Sunday, August 05, 2007

heavy heat

The temps have gone up again here and we're expecting high nineties all week with 101 on Wednesday.

Our weekend has been quiet, mostly getting outside chores done before the heat sets in, getting horses comfortable in the shadowy barn with their fans for the heat of the day, and offering cool showers with the hose around dinner time, when it seems to be the worst.

Yesterday I did my Saturday morning feed store run (two kinds of horse feed, black oil sunflower seeds, a new natural oil fly spray concentrate) and then stopped by the library. While looking for something they didn't have, I found Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres and decided to read it again.

Later in the afternoon, my daughter and I went out to lunch and then to the food co-op for Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap (great for cleaning bits) and eclairs (great for us). On to the drug store for a new stash of hair bands and stain remover for the chocolate I managed to get all over me from the eclairs.

In between, my husband got two loads of hay, 76 bales, which cleaned our wonderful hay grower out of his first cutting of square bales. The feed room is packed now and we're all hoping for more good rain so his second cutting can get safely baled and in the barn. His hay is the best I've seen, and when he runs out my stress level rises. His wife sent us homemade grape jam along with the hay.

After the horses ate dinner and went out for the night, we settled in for the first season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After watching Firefly in the spring and becoming a huge Joss Whedon fan, I'd held off on Buffy. It's not Firefly, but Whedon's sense of humor is very much there and I am getting fond of the series.

This week is going to be all about managing the heat. Thank goodness for cold water!

2 comments:

Joni said...

Yes it will be blazing! Good luck keeping you and the horses cool.

I cleaned the pool tonight and the water is so hot (about 92 degrees) that my face was sweating while I stood in the pool and was scrubbing the pool bottom. This isn't what I had in mind when I bought the darned thing! LOL

billie said...

And now 101 on Wed. AND Thursday!

Oh my gosh about sweating while in the pool! I have taken four showers today b/c every time I go out to do chores I am drenched in sweat by the time I come back in.

I just got in a few minutes ago and it is still above 90 out there at nearly 10 p.m.

I don't think I've ever seen the horses sweat after the sun has gone down unless they were being ridden.