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I want to bottle up some of today’s air – keep it in some ‘thermally controlled’ mini-space and then open it in February! Can you imagine how neat it would be to bottle up the smell of summer – the hot breeze of a summer day – and the soft humid air of a summer afternoon to bathe in on a frigid February morning. Oh, that would be divine! In the meantime, those of us definitely here in time and space are finding ways to keep our cool on. The jennies are sleeping through the heat of the day in the barns or scavenging in the woods looking for oak leaves and … acorns! Time to start racing them for those acorns each day. Acorns are not good for donkeys and racing is good for me. 😉 Seems shade is the order of the day.
The ‘doorway sheets’ are working quite well. I spray them with insect repellent twice a day. I’m toying with making them a bit longer … as more of a barrier to the bot flies. At one point I was eyeing that lower portion of the doorways and wondering how high the donkeys could step ‘up’ … say … over a screendoor section … still let in the breeze … capture the flies. The bot flies are mean biters. They can land and bite at the same instant. OUCH! I rub the jennies down with Watkins insect repellent cream. But the sandy paddocks seem to make short work of the cream’s effect … at least right at the top of their hooves. Their tails are certainly working over time!!
It is very dry here. When Ede and I walked across the front yard this morning we looked back to see that we’d left footprints. As clearly as if we had walked through snow! The grass just wasn’t able to spring back up after we trod on it. Hmmm … a bit daunting when we’re only halfway through the summer… Interesting season.
The Meadow View 