Month: July 2026

My sister in law’s place saw the most out of the tornado experience, what with the downed trees, severed limbs, tipped over flower planter, and some shingle damage to their garage roof. Nothing a chainsaw and some roofing nails couldn’t fix in an afternoon.

They do back onto a farm so they can dump the brush & debris from the trees over the back of their yard, so it isn’t a big ordeal to clean up after the storm. A few hours buzzing with a saw, maybe some time spent with loppers and it’ll be all squared away without too much fuss. Maybe they bring home a few shingles from the cottage at some point to patch the garage roof, but otherwise it’s small potatoes.

Luckily I did get the lawn cut yesterday before the heavens opened up and we had all three heavy downpours, plus the tornado that luckily skirted us by about 5 Km. There are now standing pools of water in the corn fields, so that should technically soak into the ground over a period of time and not just evaporate away. Seems like cloud burst activity because these downpours don’t last very long, but having at least three successive bouts should allow for some of it to penetrate the ground. One would hope. I know the sun came out immediately afterward each time yesterday and the roads dried out extremely quickly. Only the shaded parts of the road, or the potholes would hint that we’d had any rain.

The storms did nothing for the humidity though. Woah baby, it’s still nasty outside. Like breathing soup. The air has a thickness to it out here right now. Not ideal. It was unpleasant trying to cut the grass while sunny, hot and humid yesterday. I was going to wait, but realized that wasn’t really going to work. I had to drink some fluids then head outside into the swampy air and just get it done. 75 minutes later I was indoors squinting through sweat stained eyes as I washed my head off in the sink just so that I could see. Not long after the rains came. And the tornado that didn’t even trigger a siren, or a cell phone alert. Nothing. Just POW! Here, and gone in a few heartbeats. Glad nothing major happened this go around.

I’ve got a work project I need to square away today. I’m trying to hear myself up to start it now, instead of tomorrow, or Monday morning for that matter. I feel tired. This humidity is sucking all the fun out of being outside.

It’s been scorching hot out there these last few days, and the heavy rains we got did not extend down to the farm, so that’s not cool. But still the local flora persists. At least for now. It was slightly over 100°F yesterday, and is building towards it again today. Actually it has been pretty damn near 38°C/100°F for the last four or five days straight, and the ground is drying up soon to be taking whatever is planted in it with it. So looks like we will be moving hoses, springers, and jets of water all over the farm until we get a full inch or more of rain every seven days until it’s time to harvest stuff for the Markham Fair. The rains in September/October are too late to be of much help. We need it to come in July & August. Just one good long 24 hour downpour every seven to ten days would be fantastic.

There really wasn’t much of a reprieve from the heat even as the sun was setting. I think it was only two or three degrees cooler by eight o’clock than it had been at mid day which is wild. I know intellectually that the dog needed the run, and a chance to be out in the open chasing squirrels and such, but it was so hot, so humid that it feels dangerous to go exert ourselves when it’s this warm. Summer only just started a week ago, pretty much, and we are in the danger zone for temperatures, and dryness all ready. Going to be a long dry, dusty summer me thinks.

If it rains up north then the rivers and creeks will remain open which is good, but soon the north will be ablaze in forest fires, and that awful orange day glow will come back, along with the stench of acetone from the BOC’s degrading in the UV light of our atmosphere. It’s not a good thing for our eyes or lungs, or nature as a whole. Scary times.

It’s Friday July 3rd, so you should all try to make it to Monday with all ten fingers & toes if you can. We all know the southern neighbours go apeshit for the fourth of July.

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.