Nice cold front moved thru…dews dropped from 78F yesterday afternoon to low 60Fs now…temps today should be 20F lower! Clouds now. No rain yesterday as the front moved thru. Best thing about Wisconsin summer is summer time “”“cold fronts”"" basically a wind change, a dew point drop and back into the 70Fs. Tonight should be in the 50Fs so the AC is off and the windows get opened. One more nice day tomorrow and then warm right back up.
Those outside the cornbelt …up here we factor in crops
[quote]Warmth/moisture progged to quickly return Sat, ahead of the next
cold front being dragged SE into the region by the shortwave
dropping toward the great lakes. Moisture from Wed is not pushed
that far south (to quickly return) and there is the mid July
corn/soybean ET nearing its max to help load the lower levels with
moisture.[/quote]
Corn “sweats”…it releases moisture to the air…raising dews.
About a month ago when I was outside working, I noticed there was a strange smell in the air. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was, but then it came to me it smelled like corn. Which was odd, as our corn had just sprouted, not big at all. Does that make sense? The smell has since disappeared.
Our neighbor is growing corn to our north, their field is about a quarter mile away. Maybe that was what I was smelling? Does growing corn release some kind of odor?
From my days on the farm the smells that are still highly vivid are cut alfalfa hay. That smells very good. Then there is pig manure, just the opposite. Then the smell of a good rain.
Hot, sticky, mildewy, damp, stinky, need air conditioning. Horrible. Trees fine. No brown rot, very surprising. Must be the indar. This time last year and the year before my fruit had fuzz on it and they were not peaches!
From my days on the farm the smells that are still highly vivid are cut alfalfa hay. That smells very good. Then the smell of a good rain.
Corn may have some smell but not very vivid.
[/quote]
You nailed it Fruitnut! NOTHING beats the smell of a alfalfa field that was cut the night before in the summer! Especially if you get just a little bit of that sweet rain on top of it. It is a crop I will plant on my next piece of property if there is anyone around who has the equipment to harvest it. I have said a million times someone needs to come out with a air freshner that smells like fresh cut alfalfa.
Of course I do roll the pickup window down going by the corn ethanol plant as well!
Corn pollen has a distinct smell to me. I smelled it in the middle of town earlier this week. I think it is hard to miss it when all the corn here is tasseling.
We just had a very light sprinkle this morning, just enough to wet my deck and water my plants, but it’s pretty much over now. Sun & mild temps (20-25C or 68-77F) is forecasted for the next two weeks which is perfect for my fruits to ripen and for the roofers to get my roof done without flooding the place. Woohoo.
An interesting spot is Grand Marais, MN along the lakeshore of L Superior. They can really jump around depending on lake influence… Mid afternoon temps of 53F in mid July? Not bad! Be interesting to see what a garden looks like there in town. Strawberries, lettuce would probably do fantastic. Be a nice place to cool off in the summer time heat.
I started the long needed mowing about noon, and promptly got hit by a 10min downpour about an hour later. So, I had to come in and dry off and wait for the grass to dry as well.
Started over about 2:00, and the sun had came out by then. So it was super steamy and oppressive. It was so bad I had trouble breathing and had to come in to cool off. I just finished the front yard about 7. I’m totally whipped, and I still have to do the lawn down by the old house, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Both orchards had grass over 6in high, so that took most of the time, including mowing around the trees’ cages. They look a lot better now. Now they need to be weeded and mulched. So much to do…
I saw quite a few people with long sleeves…one lady had a hoodie on while on a walk. It was actually a little chilly with the strong breeze later this evening. Sitting at 68F.
It rained on us last night but not enough to hurt much. The rain will benefit the small trees. If it costs us fruit the trade may have been worth it but in this case it looks like I get my cake and get to eat it to.
Wow, your grass is too tall at 6"; been a long time since I had a lawn to maintain.
I typically do one mowing a year (about now) when the field grass is flowering. This year it’s 3’ high, some years 5’. This takes quite a while with the weed wacker (for the steeper areas) and bush hog. Fortunately much of the land is in mountain meadow, which does not grow tall and can just be left. I only mow to keep the weeds at bay, and keep the fire danger contained near structures.
While I complain about the mowing each year when I am doing it, all in all I think I spend less time than when I had a suburban lot and had to mow the grass each week.
what a change in a day! Yesterday I helped with a move in heat that, while not much above 85, was the most oppressive heat in 22 yrs in Michigan ( moving all that furniture of course contributed). Today is around 75. with all that rain the garden is off to the races.
Yeah, I know 6in is too tall, we’ve just hadn’t had a chance to mow regularly because of rain and other issues. I’ll try to keep on top of it more often. The mower deck was set to the highest setting (3.5"), and it was bogging down in that orchard grass. I think it may have shut down once or twice. I had to take it slow thru that hay.
I think I started at about 1, had to stop because of the rain for an hour or two, and then restarted about 3. Had to take a break after another hour as the heat and humidity was was beating me down. I think I got done about 7. I think the heat really got to me, I could barely function afterwards. I feel OK this morning, but know I still have to mow the front yard today, but am going to wait until later this afternoon.
The tractor just needs to have coolant put in it, and I’ll be ready to bush hog the pasture, its prob about 3ft tall now…
When my brothers and I bought hunting land 25 years ago…i remember clearing trails with weed whackers and push mowers. My brother took an angle grinder and cut slits in the front of the mower and then bent it upward so it was open in the front to get the little saplings. Oh man were we dirty after a few hours of that. Not fun stuff… Now if we went up there and did that we would probably throw out our backs, have heart attacks or just keel over and die
60F this morning. I was actually cold. My kids were evening complaining they were cold when we were outside. I love weather like this.
I did all the mowing with the 48" rider. It’s a pretty tough machine, I’ve really put it through some rough areas. I just try to keep it maintained well. Every time I finish mowing, I reach up under the deck and pull out all the big clumps of grass. There were some huge chunks in there. It takes me about half an hour to clean it. I do it to keep the rust down from the wet grass.
My wife does push mowing around the houses and the gardens. I don’t know how she does it, our grass is often lush and deep, and a bit damp.
I’d rather ride than push mow, but yesterday was rough.
It’s only 84 now, but pretty steamy out there. Supposed to have some storms this evening. We could maybe use a bit of rain, some of the taller tomatoes are looking a bit weepy.
