Hottest Year on Record!

The seasons here in the Midwest can whipsaw you with its extremes, but like most places in the last ten years, what that looks like is undergoing massive change. This spring was very cool and rainy which is not typical for us. Usually spring lasts a few short weeks at best and then we’re catapulted into summer without much of a getting-to-know-you honeymoon period. The heat and humidity is oppresssive come July and August zapping your energy, your patience, and your ability to do anything outside. Coupled with that the thunderstorms seem to be more intense and damaging than at any other time that I’ve lived here. The trees are repeatedly sending out an SOS call. “They’re getting old,” I keep hearing, “they’re at the end of their life span,” and I don’t buy that at all. While some are weakened due to disease there are others that seem healthy until one day you’re walking in the neighborhood and a giant limb is laying in somebody’s yard. It happened last month in our front yard and it…