Weather

Looking West Across My 'Yard'

The weather is stifling. Its unbearably hot, and its terribly dry. The temperatures have been in the upper 90s, with some triple digits. Indexes are upwards of 106.

I keep doing everything I can to help the 'old folks' survive, as they are the ones I worry the most about. I have several 'old folks' around here--Ariel the collie, many elderly chickens, some older sheep. I use some fans on the dogs and chickens when I'm home. You can see in the above photo, just barely, towards the back right hand side, the umbrella I bought and put up over Eddie and Sue (chickens). My Mom found a fan that works off batteries so we are trying that on them during the worst of the day.

When I get home, the sun is burning in from west and most of the place is exposed since the big Mulberry went down in the Ice Storm. It is like an oven to even walk outside. The first thing I do when I get home, is fix Eddie and Sue some refrigerated tomato or some other type of cold scraps, and take that and a tray of ice cubes out there. I have to chase Sue around to get her up in their pen, then I fill their water with the ice cubes and turn the fan on them. Then I turn on the box fan for Ariel and let Boone out of his pen to explore the yard or lay in front of the fan, whatever he decides (but it usually involves wading in his two kiddie pools!). I do a quick survey to make sure everyone (Chickens, sheep) look okay, and open the door to the big chicken house to let it air out. By then, after being in the air conditioner all day, I'm toast. I haven't been doing too much outside in the evenings. It seems to just take all the time and gumption I have to water everything and get ready for the next day.

Sure am praying for some rain (six weeks since our last one) and some cooler temperatures.