plagues...ants, heat, drought

Every time I foil the ants it takes them a few days to find another way in. This morning they were on the kitchen counter maybe coming in from the upper cabinet but no definite entry spot. Killed them all, started my watering cycle of the pecan trees, fixed breakfast, sat at the table and looked down to see a thick trail of ants coming from under the baseboard to an ant bait that my sister gave me that is under the table. I had never heard of these or seen them before, Terro liquid ant bait. You snap open the tube and inside is a sweet borax laced liquid that draws the ants which then lay a pheromone trail to the food source and back to the nest encouraging more ants to come and eat their fill. The borax kills the ant after they ingest it. When I looked down at the bait tube and it looked to be half full of ants crowding in.

So I put a second one down next to the baseboard where they were getting in. Then I checked the one between the refrigerator and the wall, and yup, it was starting to draw ants. Checked the second one by the baseboard about an hour later and it was already half full of ants. I only had the three so I ran up to the hardware store and got more.

Several days ago I decided to pick up the green pecans that had been falling to see really how many I was losing before I started watering my three trees. I set the sprinkler out with a 4 or 5 foot diameter water spread for half an hour and then move it to another spot from about 7:30 – 10 AM. The ground is so dry and hard that I'm really unsure how deep the water gets but hopefully now, a week after I started this, it's getting deep enough to reach the feeder roots which only occupy about the top 15 – 18 inches of ground. Anyway, so far I've picked up a 5 gallon bucket's worth though not all big green ones (they turn brown a day or two after they fall) but all sizes from about an inch to the big fat ones still hanging on. 

I had no idea I was losing so many. And that bucket does not include the one the squirrels plucked and gnawed on. The other reason I picked them up is because when the mature nuts start to fall, I won't be fooled by the bad ones that have already dropped.

I've cut back more of the coral ginger and swore I was going to cut back the yellow ginger because during the day they are shriveled up but this morning they looked not great but not terrible and I couldn't do it even though I know there is no hope of them blooming. And because temps from 100˚ - 103˚ which is what we've been getting every day aren't bad enough, Sunday is predicted to get up to 108˚. Just the one day though and then back to what we've been getting. Not supposed to drop below 100˚ til next month.

Looks like the farmer won't need to spray defoliant on the cotton this year. The intense heat and drought are doing a fine job of defoliating the plants, probably already dead.

Well, I did actually accomplish something this week besides watering. The stool I rest my feet on at my high desk was an ugly plastic covered thing that was cracked and split with the little bit of stuffing coming out so I cut three squares from the old quilt batting and cut a bigger square from some left over fabric from one of my skirts, sewed a casing, ran some elastic through it, and voila! New footstool cover.

Jade and I did finish putting her quilt back together last Tuesday. Joanne's (from Cup On The Bus) sister is going to quilt it for us so I need to get it mailed up to her. Here's the front and back.

Not much blooming out there now and what is is not profuse...a couple of the plumerias, the yellow bells, the crepe myrtles, and this little double purple althea.