LOL. Excessive. Yeah. Like the weather people are scolding August.
“Darn you August! This is well beyond tolerance! How dare you?!”
Captured from WeatherUnderground.com
Anything above 80 is excessive if you ask me. Not only is it hot, it is humid. The high temp is only 96 today but apparently it feels like 115 as you swim through the air. It’s hard on the farm animals. And that heat index only goes up as the day goes on. It’s hard on the farm children. It’s hard on the farmers.
SO. Moving quickly here, the cows are down in the bottom under a tall canopy. It really isn’t too bad down there. We keep a close eye on them and haven’t seen them panting. Mostly they lounge under the trees then go for a swim in the creek as needed. We keep them on fresh ground and it’s amazing the number of toads, frogs, spiders, dung beetles and horse flies out there. Biodiversity in action.
The main layer flock is not too far behind the cows but aren’t as shaded. The chicken house stays remarkably cool so there are usually hens in and under the house for shade. We keep the drinker filled with cool water and in the shade at all times and offer the chickens as many apple drops as they will eat. Seems to be going well.
The pigs are having a hard time with the heat in spite of being in the shade of the barn. We hose them down a couple of times each day to cool them off and allow them to wallow.
Dad’s horses just stay in the shade of the barn.
Julie and the kids stay in as much as possible. We have so much work to do right now that we really can’t escape the heat. She keeps a fan going in the kitchen as she and the kids put up applesauce. They need to do something with grapes too. And she keeps the dehydrator going non-stop with herbs from the garden. But the garden is a weedy mess and nobody wants to volunteer to fix that problem. It’s even hot at night right now.
So we stay in. We read. We play video games. We read some more. We try to do all of our chores before 7 in the morning and after 7 in the evening, only going out to collect eggs and check water during the day, drinking plenty of water before and after each trip out and wash a ton of laundry.
We are so glad we don’t have chicks in chicken tractors right now. Just over a month until we get our first frost. We lit our wood stove for the first time on Sep. 15th last year. We really just have to get through this week but this has been a hard week. I really prefer winter. Ask me again in January and I will probably have an opinion on the excessive cold.
Chism Heritage Farm 
You Yankees and your “heat.”….lol. I’ll take 115 over negative anything. If it drops below 40 degrees I’m about ready to die of hypothermia.
It’s a lot easier to warm up than it is to cool off. Even the pond is hot.
Ick…it’s supposed be 92F here today and it only feels like 92F. The humidity is a deal breaker.
I’m with Matron – I hate humidity, just sucks the energy right out of me. If only it would cool down a little at night – somehow being able to sleep well at night makes the day that much easier.
We were cool enough last night but a small cricket found its way into our bedroom. I couldn’t find it and had to listen to it sing all night. Of course, Julie slept right through it.
We had that extreme heat on the prairies about 10 days ago along with the dreaded 100% humidity for days. The weathermen give you the extreme warning but then try to pawn it off as a beautiful day. Yeah right maybe if you are at the lake constantly cooling off in the water or sitting inside with A/C. Spain and Italy have it right taking a Siesta everyday. It sure seems with Global Warming we are not far off temp wise from needing to declare a Siesta as part of some of our days too! Never fear though, I will send some cool weather down from the N.W. Last night it went down to 7C/44F and now it seem that Fall is officially here!
We’ll take it. How long till it arrives?
“Early arrival of crickets on the hearth..” signal a harsh winter according to the Farmers Almanac. I didn’t see any mention of one under the bed 😉
I kinda think they come into the house with the sawdust for the dry toilet. Or maybe the outside is so filled with crickets that they spill into the house. There are a lot of them out there this year. Horsehair worms too. We have had plenty of moisture for once. Lots of toads and frogs too.
Shoot. Frogs count as one of the signs too.
Our crickets show up in the fields when it’s dry and not before…go figure. But dry is a relative term I guess, we still are on slug patrol despite no measurable rain in about 60 days.