Don't Even Talk About The Heat

It has been so warm even prissy Lizzy had been in the water and she doesn't do water at all!

She rolled!  Twice.

The standard tip toe through water didn't do it today.

If it stays this hot, Lizzy may go swimming with the team.

Wishing all of you a place to cool.

Summer...

When you wear

The air

While looking for water

Seventy Degrees and Fixing Roof...

I've been planning.  You know that is the most important part of any job.  You gotta have a plan. Since my tractor tire water garden and this water garden need some repairs and cleaning.  I've been planning how to combine them and add a pump.

Both water gardens have been pet friendly and have developed a couple of leaks.  Through foster dogs, my dogs and horses I need to reshape and redo.  I started picking up the crystals from Mount Ida because you have to pick up every thing to change it when I decided...now stay with me...to repair the roof...of the house!

Don't ask me how my brain works.  I have lived with it all my life and still can't fathom how it sometimes goes from A to Z in a split second.

Hey, I'm flexible so I flagged down Hubby to use his tractor bucket to get me on the roof.  I had noticed a small leak on our screened porch during the last rain. This time I wore my Timberland lace-ups instead of my Fat Baby boots These were much better for roofing, I'm raised in the bucket with roofing repair supplies.

I climb out carefully from bucket to the roof because I'm afraid of heights...then why am I up here?!

I spot the problem right away.  A roofing screw had loosened near the spot of the leak.  It's seventy degrees, I have two shirts on and the tin is hot to the touch.  Doesn't take me long to lather up like a work horse and that in turn almost blinds me.  I am scooting across the roof with caulk gun in one hand and the thing that smooths the caulk out...I forget what it called...putty knife, that's it, in the other hand.  I'm caulking, I'm smoothing, I'm eye to eye with a very unhappy red paper wasp!  I'm allergic!  I scoot backwards 'cause I'm not standing up. The wasp decides I'm not the enemy, thank goodness.

I run out of caulk and poor hubby has to bring me more.  He brings me a tube of acrylic caulk, paint able for indoor use.  I said look at the old tube, bring me one just like that please.  I have them obsessively lined up in the tool closet like kinds together.

While he's looking I'm looking.  I discover the chimney needed the flashing caulked.  The place where one roof line meets another needed caulking and I found a stash of leaves where two roof lines angle into each other. Got all those leaves out, finished another caulking tube that Hubby tossed up to me and decided not to caulk the chimney today.  There was another wasp looking at me and I would have to go up another level so that is postponed for a cooler day.

After tossing me another caulk tube I empty that and call it quits.

On the bright side of all this work the tractor did not tip over with my weight in the bucket nor did I fall through or off the roof.  Hubby did get me up and down safely in his handy dandy tractor bucket.  No one yelled at each other. Two empty caulking tubes, one pile of trash.

I opened the windows because Friday was summertime.  I had an ice drink and Hubby told me how his back was hurting because he had to "lift" me so high!

And some say women don't do hard labor!!!  I was through for the day.

How was your Friday?

Update...Hot And Tired

The porch has been emptied of all that does not belong.  I have a bench Dad made me out of hand cut barn timber on one side with an old metal egg basket full of pine cones and Ki's bed underneath.  On the other side is my chainsaw chair from hubby with a forked log table made by Melissa, my oldest.  It is topped with a smashed bucket used for trash.  The second fork of the table is used for my drink when I am sitting.  I know it's not Home and Garden but it's me.

Well, I haven't sat down much today.  I worked outside again until the heat ran me in but I am declaring the porch finished.

The corner I had to vacate,  due to the now deceased family of wasps, is closer to being finished.  I'm gonna add some wonderful rocks.  With the rubber underneath, the grass will not overwhelm me this time.

This is the pipe I am trying to camouflage and a flower bed Dad made for Mom years ago.  I'd say some attention is long over due.

Progress moves with the speed of molasses around here.  See all the mess I have to clean up?  It will have to wait until it dips below a hundred again.  I am working/playing inside now.

Almost finished!!!  Trimmed and moved the gladiolas to the back, removed the grass, and replanted the bulbs I accidentally dug up.  After I clean the mess from this, the rose at the end will be trimmed, mulched with rocks (roses love rocks) and I will have cleaned twenty feet.  I work too slowly!!

Oh, forgot to tell you...I'm on vacation this week.  First time in a long time that I'm off just for the fun of it.  It may be a triple post day every day because I hope I get a lot done to show you.

One Word

I have no post,

no pictures to show.

My commenter's broken,

my connection is slow.

My photos won't crop

or they just go.

Work was crappy,

home is too.

If I didn't have bloggers,

what would I do?

Thinking of a word,

just one to say,

that would tell

about yesterday.

