We had a 101F day this past week, and this week we are looking at high
nineties. The "maybe" good news is there may be rain this week. That's
if I really believe the weather people, yeah, that's it. G Of the last
week's weather guides none were right. I am beginning to think that the
weather folk toss coins and science has nothing to it.

August in SE Texas is usually the hottest month of the year. We're
watering the grass, gardens, trees, and the dog on a daily basis. Our
"soil" is a little bit of sand on top of a big pile of gumbo clay. Rain
and water we put on stuff just sinks in a few inches and then is gone.
If we ever buy another home we will ask the depth of REAL dirt before
buying. Of course, in our late seventies, there is a minimal chance we
might move again.

Our normal electric bill runs year around at $51 a month, last month it
was $111. Tells me that the AC has been working harder than the rest of
the summer, and I expect August to be even hotter and the bill higher.
Most of our electricity comes from man made lakes not to far away so it
is generally cheaper than the power plants powered by natural gas. We
shall see.

We're still getting a few veggies from our garden but not much. Tomatoes
are now done so we will be buying them at stores until early fall when
we can plant again.

George

On 8/1/2017 9:04 AM, George Shirley wrote:
We had a 101F day this past week, and this week we are looking at high
nineties. The "maybe" good news is there may be rain this week. That's
if I really believe the weather people, yeah, that's it. G Of the
last week's weather guides none were right. I am beginning to think
that the weather folk toss coins and science has nothing to it.

August in SE Texas is usually the hottest month of the year. We're
watering the grass, gardens, trees, and the dog on a daily basis. Our
"soil" is a little bit of sand on top of a big pile of gumbo clay.
Rain and water we put on stuff just sinks in a few inches and then is
gone. If we ever buy another home we will ask the depth of REAL dirt
before buying. Of course, in our late seventies, there is a minimal
chance we might move again.

Our normal electric bill runs year around at $51 a month, last month
it was $111. Tells me that the AC has been working harder than the
rest of the summer, and I expect August to be even hotter and the bill
higher. Most of our electricity comes from man made lakes not to far
away so it is generally cheaper than the power plants powered by
natural gas. We shall see.

We're still getting a few veggies from our garden but not much.
Tomatoes are now done so we will be buying them at stores until early
fall when we can plant again.

George

I'm expecting a spike in our water bill ... I've started watering the
garden every morning . We got quite a bit of rain up until a couple or
three weeks ago , but the stuff has slowed down and it's probably
because of not enough water . Nothing has actually wilted yet , but a
few times lately the tomato leaves have looked a little limp . As far as
the heat , we've had a couple of unseasonably cool evenings and there
are more in the forecast . Daytime highs have been down in the mid 80's
too , just no rain .

--

Snag

On 8/1/2017 9:53 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 8/1/2017 9:04 AM, George Shirley wrote:
We had a 101F day this past week, and this week we are looking at high
nineties. The "maybe" good news is there may be rain this week. That's
if I really believe the weather people, yeah, that's it. G Of the
last week's weather guides none were right. I am beginning to think
that the weather folk toss coins and science has nothing to it.

August in SE Texas is usually the hottest month of the year. We're
watering the grass, gardens, trees, and the dog on a daily basis. Our
"soil" is a little bit of sand on top of a big pile of gumbo clay.
Rain and water we put on stuff just sinks in a few inches and then is
gone. If we ever buy another home we will ask the depth of REAL dirt
before buying. Of course, in our late seventies, there is a minimal
chance we might move again.

Our normal electric bill runs year around at $51 a month, last month
it was $111. Tells me that the AC has been working harder than the
rest of the summer, and I expect August to be even hotter and the bill
higher. Most of our electricity comes from man made lakes not to far
away so it is generally cheaper than the power plants powered by
natural gas. We shall see.

We're still getting a few veggies from our garden but not much.
Tomatoes are now done so we will be buying them at stores until early
fall when we can plant again.

George

I'm expecting a spike in our water bill ... I've started watering the
garden every morning . We got quite a bit of rain up until a couple or
three weeks ago , but the stuff has slowed down and it's probably
because of not enough water . Nothing has actually wilted yet , but a
few times lately the tomato leaves have looked a little limp . As far as
the heat , we've had a couple of unseasonably cool evenings and there
are more in the forecast . Daytime highs have been down in the mid 80's
too , just no rain .

--

Snag

I use QuickBooks Simple Start, a free version of keeping accounts
straight. Looked back over the past five years since we moved here and
this summer appears to be the hottest since we got here. When we moved
in I looked in the attic and had a crew come in and put in another foot
of loose insulation and it seems to have worked. I may have to get up
there again and see what's going on. May have a roof vent or two that is
not working anymore and I just had the good ones put in when we redid
the roof after a hellacious hail storm passed over a few years ago.

In our climate, SE Texas, we get all kinds of weird weather, mostly
coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. Closest trees are a bunch of pines
about a quarter mile west of us and we seldom get a west wind.

This is probably the last home we will have, unless we end up in a
nursing home, God Forbid, so we keep it in good condition. I found out
the other day that the only "paid off" homes here are those that we old
people own. About ten of them it seems. I have not so fine memories of
the homes we've owned over 57 years of marriage that we had loans on.
This one and our last one were the only ones we paid off, not including
a $800 36 foot trailer home we started with. G

I knew it was going to be hot in August, the dog is shedding. Just came
in from taking a load of loose hair off of her and she seems happy about
it. Some happy pot plants on the back porch are getting some nitrogen,
of which animal hair is rich, including humans. Many years ago a long
time barber friend used to call me once a week to pick up all the hair
swept up that week. Would go by and get it and put it into my compost
heap. The state probably has a law against it now.

It's back to the accounting again, hunting up receipts from the Boss
Lady is like hunting Easter Eggs, you never know where they are.

George