Keeping Cool

We had dangerously high heat and humidity in early July but this summer, Crossville and the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee experienced their most significant extreme heat and dangerous heat advisories from August 14th-17th, with heat indices soaring past 100°F to near 105°F - 113°F.  There was no escaping the heat, we just had to find ways to keep cool, like staying inside the air-conditioning.  But livestock and wildlife don't have that luxury, nor do people with outside jobs.

Saturday 8/15 - This was the first morning, in the past 21 days (since Sat. July 25th) that I didn't have any commitments by or before 9am.  Therefore I planned to have a lazy morning and not go anywhere, so I could just sit here and get caught up on last week's blog. 
Mama Styx napping overhead.  
I copied the photo of Amiga keeping cool, from this (video) Patty sent.







This next photo is of Rico keeping cool, not going too deep in the water but happy with the mud, as seen in this (video) Patty took right after the previous one.  






I was at the gym mid-day, but struggled throughout my whole workout.  I was hot (even in the AC), tired, and unmotivated.  I pushed through about 2/3rds of my full body workout and then quit, not even doing stretch and balance.  I was done. 
 

Joe and I went to Speaker Cameron Sexton's 6th Annual Burgers & Brew event at Oaklawn Farms.  It was a large political gathering and community celebration that drew over 2,000 attendees.  I was amazed at how many people were there and ended up running into several I knew.  We were all trying to keep cool on this hotter than usual summer evening.

Joe and I had gone for free burgers and beer, but they also had hotdogs, chips, ice cream and wine along with lots of non-alcoholic drinks.  We enjoyed our meal while listening to the band that played good music. 

Speaker Cameron Sexton spoke and so did Governor Bill Lee and Lieutenant Governor / Senate Speaker Randy McNally.  







One thing that Sexton said was that during the general assembly, when they stood to recite the pledge of allegiance, the 'other half' of the politicians remained seated and did not participate.  I just don't get this disrespect for our country's flag.

We stopped in at the ranch to see if the solar light atop the flagpole was working, and enjoyed the sunset while waiting for it to get dark enough for the flagpole light to come on.  

The boys from the lower paddock like to visit with the Pasos in the upper paddock.  Rico was fraternizing with Rosco over the fence, itching his rump for him.

We couldn't see the light on the flag and feared it wasn't working, but when we got closer we saw that it was on.



The light actually only shines on the flag and is not bright enough to illuminate the ground beneath it.  






It was nearing my 9pm bedtime, by the time we got home.

Sunday 8/16 - Holy smokes, August is already half over and most schools are back in session.  The temperature was 7° higher than the day's average.

Mama Styx trying to ignore Cookie.  







I was lethargic at Church, struggling to stay standing during all the songs which I am usually boogieing to.  I felt like napping instead.

Cookie wanting to spur the cat into a good game of chase.  Styx was not taking the bait.

I hit the grocery store before coming home after church.  I ate a big lunch (I bought at Food City) and then tried to get my Sunday weekly chores done, but ended up taking a nap.

To keep cool during my shift at the pool, I turned on the AC in the office and stayed in there much of the time.  We had a huge crowd, many who stayed late (up until 6pm closing time) so I was later than usual getting home.  It didn't help that I couldn't get the time clock function on my phone or computer to work.

I got this photo of Rico and Zorro grooming each other, off of this (video) Patty sent when she was at the ranch doing chores.

When I finally did get home, poor Cookie had really needed to relieve herself.  Thankfully she did not have an accident in her crate.  Then she was a ball of energy and I knew needed a longer walk, but I was too hot and tired. 

Later, after I'd feed both dogs and five cats, cleaned all the litter boxes and showered, I took Cookie for a walk, twice around the church... better than nothing.
 

Monday 8/17 - We were still under a heat advisory today.

The only photos I took today were at Mirror Lake Blast, which got rained on and had a very small crowd.  

