How's The Weather By You?

TICA said:
And.... you folks mentioned chiggers - educate me on what the heck is a chigger????
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Chiggers are mite larva that feed on the fluids in skin cells and itch like hell. We have 'em here in California but only remember being bitten when I was in the Midwest.
 

I will no longer apologize for being here where the weather is beautiful. Okay, I am not spoiled . . . just lucky AND a big wimp! Got up to my limit of 79F yesterday and that's gettin' "HOT" to me. Supposed to cool down to 74F today. That's here along the Pacific coast with that frigid Japanese current. Inland a few miles away and over the coastal mountains, it's upwards of 90F... Phooey on that!

Saw that severe weather moved on from the Midwest toward the East Coast and that the Mississippi is flooding at record levels. If you are in any of those areas getting hit, all the best to you. Hang in there!
 
Years ago (1970 ?) we (my first wife & the kids) went down to Virginia Beach camping for 4 weeks from Montreal..
It was HOT and unknowingly of the dangers, I sat on the grass with only a bathing suit on..
Well, it didn't take long for my tush to get red bumps on it..
Yup, I had chiggers in my tush.. The campground told me to put Vaseline on my tush and the chiggers will die of lack of air..
Yeah, right !!!
Did you ever try to keep heavy Vaseline on your tush all day for a few days ??? Forget it !!!
I don't remember what happened but somehow they eventually went..
I remember extremely tender trying to sit.. Almost impossible !!!
They must of gone because I don't have any today...........................
 

Chiggers are nasty little critters, for sure. The itching keeps you up at night and the only thing I found so far that helps some is a chickweed salve. Even that takes a day or so to work, tho.

Any of you Southerners find something that works fast, or better yet, repels the dang things??? They're worse than the seed ticks, at least you can see those. :(
 
Chiggers 101

We have made the rounds of all the repellents and remedies. Chiggers don't burrow into the skin as commonly believed, but rather they attach themselves to the skin and inject a high powered salivary enzyme into the skin which liquifies the tissue, which they then feed on, before dropping off. By the time you notice the itch from a chigger bite, he is long gone, which is why touted home remedies, sch as clear nail polish, bleach and trying to suffocate them with ointments won't work.

There are many remedies on the market for the bites, and one works just about as well as another. But in reality, if these pestilent critters serve you up for lunch, your gonna itch!
 
Arkansas is full of chiggers but I haven't seen a one where we are now. But I have had a lt of experience with them.

When you get chiggers or have been where you are likely to have them, put one cup of chlorine bleach in a bathtub of water and
soak in it for a few minutes. If you are going to an area where you might get ticks or chiggers, spray your clothes the day before with a weak mixture of permethrin. let the clothes dry before putting them on.
 
Steve said:
Years ago (1970 ?) we (my first wife & the kids) went down to Virginia Beach camping for 4 weeks from Montreal..
It was HOT and unknowingly of the dangers, I sat on the grass with only a bathing suit on..
Well, it didn't take long for my tush to get red bumps on it..
Yup, I had chiggers in my tush.. The campground told me to put Vaseline on my tush and the chiggers will die of lack of air..
Yeah, right !!!
Did you ever try to keep heavy Vaseline on your tush all day for a few days ??? Forget it !!!
I don't remember what happened but somehow they eventually went..
I remember extremely tender trying to sit.. Almost impossible !!!
They must of gone because I don't have any today...........................
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Ughhhhh. Sounds just painful. The idea of having something living on me is creepy to say the least never mind the itch. Ewwww!!!
 
Today is June 3rd and I am still waiting for SPRING to come..
Our nights are still almost down to the freezing mark.. Daytime in the upper teens to the lower 20's c...

Yesterday I tried to turn the soil in our raised vegetable gardens but got eaten up alive by those pesty black flies and mosquitoes.. Way too much stagnant waters around..

Today I will attempt to finish turning the soil and hopefully get the onion bulbs in the ground..
Perhaps some seeds as well with the help of my dear princess (wife)....


One good thing is we don't have any chiggers up here.. No fleas.. No ticks..
Just colder weather which we are used to..

Oh yes, We do have black flies and mosquitoes and no see-ums.........
 
Geez, Steve, I'm sorry to hear you are still freezing and dealing with nasty biting bugs.

With that, I'll just say that here the fog is in and will be burning off for another pleasant day . . .
 
This morning just north of us they woke up to 4 cms of snow.. Timmins ....

This morning I swear I saw some snow flakes falling down..
The low tonight is supposed to be -3c...

Please remember this is June 3rd and not March.....

Could someone please tell me when to plant our veggies in the garden ?????
At this rate, I may as well plant snow flowers....
 
Steve said:
This morning just north of us they woke up to 4 cms of snow.. Timmins ....

This morning I swear I saw some snow flakes falling down..
The low tonight is supposed to be -3c...

Please remember this is June 3rd and not March.....

Could someone please tell me when to plant our veggies in the garden ?????
At this rate, I may as well plant snow flowers....
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I feel for ya buddy! Snow in June just doesn't seem right. Rained here this morning, but now the sun is out and the temp is high teens which is how I like it. Not too cold - not too hot. Finally starting to feel like Summer is on the way.
 
