Smoky Day

Stew Pot impressing the girls. Got news for Stew Pot, it is going to be awhile before he gets close to the girls.

Smoke from several different fires. You can actually taste the smoke there is so much of it.

Patti Cake our mini mule. She may be small, but she has a big attitude.

Hoody Dude, my pride and joy.

Today started off nice and clear. However as the day wore on the smokier it was getting. By early evening the smoke was thick in all directions. Well, at least it was somewhat bearable as far as the temps went. Thunderstorms predicted all weekend. And with thunderstorms comes lightning. Everything here is dry as popcorn ( without butter). And that's pretty dry!

Until next time...................

A Big Scare!!!

Bob-A-Loo, the White Silkie rooster, enjoying the chicken air conditioner. They really enjoy the coolness the frozen containers provide inside the plastic tote.

A.J. after she was sprayed off tonight.

Wondering if it was hot here today? Another triple digit day. High was only 105. Like that makes me feel cooler than it was yesterday at 109. Hot is hot.

And speaking of hot. We had quite the scare last night with Holly's ( youngest daughter's) horse, A.J.. While we were feeding we noticed that A.J. wasn't herself. She was not interested in her food at all. Not even her grain! This is highly unusual for her not to want to eat. A.J. adores food. First thought was colic. After a few minutes of observing and her we knew it was not colic, it was heat stress! She was lethargic, breathing hard, her gums were pale and she was very hot to the touch. Not good. We immediately took her out and started hosing her down. It took a good half hour to forty five minutes to cool her all the way down. Finally she started to feel better. After a little while longer she was getting back to normal. We knew she was okay once she started acting like her 'dragon' self. Don't get me wrong, she is a very sweet girl and would never hurt anyone. We call her a 'dragon' because when she wants to get in a mood, well, she gets into a mood. After a straight week of high temps, it got to her. Heat stress is bad. If we hadn't caught it in time she could have gone into heat stroke and that is very serious. Serious enough where a vet has to be called. She is fine now. Thank goodness. Tonight we sprayed all the horses at feeding time. Not taking any chances. The donkeys don't like to get wet so they didn't get sprayed.

On the same note about high temps, did you know that you can cool off a cat by dipping their paws into cool water? Same with dogs. Guess what our cats get! Yup, their paws dipped into water several times a day to help them keep cooler.

And the chickens love their 'air conditioner'. I also spray their coop and house down several times a day to help them cool down. In fact, I noticed that the chickens are enjoying taking mud baths. They make dips in the ground where it is still wet and almost instantaneously they stop 'panting'.

We have always had hawk eyes watching the animals, but after last nights scare, from now on it will be eagle eyes! Amazing how fast things happen.

Maybe tomorrow's blog will not be about the heat. Or a fire. Or a scare.

Oh, did I mention that A.J. is a real, honest to goodness BLM Mustang! I thought if any of the horses would get overheated it would have been my Paint gelding because he is a big baby. Nope, it was A.J. the tough one. Go figure!

Until next time.

Thunderstorm, HOT Temps and a Scare

Starting to sort of rain. Mike, the gray donkey in the middle, isn't too fond of the wet stuff coming down from the sky.

If you look close you can see actual rain drops on the Gator. Cooling, relief rain. Okay, didn't last but a few minutes, but those raindrops sure were appreciated.

Thunderstorm rolling in.

Today's' high temperature was another record breaker. Official high was 109! Beat the old record of 108 in 2003. Tomorrow another triple digit day. Ugh.

As you can see in the pictures we did get a thunderstorm that rolled in. Haven't seen any lightning, but there is rumbling of thunder. And the best part was, real honest to goodness raindrops started coming down. It was wonderful. More thunderstorms in the forecast.

Had a bit of a scare this afternoon. A firetruck went flying down our road, pass our house and turned up the road next to us with sirens a blazing. Then all of a sudden the sirens stopped which meant they stopped close by. I walked outside in time to see all of the donkeys heading to one side of the pasture. All of their ears were forward and they were watching intently. I looked in the direction they were looking to see black smoke coming from a very short distance behind our property. Not a good thing with this dreadful heatwave. I called the local fire department non emergency number to find out what was going on. Turned out a car had caught on fire and thankfully the fire department had it out before the dry fields could catch on fire.

