Long and boring about HOT WEATHER and life in a oven.
Seems like sometimes you get into a weather pattern in your area and it just takes over your life. Everything is about the weather extreme of the time. This weather extreme once again and still is about the heat.
Oklahoma is setting records. The other day OKC set a record of 108* and I would like to know where the heck they have been because we blew that one out of the water where I am at. It was 113* F in the shade Saturday here on my front porch! That was about 5 or 6 p.m. at the time. I have one of those laser thermometers you just point at something and it tells you how hot it is. I went out into the bright sunlight and pointed it at the ground ........WELL!...... How's 147* F toast your cookies?!..... No wonder when I went out to oil hubby's truck hinge my feet felt blistered for a long while after coming back in . They said in the month of June every day was over 90*F and so far we have had I think 20 days over 100*F.
Here in Oklahoma now I guess if someone tells you to go to "L" then you just tell them to step out of the a/c and join you. It is a constant worry in everything you do. We have older well kept vehicles so your going to naturally be more careful. Even in a newer one you are going to have to watch out for heat related break downs on the road. July 1st they buried my Aunt in Arkansas. I couldn't go because it was a 3 hour drive at 103* in the shade temps in a 11 yo Yulon with 275,000 mile on it. If we had a problem along the road this big girl would have been dead in this heat. I felt bad for not going but brains had to rule over heart this time. Yesterday was kind of scary here in the house, the a/c is set for 77* and it could only get it down to 79* with it running constantly. The garage where we do piddly work and let the dogs stay in was 102* with direct sunlight kept out by the doors but left open enough for good air flow. We even had a large industrial floor fan going but it was just too much like a convection oven. Poor old Petey was miserable. I keep fresh water out and put ice in it. He snugs up the the kitchen door to get some cool feeling. I feel bad about not letting him in but he is just not a good house dog at all even in his old age so we just can't do that. Last night about 1:30 I checked on him and he was just panting with mouth wide open and struggling. I brought Ice cubes out for him to chew on and to lay in. I went back to bed and got back up with a bright idea. I realized the dogs like to dig because the ground is damp (not around here) and get cooled off. I went in to the bathroom and got a old towel and soaked it with cool water then rang out till good and damp. I went out to the garage and laid it on top of him. He just wagged his tail and after a few minutes he had the strength to go lay on his pillow. I put the wet towel back on him and pointed the fan that direction. After a few more minutes he quit panting and could lay there with his mouth closed. We are going to not only do the towel but hose him down a few times today like we do Heidi Ho. He may not like it like she does but he's going to get it anyway.
I think we now have a good 35 babies on the ground now. They are so cute and the heat doesn't seem to bother their jumping and prancing around at all. Looks like we had another cow lose a calf. This cow though is one we called skinny butt. She got skinny on us in Grandma's herd and so we brought her over here to the house to watch. Sure enough it was like she was intimidated by the bigger cows and she got fat and bred. Well she lost this calf and she is going to go to town the next load. Her and another older cow that has been a pain in the tail. The other cow lost her calf in the big snow storm we had last winter. Ok stuff happens in extremes we know but she would never get back with the herd and we had to go looking for her all the time. We decided to bring her back to the house also and if she didn't shape up she was going to town to. Hubby started walking her back and she was so sluggish. She just didn't act right like a cow normally does. He put feed in front of her when we got home and she just wasn't that hungry . I don't think it is the heat doing it. There is just something wrong with her that isn't right so she is going to town also. We now have a decent rotation of younger heifers coming up that can replace her so I don't feel bad about sending her to town. The way this heat and pasture is going with don't need the extra cows that are not earning their keep on the place.
The hay man just called and said he is going to be here Monday morning to start cutting hay and may even bale the same day. I told him I don't think he will have a problem with that considering the hay is already dry just standing there. LOL We figure we will be doing good to get about a 4th of what we normally do this year. We added another field for him to bale but I still don't know if we will have enough hay.
