Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Hearing the corn grow........


It is an old saying from generations back that  describes one can hear the corn grow.  I suppose on a real quiet day or night that the corn still has sound, but heat and humidity is what the corn loves for growing conditions.  It is like a giant grass plant as it shoots our from it's base. It actually cooled down to 73 degrees Monday night but we are up to 80 degrees at 9:00 in the morning.

I am taking this photo next to our convenience store filling station.  I assume the property line is right at the line of where the corn is growing and the mowed area is what is owned by the Casey's Store.  It is funny but a fence would probably cause the farmer to loose one row or two rows of corn so they just don't bother to put one up.  One really can't tell from the photo as there is no frame of reference but this corn a month ago was probably three inches tall or more and now is almost six foot.  The tassels are showing but also if  you look closely you can see some of the leaves are being affected by the heat.  There is a word for that but I am not pulling it out of my brain right now.


Having over a week and a half of this hot weather is really not unusual for Iowa but we were blessed the last few years by not having it.  It is this time with the hot temperatures that remind me of how I want to throw in the towel in raising any petunias or other nursery plants as they just won't survive. In 1936 Iowa had 27 straight days of this type of weather and they of course lost all of the crops. 

These photos show plants that are good for this weather as they are actually prairie plants.  The Brown Eyed Susan is tough and so it is the coneflower shown below with it's tough looking attitude. 


Coneflowers blooms each have a personality of their own.  The heat makes their petals fall back sooner than when there is cooler weather.  I like how it keeps coming back each year.  I have planted coneflowers at the back door of my parents home and my mom didn't like it's foliage and I don't think she really ever said that she like the flowers.  But it is a great plant with low up keep.

Our house sale seems to be crumbling under our feet.  I have two sons the same age of this couple and I am amazed at what this couple expect in this world.  They want a very nice house, which it is but it is suppose to be in perfect shape when you buy it.  I don't think either of my sons thought that when they bought theirs and both of them did a lot of remodeling on theirs after the sale.  I have lowered the price farther than I wanted to and I now realize that they just can't afford it.  They don't want to make a sacrifice for this house, but they think that I should for the sake of their family.  I will have one more serious talk with the guy this morning.  I will drop it a couple of thou and then if they don't bite and give me a response by Thursday then I will go see a realtor and let them take over the task of selling the house.

In our country, Americans don't bargain and wear the seller down until they get what they want while keeping a house off of the market. I say no more on the subject.

I am still under the weather but I am seeing great strides of improvement in my health.  I shouldn't be giving you the daily sniffle report, but this 87 percent humidity really did set me back physically.  It is even hard on healthy lungs to be outside.  My yard is a ragged mess but as it turns drier each day it doesn't seem necessary to mow it especially when it is loosing it's green color.

Have a good day and thanks for being around and checking in on me............I hope you all are doing well.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the unreasonable expectations of the potential buyer. It is one thing to negotiate but to continue to ask you to make sacrifices for them and their family and not be willing to expend any work/effort themselves is ridiculous. I pray that they come to realize that you are trying hard to make this work for them and that they be willing to make concessions on their "want" list. The important thing is that you have an interested party and I do hope your talk makes an impact; otherwise, I can't blame you for moving on.
Take care in this extreme heat and hope you feel better soon.

Gary said...

Larry,

I must just be “Old School”, I thought (and have) bought a house for the features you really like, knowing that you will be changing the ones you don’t. I admire you working with this couple but it sounds like they would not be happy if you gave them the house. – gary

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Larry, first, sorry you're not feeling well and hope you're better soon. Second, this couple seems very unreasonable in wanting things their way, maybe parting ways would be best for everyone.

Far Side of Fifty said...

I hope you can reach an agreement with the buyer. You have lots of time and effort into that house..
I hope you are feeling better. Gosh it has been stinking hot..no fun:(