Rendering

No, I'm not rendering more pork lard.  I was out watering the garden for the second time today.  And that sizzling you heard?  Yep, that was me, melting into a pool of fat and cooking on the gravel driveway.  The entire 10-day forecast has us at a 100+ degrees for all but three days (those being 97 and 99).

Now, I know this is Arkansas and considered the "South", but we're far from being considered the desert.  It got up to 111 here three days ago and today was up to 109 today.  So said the two theomometers on my back porch, which is shaded the hottest part of the day.  And not a drop of rain in sight.  We had some rain in the beginning of April, maybe a bit over an inch.  And then a ten minute drizzle a week later.  But that's it.  The only reason my pathetic garden and fruit trees are alive is that Paul and I are watering them on a daily basis.  I sit with my eyes glued to the Doppler radar and sob uncontrollably when I watch the wonderfully colored green, orange and red colors representing rain split or disappear just before they hit our area.

Last year was a scorcher too.  I have a picture somewhere of the temps reaching 115 degrees.  But that was in the beginning of August - we haven't even hit July yet for gawdsakes!  I can only hope and pray for rain.  I know it's horrible, but I was really hoping that Debbie was going to turn into whopper of a hurricane.  Not because I wish misfortune upon anyone in the form of flooding or destructive winds, but hurricanes usually mean rainfall for us farther up north of the Gulf.

I can't imagine how the hay situation is going to pan out this year.  The first cutting was about a third lighter than normal.  And those that waited a bit too long ended up with fields of brown and crunchy bails of hay in their fields.  We were able to get six bales of a good hay in the barn (and when I say "we", of course, I mean "Paul") and the promise of another ten bales.  I called the hay guy last week and he assured us that he'd save ten of the forty bales he has for us, but they have yet to appear.  I don't want to call him and nag, but if I don't hear from him in a few days I'm going to call to check.  I'm a little hay-shy since our "promised" hay from last year was sold from under us and sent to Texas.  Hey, I know you guys in Texas need hay too, but this was supposed to be our yearly load.  Luckily we were able to scrape up a bale here and there, although the last two bales were really only compost-worthy.

So, here we are again, waiting on the hay.

And here I go again, watering the garden for the second time today.  I can't imagine what we'd do if we had only our garden to survive on and didn't have a constant and reliable supply of water.  Oh wait, I could imagine it.  We'd STARVE to death as our vegetables would be dead and the fruit trees withered beyond any chance of bearing fruit.  Even if we did have our rain catchment system in place, there wouldn't have been enough rain to catch anyhow.

Well, I suppose I'm done complaining now.  Try to stay cool, and keep those in the areas ravaged by the wildfires in your thoughts and prayers.  Oh, and if you're in a drought area, please, PLEASE refrain for lighting off fireworks on the 4th.  It's not worth burning down the forest, your home and your neighborhood.