Heat and Humidity...

The past couple of weeks have been pretty oppressive here in Southern Iowa. There has been next to no breeze, plenty of heat, lots of thunder showers, and buckets of humidity. There have been more than a few days where you walked out and immediately started sweating like you had just run a marathon in the desert! And to think ... it isn't even July yet. But, we have been making it through the heat by taking some precautions and being careful.

• Of course I have been making sure to drink plenty of water. All those years in Boy Scouts are really starting to pay off and I know that it is important to not only drink water while you are working, but also before hand to help keep yourself hydrated. Also, ice cold water isn't alway the best...
• The livestock need plenty of clean water as well, so we have been constantly refilling their waterers and making sure the water they have is clean. Usually I have to spray out a waterer once a day, but the livestock really need that clean fresh water.
• Breaks have also become a big part of the work. In cooler weather I just like to go and go because I usually have a limited time to do stuff, but in the oppressive heat and humidity that we have had it is important to take some time and rest.
• Another way I combat the sweltering summer is to put on my Amish hat (cheap and readily available). It isn't very stylish, but it is straw so my head can breathe a little and the shade that it provides to my face, ears, and neck will be appreciated for years to come (no skin cancer please).

I'm not sure how all of you in the hot and humid south deal with this all the time, but I would love to hear your tricks and tips!

Summer Repeat?

I don't want to begin to think that this summer is going to be a repeat of last years major floods (because I can still make it to the farm 3 out of 3 ways instead of 1 out of 3), but it does seem that the weather is hampering our efforts once again. Recently our weather has turned hot, 90º F today, and wet. In the words of one of our friends from church who has 90 acres of grass hay down on the ground, "I'll have the cleanest hay in the county!" We don't have any hay down yet, but the weather is playing a role in that.

As I mentioned earlier this week the weather has slowed down our porch building efforts, but it has also thrown a damper on the fence building project and on the shed construction. Now that soccer is done it has been so wet that I haven't had the opportunity to get everything ready for the fencing project. There are some low spots along the fence line that need wood posts and they have been too swampy as of late. Also, since we don't have the perimeter up yet I'm having to spend more time building temporary fence to keep everybody feed and happy. Hmm... the weather is working against me again.

The rain/mud has also caused a bit of havoc with our new shed. Of course when ever it rains it not only makes our place wet and muddy, but it also ruins a day, or days, of work at the site our builder is currently at. This all adds up to more waiting. Which means no hay yet because I don't have a dry place to put it (and if you haven't noticed yet, it rains).

The thing is though, that I'm not really going to complain because that is just he way things go sometimes. On a related note, the road in front of our drive is getting pretty bad. So bad in fact that the mail man asked us to let the county know so maybe we could get some more gravel. I do agree with him, a couple days ago I was driving up the hill (going straight) and had my wheels turned all the way to the left! Fun ... Fun!

Wind and Mud 4 ... Ethan 0

Some of you may remember reading about the total destruction of our chicken coop (my wife wrote about it also). That was a time when the weather got the best of me. I am sorry to say that good ol' Mr. Iowa Weather is at it again and is trying to pitch a shutout. The destruction of our first coop was point number one. Now I will recount the next three points that Mr. Iowa Weather has scored on me lately...

• Point #2: A couple of weeks ago I had to drive the church van out here because I had no vehicle in town. It was no big deal really and since the ground was frozen solid I decided to park in by the pig pen in the grass so that it wasn't in the way. Well, when it came time to load pigs I needed to move it ... there was only one problem with that idea. The temperatures had decided to come up and the frost had decided to leave the ground. That all lead to the big blue van being stuck in the mud ... and it is still there!
• Point #3: 'Ol Mother Southwind (not to be confused with 'Ol Mother Westwind or the Merry Little Breezes) has decided to rear her ugly head again. So far the newly built chicken coop is still standing, I built this one lower to the ground, but I did end up having to screw down the top in hopes of keeping it connected to the structure. The biggest thing the winds have done this time is spread our stuff ALL over creation. What fun!
• Point #4: Did I mention that it was muddy and that the big blue church van is stuck. Well, you can now add our big green Expedition and the really old stock trailer to the "stuck in the mud" list. The worst part ... there are three new Dexters living in the back of the trailer at the moment (more on them tomorrow ... hopefully). It was getting dark so I didn't have too much time to assess the situation, but from the looks of it she may be stuck until I can get some help. For the time being I took lots of hay and water to them and made that old trailer as comfortable as possible. On the bright side, they have a spot out of the wind.

As for me ... I have zero points. Everytime I go outside it seems like I come back in muddy, frustrated, tired, and stinky. Hopefully I can score a point or two pretty soon. Even if the weather beats me this time around I would like to score some points for team moral.

**By the way, that isn't my tractor picture above. I just found it on the web and thought it fit the topic ... although I kind of wish my tractor was "stuck" like that one instead of being "stuck" the way it is :(

Just Had to Share This Picture

This is what our farm looks like now. Not exactly what I had planned because it does slow things down a bit, but what are you going to do. The most surprising thing actually is that I had no idea that we would receive so much snow! When we lived in town, and had high speed internet, I was constantly checking the whether reports and radars. On top of that I usually at least caught some television weather. But, now that we live out in the boonies with slow internet and no TV I was kind of surprised when I woke up Sunday morning.

Being surprised by the weather isn't a completely bad thing though. It would have been nice to have a little more preparation done, but on the other hand I think it is good to flow with what the weather decides to give us from time to time. I know one thing for sure, it will slow my outside work down a little bit for some time, but that will just give me more time to work inside.

I do hope it melts and dries out though...