After all was okay I started thinking about how fast we could evacuate all the animals here if it ever came down to it. We do have an evacuation plan at the ready, but seeing smoke that close really unnerved me as far as how much time would there really be if a big fire was ever that close. Hmmmm, guess I better figure the whole time issue thing.

Until next time......

Another Scorcher of a Day

Two of our barn kitties stretching out where there was kind of a 'cool' breeze.

Stew Pot and Spazzie Hen doing their best to cool

off in a part of the barn. I told them it was much cooler

outside, but they wanted to stay where they were.

One of the Mottled Houdans letting me know

it's hot.

The Polish Laced hen and rooster doing their

chicken best to stay cool.

The chickies enjoying their goodie plate.

Are you wondering if today was another hot day? I answer with a big resounding YES! Today's official temperature according to the weather guy was 108. And it broke the previous record of 106. Earlier today the thermometer on the side of the house read 113. Ugh!

I didn't try cooking eggs today. The few I had left were needed for dinner tonight. Sorry.

However I did take some pictures of my little chickies this evening around 7:30. Every evening after dinner and just before the "herd" gets fed, I take out a pie pan of goodies for the chickies.

Tomorrow possibly another record breaking day. Guess we will find out!

On a side note, I do believe the heat has affected my youngest daughter Holly's thinking. Out of the blue she looks at me and asks me if I think she looks like an Ogre. She is a beautiful young lady and far from an Ogre. So Holly if you are reading this, no, you do not look like an Ogre!

Over the top HOT temps.

Eggs drying out.

Eggs kind of cooking.

Can you see what the thermometer reads?

Oh my gosh today has been hot. The local news said the high temp was 104! According to the thermometer here that is outside in the shade it topped at 110! Yes, you read that right. I have a picture to prove it. Just for fun I cracked open several eggs and put them outside to see what would happen. No, they didn't actually cook, but they sure did shrivel and start to dry up. Since it is going to be hotter tomorrow, you guessed it, more eggs!

And with this awful heat my mind was concentrated on the animals. Not just the ones here, but everywhere. Earlier this afternoon my youngest daughter Holly and I went to the local library. As we were driving I noticed quite a few dogs in the back of pickups. Ridiculous and amazing were my first thoughts. It makes me wonder if the owners of those dogs actually realize how hot it really is in the bed of their trucks. The owners are in their air conditioned vehicles staying nice and cool when the dog is literally roasting in the back with no escape from the hot metal on their feet to the blazing sun on their backs.

On the way back home we passed a pasture with two horses in it wearing their halters. It doesn't take a genius to know that metal gets hot. So, out of curiousity when I got home I put one of our halters out in the sun for a little while just to see how hot the metal buckles got. Let's just say I dropped the halter quick due to the metal being that hot. I can only imagine how those horses felt with those halters and hot buckles on their faces felt with no way of getting them off.

My intention is not to be on a soap box with this blog. It is just observations from today.

Hopefully the pictures I took of the thermometer and eggs will show up here.

Stay cool. I am on my way outside to do a snow dance!!!!!!!

First attempt at blogging

It is said that there is a first time for everything. Well, this is the first time blogging for me. Not really sure where to start, but as a good friend said, " Just do it!".



So, as for my very first blog, the first thought that came to my mind was to thank my dear friends and family for helping me set up a blog and encouraging me to "Just do it".



Thank you, Danni, Jan, Inger, Rachael, Holly, Jennifer, Cindy,Connie, Kim, Barb,Bonnie and Kelly.



In case you are wondering what the blogs will be about, well, it is aimed at helping animals. Especially in today's tough times. Of course there will be some of my adored family and friends and most likely some silly stuff ( can't help but be a kid at heart with a sense of humor).



Life is a new adventure each day, so with each new day and new adventure, the blog will reflect what is going on.

As soon as I learn how to post pictures I will add some.