Wanna know what our high temperature today was? Ninety-three degrees. I kid you not. (Gosh, I wonder if this was our one day of summer?) Luckily for us, there was little or no humidity to go with the heat. It still felt darn hot out there though.
Funny thing was we were expecting it to be a warm day because the forecast prepped us for temperatures to go way up to . . . 75 degrees. Well. I suppose it would have been more disconcerting if we had been told to expect 75 degrees and it turned out to be 45. Or 35.
We let our chicks (teenagers now) out of their own private little enclosure today so they could explore the big girls' pasture. They were slow in leaving familiar surroundings but once a few brave ones ventured out, the rest followed and they've been running everywhere like wind-up toys hepped up on too much caffeine.I'm thinking we see a rooster and a hen in the above picture of the Black Australorps.
And these Light Sussex look to me to be two roosters and one hen. Hmmm, the ratio is not looking good.I wondered if the older chickens would bother the little chicks, but from what I've seen the old bunch has chosen to ignore the little whippersnappers. The geese, on the other hand, feel it's their duty to stick out their necks and hiss whenever a little chick comes into "their" territory. This causes the chick to run pell-mell in the opposite direction.
It may be very interesting tonight to see if the chicks go back into their house by themselves or if Papa Pea and I will be chasing down individual chicks with the butterfly net.
Early this morning we could smell and see smoke from a forest fire in Ontario that has thus far burned 74,000 acres and which has not yet been contained. There are 14 other reported fires burning in the province. I don't know if this nearest part of Canada with the big fire got our recent heavy rain or not, but I surely hope they are able to get all their fires under control soon. Forest fires are such a scary thing.
All day today I thought it was Saturday so I'm not sure what kind of a day tomorrow will feel like. At any rate, I hope you all have a great weekend.
14 comments:
Forest fire,sounds really scary.About as bad as the floods in n. Dakota.I will be spending all day tomorrow at the VA in urgent care,and I mean all day.a lot of soldiers come through for this or that. you only get seen quickly if you are having a hard time breathing.#1 bring lots of books and reading material.#2 bring some healthy snacks because every thing cost so damn much out there.#3 maybe a pillow-I think hubby has MRSA again so I hope he doesn't end up staying out there,which very well can happen.
Funny chicken antics. Wow that is suddenly hot. I think it's going to be one of those years.
Nothing worse than having to breath all that smoke. We had smoke up from Washington one year and it was terrible. They were letting most of the fires burn because they were in rugged areas and not close to any people. So lucky us got to breath the nasty smoke for most of the summer.
I hope those Ont. fires get doused with some rain soon so you can breath free.
I feel your pain, a few weeks ago it was in the 60's for a high in Minneapolis and then a few days later 103 degrees for a high (right when I was still planting in the garden). I think they said it was only the second or time this century it has been that temperature. And we were the hottest that gay in the country. Did It get that hot where you are?
We have been having the strangest weather this summer and none of the plants like it one bit.
And here we thought LAST YEAR'S weather was interesting.......
Chickens are such good entertainment. I miss having them.
Our weather is crazy too, been raining for 4 days, and I put the heat on last night because it was so chilly and damp. Need the sun!!
Well, nobody can call this year boring. The peeps are not so 'peepy' and more. They are big. Whats the temperature today, -13 with chance of total eclipse?
judy - Hoping for the best concerning your VA hospital visit.
Sparkless - This morning the geese are standing watch at the opened door of the little chicks house. Hope they (the geese) don't get cranky on us!
The smoke hasn't been bad enough that it's really bothering us although when I got up for a potty stop at 2:45 a.m. last night (this morning?), I could detect a smokey smell even in the house.
Julie - No, thankfully! I don't think I've ever seen it hit 100 degrees this far north but we do get the occasional day in the 90s. That's bad enough!
meemsnyc - Can you blame the poor plants? Heck, we humans can't figure out how to dress from one day to another so how can those little plants out there adjust!
Sue - This year is proving out to be just TOO WEIRD. Don't like it!
I would miss our lovely eggs more than the chickens! (Ooops, hope nobody in the poultry yard heard me say that.)
Stephanie - Heat on one day, broiling hot the next. And then we'll no doubt go right back to being chilly!
Jane - The weird weather and invasion of so many garden insects/blights are totally creeping me out this year. Don't even suggest unscheduled eclipses (eclipsi??). That could be next!
Gosh your chickens have grown up fast! The Sussex are actually very pretty too. I still can't tell rooster/hen ratio out there! Maybe if they stood still long enough I could inspect them better.
The weather is so darn wonky. I wish all the places with the fires could get some of this rain too. That is such scarey business going on out there.
APG - Regarding our chicks, Chicken Mama and we split an order of 25 birds and it's strange, but ours have grown bigger faster than hers have! Go figure. But she does have two different breeds than we do so that could enter into it, too.
Some of ours definitely have larger combs than others and if that means what I think it means, we're lookin' at a lot of roosters in the freezer in a couple of months! We really need the hens for layers, too, so we're not too happy if that turns out to be the case. :o(
How did you get up to 93 when we only got up to 70? Bizarre. How old are your chicks now? They look nice and healthy. Hope you have some layers for all that baking you do!
Jo - How did we get up to 93 when you only had 70? Because the weather is so freaking CRAZY this year! There is no rhyme or reason to it.
Our chicks will be 8 weeks old this coming Monday. Although they look almost full-sized in the pictures, they're still about 2/3 the size of our mature hens. But they do seem to be healthy. Besides their specially ground grain, hubby has been feeding them laying mash mixed with fermented raw milk. They go after it like it was candy!
How strange that they can't predict the temps there, must have something to do with that big ol' lake! I believe we were right at 93 also yesterday, but ours was expected :) Here too, we have had wildfire burning for over a month nearby in NC, with the drought they can't seem to get it under control, although it's not as devastating as it could be to people, since much of it is surrounded by the swamps and also smolders in the bogs under the swamp.
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