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| This morning's upstream-from-the-cottage view. The water is at least a foot below its usual level. |
Hot! That's the outlook at least through the middle of next week…and possibly forever. Temperatures in the upper-90s˚F and a heat index of over 100˚F. That's in the 37˚C range for you Celsius folks. And the fact that we might see a few light showers over the next couple of days only means the tropical humidity will be adding to our misery with sticky clothing and sweat running everywhere.
If I wanted to live where I could stew in my own juices on a daily basis, I'd move to Florida.
The river in front of the cottage is in sad shape—lower than I've ever seen it and looking disconsolate as it trickles through the riffle, whose stones, baked pale in the relentless sun, are eerily reminiscent of the whitened, long-fallen skeleton of some great desert beast. The pace of the current has slowed to a crawl. I haven't seen a heron or kingfisher in days, and even the turtles have been absent from their basking rocks.
I'm watering the plants every other day—a good, long soaking—and still they're drooping. Even the prairie patch up the road looks dry and listless, lacking the usual animated fluttering of butterflies checking out the coneflowers and bergamot.
Seeing as how this is only the end of June, you have to wonder what July and August have in store…
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15 comments:
HI GRIZZ - here too, extreme heat and humidity until next week if not longer. Other than a quick trip to the hair salon ( a girl has to do that no matter what), in an air conditioned car we will be held up happily in the A/C - Skipp is off Friday's and Saturday's - we are grilling salmon later and enjoying some other fun summer like drinks and food. Also, will drop in to see Mom tomorrow - my feet are killing me - numbness and electric shocks - damn MS - oh well.
Any way - stay cool
love to you
Gail
peace.....
Gail…
Mid-90s˚ here already…they're now saying maybe over 100˚ this afternoon. Myladylove and I are driving down to Cincinnati later so she can make a call on one of her merchants. That's about 65 miles from here one-way, give or take. I like getting out on the road, but the road will definitely be hot.
Stay as cool as possible and take care of yourself.
Yup, it's hot here too in central PA. And tonight our air conditioning konked out. Try getting a repair person heading into the weekend.
Despite what any politician says, there is something to global climate change. We had all best learn how to conserve and adapt.
Grizz,
Yesterday I was at work and we hit 101*. We're going to be hot the next few days, but not anywhere near your ballpark.
It's so sad to see your river this way... low and slow. Drought here is so bad... it breaks your heart to look at just about any plant (except for grass... that people insist on watering).
We did have a surprising downpour today, and Laura (my department manager) and I just stopped doing what we were doing and did a dance.
I will say I have a bit of fun at work. When we water heavily, it creates a 'pond' near an exit... so I let the hoses run for the birds.
Had a blast yesterday, watching a House Sparrow take a bath and a Killdeer wading. You could just see him standing there for no other reason than to cool his feet. Then he would 'curtsy'... to get his body into the water, and you could hear from the invisible instructor ... "And UP! And DOWN! And WIGGLE, WIGGLE, WIGGLE!"
It's good when you can make someone's day better. ")
Oh, and yes... I'll email first. Owe you one, anyway.
"...and possibly forever." Heh.
True, there's no end in sight in the forecast, but it ~has~ to end eventually. (Doesn't it?)
We had a fierce storm yesterday afternoon. I had to pull off the road on my way home and watched for tornadoes while I waited. A fallen tree blocked my route. Lots of limbs down at home and only a half-inch to show for it. Another nice little soaker this morning.
I hope you got some of it!
KGMom…
I'm still not entirely convinced re. any global climate change being of manmade cause rather than a periodic global shift, but we've certainly had some heat lately. You couldn't have picked a worse weekend to need the services of a repairman than pre-Fourth.
We got home from our trip to Cincinnati about 8:30 p.m. to find the power had gone out due to severe storms which came through eastern Indiana and southwestern Ohio about 5:00 p.m., toppling trees, taking off roofs, flattening and destroying all sorts of stuff. No trees down here—due, I'm sure, to the fact we're sited so low, being right on the riverbank, with small hills all around. Neighbors just up the road a hundred yards had tress down, though. The temperature dropped 0ver 30 degrees in less than a quarter hour.
However, the inside cottage temp was nearly 90˚ since the fans had quite before that drop…so we sacked out on recliners in the great room and tried to get to sleep. Well, I tried to get to sleep; Myladylove was out like a light. I read by flashlight for a couple of hours and then sorta got to sleep. Luckily the power came back on sometime after midnight and the place cooled down fast—so much so that we both ended up scrambling for blankets soon thereafter.
The bit of rain that fell was appreciated, though the river looks exactly the same. And today is, of course, more humid.
RobinX2…
The river does look pretty pathetic—though summer always brings low conditions…just not this low and this early. And lack of churning as the water comes through riffles means a reduction in the saturated oxygen levels, which makes it harder on certain fish and invertebrates, and probably aquatic plants, too.
Hey, you got to have fun at work to stay sane. No matter what job I did, and in spite of humorless bosses, I always did, whenever, wherever, and however possible. I'm genetically incapable of being too serious for too long.
You gotta get your licks in at every opportunity. I'd have been delighted to watch that wading killdeer with you.
Hey, stay cool and don't get sidetracked from wringing life dry!
Jain…
Yeah, it has to end. The question is when? The worrisome thing is that most of summer, and the hottest portion, is still ahead. I'll bet it's a lot more to our liking on the bay at GM.
We were on the road in the midst of that storm late yesterday. Straight-line winds gusting to well over 60 mph, sideways rain pelting the car, leaves and limbs and all sorts of airborne trash and litter blowing around. And because there's road construction on every main road in Ohio nine months of the year, orange barrels rolling and bouncing and flying around, banging off cars (not ours, thank God!) and just creating wonderful havoc.
