Been hot here too but expect it to break soon.
Got in the mood to cut yesterday when I was working for some people where I have cut osage years ago. Would like to look the trees over again more closely and try to find maybe some snakey staves or better straight ones as I think I now know more what to look for. They have fence row after fence row of osage!!!
Also they have a wet area where the trees are groing and hope for maybe thicker rings??
I never take the bark off right away...I leave it on till it is dry and I'm ready to make a bow!!