Just Routine

It's all coming back to me.  It took just one day to drop me right back into the summer routine, starting with getting down to the barn early.  It helped, but only a little.  A good portion of the day was/is spent rotating the hose, giving brief periods of water to the herb garden and deck plants.  Birds come to cool off in the sprinkler and bird bath.  The sun is intense at this elevation and it doesn't take long to turn green stuff brown and crisp.  I don't have a lawn, more's the pity, but I do try to keep what little garden I have alive.  A nap during the worst of the heat is obligatory.  The hummers are trying to survive and I'm filling their feeders twice a day.  There is also a big pot of water outside for the wild things; it's nearly empty by morning.  Vultures and other bigger birds get their drinks from the goats' water trough.  Bess remembers the routine, too.  "Want to go in your pool?," and she heads for the door.  She goes wading and I stand under the mist from the hose several times a day.  Pretty much sedentary, I happily watched "The Princess Bride" yesterday.  I'd forgotten how good it is.

Too hot to do much cooking, corn fritters sounded good and easy.  This time I diced a jalapeno pepper into the batter.  Delicious plain, they were even better dipped into sweet chili sauce.

Part of the routine is turning on the whole-house fan at sundown while I put the girls to bed.  It doesn't really cool the house, but at least clears the day's accumulated hot air out of the attic space.  It was still 93 degrees at 9:30 last night.  (This morning at 5:15, it was 72 outside, 80 in the house.)

Even sundown looked hot.