We are in the middle of what is turning out to be an almost week-long heat wave here in New Hampshire (and many other places I’m sure). It’s not something we’re used to. Those that are hating it probably have me to thank. About a week ago, I was still complaining that it was too cool, I had to wear sweatshirts in the morning when walking Luke. I wanted it to be warmer, more summer-like. I guess that falls under “be careful what you wish for”. Boy, did it get warmer – with temperatures in the 90’s and high humidity. I’m trying really hard not to complain.
How Hot Is It?
- It’s so hot, Luke has given up sleeping in his favorite comfy places like his chair, the couch, or his dog beds.
Any cool floor will do. - We’ve been taking our walks in the morning before it gets too hot, and luckily we walk in the woods out of the sun for a good part of our walks. We’ve been walking in the mornings anyway, so we didn’t have to adjust our routines at least.
- It’s so hot, even the birds are panting! Some days we have to give them fresh, cool water twice per day. If the water is still clean, I’ll just add some ice cubes to it.
This girl is not yelling “It’s so hot out here!!”. She’s just panting, even though she’s in the shade. The pullets (young hens) are inside the coop panting too. They do have a fan in there to help. We changed their water right after taking this photo, and the Dadz even got a new hanging waterer so it will hopefully stay cleaner. They muck it up so fast! - It’s so hot, I’ve been shopping online for air conditioners. Believe it or not, we don’t have one. Our house can stay pretty cool, and since we’ve moved here we’ve had very few days that were really uncomfortable. I don’t like air conditioners. I don’t like closing up my house in the summer. All winter we are stuck in the stale air, and I want fresh air! I want to be able to hear the birds singing outside, and our guinea hens squawking. But we’ve been forced to close up the house anyway to keep it as cool as possible, close the blinds to block the sun, and run the noisy fans. I’ll tell you though, as soon as we hit that sweet spot in the evening, when the temperature outside gets cooler than inside? I can’t get the windows open fast enough, and they stay open all night as long as it’s not going to rain (and sometimes I can’t even wait that long).
But the weatherman said that while this current heat wave will end on Friday and we’ll have a beautiful weekend, the heat will be back next week. Even I have my limits. One day I was trying to do bookkeeping work. There was a nice breeze outside but if I opened the windows, it blew my papers around. If I put the fan on, same thing. I was SO HOT my papers kept sticking to me, and that was when I finally broke down and complained!
Why am I shopping online and not rushing to the store? You’d be silly to try to find an air conditioner in the middle of a heat wave at any stores around here! You’d think everyone else would have one by now, but apparently they don’t. Either that, or the stores don’t stock enough because they don’t really expect the summer to be this hot!
Why not photos of our cat Sam coping with the heat? That silly girl is still sleeping upstairs where it’s hot, keeping an eye on those eggs. I told her she didn’t have to, but she still mostly comes downstairs just to eat!
Anyway, we’ll make the best of it, and maybe we won’t end up with that air conditioner. At least we have fans, and the end of the house where our bedroom is stays cooler so sleeping has been comfortable. That’s what we’re thankful for today – being able to get a good night’s sleep in spite of a heat wave, without an air conditioner!
Is it hot where you are? How do you and your pets cope?
Thank you to our friends at Brian’s Home for hosting the Thankful Thursday blog hop! Please visit other blogs through the links below.
Poor chickens panting, that’s hot! Hope it’s cooled down. We’ve had some hot weather too.
It did cool down finally! It got real cool for one day, but now it’s hotter again but not so bad as last time.
I hope you found something to help you cool down. If not, we have air conditioners down here and I’d happily meet you somewhere to get it to you.
It doesn’t cool down enough at night here for the dogs. There were two nights where I was able to open the windows, but then we had to button right up.
I have an air conditioner in the living room that runs all day for the dogs. When I get home, I drop it down as low as it will go, and I leave it that way for a couple of hours. It helps the dogs for when we get back after walks. When we sit down to dinner, I shut the air off and we use fans. Mostly it’s tolerable. This morning Sampson was panting even before I left for work. Poor guy, he just can’t take this heat.
You’re so sweet! My hubby ordered an air conditioner though so we have one now. Luke doesn’t seem to mind the heat too much, but he’s much younger than yours – I think we all hate the heat more as we get older, dogs and humans!
My only fear of getting the a/c is that now hubby is going to want it on all the time. I need that fresh air, and connection to the outdoors – it sounds like you find a good balance with that.
This heat wave is awful! I have been thankful that my house came with central air (a lot of the ones I looked at didn’t have it) and that I have my Nest thermostat sensor so I can cool the bedroom down at night–there have been a few nights that the bedroom has been 78 degrees even though the downstairs has been comfy, so I’ve been taking full advantage of the a/c those nights! Hope things cool down for y’all soon–we’re supposed to be back up to the 90s by next weekend.
It definitely got better here, though it seems to be heating up again now. Central air – that must be so nice! Our bedroom stays cooler but I think it’s because our house is on one level and that end of the house doesn’t get as much sun.
