Month: July 2026

Serves me right for trying to beat the heat with an early morning walk, only to find it 36°C already, and the humidex above 65%. Not the environmental conditions I was hoping to find before 9:00 am, but here we are. Dogs got to stretch their legs and splash about in the river, but the overbearing heat kept things fairly light & airy between the two mutts. No big wrestling matches, not games of tag, nor follow the leader around the orchard. Just killing tongues and so much panting!

I somehow or other managed to pick up a five inch long twig that jammed itself up the tactical strap of my Crocs to run the inside of my heel/ankle and cut me until I bled. Thanks but no thanks. Itched the whole time we were walking around the woods. Cool. So that happened. Not a major upset, more of an annoyance.

So here we are, Thursday, the day after the holiday and I need to sort out a time to cut out grass. I don’t wish to do it under the full sun, so it looks like I start it around 7pm tonight, or I wake up early (yeah right!) tomorrow and cut it just after seven o’clock in the morning. I’d rather have it done than looming on my to-do list, so odds are tonight’s the night for that. I have twigs to tangle up off the grass too. No matter how many I snip out of the trees there’s always more after a storm waiting to get cleaned up. Brittle twigs are the bane of my lawn cutting career. Well, that and mowers/equipment that won’t start or run smoothly. That sucks too. Not going to lie.

Stay well in all of this unforgiving heat. My one brother in Ottawa is dealing with flooding, while we are counting every millilitre of rain that falls between the farm in Markham and the other bits located in Port Perry. Never seems to rain everywhere all at once. Always a wide variation geographically with the water distribution from the skies above.

I used the dehumidifier to water my fruit trees yesterday. The trap went off and I emptied it over all four little guys just trying to stay alive under these grueling conditions. I need to check the levels on the rain barrel. I have it out of direct sunlight for the majority of every day, so I hope to limit evaporation by having done so. We’ll see how that plays out.

Wish I’d have thought to try an capture some of the lightning last night because it was bright and extremely loud. Made everything shake as the strikes got closer to us. The initial sparks were many, many miles off, but within only a few minutes the flash and the boom were nearly instantaneous directly overhead or just across the way. Devastating to anyone or anything that got in the path of least resistance. The dog and the children didn’t care for it at all. I would just like to see if it has done anything to curb the heat or humidity. Given the forecast I don’t believe the storm has offered us a reprieve just yet. Two more storm days are coming on Friday and Saturday — apparently. Felt as though we got two or more inches of rain in the downpour though, so that’s good news. Slightly less afraid of major fires spreading with a good few inches of rain soaking through everything in sight.

Today is July 1st, or as we know it Canada Day! I of course have not set myself up with anything red. I’ve gotten too fat for my TFC jerseys, and my Team Canada rugby jersey is too heavy for this heat & humidity. I think I donated just about all of my red T-shirts because they were too small, or they just didn’t suit me at all. Red makes my eyes look blood shit and inflamed. I prefer blue or green personally. I have white tees, so I can do a partial Canadian Flag ensemble. Oh well, Oh Canada!

So I believe today is now Wednesday, or Hump Day! Just about everybody in the country should be off work and relaxing, so that’s cool. I was expecting to work today, but I won’t be upset about having time to be with my wife and kids. The oldest will be a teen soon enough. And will be sick of us before you know it. I’m sure the youngest will follow suit, just to be extra funny. It’s a new era we’re  entering. pretty quickly at that. We have really good kids, so we will have to learn to ride it out, and coach more so than parent once they start building some independence. Which means more spousal date nights and adventures for us sans kids. Whoop-whoop! I like it. I mean I’ll miss the little toads, but I like spending time with my wife.

I guess we should go inspect the storms aftermath to see if we had any damages, download limbs, or lightning strikes on the ground or trees nearby. Hopefully it is just the usual twigs that were shaken out of the tree tops. I have a pretty sizeable pile of twigs from just that all ready this season!

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians young and old, or brand new to the country. Keep all your fingers by not being an idiot with fireworks! Don’t burn down your house with sparklers and misfired roman candles. Take care out there.