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”
Tucker. There’s a phrase I haven’t heard in a very long time!
Remind me again the gestation of a cow. Are Queenie and Daisy expecting spring or summer calves?
Cows are pregnant for 9 months and one week, Daisy should have a March calf and Queenie early April. it will be cold and maybe even snow, however we will not have the terrible flies and stink of calving in the summer. Nor will it be the deeep winter cold of January. Fingers crossed.. c
Suddenly, that old saying about “Cooling your heals” makes sense. 😉
Have a lovely day, Celi!
Cows will even pee and gently stomp the ground into mud to cool their heels, after thinking about this i thought why not water their heels, they liked it! c
😀
I love how many sayings have their origins in farm life, my favourite is “rarer than a hens tooth”. That picture of Sheila made me think of the piglets dad, those herefords sure know how to get down and dirty.
Yes, he was certainly a grubby fella!! The saying I don’t understand is Sweating Like Pig, knowing that pigs do NOT sweat! I think there is more to that saying than the obvious. c
I believe it is ‘Sweating like a stuck pig.’ which means they have been speared. I believe they sweat when they are very ill or dying because of a guy telling me his pet pot-bellied pig sweat when the toddler in the house fed it a pound of butter. It was terribly sick an in great pain. He was trying to keep tha animal small by not feeding it much! I was appalled by his story. The worst part was the man had no concept of how he was torturing the poor piglet by stunting its growth!
Ah, thank you Leah, I had always wondered. Poor wee pot belly. c
Love the chickens in the weeds: these must look like big bushes to them and I hope the cover of the ark and the temp of the weeds keep them tolerable. . . . rather naturally am smiling at your temperatures – winter here at 26 C about noon 🙂 ! . . . and am really mad at getting my homework wrong: have to go back to your farmy plan ’cause I put the barn on your left when you took that photo . . .
I know. You guys have the most outrageous temps, it is all relative .. kind of.. But we have been in the 70’s and 80’s for so long now that the sharp hike is what is more interesting.. You must be able to grow all year round! I miss that.. c
I’m at 600 feet [lovely healthy air!] and no, we kind’of stop in May and start again now: will be putting most vegetables and herbs in in about a fortnight and you should see all my camellias and jasmine and iris at the moment. . . and all the ornamental fruittrees are abloom in the park . . . luvverly and ni-ni dearHeart!
Interesting that you are at 600 feet. Do you mean above sea level? We are 620 feet above sea level. hmm, nini.. c
Yes: Sydney Basin is practically all at sea level, we are 100 km south and just where the ground begins to rise for the Southern Tablelands: we are called the ‘Highlands’ here . . . about 2oo + metres. Makes quite a difference in temp and wind speed actually! Did not realize you would be above: another piece of ‘the puzzle’ 🙂 !
it is a puzzle isn’t it… not too far above tho.. c
Good morning Celi; tis a good day for hay makin. fantastic pics. be a blessing mike
PS thats what i’m doing bout two to three hundred bales. 🙂
Where are you putting all this hay? Surely honey is not eating that much? I need to call my hay man and set a date! Wish once again that you were down the road! c
Pouring rain here this morning, looking to go on for most of the day…if I hadn’t watered yesterday, it probably would have passed us by like the last few storms 😉
Enjoy your sunshine!
That watering – so it rains is so universal, however thanks for the reminder, i must put the sprinklers on before i make my breakfast! c
G’morning, Celi! Yes, it’s gonna be a hot one today — and it sure took its time getting here! Cooling a cow by running water on its ankles? Imagine that! Daisy & Bobby must be glad you figured that out. Those pigs are a determined lot, aren’t they? That one is bound and determined to escape. Don’t forget to keep yourself cool today, too. 🙂
Hydrated and Hatted! Have a great day! c
Hot and humid here, too. But at least I have no animals to tend. Only laundry to dry in the outdoor dryer.
and when it is humid it takes that much longer too, though it looks like mine might have a wee breeze his morning.. hopefully it keeps up.. c
Through your pictures, I somehow feel like I’m right there at the farm with you. Thank you so much my friend – I absolutely LOVE it. I did notice the little piggy houdini trying to escape. You gotta say that about us – we will keep trying and trying until we learn how to do something. 🙂 XOXO – Bacon
Or get called into dinner! Nothing foils an escape faster than cabbage!! c
Did you say cabbage?! I love cabbage. Although mommy doesn’t it give it to me too often these days. It tastes great to me but she says the after effects are deadly to her. Snorts – I don’t know what she’s talking about. PLOL (Pig Laughing out Loud). XOXO – Bacon
Laugh!! Another reason to keep my piggies outside!! c
Well you make sure to cool your heels too! Love little piggy!!!
I am ramping up the heat wave smoothie as we speak and am off out to pick some little tomatoes to make your summer pasta tonight! c
Enjoy! Let me know how it goes…..
Those pigs have more curiosity than a cat!
They love cats too! .. morning mad.. c
I enjoy the corn around us AFTER THE HUMIDITY is (heat) is gone. But on the other hand I like to hear the wind moving through the leaves and in the fall the dried leaves seem to sing to me of winter coming to enjoy now. But in the heat and the humidity I so miss the breezes the corn grabs onto and claims for itself.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Beautifully said Linda.. The humidity is most definitely here! c
Very creative thinking. Noticing that Daisy will cool herself–then cooling her heels for her. Fascinating that cows don’t want to be “hosed down.”. Do the lambs with their wooly coats feel the heat the most, or are they more or less insulated from it because of their coats? City people can’t agree on whether to shave their dogs in summer or not for the same thinking.
They do not seem to be bothered any more than the others, By lunchtime pretty much the whole farm is asleep under one tree or another.. c
Good Morning Cecilia, We have had the very hot days. We hadrain which helped get rid of all the smoke we have had from the fires. We are having more fall like weather. Very cool in the a.m. The garden is producing a bumper crop, can’t keep up with it all. Thank goodness we can share the bounty. You take very good care of all your animals. They are blessed.
Yes sharing the food is a wonderful thing to do.. Good for you bev and take care.. c
What a beautiful pig puss, it looks like that one got caught up in a fish net. I thought we were heading into fall here for the past couple of weeks with the kind of weather that I change 3 times/day. Chilly mornings, then the hot humid mid-day & back to cool nights. But I think we’re in for a spell of heavy air here in Massachusetts.