A Hot Harvest

The temperature here in west central Alabama has been miserably hot this week. The last few days have been in the upper 90s with a heat index of anywhere from 105 to 110 degrees. Yesterday afternoon I had to go out to the garage for something, and the thermometer in there said it was 102 degrees.

Obviously, we can’t do a lot outside when it’s like this, so most of our time has been spent indoors. But we did take advantage of slightly cooler (if you can call 89 cool) temperatures one evening to go out and harvest some things from Terry’s garden. While the storm a couple of weeks ago really took a toll on what she had planted out there, we were still able to come up with more than I expected.

We had several corn plants, but most of them got wiped out. There are a few left that have tassels but no ears yet, and just this one stalk with two ears of corn on it. Since about the only things I would eat out of the garden are strawberries, potatoes and corn, I’m watching those guys.

The strawberries that Terry planted in one of her raised garden beds are looking good, and though we don’t expect much out of them this year, hopefully next year they will produce some goodies for me.

As I said, it’s too hot to be outside doing much of anything except for taking Alli out to go to the bathroom a few times a day. Instead, I’ve been working at the computer a lot, and yesterday I added another 4,000 words to my new Big Lake book. This is turning into quite a convoluted story and I still don’t know exactly where it’s headed. I’m interested to see what happens in the end.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of my friend Suzie O’Connell’s Mountain Angel, the first book in her Northstar Angel’s series. It’s a contemporary Western romance about a woman who returns to her roots,  desperate for the tranquility of the secluded valley and plagued by memories of her dead boyfriend and the advances of an obsessive former friend. When her over-protective uncle sends Patrick O’Neil “on vacation” to keep an eye on her she is annoyed, but finds herself irresistibly drawn to the haunted man with a kind smile and sad eyes. He may just be the best thing to ever happen to her…if she can convince him to stay.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I got a real laugh out of this one sent by my friend Jim Harper.

Thought For The Day – We do things not because they are easy, but because we thought they would be easy.