My pool shift was not near as busy, but still extremely hot.  I was struggling with the time clock app. again and finally after work I went to The Center to have my supervisor help me with it.  
Once home I did 1½ loads of laundry and other various household tasks.  Before I new it (not having a chance to rest) it was time to go to Mirror Lake Blast.

We got hit with rain 30 minutes into the show.  Thankfully the major storm system missed us, but the majority of people left while the band played on.  It only rained about 15 minutes.  

We didn't dance in the rain, but there was a fair amount of dancing that did happened with Amina, Tamera, Micki, and Jake.  I didn't capture the pretty sky in time, but you can see Nitro Kevin and his dad Brian in this photo.
 

Tuesday 8/18 - I saw the black snake that hangs out near our ranch house, working on swallowing a rather large black bird, when I arrived to do morning chores.  










Along with mucking and turn-out of horses, I worked on a few little projects.  Dave and Bonnie were cleaning the water tank in the lower paddock with Rosco's help.  

While working on neatening up the manure pile by the donkey shed, I heard mowers in the back on Hathaway, and went to see.  This photo I took from under the look-out tower.  

I walked out to Hathaway and took this shot of the two tractors with bush-hogs, disappearing down the 'road.'  We all are so glad they are finally mowing the dirt roads.  

I got the dirt better raked around the base of the flag pole and noticed the Mountain View Ranch flag hung-up on the entrance light.  Nuts, not cool.  I worried about that being a possible problem.  

I had been driving on empty for awhile (can go about 30 miles) but decided to go out of my way, on the way home from the ranch, to fill up my tank.  I wanted to be sure to make it to work later in the day.  

Well my 9½ gallon tank was about totally empty.  I had about 3/10ths of a gallon left.

When I got home and was taking off my boots in the garage, while the door was closing, I heard a big bang/crash.  I looked around my car and the door, and nothing was in the way or looked broken.  






Ninety minutes later when I tried to open the garage door to leave for work, after trying various things, I noticed that the spring 'had sprung.'  The door was too heavy to open by hand.  Shirley came to my rescue and took me to work.  Later, near the end of my shift, Joe came and swam and then brought me home.

Wednesday 8/19 -  Karen picked me up at 7:45 since my car was still 'trapped' in the garage.  We were riding early, while it was cooler.  We walked the three Pasos down to the barn and tacked up while Bonnie (who had Rosco ready to go) waited.  Rico startled at the spider web in this photo.

We enjoyed riding the newly mowed Green Mile.
 

The next photo shows Zorro's tail end and Rosco, who Bonnie was trying to keep from 'tail-gating' Zorro.  

All our Pasos tend to crowd the front horse, but none of them mind being crowded.  





Bonnie and Rosco are a great fit.  He is a rock solid trail horse.  He did jump a little when Rico, who was right in front of him, spooked at who knows what.  










Heading home, down Marmaduke to pick up the trail behind Mike and Quanie's (Jem's former place).  

While we had been out riding, Teri came to get some horse time, grooming and loving on Amiga, with Patty's help.  It's a win/win for both Amiga and Teri.

Amiga had been taken back to the upper paddock before we returned, and gotten into the back pasture where Joe was mowing the fence line. 

 



Patty didn't know Joe had left the gate open when she turned Amiga loose.  So Amiga found her way into the back pasture and was running the fence line along the front pasture and lower paddock, yelling like a banshee.  This got Rico all upset and he was yelling back.  He was unmanageable when I walked him up the drive.  He wanted to go straight across the front pasture to Amiga, but the fence was there.  He spun, reared, pulled back on the lead rope and ran circles around me several times.  I kept trying to correct him and calm him, but he had 'lost his mind.'      

Joe and I then got to work with shavings distribution.  First we installed the two 2x4's, for the runners across the front entrance in the lower shed.  We had prepped the spot (dug out the ground) earlier.  









This photo, taken the next day after Joe put gravel down, shows the finished results.  We'll see how long the spots with gravel take to get covered with debris and become muddy again.