Ya know if wishes were feathers we would all be tickled pink but I want to somehow stash some money aside to do some dozier work. It isn't like we can afford it but then again we need to do some more clearing to improve the grazing areas. We like our woods for the wildlife but we can do some thinning and just leave the pecan trees and some cedar windbreaks and still have a lot of wildlife areas. Not like we could afford to do a whole bunch anyway. It is $100 a hour with a 3 hour min. which isn't bad. We would just have to have the money at the same time the ground is good for that kind of work. With it this dry it would be the devil to get any amount done. Pretty much a waste of money.
Whew! I feel freshly ironed. Even my clothes kind of smell ironed. LOL Just stepped outside to get hubby some tea and water to take with him while he goes to spray the weeds somewhere. He is trying to get out earlier before it gets to hot on the tractor. Even with A/C going you have all those windows and it is hard to stay cool as a cucumber. The tractor was overheating last year and this year is much hotter. Changed and washed and blew everything out and it still gets hot some. While I was out Heidi Ho jumped in her pool and I added more water since it is evaporating so fast and it made it cooler. I filled up the water buckets and watered the yard in front of the house. I know it doesn't do a lot of good but I can try.
It's funny but sometimes we hunker down in the cool of the house after things are done and while we gripe and complain about the heat and worry about the birds production going down or the cows stroking out or the old dog kicking over we talk about what if we sold all of this land and moved someplace like Taos, New Mexico. He has even gone online and looked at houses and land. Seems like you can get some foreclosures that are nice. Even if we really decided to do it I have no clue if we could find someone that would buy this much land.
As we hide in the house we wonder if the way we feel has anything to do with the weather or just a older age thing. With me being 53 and big and Hubby being 57 tall and skinny we just can't figure what is making us into wimps! You go out and you just do something minor without a lot of strain even and your wiped out! It is pitiful. We drink lots of water, heck we even soaked in a really nice Dead Sea and Pink Himalayan salt bath last Saturday. We came out of that with our muscles so relaxed and we hurt a lot less all over. Still though, I don't know if it helped anything with the heat. If I could afford to get away and had someone to take care of animals it would be interesting to see what it would feel like out of this oven we are living in.
I did make myself do something extra in the house and made the copy cat version of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. Nothing fancy just very simple. We loved it because we can enjoy the sauce without all the other things we don't like such as MSG and HFCS. We actually got up this morning and didn't feel like the BBQ Sauce messed with us! SOOoooooo ... guess I am going to be canning me some BBQ Sauce soon! I don't have a pressure cooker so a water bath canner is going to have to do the job.
Next project is going to be a copy cat of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing and thousand Island. We don't use much but at least it won't have the junk in it that bothers us.
Oh Yes! I forgot about Fathers Day....... For my Hubbys father's day I ordered some 550 thread count Egyptian sheets! I have never had really good sheets and wanted to try it. Boy Oh Boy! They do feel REALLY nice. It's funny but we found out we even slept better on them. Craziest thing I have ever seen! Hubby said he feels spoiled like Charlie Sheen on 2.5 men ! I am glad he is enjoying them. We are going to use those other tissue thin sheets that were on it for emergency camping stuff sheets.
My 91 yo FIL is still in the nursing home. Someone goes to see him everyday. Hubby had to skip a day but FIL didn't even notice. He thought he came that day! LOL Heck at least he isn't moping around about someone not coming to see him! He has lost 12 pounds in the few weeks he has been in there. They gave him Megace to help his appetite an he really does eat like a horse now but he still looses weight. They tested him and we are waiting on the results. They think it is a underlying cause. Could be cancer who knows and if it is there isn't much anyone can do about it in his frail condition. As long as he is comfortable and happy that is all that counts. We just go see him to check on him and talk to him about the ranch. He doesn't remember it 15 min later but at least he was happy for 15 minutes.
Well I guess I better stop. I got to get this lazy house bound behind up and do SOMETHING constructive around here! Something that it's sure hard to do when you stay inside to much. LOL (Well that is my excuse for today)
Ranchmama
(Okie with the toasties )
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