The Heat is on

I was up early to finalize my Apache term paper. That took me most of the day, taking short breaks to tend to the garden. It reached into the upper 80s today with 10% humidity and the garden dried up quickly after every watering. The fire ants are now out in the yard, and snakes are showing up dead in our neighborhood, victims of cars and careless drivers.

The corn grew a few inches these last few days, and some squash is coming up as well.

One nectarine tree was infested with aphids. I gave it a high-pressure shower.

A roadrunner was gawking on top of the roof. This is the first time I've seen a roadrunner FLY anywhere. It eventually swooped down and ran off into the alley. Hummers are out drinking from the feeder (so are the Orioles) and ravens and doves come down to drink from the dogs' water bucket.

The photinias and oleanders are starting to show drought stress.

While I busied with the paper, Kevin farmed. He went into town to buy some more tomato plants (Red Cherry, his favorite). He also picked up a few pepper plants. We have never had this many plants in our yard, but I'm happy he is getting into the gardening scheme. The once-unpopular Princess Tree is now tall enough to provide shade for many of the container plants, sparing many of the plants an early demise. I have no doubt he will do fine while I am gone this summer. From now on he'll be in charge of planting the vegetables.

It was otherwise a quiet day for me. It was hot out and my shoulders felt the sun after just a few minutes outside. I waited until 6pm to walk the dogs around the three-mile loop. All three came back panting.

We watched the local and national news at 5pm. The swine flu is still growing in strength across the US. Pima County (Tucson) confirmed its first six cases of the flu, four of which are on the Tohono O'odham Nation. (The flu is the fifth most common cause of death of Arizona's Native American female tribal members, according to the 2007 Data Book on Health Status Profile of American Indians in Arizona) Nogales is closing all its schools for a week. If this flu spreads into our town I can expect the district to close its schools by the second week, ending my employment for the season (and giving me an early start to my summer drive).

Until then, I still have some work to do for class.

http://www.azdhs.gov/plan/report/hspam/hspam07/part_5c.pdf