I'm jealous of you with lightning bugs! They are so much fun and we never get them.

I don't see them often here at my house but the other night coming home from my nephew's game we saw a ton of them. It was nice seeing them.

You know you live in the Midwest by the grain trucks going by to sell the grain they're emptying out of the bins.

The Farm Report is on TV at something like 4 AM and you have watched it more than once. Gene

We have an old warehouse In the next town over that's been empty for several years that they started tearing down in various places this year. I finally found out it was MFA that bought it. They have some land behind the spot where the grain elevators are and in bumper crop years the grain sat outside. Now one of the buildings can be used for storage. I'm glad they bought it for that. Definitely needed!!

You know you are from the midwest when one day your are mowing with a coat on, then next having a heat stroke, and then when you don't think it could get any worse....lol the grasshoppers, beetle, and horn tomato caterpillar are eating your crops and misquotes, ticks, and chiggers are eating you. Enjoy!

Happ - you make midwestern summers sound so enjoyable.

It's all true though!!

You and your plants gotta be tough to make it here....rofl.

Boy ain't that the truth!! I finally got smart and switched to natives for this one bed and it appears to be paying off. Looks like my liatris is coming up but I won't know for sure it's them til they bloom. Next year the spot next to that bed is getting ripped out and replaced with more natives. Tired of ugly plants along the driveway. Makes me cringe.

Happ,
So true!!

Pepper,
Love liatris! I have tall feathery wild I rescued from a ditch, spicata which is short and pycnostachya, another tall one. All are just starting to bloom.

You know you're from the Midwest when you see grain piles on the side of the road.

You know you're from the Midwest when heavy rains bring heavy amounts of mosquitoes.

I can remember when I was in Viet Nam, on a dare we'd uncover one forearm and count the number of mosquitoes that arrived (and stayed) in 2 minutes. If memory serves me correctly the record was over 70. Gene

Oh my Gene!
I remember letting just one mosquito suck blood when I was a kid, but I won't do that today!

This might just be an upper Midwest thing. When I read about this they did specifically mention WI, MN, SD, ND and IA. There are more teenagers joining polka bands than joining rock-n-roll bands. Gene

We went to a Polka Fest long ago not too far from here!!

For years there was an AM station here that only played Polka music 24 hours a day. Gene