Beat the Heat

Here is our forecast for the next few days:

Thursday -  High 96F / Low 66F; Chance of rain - Zero
Friday -      High 103F / Low 72F; Chance of rain - 10%
Saturday -   High 104F / Low 73F; Chance of rain - 10%
Sunday -     High 102F / Low 73F; Chance of rain - 20%
Monday -    High 101F / Low 70F; Chance of rain - 10%
Tuesday -    High 98F / Low 71F; Chance of rain - 10%

Is that CRAZY or what!?!?  We do not have a measurable chance of rain until July 4th and even then it will only be a 30% chance.

So, this week I started making blocks of ice by freezing water in the large yogurt containers I save from the store (you know - the poor woman's Tupperware!). We can put them in the chicken's waterer, in the pool to cool it down so it can feel refreshing instead of like bathwater, and worst case scenario, if we lose power from everyone's air conditioning running full tilt, 24 hours a day, it will help keep the freezers cold so we don't lose any food in them....I hope...fingers crossed!

Eggs are still on the light side - but I really have nothing to compare it to as they didn't start laying until the end of summer last year.  But it still seems like we were getting the same amount of eggs from them over the winter as we are now.  I guess it is the sudden heat wave.  I have been tracking egg output and here is what we have so far:

January 2012 - 49 eggs / average per day 1.6
February - 49 eggs / average 1.7
March - 76 eggs / average 2.4 (nice jump!)
April - 79 eggs / average 2.5 (consistent!)
May - 81 eggs / average2.6 (creeping up!)
June - so far 63 in 27 days / average so far 2.3 - see what I mean???

Now, in March, we did find where one of the four was "hiding" her eggs in the coop - she would lay it on the other side of the coop and then cover it up with the pine shavings.  When we discovered her stash while cleaning out the coop, we found a clutch of 10 eggs!  She was not broody - never sat on them all day - just hiding them...which I guess would be instinctive in the wild.  We were able to break her of the habit and I wondered if maybe she was doing it again with the counts dropping off.  But I moved all the shavings around in the coop and found no egg stash...and there are days where we will get 3 eggs (from 4 hens) so they do not have worms.  I am out of ideas...

Picked another cucumber and yellow squash; dug up one more potato I missed; planted some more; planted my yellow beans; got a few cherry tomatoes off the vine...we received some advice on the blossom end rot on our regular tomatoes.  My father-in-law said to stop watering them - only water them when they start to wilt.  So, we will try that.  Although I am not certain this is the weekend to start that routine!!

I hope everyone stays cool!!