Preparing for hell

As with the rest of Western America, we’ve been bracing ourselves for hell. Or at least, temperatures that approach it.

We’ve watched this coming for the last week. Whatever the west coast is experiencing, we can expect it a few days later.

Unfortunately we’ve learned the temperatures at our place are a few degrees higher than the nearest weather station. Wheee.

So we’ve spent the last week making sure we won’t die of heat stress.

The most wonderful thing is the people we bought this house from actually left behind – can you believe it? – a window air conditioner. Don tested it and by golly it works. I have no idea why they left it behind, but God bless them for it.

Don built a stand for it.

He also built a frame with a double layer of plastic to fit into the window frame over the unit.

When the afternoon sun comes in through the window, we close the curtain and prop the rolled up curtain over the air conditioner with a roll of duct tape and some dog bones. Hey, redneck solutions.

I always feel guilty using an air conditioner, don’t ask me why. However this heat wave is a doozy, and the inside of the house resembles an oven when things get hot.

I decided to keep us well supplied with Utterly Artificial Ice Cream, one of our favorites. (See this post for the recipe.)

Unfortunately our ice cream maker chose this time to give up the ghost…

…so I ended up just using a mixer to mix the ingredients for the ice cream, then freezing it. Turned out pretty well.

I’ve also been making ice cubes like crazy. Don’t want to get caught short.

Most of what the ice cubes go into is sun tea. That’s another thing we’ve been making like crazy – decaf sun tea. We go through about a gallon a day.

All outside chores get done very early. I’ve been watering the plants and walking Mr. Darcy around 6 am.

Lihn stays cool by taking baths.

After a good soaking, she can spend the next hour or two happily preening the water from her feathers.

Interestingly, in the midst of these preps for a heat wave, we had an unexpected thunderstorm cell pass over us (a few days ago).

We weren’t expecting this, but we had no complaints! It dropped the temperature from 97F down to 70F within minutes. It was glorious.

It was also accompanied by huge 30 mph wind gusts that knocked over potted plants and tore branches off the trees.

In fact, one of the weeping willows lost a huge branch, but it’s so tangled up in the tree we haven’t yet taken it down (and it’s been too hot outside to mess with it).

This little storm cell left behind some beautiful evening clouds which bathed the whole landscape in a gorgeous orange light.

Some deer grazing nearby seemed to enjoy the brief respite from the heat.

But that beautiful rainstorm was last week, and this week we’re paying the piper in terms of heat. The news has been full of stories of hellish temperatures various places of hit, with some places seeing as high as 118F. In the northwest, no less! 

I know our church’s basement is open as a cooling center for those who need it. Here at our new place, yesterday’s temp reached 107F outside, and 80F inside. (Without the air conditioner, it would have been about 95F inside.)

As I post this (2 pm), it’s currently 106F and slated to go higher. I’ll post whatever it tops out.

Meanwhile, how is everyone doing during this week of hellish temperatures?