Oh, do I need that now. I walked out in the pasture on a spur of the moment yesterday to see how much havoc the electric company was inflicting on the trees they were trimming away from the power lines, and my fence the branches were falling on. Halfway out I knew I was in for it, because I forgot to spray repellant on. Sure enough, those little red B*****'s got me..Aaarrrggghhh!

TWH..once again, thanks for the tip. You have lots of good ideas up your sleeve.

This weather is a gift for this time of year. High 70's to low 80's the last few days...it's actually chilly in the mornings when I go out to feed that pesky crowing 5:30 a.m. rooster. He's putting the Gangsta's, as well as us on his schedule.
 
Jeeze, Steve...Me thinks you may have to give up on that garden, or build a green house. Do you have your plants started in pots, or do you sow directly into the ground?

I'm surprised you have mosquitoes as cool as it is. Maybe yours have adapted to the colder climate. We don't usually see them until it warms up.
 
TWH, thanks so much for the tip on the soap - we sure could use some here, too. I was considering getting some Lava soap, since that did seem to help with itching from mosquito bites, but it is so drying on the skin, I hoped there was something else....I'll be getting some of that now, instead.

Wow, Steve, that is chilly for June...up in MN we finally learned to plant most things June 1st, as planting in May usually resulted in covering things because of frosts. Apparently, this year their gardens are quite late also, because of the rain and cooler weather.

I remember the mosquitoes...warm, humid, cool, didn't matter. Sometimes, literal swarms of them when you stepped out the door in the evening, and you couldn't sit outside without having to swat the darn things. We rarely see any here, and don't miss that at all. Ozarkgal, I'm surprised you have them...are there lakes near you???
 
I was thinking the same thing about a greenhouse or hotbox for steve's "Spring" planting.

Fog and onshore flow has kept things on the cool side, here. Supposed to warm up nicely for the weekend...
 
Well, yesterday we planted some veggies in our raised gardens..
Red onions, tomato seeds, parsnip seeds, broccoli seeds, and radish seeds.....
By planting seeds, we are OK with that as far as the weather goes.. Hopefully NO MORE FROST .....

Today we will try to plant more seeds and on Friday we will be planting some veggie plants..
Enough is Enough !!!!!!!!!

I built some raised gardens because of the soil around here.. Mostly clay and also it is much easier to work in the garden sitting on the edge rather than bending down for hours which we can't do any more....... Also keeps some animals out .... HOPEFULLY !!!!
The raised gardens are built from 2X4's--16feet long..
I cut off 3 feet and made the garden 13 feet X 3 feet X 2 feet high..
Made 2 of them.. I used the log house method .. Overlapping the corners..
Filled them up with rich black soil, compost, and some peat moss....

Good to go for several years.. NO fertilizer or chemicals to make them grow.........
Just good soil and compost (that we make).....
 
Yeah, Steve, raised beds are the way to go. Glad to see you are making compost, too. I am a composting fool! There's just something so magical about . . . making dirt.

Weather here continues the usual June Gloom. Gotta accept it if ya wanna live on the coast. Again, supposed to burn off by midday . . . We shall see...
 
We have one of those big black composters as well as a smaller one.. We compost almost everything except anything with fat..
Used coffee beans mixed with ground egg shells makes for a great fertilizer for the garden..

The weather today was cloudy all day with the occasional shower.. The temp climbed up to a balmy 16c.......
The black flies and the mosquitoes were in full force..
Unfortunately big and healthy and hungry..
 
Another beautiful day here. Forecast is that we will have rain on the weekend, the system hitting Florida will wind it's way up to us by Friday. Prediction is that we will have more hurricanes than every before this year. I'm hoping that because the warm weather has been so slow coming, the ocean will remain cool and keep the winds offshore. Crossing my fingers anyway. We had a wild one in the past that really caused a lot of damage so I'm always prepared now. Whenever I hear there is a hurricane coming I can hear my Grandmother, who is no longer with us but always in my heart, saying "fill up the water buckets and load up the wood box". I usually fill up the bathtub and always make sure I have some wood in the house in case I have to use the fireplace. Boil some eggs and have lots of sandwich meats on hand. Ahhh.... the Atlantic storm season is coming!!
 
Heavy fog hugging the cliffs with a beautiful 22-second overhead southswell finally arriving. Won't last long as they tend to come and go quickly. Dangerous for the clueless as there can be up to 15-20 minutes of no waves with the sea as calm as bathwater. THEN, here they come marching in to clean things out. A lot of people get into serious trouble.
 
Gorgeous here today. Had carpets cleaned yesterday, yay, Stanley steamer, lol. They did a great job, and now I'm cleaning up on furniture, etc. trying to be outside as much as possible, too.

TICA, hope the storms aren't too bad where you are..stay safe!!!
 
Rained really hard yesterday, but the sun is trying to peek through today and the temperature is nice, not too hot and not too cold. Calling for light showers tonight, but for now, it is patio sitting weather.
 
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