Summer Slapped Us In The Face...

this week.  No gentle spring temperatures to enjoy...It is flat dab hot!  The too much rain has slowly left and the ground is already cracking.  Things continue to grow.

Note the tails...

the flies are out of hiding,

and torture my horses.  I must use the fly wipe.

It was an interesting night.  Hubby shot at and MISSED a critter after the chickens.  He could not hold the light and aim...my fault, I was sleeping.  We suspect it is a bobcat.  Hubby said it growled!

We have a bird at the pond, we cannot identify that is eating our bull frogs.  Black with a red head and hubby says it has never flown but runs across the water weeds and into the woods...I am calling it The Water Walker until we know.

Hubby also found a corn snake today and I haven't seen one of those since I was a child.  The bugs are eating every thing! 

Ki-Anne is driving me crazy finding terrapins.  She has found her voice and she lets the world know when she spies a terrapin.  I have to go look because I want her to tell me when there is a snake, but not when it's just a terrapin!!!  I tell her, leave it, she moves on and then rediscovers the terrapin after he has crawled a hundred feet and there we go again.

Mr I Can Drive Because Doc Said So has been driving every thing.  Fixing fence, welding the bush hog, hunting critters, fishing for supper, and getting cattle ready for market.  Did I mention it was hot???

As I sit inside, with the AC on, I am proud of the workers but I put my nine hours in today and I am relaxing.

Think I might get fired?

Marcy Still Has Flowers!

although I can't imagine why.

The ground is dry,

The sun beats down,

The dew is the only moisture,

yet they survive

and awe me with their beauty.

Humidity, I Abhore You!

I guess if you love the South, you have to love the humidity.  Yesterday and today, we have had more than enough to love.  We have no break in sight.  It is hot and dry and all living creatures are suffering from it.

I do barefoot and natural with my horses with the belief, unfounded or not, that Mother Nature intended it that way.  Well, Mother Nature in all her rainless, hard ground glory has done a number on the horses hooves around here.  Today we worked on improving this.

My youngest, Broken Arrow, does not especially love the trimming as you can see by the set of his ears.  Arrow does improve each time.  The treats I hand out are not hurting anything either.

Here is a freshly shaped and trimmed hoof. You can tell how the dry weather is affecting the hooves. Knothead has the smallest feet, they look like pony feet compared to the rest of the herd but Knot is the only one with no draft blood in him.  This is his white hoof so it suffers more than the dark ones.  Even with the dryness there are no major hoof problems, thank goodness.

His papers call him Arabian but it matters not to me.  I measure the success of my animals by the size of their hearts and not the size of their papers.

This is a solid rock drill core that has been removed from the ground as the high line crew were installing our new lovely eighty foot metal monstrosities they call poles.  It has at least a three foot diameter and this one is about eighteen inches tall...the perfect mounting block.  It is certainly not going to fall over and there is plenty of surface in which to move around.

It is limestone turning into granite, not sure what the rock is called but does have a very limey base and is, that's right, hard as a rock!

We have a few of these that the crew has yet to remove.  Hubby has tried to place some in useful spots with his Kubota.  Kubota is having a hard time.  Hubby has moved one that is about three feet tall and an unknown enormous weight.  It is currently the mineral block holder and the horses love it. 

The day Hubby moved that one was a blessed day.  It started rolling!  Now the barn is down hill from these rock cores so you guessed it...it began to roll right toward the  barn.  Hubby swiftly geared up or down, whatever he needed, and flew in front of the rolling mass of rock and stopped it with the tractor.  The core now rests where it was stopped and will probably move no more unless we have a back hoe or dozer.  I am so grateful I did not witness this!

I have many imagined wonderful uses for these core drillings but I may never see them to fruition.  The house is also on the down hill side of these babies and I am not sure it is worth the risk...how would you explain that to the insurance company?

Late Calving

I know I would be hanging in the shade.

The heat and the insects are horrible.

They are treated but the bugs still attack.

These are the early calves.

Old baby with new baby, not even dry.

Doesn't take long for one to dry in this heat.

I can imagine how miserable the mothers are,

bags stretched to the limits,

and then going into labor.

I do not envy them.

I do honor them.

They are all good mothers.

Hot!!

Now I never complained when it was raining. I love the rain and even though it makes more work like weeding and filling washes and mowing grass, I still do not complain. I love that rain makes things grow and when the plants are growing, everyone can eat, from the tiniest bug to the biggest cow or horse.

I am, however, not a hot weather person. I sweat like a horse! Every inch of me lathers up when it reaches 80 degrees, please, give me air conditioning! I sweat so much, I cannot see, my clothes are dripping and always must shower as soon as I come in. Give me Spring or give me Fall but you can keep the Summer.

The dogs have the right idea, maybe I should follow in their stead and I will stay cooler.

Bambi, our Italian Greyhound

Seymour, our Spaniel

Stay cool everyone!