No frost yet, but today's high in the mid-80s will drop precipitously into the mid-60s for the next several days. Lots of rain in the past 36 hours, a bit more than 2 inches. And that's the story from the plains of central Illinois.

Originally this area was wide-open plains/prairies with trees found only along waterways. Early settlers took care of many of those trees to make houses and fences. The land here is fertile. I once asked why there were so few wheat farms around here and I was told the the soil is too good for that!

Jim

It's raining here and we had a couple of thunderstorms, so says my husband. I slept right through it. If a flea coughs, I wake up, a thunderstorm and I sleep like a baby. The daytime temps are dropping to 70, that's what we have now.

Stay warm y'all. My work group is in Rochester, MN today. They were all sad they had to take real coats with them on the plane. We'll be 55-75 degrees the next two days. Not so for them. Lows in the 30s.

me too! flea coughs/thunderstorms. Cool!

I am so tired of cold hands in winter down here, I decided to go online and buy some real gloves. They're enroute to me. They better be warmer! I figured that out stuff we have available to us is puny and weak for winter. You should see what they sell here that pass for "ice scrapers". You would be better off using a credit card. Once I got one offline, it slides right off. Why don't they think we get cold and icy? We do! Not like I live in Miami.

While Fall is making subtle changes to our weather, it hasn't hit 'hard', yet. Almost every day, our A/C kicks on by late afternoon, and the grass is still growing too fast.

There is a possibility of strong thunderstorms for this afternoon, but lots of times, the mountains to the west cause them to veer farther north.

96 today! the hottest day of the week, then we get back to upper eighties, low nineties. The sun is very hot, humidity is in the teens, nights are getting cooler, in the forties. Summer is not leaving without a last stand and the drought goes on.

I forgot to mention the grass. Yesterday I mowed the front yard for the 3rd time in 11 days. It is green, it is lush, it provides me with some exercise. June and July were wet and cooler than usual. Almost perfect conditions. I fertilized, then seeded and now I am caught up in my own aggressiveness. I bought my usual high-nitrogen fertilizer (during the summer it is 13-13-13) and will apply that toward the end of October for a fast green-up in the early spring. At the end of April I will again fertilize.

Ah, the joys of attempting to make my neighbors jealous!

Ah.rain, I sure wish we could get some here in CA. Everything is so dry and our trees are suffering. Our lawns are a mottled mess with brown and green spots.
I'm between a rock and a hard place. we have a drought and have to limit our water usage, but what do I try to save?

I have a bucket in the bathroom and one in the kitchen and all the waste water goes into them. Hand washing the dishes, dishwater and rinse water goes into the bucket, washing veggies and salad, when the bucket gets, outdoor plants get a drink, they have to take their turn. Bathroom: bucket catches shower-water before I get the right temp and hand-washing in a basin and save the water, it all goes into the garden and the house-plants.