Friday, June 10, 2011

From One Extreme to Another

On Monday, it was 102˚F here in Southeast Minnesota.  The heat wouldn't have been as bad had it not been for the high humidity to go with it.  It was what my husband calls a 'Survival Day'.  We just do whatever we can to survive on those ones short of stripping down naked and running through the sprinkler in the yard.  I am sure someone would call the police if that happened, probably my kids for scarring them for life! 
Then, Tuesday was 101˚F with a hard wind that made it a little more bearable, but it was still classified as a Survival Day here.  Luckily, the town swimming pool opened on Monday and we partook of its coolness.
The next day, Wednesday, was about 85˚F according to my van's thermometer.
Yesterday was mid 60's.
Today we won't get out of the 50's.
Anyone who wants to debate on if the climate is changing, step right up.

I just had a little message exchange from a fellow native New Yorker.  He lives about 30 miles south of where I grew up.  That is what got me thinking about this weather thing.  "Back home" it never got so hot or so cold as it does here.  I have learned to love it here, but it sure is a beautiful part of the country back there.

So, I have gotten my duckies in their new home and built another duck house for the Pekin meat ducks as well.  I still have a long way to go before all the poultry housing is done.  This week I am working on getting my garden in, finally.  I have never planted the garden this late before.  I wasn't even going to have a garden because of all the other projects I have to finish, but I just have to grow things.  So, the tomatoes and peppers, sunflower, carrots, some of the onions, and sweet corn are in the ground.  Well, most anyway, I bought more pepper and tomato plants yesterday.  I said I wasn't going to do a huge garden, but here I am....

I got my 50 Cornish Rock cross chicks yesterday.  I am hoping by next year or the one after at least, I can start having just my own meat birds that I am working on from crossbreeding.  I know that I will never get those 6-pound breasts on my own birds (yes, I am exaggerating), but I like a chicken that acts like a chicken and is evenly developed.  It is funny how much more I like dark meat now that I am raising my own chicken.

The kids have been out of school for a week.  It hasn't been as hard as I had anticipated.  There hasn't been nearly the fighting that we have had in the past few months.  I think it is a matter of keeping them busy and apart.  Now, if I can just get them to go to bed and get up on a routine schedule, it would be good.  Eldest has a job at the library, so he is there now and will be tomorrow.  He doesn't start very early, but it has just been a week.  He is starting French Horn lessons too, that will have to be earlier than we have been rolling out.  He has been taking trumpet for four years, skipped this year though.  Now, he wants to get back in band and they need horns, so he is stepping in, or should I say stepping up?

Speaking of stepping up, I need to get up and get more of my projects worked on.  My garden is getting dug and pecked over by my free rangers, so I better get that fence up.

CC