Extreme Heat & Humidity

Good reminder. I like the post re: confirming with mom if the power goes out...
The most vulnerable in heat waves are those that need assistance!

Doing the same as you, mainly changing routines to do any physical activity early in the morning or in the evening. If we run our a/c over the evening/night, we find it more/less keeps the house cool during the day. Its a win/win because we draw less power when the province needs more...and its cheaper.

This is closing the barn door after the horses have left...but if your finding your house gets hot quickly in the summer, and cools quickly in the winter...start looking at energy efficiencies including more insulation in the attic, caulking windows/openings, making sure your air filters on furnace are clean, ducts are clean, ducts are sealed properly for air movement, etc. It saves $$ in the long run as well as personal comfort!

Oldschool...whats your mix for V8. I have a love/hate relationship with Gatorade...its to convenient to buy and use..but doesn't always agree with my stomach. I wouldn't mind knowing your recipe if it gives the same nutrients, and calories!

What are you doing to stay cool or reduce the power draw?

Lots and lots of insulation every where.

Oldschool...whats your mix for V8. I have a love/hate relationship with Gatorade...its to convenient to buy and use..but doesn't always agree with my stomach. I wouldn't mind knowing your recipe if it gives the same nutrients, and calories!

I don't use a "real" recipe. I did however write down what I had done & plugged it into a nutritional calculator. It only gave me a rough idea of the nutritional values as I used dehydrated ingredients. Sorry but I have not been able to find what I wrote down.

This year I took what was "left over" from canning salsa. Meaning it was just a bit left in the pot, not enough to do full a full batch in the canner so maybe 6 cups. (tomatoes, onions, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, scotch bonnet peppers, garlic, salt,pepper,lime juice)

Then I added what I had left of:
carrots
beets
onions
celery
tomatoes

I played with the taste until I got it the way I liked it. I ended up adding dehydrated celery and carrots to bring up the flavor as I used up all the fresh that I had on hand.

Inspite of reminding mom to charge her phone in case of a power outage, I found out last night she didn't listen. Guess I need to find a charger for her phone that runs on batteries.

In spite of efforts over the last few days to just grin and bear it with all the fans going, I finally broke down yesterday evening and started up the window A/C.
I really don't think it cooled the whole house down that much, as it was never intended to be strong enough for that, but it did cool it a couple of degrees and most importantly cut the humidity.
Until this breaks, I plan on keeping the house shut down with all windows and doors closed to keep it as comfortable as possible.

We have been suffering in the heat, I do not have AC, so that is not a choice that can be made, we do have ways to cut the sun but as we need the breeze if there is one, closing the windows is not a help at our place, we have a a few huge old old grandfather trees and the breeze comes thought them, cools off and then comes into the house, the upstairs is mainly closed off most of the year, being used for storage and guests, the main floor in the heat of the summer is reasonable in the morning and the late evening otherwise, we live in the basement of the new part of the house, the old house cellar is just that a cellar but otherwise, light cloths, soaking things in cold water and then putting them back on, working in the cool of the morning and late evening and staying quiet during the day..

As for the critters, the key is them having full access to the barn 24/7 as its at least ten degree's cooler, the fans are working during the day and the windows are full open for any breeze that can be caught day or night, and making sure you go out at least three times a day and check water levels, the rest is really up to them.

We have one very small AC upstairs and it keeps the house dehumidified for the most part. Upstairs is a sauna without it right now. We always have a breeze and in the past few years we got away without the AC but this week I caved in too 🙂 Being outside haying all afternoon yesterday it was a real delight to come into what felt like a REALLY cool house! Today it's do the necessary things and water the animals and sit and read another book. the problem with being stuck in house is seeing all the housework I should have done in the last month while I was busy with other things!

We have a box fan running for the meatie birds and we pour water on the grass where they sit most of the day to cool them down -poor things are really hot.

I stay away from any place with air conditioning and do not use it in the car when the temperature goes up. The reason is that exposure to the luxuries actually makes it harder to acclimate. I cool shower before bed will reset body temp. to get to sleep and a fan if necessary but avoid using the fan if possible as well. That being said, I have no health issues to cause complications.

I do not do hard labour between noon and 3pm but I will still be out and about doing light labour. I have to do my work no matter what, and trying to work in the later evenings outdoors is next to impossible because of bugs. A bug suit is not something to add to a hot day.

