And the Heat Goes on and on........

and on and on!! Last October Fall managed to come early to this part of the world. I had already seen some frost on the rooftops by the end of the month. It was the earliest cold I had ever seen in my 13 years of living in Florida. A year later finds us suffering through a record heat wave. And I do mean "suffering" with highs between 95 and 100 degrees for the last week and nights that struggle to get below 77.

Fall has been cruel this year so far for us. It teased us for 3 days in September with cool mornings. Cool enough that my pumpkins could finally open up and pollinate. The brief cool snap is a distant memory and we hope for another one to come soon. The cool weather veggies planted in the garden like lettuce, beets and radish must think I'm playing some cruel joke on them. Watering them every morning doesn't seem to help. The cucumbers seem to be taking it in stride, I've harvest 10 of them over the last week, but even their vines are starting to show some stress from the heat.

At one point I had up to 6 pumpkins opened up and hand pollinated. Today I have one that seems to have made it through so far, although I've had to do some quick pest control after spotting an intruder gnawing into the sole pumpkin survivor. I hope that it worked!