Highlight: Complaints about weather and failing crops are depressing. Expressions of dissatisfaction with temperatures and humidity improve nothing and irritate everyone. When I got this way as a teenager, my Dad shut me down with the simple command, “Quit your bellyaching!”

There was no doubt in my mind, when that expression was used, that I had just been called a “wimp”. It was true then and it remains true now. That was his not so gentle way of saying grow up, be a man. It may have been painful to hear, but it was true.

This morning, I was up very early, before the sun, and watched a beautiful sunrise. It dawned on me (forgive the pun) that although Dad taught me that “bellyaching” was unmanly, he never ever said that a man can’t praise and be thankful for a beautiful day. And, as I recall the many hours I spent with him on our back porch, he would always have a smile on his face at the beginning and end of one of God’s beautiful days.

Weather: Rain every day, the yard is soaked and, of course, the vegetable garden is suffering. In case I didn’t say it before, we had to rip out three tomato bushes. That leaves the cherry tomato bush and a relatively young bush. The little plant shows no desire to have blossoms or fruit. Tomatoes for salsa and pasta sauce will have to be procured elsewhere this season. No, that’s not “bellyaching” – its  just a statement of  the simple facts.

2018-08-11: High – 87º, precipitation 0.18 (Detailed Summary – click here.)

2018-08-12: High – 80º, precipitation 0.18 (Detailed Summary – click here.)

2018-08-13: High – 78º, precipitation 0.21 (Detailed Summary – click here.)

2018-08-14: High – 82º, precipitation 0.1 (Detailed Summary – click here.)

Plantings: Nothing to report

Harvest: 

2018-08-11: 10 Nothing to report

2018-08-12: 6 cherry tomatoes, 5 okra pods, 3 jalapenos

2018-08-13: Nothing to report

2018-08-14: 7 cherry tomatoes