No rain today, though. Alas.
"means a reduction in the saturated oxygen levels, which makes it harder on certain fish and invertebrates, and probably aquatic plants, too.' The things I learn from you.... though it makes sense if I'd had any reason to think about it.
Learned something else today.... corn crops are so bad some places, the farmers are going to plow it under, plant beans and pray. Didn't realize there was a window of possible opportunity for that.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on global warming. I can't see how so many people saturating a planet couldn't create it but I'd bet you've got some viable thoughts. And just so you know, I do think a global shift is part of it......
Glad you and yours are much more comfortable.
Robin…
The churning of water across the stones acts as an aerator, introducing oxygen. Like shaking it up in a bottle. A waterfall is better. Fast-moving streams (in the parlance of a limnologist it might be classified "lotic") tumbling down a mountainside are typically highly aerated, which is one of the big reasons (along with cooler temperatures) why they're home to, say, brook trout. While slow, warmwater streams (lentic) carrying less saturated oxygen, are more suited to catfish—because an ol' channel cat, being the sort of fish you could catch, toss in a bucket (sans water) or the trunk of your car, drive an hour home, and after you've greeted the wife and kids, petted the hound dog, and had a bite to eat, put your catch in the kitchen sink and run a bit of water over…and he'll promptly do a Lazarus and revive just fine. A trout would have died within a minute or two of being caught. Any grizzled old fisherman knows this, so don't go thinking I'm smart. (Yeah, I do know the fancy words.)
The typical head or upstream end of a pool just where the riffle's faster waters pour into the pool's slower, is a prime fishing location for several reasons—first, because the current often washes baitfish, crayfish, caddis, mayfly nymphs, hellgrammites, etc. (food) down, and thus into the range of any bass, say, that's hanging around close and ready to grab a bite. And second—and this becomes more and more important as summer gets hotter and the streams lower and less oxygenated—because if you are that bass and needing a gulp of better-oxygenated water to help you "breathe," this is the place to hold. And third, because for the same reason, minnows also hold there—a handy win/win situation for our predatory bass.
I know considerably less about farming—CONSIDERABLY!—but I'd say soybeans take less time from planting until maturity, and/or perhaps grow well into the cool, damper weather of fall, unlike corn, and so there's still, just maybe, that window of opportunity to salvage something from this year's season. But I assure you, that's just a wild-hair guess.
I'm going to skip my detailed thoughts on global warming tonight as it's already late and I know I'll have to prattle on to say my piece. And whether I have any insight or merely an opinion remains to be seen. But one of these days…
Okay, so I looked up limnologist. ") Thank you for a new word.
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Re: Catfish... much as I admire their ability to give the Grim Reaper a run for his money.... I'd rather have them coated in just the right breading (that only old southerner's know how to do), fried and on my plate. It's one of my favorite things to eat, and I worry that I'll never taste it again. Once you've sat at a tiny restaurant on the banks of the Ky. river and eaten what they've just caught (or at home, what your mother just caught)... the non-bottom feeding, farm raised anomalies you get in the city just don't do it.
..........
And about the beans... you got it right, according to what the farm report was saying. And you're right again... it's a really big risk. Farmers have to be some of the most courageous people....
Robin…
Hey, I love words—old and new…as I think you do. That's why I trotted "limnologist" out for your perusal.
Ahhhh, the delectable, ugly catfish—one of the finest and most toothsome finny critters to ever grace a supper table. And yes, a lovely platter of succulent catfish fillets, well, seasoned, lightly breaded, and fried in a big iron skillet until they're just the perfect shade of golden-brown…and served with fresh coleslaw (like I made this afternoon), maybe a few slices of garden-ripe tomato to give some color on the plate plus a handful of green onions from the same earthen patch, and either hush puppies or a steaming big cake of yellow cornbread (but merciful God not that vile sweetened abomination that's doubtless a Yankee plot!), a sweating pitcher of ice tea (or if you insist, iced tea) and you do have have a meal fit to sit down and savor. Oh my yes!
And not to brag, but maybe to make you just a bit envious, I'll have you know I can sit on my own patch of riverbank, or the steps leading down to the water, or either of the two decks on the side and front respectively of the cottage—or for that matter, inside the cottage great room, as the river's only two feet out and eight feet down past the sliding doors—and with not much trouble fish and catch a dinner mess of channels and bullheads about any time I so desire, which I, being of weak will when it comes to good eats, do with embarrassing frequency. Your mother taught you well, sounds to me. And nope, farm raised catfish, fed on liver pellets or some similar kibbled dogfood, taste like…well, like poor imitations of the real thing.
That guess about the beans was just that, a lucky guess. But farmers are the original high-stakes gamblers, for sure—and the amazing thing is, most of 'em, if they can avoid being "helped" by government loans and ag advice, are good enough at the game to raise and feed a family and stay in the game for generations.
Got to say your photo does convey a lushness that contradicts the heatwave words-nice to see a river photo again -been awhile
AfromTO…
Only because it's a not particularly revealing photo. The river is seriously down—ankle-deep where it should be thigh-deep. And of course trees adjacent to a stream don't show drought effects like those a short ways back from the water—so there is this narrow strip of lushness.
Haven't run a river pix in awhile because I get to thinking it's just the same old view, a "seen that'n before" to readers. I never get tired of it, however. Too, I've had other things to post. An awful lot of the time when deciding what to post, it's a narrow line of too much/too little. Though I probably dither over it more than I should.
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