I have ridden (horse) in many 80 and 160km horse races in the desert in Egypt at 35+C temps. That means 8-14 hours out in the sun on a galloping horse. There is quite a lot of humidity there because of de Nile. We poured water over our horses and sqeegeed them off to keep their body temps. down even though it was against the rules for endurance racing. ( and yes, there is some truth to the movie Hidalgo) The reason I bring this up is that if you need to cool off in a hurry, it is not enough to pour water on. It must be removed immediately or the water will collect body heat and actually trap more heat in the body. I raced with a heart monitor on my horse and myself, so I really know how some of this stuff works in real life.

So its water on; water off as a general rule for cooling. As riders we poured water over our heads and the breeze from the galloping horse cooled us off. You never wanted to soak your shirt or it would trap the body heat and you could get into some serious trouble. There is also some interesting cooling vests and neck wraps made specifically for endurance riders which are designed to block the heat and keep you cool. They actually do work. I had a neck scarf version that I used as a head band. Another thing is if you are out doors in the sun and struggling with the heat, rig up some Arab head gear with a baseball cap and a light cotton table cloth. The cloth flowing down your back will actually help keep you cool. Those dudes/duddetts wear "dresses/gallabayahs" for a good reason. You will see lots of tourists adapting the head gear very quickly during the summer.

Wow thank you.

I have never even heard of endurance riding never mind what goes into it. I will have to google a cooling vest now 🙂

Any more helpful hints that you can share? The older I get the more I find temperatures effect me. I will normally wear a muscle shirt under a t-shirt in the summer. I have found that when it gets soaked with sweat any little breeze will help me cool down. Based on your post it sounds like I am doing the wrong thing.

Old School,

You really want loose clothing with venting. Any body hugging garment will soak up the sweat (read water soaked shirt) and keep you from cooling off. Enough salts building up in the weave of the fabric will also reduce its breathability. Check out sports stores for some of those newer exercise fabrics; they are designed not to absorb the sweat but to wick it away or force it to run down your body rather then soaking into the cloth. One kind of expensive, exercise shirt, will do you if you rinse it out every night. They dry quickly. I don't like them because they are tighter fitting for fashion and feel like plastic.

Tilley also makes great clothing. Expensive but very durable and guaranteed. They are loose fitting with side,back and pit vents. They also have sizing charts so the clothing fits properly to do the job it was designed for. They have pants, shorts, shirts and unmentionables. You might end up looking like Dr. Livingstone, but I for one am a comfort geek; not a fashion freak. l have had Tilley shirts last for 5-10 yrs. Don't know what the quality is now as I am still using the old ones. The only hat I will buy is Tilley. Guaranteed for life. I have gone through a few because sweat damages the sweat bands in the hat ( 40+km day horse back for six years in 30-40C heat/sun) Brought them back to Canada to a Tilley dealer and picked out a new hat whenever I could no longer sew the brim to the top and we were back in Canada for home leave. No arguments ever about handing over a hat on the spot with presentation of the old one.

Omg I had forgotten all about Tilley.

Thank you for all the info. It sounds like you have lived an amazing life.

oldduck

I have taken to giving my brandy girl a cool shower in these hot hot days, she tends to roll afterwards (this not a hard working horse at that time, she is just hanging around, being a pasture pony on a hot summer day) I never take the water off her, I do have the equipment to do so, for when she has been worked and is sweaty..

Never had a issue with it to date, any reason to change my way of doing things? typically after a really long ride, we swim the horse though the pond and then they roll..

Farmgal, I will post again later. I have had my post eaten 3x already and it refused to save as well.

oldduck

I have taken to giving my brandy girl a cool shower in these hot hot days, she tends to roll afterwards (this not a hard working horse at that time, she is just hanging around, being a pasture pony on a hot summer day) I never take the water off her, I do have the equipment to do so, for when she has been worked and is sweaty..

Never had a issue with it to date, any reason to change my way of doing things? typically after a really long ride, we swim the horse though the pond and then they roll..

No need to change your ways for pasture Brandy, but, for working Brandy, I most definitely would scrape even if taking it easy.

The way to tell if a horse is completely cooled down is to place the flat of your hand underneath between the front legs and wait to see if the body temp. rises over a few minutes time. If it does, its rinse, scrape and re-check until the body temp. stabilizes. Running water over the jugular vein and flanks is where most of the cooling effect takes place. I am pretty sure you are not working her the way I would work an endurance horse, however, I have seen too many horses go down with the thumps, die, or have heart attacks to not take a few minutes to scrape in high heat/humidity situations.