Very uncomfortable weather

Today is a hot, humid day, the worst so far this summer.  Some thunder storms may roll in later.  Hmm, the actually humidity is 70% and the temperature 91 F, so the heat index is 109, swell. You can look up a chart to figure the index out. The kitty girls are used to lounging in north window sills, but under these conditions the windows will stay closed.  TPP got caught up on lawn mowing this morning when it was somewhat cooler. The crab grass is trying to take over the world along with a number of other summer weeds. This is when mulching earlier in the year will pay off. 
Our house handles the heat fairly well, but it has limitations. When the night time temperature drops into the low 70s or upper 60s, the house will stay comfortable without AC. But under these conditions the low tonight will probably be in the upper 70s.  The house is massive, white, and well-shaded for much of the day. It has good flow through ventilation and a lot of rooms have ceiling fans.  An evaluation for solar power came out as are you kidding?  So the economics may not work out so well for us although the shading is nice. Our electrical usage is below average anyways. 
TPP must venture out again soon because even though it's hot out there several plants may need water especially those in pots or planters, or those that are just newly planted period.  

Summer heat - AC - what could go wrong?

The Phactors are not big fans of AC; open windows and fresh air are preferable.  But sometimes it just get oppressive. Yesterday brought the first real heat of summer so before the house heated up too much, the AC was turned on and for a few hours functioned fine.  And then it wasn't functioning at all.  So first you check to make sure it's plugged in; no blown breakers apparent.  Make sure the batteries in the thermostat are fresh; check.  Then you call a technician and wait.  A window fan and the ceiling fans functioned to adequately provide comfort over night. Ah, tech just called so now we'll find our what went wrong. That was damned quick as the call for help only went in 2 hrs ago.  

Dog and child abuse at art fair

The Phactors love art fairs, and so do lots of other people, which explains the usual congestion.  These fairs are always conducted in the summer, in urban settings with asphalt and lots of brick, so generally they are pretty hot.  So why is it that so many people so love their dogs that they drag the poor things through throngs of legs and feet such that even friendly, well-behaved dogs are pretty stressed out, not to mention hot and thirsty?  As far as TPP is concerned this is dog abuse especially since an art fair is in not way a recreation area for dog exercise, and unlike kids, dogs can be left home.  Only a short distance from this are small children and babies.  Of course, parents often cannot attend unless they bring their child(ren), so TPP is willing to cut them some slack.  But you see kids running on empty.  They're hot, thirsty, and low on energy cranky and/or whiny.  The dogs are treated better because here and there sympathetic people put down water bowls for the dogs.  One particular little girl so red with glazed eyes that looked like she would simply drop from heat prostration and her mother dragged her onward.  Many parents chose to put their small children or babies in strollers.  This is practical, but some of today's strollers are the size of small SUVs and maneuvering them around people and into and out of small stalls is like a tractor & trailer trying to get around in a grocery store parking lot.  And the rest of us must simply watch out for them, and wait when they block off the whole aisle.  Nothing against the kids, but use some good judgment about your stroller, people; a great stroller for jogging or walking around the block is just plain inconvenient at a crowded art fair.  But let's start by simply banning dogs because abusive dog owners are just never going to figure it out on their own. 

Convenient incandescent inefficiency - on sale!

Incandescent light bulbs are very inefficient, which is why they get hot.  That's a lot of energy turned into heat not light.  Nonetheless us plant collectors have made use of this inefficiency for years.  Our home-made "Acme" plant dryer operates using two pairs of 100W light bulbs that provide just the right amount of safe heat to dry specimens in plant presses.  When collecting plants you've got lots of drying plant material sandwiched between layers of cardboard, blotters, and newsprint.  You don't want to try to heat this to about 50-55C using any heat source that could start a fire.  At any rate once you have a light-bulb heated dryer, you just want to continue with business as usual, so when the local big box store puts 100W bulbs on sale, TPP could not resist buying a few dozen bulbs to get us through this season.  Bulbs don't last long when they are on 24-7.  After this batch of bulbs, well, some other heat source will have to be found.   

Hot and humid vs. hot and dry

Today promises to be a typical hot, humid Carolina low-lands' day.  Back home the upper mid-west is sweltering, but the big difference is that here it's humid and there it's dry.  In out particular area summer always brings hot days, but there have been summers when we've barely turned on the AC.  But when you string together day after day of 90s and even the occasional 100 degree high, our weather is more like what you expect in Tulsa, and who wants to live in Tulsa?  Unless some thunderstorm activity intervenes and waters our gardens, we expect to find some losses among the newly planted.  One of the problems of doing everything ourselves, no one else knows when and where things are planted, and therefore a house-cat sitter has no idea what to do if you say "water the new Japanese yews".  Actually the needs-water list is rather long this year, and just watering the potted/house plants is quite a chore, so our vacation may end up costing us more than we planned.  Maybe we need to start a coop garden babysitting service because having someone who knows gardens and plants would make things much easier.  Anybody part of such a thing?

Music to my ears!

It's 91 F (32.8C) today, and tomorrow promises to be hotter.  Even though the spring was early, our herb and kitchen gardens are late.  So naturally, hot weather arrives to better assist us in gardening, that and the lack of rain, a great duo.  Terrific.  Ah, but what's that marvelous sound?  Why it's the sound of a 20-something back shoveling some of the 10 cubic yards of wood mulch and shipping it around the gardens.  Yes.  This is money being well spent and well earned, the more so because a colleague is happy to have her son actually outside doing physical labor for a decent wage ($2.65 an hour and all the grass he can eat).  It actually isn't so bad as many parts of our yard are always shaded, so you can move your efforts around during the day, and our massive white house withstands the heat quite well without the AC.  Most of our neighbors have already started theirs running.  The most important thing about such early dry heat is to keep the mulch spreader and all of our newly planted trees and shrubs well watered.  In the meantime, having worn himself out, the Phactor is pondering the deep meaning of margarita while planning a "treat yourself well" dinner.