Category: Front Porch Musings

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Dealing with the heat and my 24 hours as a farm and ranch hand

This week was a repeat of last week…took time midweek to head to town and stock up on supplies so we could hunker down over a forecast hot 4th of July weekend:

Full frig and freezer!

Version 2 of the long, long cat … a cat inside to escape the outside heat!

Good news, bad news: The good news is that all fireworks have been banned this year. The bad news is that the fireworks have been banned because of the severe fire danger from heat and lack of rain. I don’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather it was green and moist and I was complaining about fireworks for a week. The fire danger is off the charts. I have the motorhome fueled, filled with water and stocked with food and clothes. We can roll quickly if necessary. Hopefully, it will not be necessary.

Meanwhile, my across the road neighbors, home to the chickens that supply me with THE MOST GORGEOUS EGGS – the neighbors went camping. They had hoped to do a 2 day trip but because of the 4th and fire danger, decided on an overnight. They asked if I could collect eggs, feed the horse and pony, the chickens and the barn cats and water the garden…in addition to eggs, I also get extras from the garden. So, I said: “YES”!

So, for 24 hours, I was Ms. Farm and Ranch Person. This is SO out of character for me. I do not like to be out in the hot and dusty and stinky, etc. BUT, the chickens are not only beautiful and supply the most wonderful eggs but they are a kick to be around. The horse (Bernita) and pony (Lexi) and cats (Oscar and Gerti) are so much fun also…

Lexi and Bernita. Lexi aka “Miss Piggy” LOVES her food. Bernita has restraint. They now love me because in addition to forking (pitch fork!!!) over their hay, I took carrots – YUM!

The cats. So funny – these cats are like Auggie: Norwegian Forest Cats!

Oscar, the gray. Oscar kind of has Mr. Bob’s build… wide body!

Gerti, a calico is a bit slimmer but still fluffier than Auggie and shorter tail.

They are both sociable and followed me around as I did the chore routine.

Some of the “girls”. These are last year’s chicks. For whatever reason, this year’s prefer to stay in the coop per Mel. But they are all together in the coop overnight so it is not a “get along” thing ??? Chickens are funny, I think. I can’t remember the breed names, but I think these are an incredibly beautiful group of hens and it was fun to feed and talk with them.

The “inside girls” … this year’s chicks in the coop. So, the other funny thing is that inside the coop there are nesting boxes for each chicken. BUT, the eggs are almost always in the left side boxes…rarely in the right side per Mel and Jesse.

On my watch, Friday night there were 6 eggs on the left side: 3 in 1 box and 2 in another. Saturday morning there was 1 egg on the right side but above the boxes! Saturday, 11:00 a.m. ish there were 2 eggs in 1 box on the left side.

Hmm.

But, there are 15 chickens so I told them a few of them were slackers!!

They said: “bawwk, bawwk, BAWWKKKK!!!”

The garden – lush and beautiful. Jesse set things up so I only had to turn on 2 faucets and all of the garden got a good drink.

After Saturday morning chores, I headed home and gathered my boys for a walk in the woods while it was still cool…

Mornings – still the best!

The long, long cat and the hot, hot dog.

This week.

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Staying home

I work from a home office. Except for groceries, I do most of my shopping online. I do not belong to any organizations.

I am home a LOT! And I love it. My little house is not perfect and there are things I’d like to do inside and out, but it is comfortable and the few things I have, I love.

And I love being here with Bear and Auggie. Bear loves Jeep rides and I am so happy to take him along with me. We have our spots for walks. But, we are both happy to return to the house and to Auggie, who is often waiting and watching from a window spot.

Anyone who has read this blog for any time, knows that I really do NOT like hot weather and hot for me is 80F. Still, I hate “wishing away” days and I don’t like to waste energy being too grumpy … especially about the weather! I’ve tried various tricks through the years to reduce the amount of whining and complaining.

Last week, when the weather folks started talking about the record breaking heat this weekend, I decided to approach this like I’d approach a Winter storm. I made sure the pantry was full and the frig and freezer were stocked with good things to eat. I’m used to being home so the idea of staying inside, which I enjoy during a Winter storm … not a problem.

The main difference is instead of sitting in front of the woodstove, I’m sitting in front of the fan!

Mornings are still beautiful, even if not quite as cool as usual.

