Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 576)

Hello Everyone!

A very early start, Hiking after dawn, The heat-tsunami & Finding another deceased bird!

I woke up super early this morning around four o'clock and found myself having to wrap up yesterday's entry because I fell fast asleep before I could finish spelling it out and getting it shared last night. One moment I was happily typing away and almost finished with said entry and the next moment I was 'resting my eyes' which promptly lead to me falling into a deep sleep.

The rest was good and all but I really dislike not getting that entry done in a timely manner and having to edit it first thing in the morning when my editing skills are at their poorest. Do not get me wrong there because I love writing in the wee hours of the morning but my brain is assuredly not in the editing mode during that time!

Anyway, yesterday was kind of exhausting because I wound up securing a bunch of stuff against high winds, hiking around a good bit, enduring a nerve-racking thunderstorm and more or less being on edge over the heatwave conditions. Not that I stressed myself out more than what was necessary over it all... but yeah I do take the dangers of that kind of scenario quite seriously.

As far as that big storm that hit here goes... I was rather relieved that it happened because it brought with it a bout of torrential rain that soaked everything in short order. Which yeah was a welcome sight given how previously dry everything was and how many days in a row of high temperatures and a scorching heat index that we are enduring and about to be enduring many days of going forward.

The wild thing is that most of that moisture will most likely evaporate today once the sun is fully up just because of how frigging hot it will be again. I could be wrong on that account though because there is another strong storm set to arrive late in the day so perhaps it will just be muggy and humid! I actually hope that it works out that way and we get plenty of rain.

Lightning strikes are my real concern as far as the storms go but that one yesterday was packing sixty mile per hour winds and quarter sized hail so there is absolutely more to be concerned about than just the fire hazard of the lightning! Once again listening to the weather on one of my radios for alerts was handy but whoa it gets a bit intense feeling hearing the emergency alert sounds it makes before a broadcast!

Seriously though, I do need to pay as much attention as I can to the weather and the surrounding area over what looks like the better part of the next two weeks. As I was saying a few days ago some 'heightened vigilance' is in order and although I am not going to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off... I might do it like a chicken whose head 'might' get cut off if it is inattentive!

As dodgy as that may sound it really is 'par for the course so to speak' and although I have never been caught in such a long heatwave with temperatures as high as these I do have plenty of experience with lesser ones. That being said I know to keep a wary eye on the horizon for smoke and storm clouds while simultaneously doing everything in my vicinity to minimize the potential for fire.

One thing is for sure and that is that I am so happy that I spent a bunch of time (since my arrival here) cutting back brush, clearing trails and creating fire breaks. If I were trying to do all that jazz right now it would be absolutely brutal not to mention that I could never do as much as I have already done in the time now available.

Okay, the sun set a while back and it is getting late in the evening so I better get to wrapping this entry up lest what happened to me last night repeat itself. Having woken up so early (and neglecting to take a nap) I am already feeling a bit tired but overall it was a rather nice day as long as I remained indoors.

I am thinking that the term 'heat-tsunami' might be more accurate than 'heatwave' for how the weather has been and yup by the end of the day most of that rain from yesterday had already evaporated and like I said before it was a lot of frigging water! Although a late day storm was anticipated to arrive it missed us entirely and blew off towards the northwest.

All in all the day was oppressively hot outdoors and I once again found myself spraying water around the chicken coop to help keep it cool. I have also been refilling all their water dishes as soon as they reach halfway just to stay a bit more ahead on it than usual.

Very early today when the sun had barely risen I went for a hike and while looking for a way to access a large blackberry patch I found another deceased bird. This was another white bird but its wings were still there so that big white wing that I previously found was not from it.

At this point I am beginning to wonder if I should start running the dogs through that entire area of the property come winter when the snakes are hibernating. Whatever is killing all those birds needs to get driven off one way or another and 'scenting' the area up with a bunch of dog activity might do it.

Anyway, I have to call this entry good enough and get on with the editing. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.