Hell's Front Porch right now here in Texas. We're going to break some kind of heat record again this year. In 2011 there were 72 days over 100^o; in 1980 there were something like 42 in a row. This May was really hot, June was very hot, and every day in July so far has been over 100^o.

Time really crawls when it's so miserable out there. It creates a drought so you have to be very careful how you use water, but you have to use enough, like watering around the base of the house, to keep the foundation from cracking or making existing problems worse. The yard fries. Lots of mulch and a timed sprinkler in the vegetable garden, but the tomatoes don't set when it's this hot and there isn't much out there other than a couple of eggplants and a couple of peppers.

I have a shower on my back porch (a private area that faces the woods) and it is a nice thing to shower after dark out there, but mostly, it's just a misery.