We take a long morning walk while the sun is low and there is a lot of shade.

Then some time in the yard together while I run sprinklers, check the motorhome and water the fuschia.

And while fushia might not be typical “cut flowers”, I trimmed the plants to hopefully make it easier on them through the heat and brought the cuttings inside to enjoy during our heat wave hibernation.

As usual, it is often about attitude and perspective: making the best of a situation, looking at the bright side, counting my many blessings – all of that!

I don’t know that I can honestly say I’m enjoying the heat wave. I worry about the animals, both wild and especially livestock like the angus (black) cattle. BUT – I can only take care of me and mine and so I do that. And I enjoy being in my cool and comfortable house … relaxing, reading, doing a bit of work and being excused by weather from even thinking about outside chores :) !!

AND … having homemade peach ice cream for breakfast!

Staying home.

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Friday!

This week really flew by…REALLY! Between various things with work and new computer and prepping for the “HISTORIC HEAT WAVE” … the week evaporated.

But, we started with the Summer version of the morning kitchen snuggle with Auggie.

I’m a bit more upside down than normal timewise…to bed 6:30-7:00 p.m. with a midnight-ish up and about to open up the house and take Bear down the driveway…and then a 3:45-4:00 a.m. get up and enjoy the dark and the cool before a 6:30-7:00 a.m. work start. It might not be everyone’s “cup of tea”, but it works for me and the boys in this odd early Summer heat thing.

This was 3:15 p.m. or so on this Friday. It was 89F but not that bad in the shade.

Bear relaxed and so did I … Auggie was sleeping inside… Friday!

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Weekend catchup

I got the new machine completely set up in a record 2 days. AND, it wasn’t even all of the 2 days: 3 hours on Saturday much of which was downloading which didn’t require me to be sitting at my desk … 4 hours Sunday for my work environment which is a kind of tricky “do it in order” thing of primary tools and plug-ins … but again much of that time was downloading. No glitches, no pulling of hair or swearing or rending of clothes. This was by far, the easiest setup of a new machine that I’ve ever had. Maybe it feels so good because it took me 4 months to transition to the Acer two years ago.

It wasn’t all “new computer” stuff over the weekend. The “Auggie tree” was moved …by the Jeeper! (Auggie Tree)

It used to be there…

The Jeeper dragged it over to the firewood staging pile.

So much fun! Auggie was safely in the house, but Bear was in the Jeep with me and seemed fascinated as we pulled it onto the driveway and then over to the log pile. It is the first time I’ve used the Jeep for a chore. I did manage to scrape the corner of the garage so ended up doing a bit of touch up painting, but even that was fun.

A bit of baking happened also. I’ve been make these whole wheat rolls: hoagie buns, hot dog buns and hamburger buns, for several months. They are Mel’s Kitchen Café’s Fluffy Whole Wheat Rolls and I nearly cried for joy the first time I made them. I have been experimenting with various mixes to get a sandwich bun that I really liked and these are it! If Mel sees my photos, she might cry. Mel shapes her rolls to perfection! I am a LOT more casual. The key to using mostly or all whole wheat (white whole wheat) flour is to add vital wheat gluten. This dough is easy to work with and makes wonderful fluffy buns that stand up to burgers, hot dogs and subs. They freeze wonderfully – I let them cool, then into the frig overnight and then a repack for the freezer so no freezer burn.

Although we’ve had no rain since June 2 and it is scary dry, especially for this early, the days have been sunny with temps 74-80 daytime and 45-55 overnight … kind of perfect. NOAA says that will end this week as we warm up again to the mid to upper 90’s by the end of the week. Blech. So, the other thing we did this weekend was enjoy the relatively cool and pleasant temperatures before we need to retreat to air conditioning later this week.

It was a great weekend with much accomplished and also some relaxation in the shade in the quiet of a Sunday afternoon.

***NOAA’s exact words:
Next weekend through early next week, dry conditions prevail as the
ridge strengthens quickly and high temperatures move well into
the 90s for the weekend. Next Monday currently looks the warmest,
with Missoula and Kalispell forecast to break 100. Kalispell has
not seen 100 in June since record-keeping began. We will continue
to keep an eye on the exact numbers, but the overall message
remains the same: Prepare for multiple days of peak summer heat.