Conditioned air!

We are using conditioned air today!  It's warm here after a few days of mid-teen temps.  So 28 is feeling kind of hot.  But we have this beautiful unit sitting outside right in my FRONT garden that makes the air very nice and cool in the house.  Back in Gadshill I would think twice about turning the air conditioner on because it meant a run-around closing windows in every which room.  That's not a problem here.  I close our bedroom window, the window by the kitchen sink and then go close the front door (the one that leads to my back yard!!) Half the windows in the house are just solid glass and can't be opened.  Quarter of them have screens but are jammed or painted shut.  The other quarter is the 3 I already mentioned.  My math is a tad off because as I count the windows in the house there are only 10 in the house - but there are two in the garage and we have screens to put in those windows but they won't affect our air conditioning plans at all.

Don't you just love my front garden?  There's that beautiful fern and the hosta I bought to keep it company and block the view of part of that electrical unit someday.  Then there are all the Manitoba Maple seedlings that I need to get out of there.  You know, in Ontario we used to cut down those horrible 'weed' maples; here we think they are pretty awesome as they supply wonderful shade!  But seedlings - sheesh, I pull, hoe and dig those out by the dozens every week.  As for the absence of other plants in the

garden - maybe next year?  There were HUGE shrubs in here but Mark and Laura cut, dug and hauled them out of there so that we could at least see out of our windows. 

Making Hay While the Sun Shines!

It was great weather for making hay this past week.  We weren't as 'on the ball' as we should have been but we did get a great start on the process and are well over half way!!

This is our Mo-Co which is the mower conditioner that cuts the hay in the field.  It is a great machine and was well prepared for work this spring by our mechanic.

Once that hay has dried some we pull out the big forage harvester and get at it.  Dave spent nights pouring over the harvester manual so as to know which knob did what.  He did a super job getting that machine to run continually through the few days we harvested this week.

This photo is bigger so you can maybe squint really good and notice that the son is harvesting with his dad and his own son in the cab with him.

After the trucks dump the hay into the bunk, David G. does his work by pushing the fresh greens onto the pile in the right spot so that he can then

get up on that monster machine and pack, pack, pack that feed into the bunk.  The bunk walls are lined with the plastic that will cover the feed to prevent spoilage.  So we have about 200 acres done and another 140 to go.

Horray for hay!

What does hot mean for you?

When someone says it is hot out, what do you think that means?  Is it 22 degrees?  Maybe you  like it warmer and 27 would be just right.  For some even 30 isn't quite warm enough.  In our house we have people who like it cooler (me!) and those who are middle-hot (Henry and Dayna) and then we have the other and that is what this post is about. 

Kierra.  She has warm blood pumping around in her body but one would never know it from her daily habits.  Today it is a wonderful 'feels like 34 Celcius' outside and if you drove up in your air conditioned car and saw Kierra out on the driveway, you might reach for your jacket before exiting your vehicle. She would greet you wearing her work pants, t-shirt and a sweatshirt because she is not yet warm.  This amazing 12 year old is chilly here.  This morning she helped me feed and bed-up the calves and she worked away in her full attire while I dropped large amounts of sweat while wearing a t-shirt and shorts!  And just so you know that her heat loving body doesn't switch gears at night, I am posting a photo of her bed.  She is kind of ticked at me because I took the sleeping bag out yesterday so she is now short a blanket! 



I want you to know that those 5 layers are not flimsy ones.  The green one is a comfy comforter from Laura, the blue jean one is flannel on the bottom, wool in the middle under the patched blue jean squares.  There are two afghans around the thinner blue blanket.  These are what keep Kierra warm.  ish.  She still asks for another blanket at night because she feels cold.  I fear she'll die of being squished! 

In late 1999 we went to VietNam to pick up this little beauty and when she came to us she was wearing 5 shirts, 2 pants and 2 hats.  I guess she will never outgrow her need for many layers!  Amazing how different we all are, eh?