The Heat is On

Happy Friday Company Girls and Other Beloved Readers!

I hope you all are gearing up for a fabulous 4th of July weekend! I can already smell the burgers, dogs and fireworks! We won't be partaking in the festivities this year because I have been hired to shoot a wedding with a wonderful photographer here in town, but I guess making a little $$ and participating in one of the best days in a couple's lives is well worth the trade. ;) Hopefully Hubby will find something fun for he and the boys to do in my absence.

Things are beginning to get busy here. I thought summer time was for rest and relaxation?? Oh well! I had a wonderful family photo session this morning and as mentioned earlier I have a wedding tomorrow night. Then next week I am traveling to Houston to do a maternity session, and the beginning of the week after that I have a newborn session to shoot! whew! I am exhausted just thinking about it - but so excited of course! I also have 2 sets of twins coming in the next couple of months to photograph and several senior sessions as well. I am so thankful that things are looking up because we really need the money. I am blessed to have a profession that I absolutely love and the more I book, the happier I get!

My session this morning was so fun! We met out at a park near downtown - it is a historic property that is home to beautiful ponds, old stone walls and walkways, beautiful greenery, trees and lawns and also a very large number of free roaming peacocks!
The peacocks are beautiful of course! Have you ever heard a peacock though? Uh, well it is quite shocking the first time you hear it - especially if you happen to be less than a couple of feet from one like I was this morning. It's something like the cross between a baby cry, a kid yelling "help" and a very sick cat. Yeah, I think that is pretty accurate.

We got to the park pretty early and the first few minutes were very nice. But then the heat started kicking in. Oh mercy the HEAT! It was so humid I was absolutely, literally soaked through my clothes by the time we were done. I have never sweat so much - I actually weighed a pound less when I got home! Those poor kids - they were soooo good putting up with the heat. I was so very proud of them!

This heat is just unbearable right now. We've had a couple of weeks of 100+ temps every day except for a couple days this week when it rained. I have never been more thankful for the rain. The heat has really made a mess of my garden - I simply can't water enough to keep it going right now. I pulled all of the zucchini and corn this week. (sadness) They just weren't producing and the squash bugs were taking over everything. I was going to leave one plant that had one last zucchini on it, and I noticed a spot where something had bored into the stem. I pushed back the debris and saw what looked like 10-20 baby squash bug larva squirming around. I just yanked the whole plant and tried not to cry.

So I am concentrating my efforts (and my water) on the tomatoes, the beans (which aren't producing either thanks to the heat) the peppers and the new black beans and lima beans. The herbs are doing fine - the basil is I think now my prized plant. I love it's fullness and beauty and ahhh the scent! I swear I could make a perfume from the crushed leaves. I love the smell of my hands after I pick some - heavenly!

The water needed to maintain them though - oiy! I am so scared to see my water bill this month. I have recently implemented a new plan for water conservation though. I have been collecting milk jugs and trying to salvage every little bit of water I can. I collect all the left over water from drinking glasses in the house and save the cooking water from cooking vegetables. In stead of soaking dirty dishes in the sink and then scrubbing and rinsing them under running water before putting them in the dishwasher, I scrub them in the soaking water and put them in the dishwasher from there. And, instead of filling up the sink with water and putting dishes in to soak, I put the dishes in first and fill the sink with the water that runs throughout the day when I wash my hands or rinse something off. If I need to rinse something (like maybe strawberries) I put some water in a small bowl and rinse the item, then put the rinse water in my collection bucket. When I filled up the kiddie pool for the boys last week, all of that water went to my garden as well. I am collecting all I can to reuse and turning off the water anytime I can as well. And when I do turn it on, I don't put it on full blast like I used to. Most things can be done just as well with the water on only half way.

In an effort to combat my gas bill too I am not using as much hot water either. I have cut my showers down by about 5 minutes and opt to shave my legs in the sink with just a little bit of water held by the drain plug.

I don't know how much it's helping, but it has to be making some sort of difference, right? I am collecting anywhere from 2-4 gallons a day just in the kitchen. The other things I am doing have to be conserving some as well. Of course, I am watering the garden every day now so I am sure I am still going to cry when I get my water bill.

Do you have any other ideas on water conservation? I would love to know your thoughts!

Have a wonderful, blessed weekend! And thanks for stopping by!

Until,
D :)