FL summer is brutal and it’s way too hot here to not have AC in fact we are about to get a new unit installed cause ours is starting to fizzle out. I envy places that don’t need AC more then a couple times a year. We use ours about 90% of the year. LOL We have had a lot of rain this summer so that has kept the heat at bay but the humidity is another story 😉 I hope ya’ll get a cool down soon.
xoxo,
Bell Fur Zoo Mama
I’m not sure I could live down there! On the other hand, we run our heat a lot more than yo do, and we were running it (at least in the mornings) right into June this year.
We’re back to more normal temperatures now. Still hot, but not quite so unbearable!
We have hot summers here, so we know heat. We’ve had only a few days over 100, but I’m sure we’ll have more. Can you put a fan in the chicken barn to help them with the heat? I’m surprised Luke hasn’t wrapped himself around the base of the toilet. That’s often the coolest spot in the house!
Ha ha, I’m surprised he hasn’t thought of that too!
We do have a fan in the chicken coop and it does help a lot.
We have central air conditioning or we would die. LOL! It is very hot here but I think y’all are just about the same or even hotter! It amazes us how comfortable it is here in Texas at night. We sit out on our back patio most nights and there is almost always a nice breeze. We could never enjoy sitting outdoors in Louisiana. ☺ I’m sending you cool thoughts.
That is so great that your evenings are nice though! Your cool thoughts worked, we’re back to more normal, comfortable temperatures now.
We’re having the same heat wave. It’s supposed to break tonight and be cooler tomorrow and over the weekend. We sure hope so. Even though we have air conditioning, we hate having the windows all closed for so long.
I hope your weather got better like ours did! It’s hot again now, but not unbearable at least. We did get an a/c though so we’ll be set for the next heat wave!
oh my I feel awful for you that you don’t have air conditioning. We are on the second floor (top floor) of an apt/condo building and we would literally be dead without it. It has been in the upper 90s here for over a week. I can’t stand it. We also get the late day sun. Keep cool!!!!
Our old house would have been unbearable without a/c too. We had an upstairs there and also got the late day sun. That was the worst! Here our house is shaded by late in the day, and we’re all on one level. We did get an air conditioner though, so we’ll be ready for the next heat wave!
It’s been hot and humid here, too; but it’s The South so it’s supposed to be. I grew up without a/c, too, but my parents did break down and buy window units when I was in Jr. Hi. Down here there’s no way I could tolerate a home without it. I hate this sauna-like heat! We had a couple of t-storms early this morning that made it worse. I’d be willing to bet it was cooler at my brother’s house in the Keys.
I’d definitely need an a/c if I lived down there!!
Mom grew up without a/c. Her dad preferred the fresh air, so she would find friends who had a/c and spend a lot of time and do sleepovers there. She swore she would always have a/c once she was on her own. In Germany, homes don’t have a/c and that was tough. Mom loves open windows when the weather allows, but she can’t sleep unless the house is locked up at night. We have open windows as much as we can, but the a/c option is a must.
I can definitely understand that. If my hubby wasn’t here, I’d want the house locked up at night too. We didn’t have a/c at all growing up either, but I don’t remember suffering too much with the heat. I think it just wasn’t as hot back then!
Yeah, I’m so over this ‘thing’ called summer. 79 days to autumn and I can barely wait. Try to stay cool. Despite triple digits last week, we only had single digits in humidity so I’m thankful for that! I think the thermostat has melted into the mid-90’s. *Sigh*
I always look forward to the heat after a cold winter, but it sure gets old fast!! Luckily our humidity let up so it’s been far more comfortable. But in case it gets bad again, we have an a/c on the way. 🙂
It was 105 degrees (F) last week here out west. We have 5 major wildfires burning in the state and the hot weather makes it all burn faster. My husband and I are allergic to all outdoors, so we love our central heat. It filters some of the allergens out of the air for us. We are lucky in that it is drier here than back east. Good luck beating the heat!
Wow, I can’t even imagine over 100 degrees, and I hope those fires stay away from where you are. I can see where you would definitely need some help with those allergens, it’s great that your a/c also filters the air.
We have the same heat in Massachusetts. We have central air on the 1st floor, but I went to Lowes to get an A/C for the cats to have upstairs. Our Lowes was all out so I ordered one online and drove 30 minutes away to get it. That night, out of curiosity I looked and they were sold out, but there had been 28 in stock that morning. They may have had pricier ones left though, I didn’t check that.
Isn’t it crazy? We ended up ordering one online, but we’re still waiting for it. Luckily our heat broke and though it’s still been warm it’s been tolerable. I imagine you’ve gotten the same break, though I know you tend to run a little bit warmer than us?
Yep, it’s been stupid hot here, day after day but we’re supposed to get a wee bit cooler times too and we’ll be thankful for that. Thanks for joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
We finally got a cool off and what a relief it was! The heat is coming back now though, but it’s not quite as hot at least. We hope you’ve gotten some breaks too!
Ugh. that really sounds horrible. I can’t do heat, and especially if it’s coupled with high humidity. Stay cool my friend.
The heat wave finally broke, but by the end of it I couldn’t stand any more, so an A/C is on the way. I imagine we’ll need it again before summer is over!
It has been so humid here in Maryland that it actually feels hard to breathe sometimes. Thank goodness for AC! Hope you all get a break soon 🙂
We finally got our break! We hope you do too! (but we have an A/C on the way in case ours comes back!)