Easy Does It in Humid Heat

Inge Kayaking on Llano River

 The top picture was from our Kayaking trip last Sunday on the Llano River. The temperature in Austin exceeded 100 degrees F and it wasn't much cooler on the river. We took the usual paddle upriver route and at the usual rapids stopped and rested a bit before floating back down. We loaded the kayaks with a few choice landscaping rocks, which makes the trips down the rapids a bit tough because the extra weight increases the chance to get hung up on rocks.

Normally, we have a lot of fun kayaking the river, and we did have some fun spots, like "panning for gold." Yes, literally we pan for gold. A few years ago we bought green plastic gold pans which we load with sand and gravel using garden trowels. We then swish them around removing the sand and gravel until nothing but heavier black sand is left which we inspect for gold. We've never found any gold but it's fun to try! (Yes, gold has been found in the Llano River!)

We also spent some time swimming, though the water was hotter than I ever remember. But the trip back with Inge frequently getting stuck on rocks in the rapids and loading the kayaks in the heat had the two of us enacting a minor grouch fest. The truck's air conditioning helped sooth that away though.

 

Late Summer Blooms

This week we went to Die Weide with garden bed preparation in mind. I set Inge up to water the orchard and I started broadforking another section of garden. I finished one 120 sq ft section and forked half way through another before I started getting woozy from the heat and that ended the hard work for the day though I managed a few less strenuous chores before we headed out.

Between last week's heat induced kayaking grouch fest and today's forking up wooziness, I've learned that both Inge and I need to be more mindful of how the heat is affecting us and ease up when we "feel the heat" in detrimental ways.

I planted clover seeds in the area of the garden that will be fallow until spring. I've read that this is good garden practice and will add the resulting foliage to the compost heap to return the nutrients to the soil. The Weide compost heaps generate compost at a much slower pace than the home heaps. The Weide heaps contain dead leaves, donkey dung, and other rather drier material than the home compost piles and thus mature much more slowly. I am hoping that adding freshly harvested clover leaves in the spring will improve the compost production as the best compost heaps contain an even balance of green and brown materials.

I've reserved the front section of the garden for a fall crop of red and green cabbage and my first attempt at growing garlic. We were both too tired and overheated to plant those today but I hope to plant them next week.

Bare Dry Soil - Rain Needed

To reinforce last week's post about the dry conditions, I posted the above photo showing a lot of dusty dry soil between sparse plants. We've had some limited rain this year just often enough to make the garden grow reasonably well, but not enough to give the ground a saturation soaking. As we left today there were a lot of clouds to the south, but current radar shows nothing near the land or our home in Cedar Park.

The well pump arrived last week and I hope to install it in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing how the well holds up to pumping. The static water level has fluctuated between 12 and 15 ft depth, which is better than I expected. Any rain at all results in a higher static water level rather quickly. Rain apparently percolates through the soil very well here.