Texas Heat!

[Haoleguy]

As far as the beetle is concerned it looked like a sawyer beetle to me but I could not find one in Texas that looks like the photo. Take a look through the following entomology site .... Texas Entomology . Last year my watermelons would easily crack when I put in a knife to cut them. Seemed like water pressure to me. Reminds me of the exploding Chinese watermelons ...... Exploding watermelons put spotlight on Chinese farming practices | Environment | The Guardian .

 

[jinman]

BTW. anyone know what this bug is?

I believe it is some type of ground beetle. If so, it is a good guy and eats other harmful insects.

 

[jinman]

When you ask about the watermelons cracking, is that after a rain or just cracking while growing? I have had some crack in the past because they were traumatized by deer or other wildlife. I swear I think coyotes eat them too. Could just be coons though.

It's impossibe to find pictures/movies of coyotes eating melons. If you pick them and make a buffet for them, then they probably smell your scent and stay away. If you set up a camera in the field, you gotta be a good guesser to get them on camera because most melon fields are huge. That's my theory why you don't see good photos or movies. However, I have seen many piles of scat with melon, plum, and other seeds. A Google search showed that they eat pumpkins too. I would love to watch a coyote biting and busting open a melon, but alas! The photos just don't seem to exist.

 

[Haoleguy]

We just put a plantcam in our garden to monitor plant growth over the summer and pick up on any intruders. Its waterproof and can take many pictures or generate a movie from pics. It's similar to what hunters use to monitor animal movement. That should bust any watermelon, pumpkin eating coyote.

 

[Western]

Jim,
There is pictures, but they are at "area 51".

When I was a kid, my like aged uncles ,my brother and I, would fish the creek bottoms, sometime for the whole weekend. Camping and moving down the creek, was a blast. There was a large field about a mile or so, that was only about 100 yards form the creek.
Most years it was 80% watermelon and the rest was cantaloupe. We would always grab a couple of both and put them in the creek to chill. I found out years later, that the farmer would go by my grandfathers house and (we all lived there on the farm) my grandfather gave him chicken eggs for payment of the melons. We never knew we "was found out" and did this for years.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I'm dressing out chickens this afternoon, 2 so far, going to do 1 or 2 more.

It's one hot sucker out there. We get a small shower, then it heats up even more. I am coming in and cooling off in between.

DH is finishing out insulating a small area in the garage ceiling the whole garage is insulated, has plywood up and now can be heated or cooled with little effort. He has to put plywood up there too. He had left that 5 X 10 ft area open to do some wiring and plumbing but that's all done. He is also putting me up a new ceiling fan and light over my laundry sink and countertop out there.

BJ our dog has his igloo house in there, in winter now a small heater will keep him warm when it gets in the 20's.

Ok back at it, hope to get 1 or 2 more done today.

 

[jinman]

At Carolyn's house, you don't have to scald your chickens before you pluck 'em. It's so hot and humid, you just tie their feet together and throw 'em over the clothesline for a few minutes.:laughing:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

It's about that bad. DH, got a kick out of that.

He is supposed to work at the equator, he said won't be much difference then when he was in Vietnam or Houston!

I told him today, I feel like a lost soul. I don't know of any women around that likes to do what I do. He can find more guys that are somewhat like him but maybe those ladies are just to old and not on the net. I hope he is with me a long long time and we are very much alike in what we like to do.

 

[R_Walter]

Heat Shock - when one boards an Air Force HOP at Elmendorf AFB Anchorage temp. 48ｰF and raining. Fly 11 hours nonstop to Hill AFB Ogden UT and step off the plane into an atmosphere of 107ｰF as the sun sets over the Great Salt Lake. Long sleeve Khaki didn't do me any favors either. OH, but it was a dry heat.:laughing:

I just flew from Anc to Slc commercial in 4hrs, 50 minutes. What kind of USAF hop are you talking about?

 

[Bartcephus]

Well, I just can't do it.... poison watermelons. Just too much risk to try. I'd rather guard them with my trusty rifles and spray them with lead than take the risk that we might pick up some tainted melon.

My tomatoes at the lease garden are dying again. Just not enough rain. All my squash (both gardens) are expired. The bugs at the lease garden have moved to the tomatoes. Just like the thread started... PIB But next year is going to be great!

 

[Bird]

Well, I just can't do it.... poison watermelons. Just too much risk to try. I'd rather guard them with my trusty rifles and spray them with lead than take the risk that we might pick up some tainted melon.

My tomatoes at the lease garden are dying again. Just not enough rain. All my squash (both gardens) are expired. The bugs at the lease garden have moved to the tomatoes. Just like the thread started... PIB But next year is going to be great!

I agree that I wouldn't poison the watermelons, and the only time I heard of it was in the early '50s. And of course a story in a newspaper is no guarantee it was actually done.:laughing:

 

[jinman]

But next year is going to be great!

Next year? You can call it your Cowboys garden.:laughing:

 

[NativeSon]

Next year? You can call it your Cowboys garden.:laughing:

That's a good one Jim.....at least now we have the Mavericks and the Rangers.

Charlie

 

[Western]

He is supposed to work at the equator, he said won't be much difference then when he was in Vietnam or Houston!

Probably the same heat and humidity, but in Houston, most of the "leeches" are in the metro:laughing:

99-100 degrees here for the next week, so back to the grind stone. The humidity is sure setting in after that rain, just gets awe-full around 8-9am, but at least it is leaving quite a bit of dew.

 

[Western]

The next week or 2 looks like normal to hot. According to the news, the only place that's not in a drought condition is the D/FW metro-mess and a small portion N.E. of there, weatherman say's that will change over the next week.

Seems as bad as I remember the summer of 1980, just a few degrees cooler.

 

[jinman]

According to the news, the only place that's not in a drought condition is the D/FW metro-mess and a small portion N.E. of there, weatherman say's that will change over the next week.

Seems as bad as I remember the summer of 1980, just a few degrees cooler.

Dennis, you and I are watching the same weather report. It seems some lakes are actually above normal. After our last rain, my best pond is full and actually overflowed a tiny bit. The ground will dry out, but my ponds and lake are in great shape. Stay tuned to see if I say the same thing in mid-August.:confused3:

 

[Western]

Jim your probably right, same news. See lake Whitney?, 12' low!

I hope my well doesn't go dry, that's allot of water hose to your pond!!!:thumbsup:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I cleaned out the chicken house, just got through, heck its only 100 right now, and the humidity is only 39% so a walk in the park. Didn't even work up a good sweat.

Think I will whip up a batch of whole wheat bread, gotta' go grind the wheat.

Later

Will use some with my peach jam.

 

[Bird]

When I was a kid, I'd clean out the chicken house just to get to use the tractor. We had an old trailer I'd hook to the tractor and back it up to the chicken house door, load the trailer, take it to the garden and spread it, then go down by the creek and load sand on the trailer and go back and spread the sand in the bottom of the chicken house.:laughing:

My current 81 year old next door neighbor has one old Rhode Island Red hen in a pretty big pen out back and she still lays an egg nearly every day. But he has a son that only lives a mile or so from here and the son has a dozen hens. So he brought me 2 dozen brown eggs yesterday evening.

 

[Western]

News said we are at #6 for record years with consecutive 100 degree day's and likely will move in on the record.

I know I am strongly considering installing a simple sprinkler system, I have a very small yard on purpose since we wanted as much "woods/wildlife" as possible, but even my native areas are going the way of the buffalo!

Shoot, I have even been watering the cactus and it is amazing how that arid plant is feeling the "heat"!