Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to tell you how roasting I am, among other things. You may remember me from such posts as “Ultra Roasting”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It’s 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.8C) today. Way too hot for purebred border collies. Only 19 percent humidity, though.
Last week we had a torrential downpour which was pretty scary. There was a bit of hail, but so much rain, so quickly, that some of our neighbors’ yards flooded for a while.
And now I’m roasting. The guy I live with said it’s supposed to be hot all this week, but he did install another fort for me down in the basement, where it’s a lot cooler.
The heat causes trouble for newly-planted plants, so the guy I live with constantly has to remember to fill the heavy watering can and go out into the garden.
There are a couple of plants of Salvia pachyphylla on the flagstone which need extra attention.
As you can see, these are pretty big plants, but the pots they came in were pretty small, so the salvias are being treated to the “super genius” method, and that very porous mix surrounding the rootball can dry out very quickly in heat like this.
As soon as the roots have left the rootball, the plants can be planted out, though they’ll still need to be watered.
Speaking of water, last Monday, on my morning walk, there were people from the parks department out in the field. I walked up to them, and the guy I live with introduced the people to the sinkhole’s discoverer, me. They were very impressed.
It turns out that the 48-inch (122mm) pipe has a collar (I could relate to that) that separated during the big flood, and that caused the sinkhole.
Either the collar will have to be replaced, or the entire culvert will be. That means digging under the canal.
There’s going to be a bunch of work done out in the field. It might be scary. But the guy I live with, and at least one of his neighbors, says this will be very interesting to watch.
Another thing, and this can only be described as a “valuable addition to our modern lifestyle” (especially mine) is this:
It took a lot longer to install than the instructions said it would, partly because of the old, cheap windows, and partly because the guy I live with kept incorrectly measuring the boards needed to tilt the air conditioner slightly outward. He finally got it right, though.
So now my bedroom is air-conditioned, and I have the portable swamp cooler in the kitchen.
The swamp cooler makes a pleasant gurgling sound, and keeps the kitchen, the room where we are the most, very cool, so there’s really no reason to leave the house now, except to go on walks.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me, in the kitchen, with the swamp cooler running.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
” 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.8C) today. Way too hot for purebred border collies.”… “So now my bedroom is air-conditioned”… Ain’t it grand to be so loved? Mrs. Paridevita smiles.
The new air conditioner is pretty nice. Kind of loud, though, but so was the fan.
YIKESS iss far two *hot* for a purebred Collie an his Guy fore sure Mani!
Our tempyture iss 77 with Hue-midity makin it feel like 86 deegreess! It was *Hotter* this afturnoon….feelin like mid 90’ss! An mee flor fan died.
HURRAH fore A/Cee!! That will help THE Swamp Monster keep youss’ kewl.
An yore kitchen fort lookss cozy……
That iss sumthin about youss’ meetin THE peepell an lettin them know YOU disscovurred THE Sinkhole….wunder if they give you a medal or award???
Pleese stay hydrated an do not over ‘xert OKay?
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an 🙂 BellaSita Mum
I kind of agree that maybe I should get a medal. We looked into the sinkhole the other day and now it’s way deeper. Scary.
It was pretty got today but we didn’t do anything.
A purrty shiny medal you cuud put on collar or yore leed to shwo efurryone how clevurr you are Mani 😉 And hole iss BIIGER??? EEEKKK!
Iss *hot* heer two….not as bad as youss’…end of week it will bee tho’!!! More EEEKKK!
I agree. The guy I live with said he noticed that when I saw a deep hole when they were doing directional boring, I jumped backward, and that’s what I did when I saw the sinkhole.
Humans walk up to the holes and look into them.
Well, at least it was not humid. It was a bit warmer than that here, and uncomfortably humid. I suppose that it was not too terrible, but it was a bit excessive by local standards. The weather had been terribly hot in other parts of California! Rhody likes air conditioning in the vehicles, which means that I must keep all the windows up, . . . which I am not so keen on. I can not argue with him though.
The guy I live with says he’s not thrilled having to have the windows closed in the upstairs bedroom, but the thing is, even though the fan was perfectly okay, there are people in this neighborhood who burn wood at night, and the fan can’t be on then.
We could still have the fan in the other window, if we wanted.
They want heat at night after such warm weather? They must like to barbecue. My closest neighbor here has a mental disorder that compels her to burn electronics. Ick!
The guy I live with said he has no idea why people think burning wood on a summer night is fun. Autumn or winter, sure.
Yes, . . . it seems sort of weird. I like a nice fireplace for warmth when the weather is cool, but it is pointless if the fire is not being used for anything. We have fire pits at work, which are very popular meeting places among the guests, but they use propane instead of wood. That is nice for those who dislike smoke, but again, seems rather odd. We have so much wood to burn here, but burn very little of it.
People just like burning wood here. Maybe it’s only one or two people, but like last summer, it was every single night.
I like burning wood also, . . . but for a purpose, like for cooking or heating.
It seems pretty pointless to burn wood when it’s ninety degrees, but people do pointless stuff.
Well, yes, but canine people and some human people, and perhaps even a few feline people, are pretty awesome!
Goodness, you are certainly having challenging times. Rain has been persistent here and the ground is now saturated but not to the extent to be of any concern. Temperatures are pleasant. Stay close to the Swamp Cooler!
Yes, well, the heat is typical for here. The guy I live with says next week will be cooler.
But not much gardening is going on during the day.
Those parting pictures are darling! Lee
Thanks. It doesn’t take much effort on my part.
Hu’manss are so funny rite Mani?? They walk two danger where wee walk away!
Hu’manss NEED us more than they nose 😉
They really do.
250% purr cent Mani 😉
Yep.
Stay as cool as you can, Mani. We’ve come to the conclusion we’re totally over this whole summer thing. Let the countdown to autumn begin…59 days and counting.
The guy I live with said today that he was ready for snow. I think he was exaggerating a bit.
It did sprinkle here today, and yesterday.
I’m with the man you live with, Mani. 56 days until autumn arrives and it can’t come soon enough. We experienced a small shower a couple of days ago and triple hope for more soon. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
It sprinkled here about three days in a row. The guy I live with said we might get some rain next week, but with the temperatures being so hot it might not be much rain.
He said that back in the 1970s he used to drive his Ford Pinto up into the mountains, up Turkey Creek Canyon to where a friend lived, and it rained there every afternoon. Sometimes not much, sometimes a lot.
Though that was before he met his wife, he remembers that as a mostly happy time.
Yep… 😉