Weather effects and affects

The weather this summer sure has been interesting.  While we’ve had storms cross our farm and fields, they’ve done nothing worse than lay the wheat down and drop a lot of rain.  The wheat won’t ripen as evenly and will be harder to combine, but we will still have a crop.

The EF3 tornado that ripped through 6 (some reports say 9, but included uninhabited farmsteads) farms with varying amounts of damage occurred 15 to 20 miles from our home.  We were watching the storm all evening because it was originally tracking right through our farm.  The kids were sent to the basement, but when the track changed, we called them up for supper.  We didn’t find out, until the next day, how damaging the storm had been.

A rancher in the area lost around 200 cattle due to the excessive heat.  The cattle had access to water, and they tried to get help to spray the cattle down, but all this action … the storm and excessive heat… were happening at the same time.  The heat and humidity have been stifling for animals and humans.  Another farmer was able to get the fire department out to help cool his cattle down … access to running water, (a garden hose won’t cut it), near the cattle is the issue. 

We’ve been able to keep our hogs and sheep cool by spraying with water and running fans, but we have a small number and access to water near the barn.  And thankfully, the overhead fan in the Wahoo works!  It’s helped tremendously in keeping the chicks cool in this heat and we haven’t lost any to date.

And a haboob in AZ??  Do these normally happen in the US??  If they do, I’m too far North to have heard about it, I guess.

We are not done with the heat and humidity.  Stay cool everyone!