It will feel like it's 35 C when I walk out that door again. It's like a hot wet blanket. I can't hide inside in the air conditioning all day. I make regular trips out to the coops and the barn to check on everyone, and replace warm buckets of water with nice cold ones. The sheep look anxious and are panting hard, the horses know to rest and not move a muscle and stay in the barn.
I was supposed to have a driving lesson with Oakley, but with the heat index like this and his resting respiratory rate already at around 40, there is no way it would be fair (or safe) to work him. Not to mention that I would probably pass out first....
So for the first time in several months I'm having to water some of the gardens since we are getting much less rain. We had heard about 'hard pruning' of tomatoes in order to increase yield, but it seems that wherever G has taken many of the the leaves away, the fruit gets sun scald. It's a tough balance as we fight both sun scald and a blight or fungus type tomato disease. There has to be a balance somehow. All I know (and my pale Celtic skin tells me) is that the UV here is damaging and deadly, and shade is our friend.
A few checks and x's for our records:
The nipple waterer we bought for one of the chicken groups was an utter failure. Not sure if we will be trying that again any time soon. Maybe a different configuration. I was worried that it wouldn't provide enough water during the really hot months anyway.
The Peck O Matic feeder for the chickens has been a huge success. The only draw back is that you need several of them for a large flock or you will see a huge spike in food aggression for a week or so while they figure it out. We bought a second one. It's fun to see the really clever hens who learn how to pull the pendulum hard so that the really fun corn bits fall through. I think one of my winter projects will be to try and copy the design and source the parts myself.
I bought some 90% shade cloth pieces for in front of the bantam coops, the backyard coop, and the chook palace. I don't have them all properly installed, but even hanging in semi useless fashion they dramatically cool the air underneath them, and the chooks definitely spent more time underneath them instead of hiding inside out of the sun. Farmtek is the company I bought them from. A good investment I think.
G bought a new type of fertilizer for our plants called Garrett Juice. It smells pretty awful, but isn't as bad as pure fish fertilizer. I noticed immediate improvement in growth in the plants I tried it on. They went from yellow and weak, to a happier green colour and new growth spurts within days. The only thing I worry about is attracting raccoons, skunks and bears. Yes bears. My neighbour called me last week and said her father watched a black bear sauntering down the road in the early morning.
We put the electric around the bee hives that afternoon..
I'm having some problems with the bees, but will discuss that in another post.
A few animal updates
Pepper the hen has been having a great time convalescing in the house with Granny Rose and Fern. Most days I let them out in the morning and they range outside until it's too hot, or until an early bed time is called for. They are like the three musketeers out there. For the last few days both Pepper and Granny Rose have been doing poorly, so I think we are near the end. It will be very sad indeed.
For some strange reason, our two most standoffish sheep suddenly started eating out of my hand this week. Mama Barley and Axle (mother and son) have taken three years to get to this point! I had basically stopped trying. Very confusing behaviour, but in a good way of course. They can't be starving, we still have plenty of grass. I just don't get it, but I will take it.
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| Ready, set, mow. |
I got the yarn and roving back from the fiber mill!!! It's gorgeous. Looks like if I can get organized I can bring some to a nearby farmer's market to try to sell. It's a small market, but it's worth a try. I spoke to the organizer the other day and she seemed excited at what we could offer.
We have accidental guineas, two accidental ducklings, and yet another surprise--an accidental chick running around the chook palace. We were just saying last week that hen Wicket would make a great mom....Oops. She'd been broody for a while and was in a tough corner for me to reach. I would reach under her and grab as many eggs as I could, but I guess I kept missing just one. I had thought to mark them with pencil, but didn't get around to it. What can I say? Cuteness abounds. After the initial 'oh sh*t" there is really no time for wallowing. You just have to deal. And then take pictures :)
Hope to post some soon. For now I have tomatoes to roast and then go meet G--he's flying back from Alaska today after being gone all week.
Stay cool out there, and pray for rain.
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