Dealing with this heat!!??

So, living in Western Pa I'm used to dealing with humidity, and occasionally it gets really hot, but it moves on.  Wow.  I can't even remember humidity and heat like this!!  You don't want to eat, you can't sleep, cold water just isn't cold enough.

Dinner is usually quite simple, we don't have much appetite.  This week it was pizza from our favorite shop one night, grilled chicken with salad one night and last night we did our "French" dinner.  Cold beer (in place of wine), grapes, apples, peaches with bread (bought from the local bakery I am NOT baking), cheese and some salami.

I've tried soaking my feet in ice water, and the dogs thought that I put a watering trough in the living room.  Yum.  Foot water.

So how is everyone dealing with this!!??  Hopefully this will break before I have to do heaving canning.  Uugh, even turning on the stove or boiling water heats up the kitchen. 

Tami   

.........miserable in Pa.

See the thread on heat safety.

Rather than cook inside, I set up a solar cooker.  The shade crept on on me before the brisket was done so I finished it in the garage where I have a stove set up.  Keeping the heat out of the house helps, but it gets pretty hot in the garage, so I added a big window fan drawing from the north side.  I also have a small fridge out there which is stocked with water, grape coolaid, a few sodas, and something for the end of the day.

I'm getting another small patch of clover going, this patch also has millet.  To help it get established I have a sprinkler going.  I run through the sprinkler every now and then.  It helps that I never grew up.  I'll be stacking some bricks for a fire pit today.  Wish I had a beachball.

There is plenty to do around here.  I'll scythe some tall grass for a bit out in the open, then wander into the woods to gather leaves for compost.  The heat helps dry the grass for hay but It's cooler in the woods.

When it gets to be too much, I head inside for a break.

We're making smoothies out of frozen fruit (the freezer isn't working all that great in this heat so gotta use stuff up anyhow) and baby greens (you don't taste them but they add minerals and nutrients) instead of cooking. I add some soaked chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or nuts to the mix for added calories and some fat.
The stove is staying OFF!
A mister to spray yourself with, direct a fan your way wherever you are (all night long the fan is pointed at us), ice your wrists and take it as easy as you can.

I run about working until I get frustratingly hot, then hit my feet/calves, hands/forearms, face and neck (back of neck more importantly) with cold water straight off the well. Forearms and back of neck are the real essentials.. cools you down quick. Feet and calves are just a bonus for me because I work in shorts and flip flops. Stand in the shade facing the prevailing wind to dry.. better than A/C (we don't have one anyway).

I do feel for you folks east of the Mississippi though.. shade doesn't help much with 99% humidity.

It's been the opposite here, cooler and rainy, just rainy all summer long in the desert. When the heat has slipped in, though, it's become muggy at 90-95. Not too bad, but I'm not used to it.

The first day that we put our baby turkeys out on the grass in a mobile cage I turned the sprinkler on half of the cage.  They ran in and out of the sprinkler all afternoon - just like little kids.

I try to come inside about 15 min out of every hour - mostly to just check how I feel and make sure I down a glass of water.  One more month of misery to go and then we will be in beautiful South Carolina weather until after Christmas.

Another one.. we've been waiting to do our washing until late afternoon when it's hottest out and hanging the laundry to dry in our mudroom (hottest room in the house) in front of a circular fan.. et voila! - low-tech swamp cooler!

     Working in hot environments.      One of the hottest environments you will ever experience is summertime on a hot tar flat roof. On many occasions myself and my crew have removed this roofing.

     Whenever I'm faced with this or other extreme heat I wear thick longsleeved winter shirts which are saturated with water. I also soak my broad brim hat in water and pour water down the thigh area of my pants. The resulting evaporative cooling is amazing. While my workers are experiencing the hottest day of their lives, I enjoy a cool spring day. On occasion I have had guys go home with heatstroke but still I have not been able to convince the majority of them to follow my example. Usually they insist that short sleeves and a T-shirt or no shirt is more comfortable. I have sent workers home because of extreme sunburn and they invariably argue with me, claiming that it's perfectly normal to be burnt to a crisp while working outside.

    This is one of the most blatant examples of social Darwinism I have ever witnessed

     And now a joke that I made up myself.    Did you hear about the national IQ test that we were all subjected to on the long weekend?  Just check your shoulders, nose and back for sunburn. If you find any, you failed the test

dale hodgins wrote:
        Did you hear about the national IQ test that we were all subjected to on the long weekend?  Just check your shoulders, nose and back for sunburn. If you find any, you failed the test

I'm living proof of failing that IQ test.  I had to have a large section of my nose removed and replaced with other tissues to rebuild it - from sunburn.
I trained horses for many years and a good friend who is a dark skinned American Indian warned me repeatedly that I should keep myself covered - sunscreen just doesn't cut it.

He wore long sleeve cotton shirts every day all day out in the sun to protect from sun damage.  I did finally listen but the damage was already done.  Basal Cell carcinoma (spelling?).
I was very lucky to have such a good doctor - I now only have a small scar to show for it .... and lots of hats and sun visors.

Shun the Sun! 

I just don't work out in the sun beyond the first couple hours of the morning (I should be out there  now!).  Otherwise I only work in the shade, adjusting my work plan to follow the patches of shade.  This year I retired my full-sun garden and am now only food gardening in part-sun areas of the yard.  My very fair-skinned husband won't go out in the sun at all except for very brief periods (5 minutes) except for his morning walk with the dog. 

Yesterday about 96 F, heat index 102F.

      There is a National Geographic cover from the 70s showing a young girl who took two camels and her dog on a journey across Australia. She was in her 20s but it's obvious in the photos from the end of the trip that she did irreparable damage to her skin on this trip. Her face hangs leathery, more like someone in her 50s. Cataracts and skin cancer are extremely common amongst Australians and this stunt put her at huge risk for both. Her dog ate poisoned dingo bait and died on the trip. I was quite young when I read all of this but am reminded every time I see a copy at a yard sale.
    I started wearing a broad brim hat as a teenager. My last sunburn was somewhere around my 10th birthday. I have shown both of my daughters the pictures of the young Australian woman as a dire warning of what could happen if they fail to look after their bodies.

I live in Montana----Last night it went down to 38----I like the summers here

But what about the winters?