What Happened To Summer?

Every year for the last 4 or 5 years, here in the North Georgia Mountains, we have had the same weather patterns pretty consistently.  We have had wet winters and springs and very dry summers and falls.  The summers and falls had so little rainfall, it put us in several years of severe drought.   I would plant our gardens in the spring and even with watering them well, many plants would just dry up and blow away.  It was just to hot and dry.  I had many years that the fields got so dry the ground had cracks in it as wide as my little finger.  I had to buy hay in the summer to feed the livestock those years.

What a huge change this year!  We never had a normal Georgia summer this year here.  We never had days that were so hot that when you walked outside you melted and humidity was so thick you almost could not breath.  The weather has been for the most part spring like with an over load of regular weekly rain.  I think I had to water my garden a whole two times this year.  The picture above I just took this week.  Everything is still so green from all the regular rain we have gotten.  The temperatures have been much, much cooler than normal.

I went outside to milk my goats this morning and realized I should have put on a light jacket????  It was downright chilly! Of course we had to bottle feed a few little ones that were crying for their breakfast.

The kids and I spent the whole morning outside doing yard work today.  It was so nice I just could not keep them cooped up in the house doing home schooling.  We picked tomatoes, peppers and green beans.  Here is just a fraction of what we picked today.  I often run out of places to put it all.  :)  We are so blessed!

We cleaned out garden beds of the plants that were done producing for the year.  Like the squash plants.  I started preparing those raised beds for fall plantings.  The weather was so mild that when the kids were done helping me they went up on the hill and cleaned out the chicken coop.   

Usually it is to hot to do something like that.  But William, Carolyn and Zeke had it done in hardly any time at all.  We had all that done by lunch!

I then made a small batch of chili sauce with some of the tomatoes and peppers we had picked.  Yum! The whole house smelled just amazing from it.

The one thing that worries me a bit about the weather this year is we have also had such mild winters the last many years.  So if the weather patterns have changed so much this year for summer……they might be totally changed for winter as well.  We might be in for a doozey of a winter this year.  We haven’t had a good snow or ice storm in years.   The weak branches in trees have not been cleared out by one in a long time.  If we were to have one I believe we would have some serious power outages  from downed power lines. 

This is about as deep and thick as it gets once or twice a winter every few years or so.  We usually get a dusting every few years too.  But that's about it for where we are located and usually it is gone by the next day.  So when it happens the kids get very excited.  These pictures were taken I think around 2009.

Just to be on the safe side I am going to stock up on things we might need this fall for some winter power outage scenarios.  We do have a wood stove we heat with in winter.  We can also cook on it.  So if that did happen it would not be so very bad.  But never the less something to think about and plan for just in case.  I know God will be with us and protect us thru anything that comes our way.  God is so good!

I told the kids this morning with such chilly nights, as we have been having, the pool water temperature is going to drop quickly.  So to get out there and enjoy swimming as much as possible.  They jumped right on it with no fuss!  We had a long fun day and Elizabeth was asleep way before 8:00 pm!

Genesis 8:22  While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

 

May the Lord God of Israel, lead, guide and help you as you prepare and gear up for fall. May He bless your remaining days of this summer, helping you enjoy and make the most of each moment. 

Blessings,

susan