Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The devil called...

He wants his weather back.  And he can have it!!  Wow, I cannot believe we made it through two weeks of near/over 100 degree temps - that is actual temps folks, not heat indices...those were close to 110!

Needless to say, the gardens are pretty much decimated.  It is near impossible to keep them watered when the water evaporates as it comes out of the hose.  Although our tomatoes are ripening quickly now and we have probably pulled close to 6 or 7 pounds in the last week.  The peppers are nearing harvest time as well - though I got impatient and cut a couple - my husband said too soon!  I said, poppy cock!  We shall see when we slice them open and put them on our salads this week.

The chickens have been producing right along - we are back up to three eggs a day for the most part.  I have added our monthly egg counts to the main page so we can track their production.  Let me tell you - they did NOT like the heat.  But I did what I could for them.  I froze water in large yogurt containers and put them in bowls for them to melt for added cooler water.  We also have a large juice container that we saved and filled with water to freeze - redneck air conditioning is what we call it!  At night, we would put the frozen jug inside the coop and it really did keep it cooler for them overnight (especially since we insulated the coop when we built it).  In the morning, we put it back in the freezer so it is ready for the next night.

This week, the heat has broken - FINALLY.  Our temps dropped Sunday night as a front pushed through and we are now in the 80s during the day and upper 60s at night.  We are also getting some RAIN.  I will take it this week - the last two weeks have been brutal and I hope that is it for this summer.  We went camping over the holiday and it was miserable for all - dogs included.  They spent most of the time in the camper with the A/C on.  Thank goodness we have it!!  It was a chore to cook outside on the fire, and we ate all of our meals inside the camper as it was just too blasted hot.  So we have resolved that we will NOT camp during the months of July and August.  It was great to get away, and sleep late in the mornings (you know, 7AM....instead of 6!!)...but we couldn't do anything during the day, except sweat!

Hope everyone is getting a reprieve from the heat and receiving some welcomed rain.  Have a great day!