Dry And Hot

 It is dry and hot here.  And according to a map I saw today, it will get worse in July.  I mentioned previously that Maryland has pretty decent weather.  The Appalachian Mountains protect us from some of the worst heat surges of the midwest.  Our slight inward costal curvature and the Chesapeake Bay generally protects us from hurricanes.  Tornadoes were unheard of a decade ago, but my get smaller ones now (better small than large).

Locally, we get enough warmth from the South to escape heavy snowfall.  And we get enough ocean airflow to keep temperatures below 100F for more than a few days each Summer.

But there have been exceptions and sometimes they are serious.  And they come and go in a few years.  So I've experienced some of what many people are experiencing previously and now.  

My family moved to Maryland in 1963 and it was routinely snowy for about 5 years.  In Jan 1966 we had a real blizzard.  Snowed for 3 days, while drifts covering the back doors.  2' of snow actually (rare for here), but it "collected".  It was sort of scary to see snow up the the top of some doors.

Wouldn't you know, but that was the day Mom decided she had to give birth to her 4th child!  The neighborhood roads were impassible.  But a major road behind our yard was plowed.  It is slightly a curse being "the elder son".  I was expected (at 16) to keep up with Dad frantically shoveling a path from the garage to the plowed street behind us.  150'!  

But between he and I (I managed about 1/2 what he did) we cleared a path for him to drive Mom to a hospital.  And he basically told me "stay here and take care of the other kids".  Two days later, we had a new sister and Dad came home briefly to make sure we were OK.

We were.  There was food in the fridge, and I was a good Boy Scout, so I knew what to do to keep things going a few days.

And there was a hurricane that moved up the Chesapeake Bay in 1968 (1969?). It sank our 20' boat and Dad didn't have the desire to buy another 3rd hand boat and renovate it.  I didn't object.  Spending part of my Summer scraping off barnacles, siding, and repainting was not exactly how I wanted to spend my Summer vacation.  But we did have that hurricane and it wasn't a minor one.

When I moved here in 1986, the lawn had terrible soil.  The Summers were very hot for several years.  It was so bad, the soil just cracked apart into pieces the size of saucers.  It was brutal with weeks of no rain and many days in a row at or near 100F.  

I took advantage of the cracks to rake 50/50 topsoil/compost into the cracks those several years.  You have the opportunities you get to help things.  My lawn is healthier than my neighbors' these days.

And we are having a dry spell here.  One half an inch this month.  I know some people are getting less, but that doesn't help my lawn any.  But I see my neighbor's watering their lawns.  Grass in my area (fescue) naturally goes dormant in Summer.  And they don't water deeply enough.

So they encourage the grass roots to grow up to where the surface water is and then it needs more watering...  The way to help their grass survive is just to let it be and/or water it deeply once a month.

That's about it on the weather.  Some things you just wait out, somethings you let the grass go brown for a couple months, and some things you do have to deal with.  Like 2' of snow...

Storms, 2

Oh well, I meant to add pictures to the post yesterday.  But I got up late and the pre-saved post was alreaddy there.  Then I needed to make lunch for Dad and me, feed the cats, get the mail, etc...

So here are the pictures...

I had almost no damage.  This fallen branch was annoying because I had to cut it to pieces to move it off my hosta bed.

But it sure wasn't serious.  I'm just glad that huge tree on the west of the house stayed tall again.  I probably will for another 50 years.  But it may fall next time.  You never know...

The branch was only twice the width of my shoe.

Ans it only fell 20'.  Here's where it broke off.  Its a weird black maple tree.  It grows from my neighbor's yard, but almost entirely over my yard.  The previous neighbors refused to pay to have it cut down (or even trimmed).  The new neighbors are well, "new" and I don't know them yet.

But THAT tree isn't threatening anything, so I will just let it be for now.

This picture is sort of a joke. I deliberately put the thermometer in the full afternoon sun.  I suppose the temperature is accurate for full afternoon sun.  On the other hand, I WAS out there in the full sun, and so were the plants.  I was watering the plants after cutting the fallen tree branch to manageable pieces.  I drank a quart of Gatorade while outside.  And plain water when I went inside!

My favorite HOT joke:  "It was SO hot, I saw a starving coyote chasing a terrified rabbit, and they were both walking"...

But seriously, we don't have month-long droughts here in JUNE.  July and August are the dry months here.  The unshaded lawn grass is already dormant and crunchy.  What are July and August going to be like?  I do not routinely water the lawn.  The grasses here go dormant in late Summer and the Fall rains bring them back to green until the next July.  But I may have to water the lawn this year.  Even the weeds in the lawn are dying, and I don't think the turf grass is as hardy as the weeds.

I've never seen it like this in early July.