The weather all this year has been the strangest in my memory. We had a rather mild winter & the wettest spring I can recollect. The snow & cold weather let up around thhe middle of May then the rain came. Couldn't get the ground dry enough to work up for planting a garden. Farmers couldn't plant corn or soybeans , a few set tobacco in muddy ground but it wouldn't grow. Corn & soybeans were in the ground late & didn't grow very good. Most farmers have quit the tobacco business & gone to corn & soybeans for cash crops. None are equipped to harvest beans & hire travelling crews to do it. .......To make matters worse, now we're having hot, dry weather that's stunting all crops.  The only tobacco crop within 20 miles was only about waist high with bottom leaves turning yellow & falling off. That crop has been cut & housed early. He didn't get half a crop this year. .......Downstate in counties like Lincoln & Casey counties things were a bit better. There is a lot of Amish & Mennonites in that area. Amish are gardeners but Mennonites  are farmers. The Amish don't use tractors & machinery but Mennonites do. The Mennonites lease or rent unused old farms. clear brush growing in the old fields & use weed & brush killer. Usually they own a dairy herd & dump the manure in large concrete holding tanks and use it for fertilizer on the fields instead of chemical fertilizer. You won't find any weeds in their fields. I'll attach a picture of a bit of the Mennonites  beans adjoining my sister's property. They're waist high & only a fraction of the beans they raise. Other farmers can take a lesson from Mennonites. .........Paul H

The same thing here except a day earlier. My beans got slopped in on the 16th of June and all things considered. look good!

Well, here it is October 7th and the weather seems to be changing a bit finally. Normally we have cooler weather in Sept. and frost by the end of that month with leaves turning.  That still hasn't happened here. Leaves haven't changed color noticably yet. Everything is still green except the lawns. Dry,hot weather has dried the grass up.  Yesterday we had some light rain during the morning with heavy rain in  the evening. Light rain most of the night and still light rain now at 11;30 EDT. Too late for farmers now. Weeds have gone to seed but mast crops are dismal. Hickory nuts and acorns are still "green" but walnuts are just beginning to ripen. The resident squirrels are just beginning to cut on walnuts but ignore the hickories. Dogwood berries are ripening but squirrels aren't cutting them either. A few woodpeckers are testing them. The usual starlings aren't bothering them at all. .......Farmers are cutting corn now. I suppose for silage. Sure been a dismal summer for the most part. .......Paul H