We took a break from the heat for a couple of days and joined another family and my father-in-law up in Payson, AZ for a small town Fourth of July celebration and a spectacular fireworks show. One of the amazing things about AZ is that you can go from 110 here in the valley, drive an hour and a half and be in the mountains where it is 20 degrees cooler. Drive another 30 minutes and you’re on the Mogollon Rim where it is 30 degrees cooler. That may not be that big of a deal, but when it’s100 degrees at 10 o’clock at night in the valley… it’s nice to be able to get away to a place that can be in the mid 60s. When you’re use to this heat, you’re packing sweaters for 65!
It was fun, but I have to admit, I’m a homebody. I like being home.
Our neighbors did a great job with the chickens and all of ‘the girls’ were alive and well, in spite of the continued blistering temps. I over watered the garden before we left but after two straight days with no water it was… parched to say the least. Everything seems to have bounced back pretty quickly.
Except the corn.
But let’s not talk about the corn. Ugh…
I was greeted by 2 pounds of tomatoes, a 1.5 lb monster zucchini, and another watermelon (did I mention I love those).
As crazy hot as it is… there is no place like home.
The Jones Garden Blog 
It looks like Tropical Storm Erick down south of Baja may pump moisture and even rain up your way. Does that cool things down? Or just make it gruesomely humid?
My essay, :”A Polar Puzzle,” which your feedback helped create, got printed at the “Watts Up With That” site. It just goes to show you, you never know where a talk about gardening will wind up.
It does both. The temps come down ~100, but the humidity makes it feel like a swamp. A lot of people use evap coolers because they are cheaper, but they are not an option once the monsoon season kicks in, which is upon us now. Mornings are really sticky right now. It’s actually the coolest about an hour and a half after the sun comes up because its a little dryer.
Congrats on the essay!
Love your videos — Lots of rain up hear in the north, could use more sun.
—ron—
Thanks for watching! I’m obviously really new to this whole thing, but I see many more in my future. I keep watching weather reports from back east. I’m a little green with envy. We could use at least a couple of days of a drizzly rain. The couple of times a year that we get one of those the garden just goes crazy!