Heat, Hammocks & Hypothesis

No rain at all. Only the sun … beating down, searing every blade of grass, evaporating every drop of water.

It could be worse, of course, and we’ll survive. Much better conditions here than the areas on fire, flooded or worse. But I do so pray for rain.

We’ve taken to tying the goats in the wooded side. Besides being so hot in the field, there’s nothing left there to eat. I’m fairly sure our local hay source won’t have any hay for us this year after all. I’ll need to figure that out soon to prepare for winter.

It seems odd to be thinking of winter, it’s 100 deg right now. But I am thinking of it, for us and for my sister and her family coming next month. We need plenty of firewood cut for all of us and there’s shelter to be figured out. Things will work out.

I’ve gotten poison ivy all over me  *-*   thankfully it doesn’t effect me like it does people who are allergic but it’s still very vexing, very itchy and very inconvenient. The only relief is to stand in the solar shower until I have to get out.

And speaking of the shower … we were preparing to move it because it’s now in shade most of the day but the water in the barrel is so warm, it’s almost hot. So I guess we’ll leave it for now or start showering at night when the warmth won’t be as problematic.

We still haven’t gotten the tub in and really need to do so before winter.

I don’t usually run the a/c during the day at all. We only turn it on about an hour before bed to cool down for sleeping. But I had it on Sunday and today, set at 82 deg. Which keeps it comfortable and doesn’t actually click on to much even when it is so hot out. I have the main living area closed off with heavy sheets hung in the doorways to keep it cooler. It’s like coming into a cool cave.

Yesterday I went to learn how to weave hammocks. Hopefully I start making them at home soon. I really enjoy it, it’s meditative and will help immensely with finances, once I can get going. The woman I’ll be freelancing for will be giving me a jig and all the supplies for each hammock. I’ll be able to make them inside or outside, depending on the weather and mood. I made a whole hammock yesterday and will be going back to make another and then bring home the jig.

I was pretty proud of my first hammock, although it took me 3 hours to complete. I did make one mistake but caught it myself two stitches on and it was easily corrected. I’m excited to get into hammock making. I had tried to some years ago but was on a waiting list and never heard back. At the time I was going to have to buy or make my own jig as well.

I also got a laptop last Friday. It’s a very nice one, better than I realized even. Toshiba with a large screen. It doesn’t have a working battery or power cord yet but I can buy them separately on ebay or someplace, and a friend has one that might work for now.

It has come just in time. Nik’s computer is essentially gone. He can fix it but needs a new motherboard and processor. Mine can barely get online at all now. I start it trying to get on in the morning and it takes until noon or later, then can’t hold the connection. It could be anything but I think I have it down to being either the memory or one or more discs in the hard drive warped because of the woodstove. I didn’t consider the heat from the woodstove hurting anything at my desk but it melted the side of my printer so it may have warped something in my computer as well.

I’m working on a new desk set up to be better positioned before next winter. Odd how everything (or maybe just me) keeps pointing toward winter.

Some folks believe that winter will come earlier than normal and be more severe than a normal Ozark winter. I’m going with that hypothesis, right or wrong it won’t do any harm to be prepared.