Stick a Fork in Us

Saturday
I think you would find that WE R DONE!!! I mean I don't care if your talking about our behinds or the ground or the ponds or even our cars and trucks! WE meaning a collective everything in the ~ HOT ~ oven is cooked to some degree of done for sure. Like the news what the heck else is there to talk about? LOL Any little weakness and the heat will show you who is boss. If you are older whether you are 2 or 4 legged it is going to limit you and try to kill you. Period. That is just the way it is. Even if you are in the shade with a hot convection oven breeze the shade temps are a easy 108*F some days. If you are young it isn't much better from the sounds of things. Doc was telling me that he had a little girl, in his home I think, the other night with heat exhaustion. I am not kidding ANY so called weakness due to age, size, or any infirmity you will be tested in all that you attempt to do. If you have high BP you better stay in the cool. Even if you have a clue about how to balance you body to prevent the rise you step out and it has got you. I just don't think that pill your popping can "fix" this heat enough to keep it in a normal range. I was hit by heat exhaustion the other day... Thursday I believe. Went to town to get my back cracked and make a tour through Wally world. I got a fairly good parking place considering it was packed. Still it was about 2:30 pm which is prime time hot plate time. You could see people all sizes going in and many were stressed you could see. Naturally big people looked about to keel over. I made my way in pretty good. Got to walking around though an it got tough on me. Just wore me out! Ok I admit I don't get out enough and get exercise. I haven't been able to breathe lately for heck no mater what I do or food I avoid. Doc said most of it is this hot air being so heavy there isn't enough oxygen in it for people along with plenty of dust and dirt to get in us to clog us up. I finally had to change up my Asthma medicine to Bryonia 30C and that helped some. Then when I got my back cracked I am like a new person and can breathe so much better. I made a few more stops on the way home to the hardware store and nursing home to see father in law. I was wiped out by the time I got home and was useless. I tanked up on fluids and the whole bit but man it was tough! 
      I did hear some good news about father in law... he has put on about 10 pounds since the last time I checked with the nurses which is great and wonderful ! All in about a weeks time! They said they changed his food to more of what he liked and gave him the megace and even changed the consistency for him so it was easier to eat. I am glad to see this but he still hasn't gained any strength or help his thinking so that doesn't look great but we all can do only what we can do. 
    It is nice to have the 2 older cows gone. Don't even have to think about them now. The money is going to go into cleaning out a couple of ponds that haven't been cleaned out probably in 50 years. One is a tiny one at the barn that is good for when you have something penned up. It is totally dry and it has always done that. The other one is on the Sires place and those poor cows were pretty much drinking out of a mud puddle! Hubby had the hay bailed on the hay meadow there and the hay all moved so Saturday we decided to put a hot wire around it and let the cows up there so they can clean up what the baler didn't get and we showed them the pond up there. They were like kids in a candy store! Some cows hit the pond first like they hadn't seen water in a while and others got the long tall green grass left under some of the trees. We found out that the solar hot wire set up we had didn't work so he had to go to town and pick up one for about $170. Hated to spend the money but it was the quickest and simplest to do to save the hay.  SOOOooooooo we thought! LOL Got the new one out and looked at it under the shade tree at the house so we wouldn't have to do much in the sun. Got it set up and looked at the directions and we were ready to load up Heidi Ho and go. We hooked it up crossed our fingers and left. We noticed that one of the red calves was being a dummy and was "lost?" from the herd a little. We went to look at it and it ran OUT of the field and down to where the cows were staying then across the creek. DARN! There isn't any chasing in this case. Just hope it gets smart and mama finds it later. We collected Heidi Ho easy enough. Even she says it is too hot to run and do by the truck much. She will just get out do a little looking and then just wait for us to come an get her. If she hasn't been in the pond we put her up front because the metal in the back is just too hot for her. Even then she just pants so hard we worry about her. We get her plastic cup we have in old blue and give her a big drink of sometimes warm water. Ol'Blue doesn't have any air conditioning other than the air you get when your moving down the road so it is HOT sometimes. I don't get out much and when we park it is always in the shade believe me. I helped a little bit on the electric fencing and I was VERY careful about 9am in the morning when the temps were still mild at about 90* I am guessing. Still had a moment where just standing still in the shade of the truck my hearing was going and things were going black a tiny bit. I told hubby I just had to stop. We went home and Heidi did her usual diving in the  doggie pool. It sounded so good! We had more water than lately in it and what a splash she made on the way in. We stood in the shade while she enjoyed and her panting wasn't so hard. We let her cool off then went in ourselves. I was totally useless. I didn't have the big pounding headache or a sick stomach there just wasn't anything left to me. No inner strenght at all to think, do or just sit there. Everything was a effort. I drank a big glass of OJ for the potassium, drank some powerade then some water and snacked on some cashews ( They have lots of minerals) cooled off with a shower and took some homeopathic China 30C for the heat. The china did help some after a few minutes with I felt like I could move my extremities easier but I still had that deep down limp noodle thing going on. 
