Surviving the Heat.
We've had a couple of stinking hot days. On days like these gardening focuses on trying to keep everything alive. So most of my time has been spent watering, topping up the animals’ water and collecting food for rabbits in the blazing sun while they chill out in the air-conditioning inside!
The chickens have been finding creative ways to keep cool; namely standing in the chicks' water bowl...
I hosed down the coop and run periodically too, to provide a bit of evaporate air-conditioning.
The good news is that the pepino plant I salvaged a stick from is developing new leaves now it's out of reach of the quails nibbling.
The bad news is that apricot tree is definitely dying on me. It's been fighting an internal fungal disease and is probably about 25+ years old, so might not fruit much longer anyway.
Farewell beautiful tree and thank you for 8 years of giving us apricots.
The only other thing I've managed to do in the garden is trim the rosemary back a bit to stop it smothering the neighbouring lavender and sage shrubs. I took bunches round to the neighbours who I know like to cook with it.
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Oh, I'm so sorry about your apricot tree. But it lived its life the fullest and gave you 8 years of abundance of its fruits. I bid it farewell, too.
My mother-in-law has an apricot tree in her garden. It has produced very sweet apricots over the years, sweeter than what you can find in the supermarket. I've been with the family for just over 8 years now, and I hope the tree will continue to bear fruit and not die on us.
Hey, it has been stinking hot for the past few days here, but thank God for the cool change.
The first really hot days of summer are always the hardest, I find. Its been a wonderful relief today.
I too hope you're mother-in-law's tree stays healthy and productive for many more years yet. Apricots are such a sweet treat.
As a non-pet owner, you don't really think too much about how the heat effects animals until you read/hear about it, or someone reminds you. On Thursday, someone rang Triple M while I was on the way to work and said not to walk your dogs today, and I just figured it's better to keep them inside - where it's cooler, until they made a comment about how dogs don't have shoes. I'd never have thought about blisters on dog's paws, but I guess its as likely to happen to them as it is to us when the sidewalk's so hot.
I wouldn't have thought of burnt paws either. I don't have the kind of animals that are walked. Mind you, I've seen people walking barefoot on the asphalt in 40+ degrees like it was a balmy day!
I was only saying today that I wouldn't mind getting a rabbit. I had one as a kid called twitcher yeah, not very original. Anyway, not sure if my cats would play nicely with one...The poor rabbit might not live long enough to worry about the heat.
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I guess there could be a bit of a character clash!
Ahhh!!! Dying things are no stranger here either. Talk with @riverflows about her ollas :) sounds like they're a real game changer for her.
What kind of chicken is the white/gray one? She's super pretty. And are y'all raising rabbits for meat or compost?
She's a cross; golden legbar mum and light Sussex dad.
The rabbits are a long story, but they're now our lawn mowers with a bit of manure production on the side. They're mini lops, so much much there for meat! I might start breeding again now we have our spare cage back. We sell them as pets to help cover fodder costs.
Ah yes remind me 're ollas!
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This is the first I've heard of them. Just looked them up. Do you use them?
I am just posting abput it now.. Will tag you xx
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Love your pics!
If I may ask a question, if a tree dies of a fungal disease, is that material you can still compost?
Really enjoyed this post, I hope things cool off a bit for ya!
Xx ToL
Thank you. We've cooled down considerably today and even have a bit of rain.
From what I've read this fungal infection affects stone fruits only, so as long as it's kept away from other stone fruits, then it should be okay to compost. A hot compost is supposed to kill off just about everything disease wise too. The large logs from it will be our winter firewood and I'll probably mulch everything else in the area where it currently stands. I won't be able to plant another stone fruit there as apparently it will be in the roots and surrounding soil.
Oh my! I am still laughing. Legend says it is still standing in the chick's water bowl!
I think they decided it's cool enough not to stand in there now. However, they do all seem to think that drinking the chicks' water is much better than drinking their own, even if it is always topped up from their water bowl...