NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — July has come and gone and we didn’t mind to see the hot month go. August weather started out much the same but, fortunately, we had a little break in the heat over the weekend.

A thunderstorm that blew up Saturday night didn’t provide much moisture but did bring a welcome drop in temperatures. Our neighbors at nearby Sulphur Springs didn’t really appreciate the high winds that came along with the storm. About half the trees in their lovely park suffered damage.

It’s still hot enough to make outdoor activities unpleasant. Football practice has started at area schools, and I feel for the fellows who have to get out and do drills in the heat. We’re looking forward to cooler weather and the start of football season in about a month. For now, our involvement in sports consists of sitting in the air conditioning and watching lots of Olympic coverage. I was tickled to see more of the equestrian events, one of my favorite parts of thecompetition, Sunday afternoon.

In the last few days, we haven’t seen the doe which has been visiting our backyard, but we know the hot weather continues to stress local wildlife. When I saw a deer that had been hit by a vehicle south of town Wednesday evening, I called our local game ranger. He informed me we have such an overpopulation of deer in the county now that Game and Fish staff are no longer recording such road kills. Sounds as if he’s anticipating hunting season this fall and hoping hunters will thin deer numbers somewhat.

When the weather does cool in a few weeks, we have several limbs to burn. We’ve accumulatedquite a brush pile during the burn ban. I also hope to make more visits to Gravette’s wildlife observation trail. Flip Putthoff, outdoors writer for the Benton County Daily Record, had an excellent article on the trail in Thursday’s issue of the paper, good publicity for our town. I recently started my Arkansas birding checklist, and Putthoff mentioned several species I haven’t recorded. I should be able to add to my list there.

A Hiwasse native now living in Minnesota has returned to Arkansas for an upcoming reunion. She told me last week she enjoyed my column because food is quite different in her adopted state. She said she liked it when I wrote about our Southern foods “like beans and cornbread and black-eyed peas.” During the summer though, sandwiches and salads seem to highlight themenu. I joined friends from Sulphur at the Senior Center Thursday for a tasty meal of Reuben sandwiches, spinach salad, cucumber/onion salad and cantaloupe.

A lady I met Saturday said she and her husband were not tolerating the heat well because they normally spend the summer months in Alaska. She admitted they were having lots of cold sandwiches and eating lots of watermelon to stay hydrated. Last week we again enjoyed one of our favorite sandwiches, the BLT. No need to heat up the kitchen except to fry the bacon!

Saturday morning I drove to Decatur and bought barbecue chickendinners for our supper that evening.

Early in the week I made a pasta salad and added tuna for a quick, nutritious main dish.

Desserts can be equally as easy. Although July, National Ice Cream Month, is over, an old Ladies Home Journal still recommends this ever-popular end to a meal. Our favorites are all-natural frozen fruit bars, very refreshing! And I enjoy making s’mores in the microwave. Just honey grahams, a Hershey chocolate bar and a few Stackermallows - zap it and you’re done!

Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 08/08/2012