Pray For Our Farmers — By Tommy Purser

I’m looking forward to the rest of this week because, if the weather reports are accurate, we’re in for some rain and cooler temperatures.

The temperatures in May and the early days of June felt more like July and August. And if July and August are, as usual, hotter than May, we’re in for some absolutely scorching heat in a couple of months.

I’ve tried working outside over the past week but I don’t last long. While I understand that my age has a lot to do with it, the extreme heat certainly has been a contributing factor.

Through it all, I’ve managed to keep my lawn, shrubbery, flowers, garden, etc., relatively lushly green. But my water bill will more than likely hit an all time high.

But that’s okay. The good wife and I have worked too hard to get our yard to its present state and the higher bill, to me at least, is worth it to keep it that way.

Besides, I had eight trees cut down in my yard over the winter and had the stumps ground down as well. With all that heavy machinery running back and forth, and twisting and turning on my hard-fought-for-grass, I have to run my sprinkler system. The water is essential to giving my St. Augustine grass the moisture it needs to spread its tentacles to start covering the huge spaces of emptiness left by the machinery.

But my problems are small potatoes compared to how this drought and the heat have decimated farm crops in the county. Not to mention that prices for agricultural products are already taking huge hits because of the trade war, tariffs and a replaced NAFTA agreement that did absolutely nothing to help our area’s blueberry farmers.

Our farmer neighbors are taking some huge hits. They’re a resilient bunch but they can stand just so much bad weather and farmer-unfriendly government actions before something has to give.

I’ll be praying for them.