After a very long, cool, rainy, wet spring, summer hit us with everything expected: bugs, fast growing grass, faster growing weeds, heat, humidity, thunderstorms, mowing, and more heat, humidity and bugs. The mosquitoes we were used to in the city have been mostly traded here in the country for biting flies, which have left me with tiny bleeding wounds on my legs and arms if I forget to spray myself down with repellent when I go out into the acreage. We have gone through two containers of weed killer spray so far and are trying a homemade brew that is not working so well yet. We planted a garden of tomatoes, peppers, green beans and cauliflower. The green bean seeds were old, leftover from previous gardening in the city, and did not sprout. The little cauliflower plants I bought two for a dollar survived for a week. They just disappeared, so I don’t know if it was bugs, critters or disease that got them. The tomato plants are doing well, and the pepper plants are full of blooms and tiny peppers. The rain this spring and early summer has been epic for Iowa and the Midwest of America in general. This last year has been the wettest here since 1895. Now with June giving way to July the heat has ramped up, with temps reaching the low 90’s Fahrenheit. Combined with high humidity it makes for some soupy days and nights. Still, all in all, I will take a hot, humid summer day over a freezing winter blizzard any time.