After I got the upper sheds mucked out, we then put new shavings in them.  


I do work, when not taking photos, but Joe does the bulk of it.



Joe had brought both dogs out today and Maggie seemed to be her old self while running around at the ranch.





Patty took this series of photos.  











Wanda was delighted to see her old friend, and I think Maggie was equally happy.  




I love seeing animals, pets (and people) get along so well together.  

Patty and Jan having a quiet moment in the shade of the barn with Wanda being very affectionate with Jan. 

Patty took Cookie and I home.  Joe had left with Maggie earlier, to be home for the garage door repairmen.  

While I was finishing up lunch, the repairmen came.  Due to a number of issues, we ended up buying a whole new door and opener system, which won't be here for four weeks.  The guys did a temporary 'fix' of the spring, but warned us to use the door sparingly.   

I got my car out of the garage and went to the gym, but had difficulties getting through my workout.  I was just too tired, spent my energy at the ranch, so quit early.

Thursday 8/20 - We had a rainy morning which temporarily cooled things down, and gave me a good excuse to sit at my computer and work on various clerical things.  But when the sun came out in the afternoon, it quickly got steamy again, with the humidity rising.

I was at the gym over the lunch hour, intending to finish yesterday's workout, but decided to start with aerobic work.  While on the elliptical, my cross and necklace broke.  I didn't even feel it happen.  

I was at the ranch before feeding time, although Wanda and George got fed early while I was getting Amiga ready to ride.

I was going to ride Amiga on the newly mowed roads, but two dirt bike/motorcycles went zooming by on Hathaway just as we were riding through the back gate and I decided to stick to the back woods trail.  







I could hear Rico hollering, off and on, during our whole (short) ride.  When we got back to the barn, I decided to continue my ride, taking Amiga up the lane to her paddock.  In this photo, she is watching Rico (circled in red), who was yelling and running the fence line.  

I suspect this 'buddy sour' problem is something I'm going to have to constantly work on, with it improving the more I work with Rico.  But it's never entirely resolved because he reverts back to bad behavior after a break from being ridden.  

After the Pasos ate, they hung out in the sheds, keeping cool.  Amiga was watching the neighbor's goats.








Amiga and Zorro in the little shed.  





The horses do seem to like having the windows to look out of and they get a good cross breeze sometimes.  It certainly helps keep them cool.

By the time I finished mucking and was ready to leave, all three horses were in the larger shed.  Happy as clams in the mud... Is that how the saying goes? 

Friday 8/21 - I was awake at 1am and up at 2:00.  I got caught up on blogging and saw Joe off at 5am.  He was headed to nephew Ben's in Washington.  He drove his car to Courtney's in Nashville, ubered to the airport, took a plane to Seattle, a train to Pioneer Square, walked to the ferry terminal, rode the ferry boat to Bainbridge Island, and caught a bus to Port Angeles, meeting up with Ben at 10:15pm... a long day of travel. 




My only photos today were at the night's horse show at the Cumberland County Fair.  

After a one hour morning nap, I went to the pool early to start preparing for opening before our 9am pool staff emergency meeting.  Issues of concern included recent slips and falls on the wet deck, intoxication and inebriated behavior, smoking pot in the smokers section, carrying a concealed weapon (small gun) into the pool area, inappropriate (revealing) swimwear and scuffles due to political disagreements.  We were given the protocol on how to handle each incident.

It was a warm, but not a very busy pool shift. 
Both dogs relieved themselves right away after being confined for seven hours.
After a shower, a nap, a snack, and a long dog walk, Shirley picked me up and we headed to the fair.
We had a fun time although were a little disappointed in the running of the horse show, and I had a horrible dinner of chicken, bacon, and ranch nachos.  I made up for my disappointment with a large peanut butter cup ice cream cone.  
Here is our fun crew, starting with Patty and going clockwise; Jen, Joanne, myself, Bonnie, Jan, Judy and Shirley.