[FONT=georgia,palatino]July has been no fun and it still isn't over. Yes, its the 30th but the next 24 hrs. will just lead up to Aug. Okay, so we had a beautiful June. Temps in the 80's and 90's, cool evenings, smiles all around though everyone knew what was coming. Then July 4 it all started. Every day over 100, nights in the high 70's. I'm out in the back every day watering down the grass in the shade to keep it in the 90's back there (praise God for a fruitless mullberry that shades 2/3 of the yard including the bunny hutches and the chicken coop). And yes, I mist the chickens and bunnies at least twice a day and lug out 12 frozen soda bottles for the sweeties or should I say sweaties. By noon the dog comes in and the chickens are let out of their hot home to free range the backyard. First thing they do is run for the flower beds to roll in the cool dirt below the rose bushes. Then the dusty beautys stroll around the yard snooping into every corner, looking for bugs (thank you very much). When one finds a payload, everyone comes running, and I mean running. They look so funny with their heads thrust forward and their wings flapping so as to get there faster. Now and then a sparrow, coming down to see what the commotion is all about, startles the girls and they all scurry to safety though they are 50 times as big. Then they have to talk all about it, complaining and griping about what this world is coming to. When the banty gets to close to my standards they let her know in no uncertain terms she is not welcome. This of course brings back my school days with its cliques and such and I let them know there will be none of that here. You'd think that would make the bany nicer to my tweenie EE but she is the same kind of bully to her. Little does she know the EE will one day be bigger than her and exact her revenge. Boy does this all sound like our human world or what. At least twice in the day I move the bunnies in portable cages to better shade which can be quite heavy with the frozen bottles rolling around. Oops, sorry mr. bunny, I didn't mean to roll that bottle over your foot. Fans are whirling, chickens clucking contentedly, misters spewing sweet coolness on me and mine. The temp is what? 106!! Thank God, not in our backyard......we must live in Bakersfield when we say its ONLY 97 degrees....but any time we can keep it under 100 in the backyard, we feel victorious. But sadly, two of our bunnies died. Not the heat necessarily, they had snuffles which is so hard to fight. Between that and the heat it was too much for them. How I envy people with enough room to put up a barn with large fans or coolers. Sometimes I wonder if its fair to animals to make them live in such a hot place but we do our best. The cats stay out front in the bushes we wet down daily or twice daily, the other animals in the back. Its time consuming work, the care and feeding of all these animalsespecially on a hot day, but worth it. Today its only supposed to be 98 which means high eighties in the back.....almost paradise. There's a reason God gave us the seasons, I'm not really complaining. Its just that its sooooooo hot...........[/FONT]