The heat has finally come to the Prairies.
I must be very careful that everyone has plenty of water.
All the pigs will have their wallows topped up each morning.
And I have discovered that if you hose the heels of a cow she will stand quite still. If you try and hose her back or side off she will go. But Queenie and The Bobby especially will allow me to play water around their ankles and cool them off that way. Cooling off their Heels.
The three baby ewes have found a lovely tree to lie under but I see that they have collected a rash of weed seeds at the same time. Today early i need to go and clean up the weeds around the South side of the rat house paddock.
Mama and Hairy MacLairy will stay in Pat’s paddock under the big Mulberry Trees for this hot spell. Being the elders of the Farmy I will give them the deepest shade. The cows move twice a day, the Dairy Mistress field at night with the all good tucker and then back to to Daisy’s field in the mid morning for the Mulberry Tree shade. 
Can you see a little piglet doing his best to break out? This shot is taken from under the Mulberry trees (standing by Mama) , through the cows empty shady spot, through the piglets garden and out to Queenie in the Dairy Mistress paddock. (The barn is to my right.) When I bring the cows back through I have to lock up the pigs and open the gates and the cows walk in to their shade. Then I shut and piglet proof all the gates and let the pigs back out again.
Good morning. The sun will soon rise into a hot hazy still sky. And as we are surrounded in a wall of corn higher than the proverbial elephant’s eye, not a lot of breeze is getting through. I am going to start work even earlier this morning to get everyone settled before the heat builds. It is 74F (23C) now and will reach 94F (35C) . The humidity is what affects the animals the most though. We will be at 60% today. Good for the skin! And after weeks of perfect cool summer weather you will not hear me complaining.
Have a lovely day.
your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
49 responses to “Cooling Our Hot Heels”
We’ve got a cool dry trend at the moment ~ only 86 degrees at the moment.
After cooling their heels, do cooler heads prevail? (sorry, had to say it)
We’ve had a couple of cool cloudy days – even a bit of rain..but today the sun and heat is back.
I feel odd saying this – I agree with the cows… on a hot day splashing the water for the hose on legs is lovely, any more is a shock to the system. Finding, and lolling about in deep shade in summer is one of the joys 🙂
You splashing the cows heels to keep them cool reminded me of pictures by Constable and Cotman, of cows in the water meadows and standing in the shallows of English rivers, and under the trees on hot summer days…
We got the hot & humid yesterday, kind of like trying to breath water. I read an interesting opinion in one of the horse publications. They don’t recommend hosing the back, only the legs, belly and maybe the head. It’s believed that wetting the back hair makes it mat down and act like a blanket. I guess that makes sense, My hair’s uber thick and when it’s wet and it’s hot out I feel like I have a rug on my head! I do believe pigs’ noses sweat but that’s it and the bottoms of a dog’s feet do so ours have a wading pool. Not a lot of action from any of the resident critters today, a bit of relief due tomorrow.
The humidity sounds like Auckland. (in summer of course). We have had the warmest winter for decades it seems. I enjoyed the image of Queenie cooling her heels, and will always think of that when I hear that expression.
Yay for real summer weather! Enjoy it C.
🙂 Mandy xo
Hope all the critters do well. I’m checking mine constantly….Flame our horse is very warm, but eating and drinking well.
The chicks look content in the green grass. Hope you had a lovely day.