Home Baking

Forty degrees today, which translates to about 78 degrees in the bush camp sheds. It's so DRY. We have not had rain for over 8 months now. We have a small air conditioner, but it just sort of went "ohdeargod" in a weak gasping voice as it melted into a puddle on the floor. We have fans going, which reduce the temperature by about half a degree. Even the pool is hot. The water from the cold tap is so hot it burns you - I have to wait until the sun goes down before I can water the plants! The dogs have gone into a semi-permanent unconscious state; Vincent wakes up occasionally and begs me to put him in the pool. I sit him on the side and he literally dives in headfirst, right under water, he's so funny!

The chickens are in the coolest shade area, but even there the poor things are gasping - I sprayed water all over the ground and over the shadecloth roof. They came up and stood under the spray, then dug cool holes in the wet earth (I think we'll join them in there, it was quite pleasant). I've got troughs of water everywhere for the animals, plus a roo pool out front, which is surrounded by bird, roo and lizard tracks each morning. Some young finches, unused to deep water, got stuck in the pond and I had to rescue them, spread their wings out and let them dry off (they survived OK).

The only family member who appears to be unaffected by the heat is Smokey. How does he do it? Here's a photo of me and Gary on the sofa.