The heat has begun taking it's toll on the garden. I did water last night. Amazingly, the tomatoes and peppers look good. The vining plants are another story. My poor cucumbers were looking quite droopy when I got home this afternoon. So, I broke out the poor man's drip irrigation system.
A gallon jug, filled with water with a single pin hole in a bottom corner. Loosen the top a bit and you get an exquisitely slow stream of water. Fortunately, we had forgotten to put out the recycling last week and still had some gallon jugs. I'll have to refill them tomorrow but this should hold the vines nicely. If things continue to be bad, I guess we'll just have to drink lots of milk and OJ and put jugs by each tomato as well.
The heat has been tremendous and the humidity unbearable. Even now, at 9 pm, it is 87 degrees with 75% humidity. ACK! But, another thing I forgot to mention about the weekend. V and the boys got the pool set up. After a few days in this heat, the water is warm and wonderful. A quick dip after deploying the water jugs was welcome.
The poor chickens are hanging in there. I just wish it would cool down a bit more at night so the coop would cool off. We're making sure they have plenty of water and they seem to be doing well but it is so sad to see them panting, wings slightly outspread in the heat. K11 suggested we bring them back in the house... umm, I don't think so.
I hope everyone affected by the heat is staying cool and safe. It's dangerous out there.
Great idea! Yes, the heat is awful. I am sleeping in the basement tonight. Try to stay cool :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea!! I saw on the news the great drought in the middle of the country. I had no idea!! Last thing I knew the states were all drowning in water!! It has been very hot here too. In the low to mid 90's for the last week and today. At 11:25 pm it is 81. Can you put a little fan in the coop?? I bet it is hot inside. Poor girls! Stay inside!!...debbie
ReplyDeleteI hope your chickens keep cool enough. We haven't been getting the warm temps we normally do over on the west side of the continent, I guess you are getting them there! Although we never have that kind of humidity - yuck! Good thing you got the pool set up :)
ReplyDeleteIt is rather miserable here in GA. Calling for temps near 100 all week. It was like this most of last week too only we did get a couple decent days last week. Hard to believe that August is usually our hottest month. Not looking forward to it. The garden is essentially dead.
ReplyDeleteWell at least you have to pool set up. Yeah! To bad chickens dont know how to swim ;)
ReplyDeleteI can't believer it's so hot up there!! We've finally hit a "cool down" couple of days.... it hasn't been in the 100's too much lately :) We're used to the high temps, but normally there's a whole lot more rain to cool us down in the afternoons. Right now we're seriously below our annual rainfall. I think I need to down some more OJ, too!!
ReplyDeleteI dig the irrigation method... Is there really a benefit of dripping it rather than saturating with the whole gallon if it empties over the course of 24 hrs anyway? Nice Site!
ReplyDeleteHalfhippie- Welcome! The advantage of dripping it is that it stays where I want it. With our soil, if I just dump a gallon of water on the ground, it will run all over, not necessarily where I need it most. This way, I can concentrate the water near the roots of the plant that really needs it.
ReplyDeleteJudy