     After lunch and lounging in the house a few hours Hubby decided to go check the hot wire and take some fence down around this barn pond that is going to get cleaned out. I tried to talk him out of that but he said he had to get something done. We had decide to take a break and eat out and go see his dad when he got his stuff done. He called a while later and said that the cows had torn out all the hot wire stuff! Seems like we didn't have it on the right setting or it hadn't had enough time to charge. Well he fixed it back all by himself in the heat of the day. Poor man. He went and took the clips off the wire around the pond and will get some help Sunday morning early to take out the posts and roll up wire. He came back and headed for the shower. Before he even stepped into the shower he just had to lay across the bed and rest. I turned the ceiling fan on and he made me turn out he light because it just seems like it put more heat into the room. Even with the A/C on in this heat things just feel weird. He rested a bit and he told me about everything he encountered and finally felt like he could take a cool shower. 
    Everything is about the HEAT like I said. Even though we are having the lower 85* temps before 9 and 10am when we are out doing things it is still HARD to do. I don't know if it is just all in the head or what. Your driving along and it isn't really bad temps especially considering what it has been but still there is something about it all that isn't right. I don't know if it just all in our heads or just the total stress that the land,people and animals are encountering is so pronounced that even that itself is taking a toll on anything that walks. I guess maybe that is it. Kind of like walking in the the room with a family fight going on, just walking in it you can feel the tension and just want to walk out. Well believe me you walk outside for anything the environment is full of stress and tension. You go inside to the a/c in your house or job there is still stress and tension. Even out of the heat you are stressed in some way.
     Here is a good one. You hear about people investing their money in gold all the time. Well we have something better than that...... it is golden colored but it is called hay! I am hearing talks of anywhere from $50 - $100 for medium round bales of hay. Talking about a gold mine if you have any to sell! We got a little less than half the hay we did last year. Normally we get about 187 medium wrapped round bales of hay off of 2 meadows. This year we got 86. We had 44 bales left over from last year and I think I figured we are about 13 bales shy of last years crop with what we have left over. I told hubby we are going to need more than that when the pasture is all burned up like this. Unless we get rain this fall and something grows there won't be any grazing this winter. He is planning on feeding more cow feed not only this winter but some this summer with the grass so dead. You know feed prices are going to go up with so many other people in the same boat and such a widespread drought all over the country like this.
    We were over on Grandmas place and I noticed one of the cows was what we call skinny. Not like you see going through the ring skinny just not as filled out as what we like and compared to the other cows. Looked at her tag and she is a good 14 yo cow, She has a pretty calf and all. I told hubby she needs to be moved over to the house and feed a little better then send her to town when the calf gets bigger. If she is in this shape now then it will only get worse this winter. I have a little sale sheet in our notebook in the truck with a list of cows to sell and why. Right now though we don't really want to move anything around not only to protect us but the cows. No telling what we would get hurt or have die if we tried to work cows even a little bit now. I am hearing about people loosing whole herds just falling over all at once with the heat. Some of these places don't surprise me because places like Kansas doesn't have any trees or anything for shade. Thank goodness we have shade and water! I just hope we get some rain this fall to fill up the ponds we are having fixed.I am really worried that if we get some it won't be enough to help the ponds much. 
   Well it is 1:38 am and I have complained enough..............
I got news for hubby, next year old blue is going to have a/c if it is still alive and kicking!We have to do something to protect ourselves to make the job not only easier but to be able to get more done. 


Ranchmama
(Perking pretty good now as long as I don't let myself stay hot to long)












     

More HOT WEATHER and LIFE in a OVEN

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 )