We are suffering. It is too hot to swim until the evening.
I am watching Wimbledon and the dog is prostrate on the tiles, which are warm.
We are pleaed that we have no guests in the gite for the next two weeks, as it is too hot to do the changeover.
Any helpful suggestions welcome.
I don't handle the heat at all well. Even mid 20s is too much for me. I neither like the heat not the feeling of the sun burning my skin. These last few weeks, I've only been working (outside) up until 10 or 11am, after that it's just too much. I find around 18c is my ideal.
I do a bit of cycling and summer is my off season. I can dress against the cold and the rain but there's little I can do about the sun. So I'm limited to rides before 9am. That said, it's lovely out at 6 or 7am.
We had a wonderful day yesterday, 24 guests for lunch and we brought out our old cheap plastic tent which gave us shade from the direct sunlight. It was not too hot and a good time was had by all.
The sweltering temperatures are forecast again for the end of the week and, perhaps, some rain on Saturday.
We moved into our new very old house in the Gironde in May & were very cold in the evening. Couldn't face lighting the wood-burner & the 1.5kw fan heater from the Hymer just wasn't enough-we had another 4.5kw in the motorhome!
Our answer was a little Dyson hot+cool that heated us nicely in May & now cools us on hot evenings. Also within the house price was an American Fridge-freezer that gives us filtered cold water, ice-cubes or crushed ice. Great for us & for the dog's water. Our miniature schnauzer is cut fairly short so he's OK, but collies & labradors really suffer. However, you can get water-filled cool coats that I think cools the hound through evaporation.
When it has been burning hot on the front have shut the shutters & the windows & that seems to have worked. Flies have been annoying. However, have worked out in the Hymer we had fly-screens & a door-screen so that's my next work in progress!
All the best,
Roger
Thank goodness we have had a cooler day.
We now have guests in the gite from Saturday. Australians who are happy to join in with us on the party we planned whilst we had no guests.
Coping well here with 2 foot thick stone walls and at 860m in a village with a nice swimming lac .....to hot to sit on my terrace for to long so haveto make do with the bar down the road ....;0) hot hot hot Im loving it .... oh and also lost 5 pounds this week .. life is good, it dont help if your over weight and take no exercise a good walk in the morning makes you feel cooler in the afternoon
Really useful info Brian, and we'll be doing the lab run in a few days!
Yes, we're doing that and it does help but still pretty hot by about half three.
Michelle, have you tried closing windows and drawing blinds in the morning room to keep some of the cool for the afternoon?
John, You can get crash helmets with air vents at front, which help. Open face with visor allow air to circulate better. When I used to ride in the Australian summer (35-45), I would wear a t-shirt under my leather jacket, which had press studs at upper and lower ends, so I could then leave the zip partly undone to let air circulate. It was hot when I stopped but pleasant on the move.
Where is Norman,
I miss his wisdom and advice.
I am suffering each afternoon, so getting up at 5.30am, working until lunch, taking a long siesta, coming back to life around 5pm, staying outside in the balmy air until as late as midnight. Tres mediterranean.
Storms promised today. Can not wait.
What I understood from the Chileans was that they do not mind heat of itself, but it is extreme dry that they can't cope with. Atacama is less than 10% humidity, perspiration does not seem to happen to us although it is not really much hotter than the highlands where llamas are native. Best of luck with them, I have lived among them (and vicuñas) a bit when I worked in the Andes and am quite fond of the beasts.
Don't worry to much, they will all be OK. If they get really bad we will simply shear them which will allow the heat to dissipate more easily, all the other llamas are doing fine. All the females are pregnant and this may have a contributory factor with the 2 that are suffering the worst. If they get to hot we get them to stand outside and I hose them down underneath and over the chest, if we were really worried we would bring the 2 that suffer the worst into the house where it is a lot cooler. The temperatures here are the worst they have been since we moved to France.
Only 2 out of 10 llamas have suffered from the heat, 3 of the llamas were laying out in the sun fast asleep the other day with temperatures of 34 degs and no wind. The heat only seems to effect certain of the llamas and the others are all OK with it. :-)
Yes, easy enough. Get a small bottle with a reliable, tight top. Sterilise it by steaming it upside down or filling with boiling water then drying upside down, do the top as well. Lower it down the well with a weight tied below the bottle so that it goes under and fills from the top rather than bobbing about getting nothing. Take the bottle to your local laboratory - the place where they do blood tests and so on. If you do not know where your local one is ask the pharmacy, mairie or where they can say immediately. Get the water there as fast as possible, tell them what it is and then you should get results back in a few hours or next day. It is not expensive.
Our is good enough to drink but not classifiable as that. Local springs have dried up so I plumbed and have one and a half metres right now. That is not to be relied on since water tables can drop like a stone. Farmers are getting their rolls of hay in because they expect storms soon, a decent one will replenish the springs.
I was in the Atacama Desert, the Chileans have (at that time anyway, three decades back) imported camels to cope with the driest place in the world having failed with llamas, they dehydrate too quickly.
Brian we too have a well but i never have had the purity checked to see how clean it is.
Anyone have any ideas how I can do this please,
regards
geoff
Now, on top of too many other worries, I am also worrying about your llamas! I hope they make it through in perfect health!
Been a struggle here, we are building an extension but have had to stop because it is to hot for the mortar to set properly, also we are constantly having to check our llamas for signs of heat stroke and so far have had to take quick action twice now, once they start going down with heat stroke you have about 30 mins to take action and save them. The dogs sit inside with us and we have an aircon unit running all day to make sure they stay cool. Here the heat is meant to break tomorrow....fingers crossed.