too much sunshine and warmth; worry about the corn.

Been two or three weeks since we got any rain at all; temps in the 80s to 90s in the day, 70 at night.  for here that's an intense heatwave -- With little or no snowpack this winter, rivers are running at the lowest levels that have been seen in nearely a century, wtih several local rivers running at the lowest flows ever recorded.

Cliff Mass, a meteorology professor at ther University of Washington says that this is what the weather in this area of the country will be like regularly in 2070; I don't know about 2070, but it sure does remind me of the weather that I grew up with in southern and northern california.

corn in "new bottom" field.  Doing great.  No weeds, no herbicides.  so far so good

 So the lack of rain has surpressed the weeds in the corn field, but two weeks into this, I'm starting to worry about the corn.  There's still moisture in the ground, but I'm guessing that it's not growing as fast as it would with more water.  for these fields I don't have any way to irrigate them, so I'm "dryland" farming them -- which for western washington is roughly equivalent to irrigated acres most years, but for the last few weeks it's been truely dry.

Corn in lower field.  Looks good.  

I planted this cron in 30" rows, 9" in the row, and that's usually fine for this climate; but with a long dry spell most of the internet seems to think that spacing a little further apart works better, and is more drought-resistant.  I'm noting it, and watching the corn for now.

All this sun does make wonderful hay, though.  Perfect hay.   Put another 900 bales into the barn; so the running total for this year is 2100 bales.  If I get another 1600 bales I'll be done with a surplus for this coming winter.  Two more cuttings and with the weather the way it is, and able to irrigate out of the manure lagoon, should be able to get it done.