Staying Cool

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 (In 24 days, July’s fullest moon [“Thunder”] will rise.)

This day is supposed to be another with temperatures reaching triple digits. Since 5 a.m., I’ve been rotating sprinklers and timing flows, getting critical watering done before the sun rises.

Central Oregon summers usually don’t require much air conditioning. Typically, during a week or two in August it’s doggone hot, but otherwise, our summers are mild.

Until this one. Now, it’s staggeringly hot.

Yesterday, I hung horse blankets in the coop that houses baby chickens, to give them shade. Not until this year and in this heat, did I realize in late afternoons that some ranch areas completely lack shade. There’s none where those babies are, and none where the horses are. The horses do have a shade shelter and may escape the sun. The chick babies huddle panting in the tiny available shade. The huddle creates even more warmth. The hanging blankets will provide more shade.

Water consumption is another biggie. Yesterday evening, the horse troughs water levels were lower than I’ve ever seen. Who knew they could drink so much water! The baby chickens, too, were going through water, and I had to prevent an instant without it, so brought in a very large container with gravity-fill.

To stay into gear for creating a water feature, I brought home an asiatic lily. This flower, too beautiful to resist, grows in the ground and will encourage my “water lily state of mind”.

Best of all, it has a very cool look.

Dear Friends: Cool will be “the word” for today, and maybe, too, through days following. Diana