Yeah, we're sick, sick, sick of the blast furnace
Things we do to combat the heat:
First thing in the morning close all the windows and pull the curtains. When the sun goes down reverse the procedure and open everything up.
We're fortunate to have ceiling fans in most rooms. Wetting a lightweight cloth (eg. a sarong), draping it over oneself and lying under said fans works surprisingly well. So does dunking under the shower and standing under the fan (without drying off.first).
Swimming. We live only a few blocks from the outdoor pool, and there are some nice swimming spots along the Tambo River for young kids. My older kids, who can swim reasonably well, swim in the Mitchell River which is also only a few blocks from our house. It's deep though, too deep for novice swimmers.
At Bark Sheds on the Tambo River.
The dog doesn't mind a dip, but she has march fly phobia. Just some buzzing caused her to run to the car and try and launch herself in the (open) window to get away!
Note human feet in the background - that's the husband on his folding chair cooling his feet in the river. Another thing that's nice at home is to put your feet in a bucket of cool water.
I don't use the stove at all. We have a barbeque with a wok burner. You can't use both at once though! It's the burner OR the barby. The best precaution I took before this hot spell (hot spell? freakin' Hell's Gate) was to pick most of the lettuce crop, wash and dry it and put it in bags in the fridge. So, we've been having these salads...amazing what you can add, vary the dressing you make and Bob's your uncle: different salad every night! What I didn't pick of the lettuce crop has started bolting to seed and generally looks very sad.
The garden is surviving, mostly. A couple of pittosporum that hedge the driveway have very crispy leaves, not a good sign. I try and water the most vulnerable plants every night - vegies, things in pots, the portable garden which is in foam boxes. You know, if you hose your feet and legs as you water it's very cooling.
If you're a dog you dig monstrous bear pits all over the place, as the soil dries out and warms up, well, you just dig deeper...and deeper.
I've used some of the hot weather to make a prototype pair of pants - almost done. Here's a pic. of my sewing machine lurking in the gloom!
How about that sun trying to penetrate the double-layer roman blind (west facing window).
Here's the muslin nearly done. Then I am going to use it to make about four pairs of pants.
No "proper" sewing can be done - it's too damn hot to have an iron going. Why add to the furnace.
Oh yes, the muslin uses an old bed sheet from the op-shop.
Thoroughly spoilt by a cooler start to summer, we are now copping it! Roll on the cool change (make it sooner, rather than later...please).
