78°f /25.5°C and humid at 7:30am, 92°f/33°C now with heat index of 101° and expected to get hotter this afternoon. No chance of rain.
We were out early again this morning, getting done what we can before it gets unbearable. I have finished my stringtrimming work for now, thank goodness, but haven't been in the vegetable garden in the last 2 days, so that will be tomorrow morning's work. So far everything looks okay, although I did have some watering to do for the pots and planters. I added a little liquid fish and seaweed fertilizer to the water to give them a little boost.
The rest of the morning, once I showered and rested a bit, was inside work. I did some organizing in our work/storage room, hung out some laundry, and started a pot of broccoli- cheese soup, which is simmering as I write. I used broccoli stems and leaves from the broccoli I harvested (and we ate) the other day, plus a couple packs of broccoli frozen last year that need to be used. This afternoon I plan to make black raspberry jam, and put the last coat of wax on the desk I have been working on. And maybe do a few easy listings.
A little note here on the plastic bag dryer I use. I don't know if any of you reuse plastic bags, but this card displayed works great for me.
I am adjusting to this new staying-inside routine, but i do get restless. I want to be outside! But if course that's impossible in this heat. I did finish another book, an older title by Judith Guest called Errands. It follows the lives of a family before and after the father's death from cancer. I must say, it was a bit of a downer, yet at the same time hopeful. I don't know if the author has ever experienced what she was writing, but she certainly has a deep understanding of grief, and of how and person progresses through a cancer diagnosis. She was spot on, at least in my own observations of friends with cancer, and my own journey through deep grief. Now i am starting a book by one of my favorite authors, Alice Hoffman, titled Here on Earth. I hope it is as good as others I have read by her
A couple of you suggested hiring a lawn service to mow for us. Larry mows between an acre and 2 acres, it's just the way our place is laid out, and it's not easy. I have no clue what lawn services cost, but I am sure it would be quite costly. I am thinking about it though, and about how we will manage as we get older. To pay for such a service would probably strap us very tightly financially, if we could afford it at all. I really don't want to tie down my one son who lives closest to us either. But I do not want to move either. So trying to think this through
How are you managing the heat where you are? Iris, I know you are not warm at all! Right now I am kinda jealous of those of you with more moderate weather. It used to be that we might get a few days of extreme heat in mid-July, but never in June.
I remember when I was a child in northern Virginia, the local radio station would have a contest to guess the day and I think the time when the temperature reached 100°. It happened almost every year, usually in July. Manassas had very humid, sticky summers, as I recall, even worse than here, and similar to that of Washington, DC, which was only 25 miles away. We had no air- conditioning back then, almost nobody did. Mom would close up the living room and pull the curtains so that at least that room would stay somewhat cool.
The rest of the house though, would really heat up. We children played outside under a big shady maple, or in the sheltered and shade side yard. Sometimes we were allowed to turn on the hose and run through the cold, cold water, or fill a galvanized metal tub to play in. What bliss. We would make Kool-Aid popsicles in ice trays, using sticks saved year to year. Dinner was often just sandwiches or something very simple, because who wanted to cook in that heat?
When I moved here, we had no electricity for about 15 years, so no fans or AC to cool off. We didn't have these big shade trees either, so the house would really heat up. Fortunately these hills cool down nicely at night usually, so sleep wasn't difficult, and mornings were not too bad. Even when we got electricity, we didn't get an air conditioner until 2003, when my parents were coming for a (very) rare visit.
Today we have 3 window units--a big one in the kitchen that cools the main part of the house, a small one in the log room, and another small one back in the work/storage room. Often these are all turned off at night, and we will open the bedroom window. Maybe it was all thosevyears of our lives without AC, but we both enjoy the night air, and the quiet music of summer nights.
It's strange how we move from freezing winter through about 4 days of comfortable spring, to days so hot you need to stay inside. These are certainly 'staying-inside-days' for us.
ReplyDelete...years ago, we NEVER reached 100F, but thnigs have change. Just image how hot it would be if global warming was real!
ReplyDeleteJaw drop: No electricity for 15 years. Glad you have it now. Ours is running for sure, but tomorrow will be somewhat better, and while it will begin to heat up again, it won’t get this hot again in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed that you lived for 15 years without electricity. My grandparents didn't have indoor plumbing when I was a kid and I thought that was wild, at the time. Hot here in KY as well. Staying inside is not a favorite of mine, either.
ReplyDeleteIt never seemed too warm when you were a kid, we used to take dips in the stock tank or run through the sprinklers or go swimming at night! Stay cool!
ReplyDeleteLOL, Ingo yesterday booked the flight to Perth come January we expect 35-45C /95-113F, yippeeeee - but we don´t have to work, of course.
ReplyDeleteYou do a lot!
I think it´s funny, though, you eat hot soup in the heat, I´d prefer a salad...
Hope you find a good solution for your garden and living-situation.
No electricity for 15 years, wow.
Here only 23C/73F... summer?
I'm so shocked that you lived that long without electricity. As far as mowing, maybe some slopes especially could be left in natural state, and skip mowing them. A friend's friend's father was killed when his tractor rolled over on him...in Tennessee I think. Of course a mower isn't that heavy.
ReplyDeleteI was just talking with some of my old high school friends yesterday about the fact that we had no A/C when we were young. We remember the days of sleeping with a box fan blowing on us trying to stay cool. You also reminded me of running through the sprinkler in the backyard. These days I stay in my air conditioned house when it is so hot like it is now...
ReplyDeleteI don't have air so I sit by my fan (which is surprisingly doable). And, like you, doing outside things or heavier inside work early. I think it is breaking today or tomorrow. Last night friends with air-con invited us over -- they live about an hour away so it meant two hours in the car with air and several at their home! I was in heaven!
ReplyDeleteAnother idea for the acreage that Larry is mowing. When I told Cope about his roll-over, he said he would let that go wild instead of mowing something that steep. Maybe a possibility is to let the problem section grow wild with bushes and trees? Batsy in Idaho
ReplyDeleteI have considered that, Batsy. We are getting so overgrown here with autumn olive that any unmoved area is covered with the stuff in just a few years. It pushes out any native growth. He got chains for the mower and is putting them on today--- the old set was worn out and wouldn't fit anyway. And he is leaving the steeper banks to be out with the weedeater. He just needs to slow down and pay attention. He can be so careless.
DeleteI reuse plastic bags and find my old mitten dryer works very well. At least that is what I've always used it for. It has maybe 8 pokey (?)up things that can dry 4 pairs of mittens if it's placed on a heat source.
ReplyDeleteI reuse plastic bags. I turn them inside out and set them over a can or something to keep them open.
ReplyDeleteI am old enough to remember life pre air conditioning - for us, it was an addition to our home when we were in late middle age, after the children had left home. As well as I can recall, my mother did her cooking, canning, etc, in mornings and evenings, fans were at a premium, and outside work took place, also, early in the day.
I worked as a lifeguard as a young woman, at an outside pool. Sitting on a raised guard stand in the afternoon heat was, um, punitive.