit most of the day I have it set at 85 degrees, is only about $60 a month. I drop it to 80 or less if someone is coming over, or I'm cleaning, and later in the afternoon otherwise I don't eat. Nothing worse than breaking out in a serious sweat because of the energy provided by whatever I eat for supper. I hate it when I feel like I have to take a shower just because I ate a salad.

It seems the heat has us so worn out we can't even really complain about it, although this weekend it's a little better.

Laura

Kev,

I think it's pretty close to a trade-off. However, I don't swelter in the summer nor do I freeze in the winter (which is a big plus for me). Anything cooler than 50 degrees here and I'm complaining ;)

Only one day in August here so far has been below 100. We're topping out at 105 today. I am getting so sick of the weather...I need a nice vacation to Iceland..

I thought the heat wave talk was long-gone history for everyone, but WAIT! You're down there. The land of perpetual hellness. Sorry to hear that Clint. We topped out at 73 today. Almost roast-a-turkey-breast weather. Yum....

K

Gorgeously cool here today too. Sorry, Clint.

OMG!! Just got my email weather forecast.

TONIGHT: LINGERING CLOUDS, SOME FOG FORMING.
LOWS: 61-65
WINDS: LIGHT SOUTHEAST/EAST

TOMORROW: HAZY AND HUMID, CLOUD/SUN MIX WITH THUNDERSHOWERS POSSIBLE LATE.
HIGHS:76-81
WINDS: LIGHT EAST/SOUTHEAST

81?? What am I going to do.

THAT DOES IT!

I'm going crazy now. Our string of 100 degree days and drought will never end. I never thought I'd be saying this but I really can't wait for the dark days of December. At least then it might be in the 70s here.

Yes, a cold December day does sound kind of nice.

I had to turn on a fan today. Rats!