Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about what we do in response to hot weather. You may remember me from such posts as “Unbelievably Roasting Hot”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I’m sensibly in my Kitchen Fort, with the swamp cooler blowing on me.
I’ve been sensibly lying in front of the swamp cooler in the kitchen, or the swamp cooler in the living room. At night, I sensibly lie in front of the air conditioner in the bedroom.
I spend most of the day sleeping, which is sensible.
Not the guy I live with. He says this is a perfect time to move gravel, rocks, and set flagstone.
Maybe the heat is affecting him. Or he’s thinking about all the fires and wants to concentrate on something.
He also said it’s going to be 90 degrees (32C) or hotter for the foreseeable future, and that the “weather cavalry”, the monsoon, may never show up, so why not move rocks?
I can think of plenty of good reasons not to move rocks.
The other day he dug up some flagstone in the front yard that was being hidden by vegetation and set it at the end of the path going to the shed. I talked about this in the last post, but here they are. One still hasn’t been set, as you can see.
The hose turned out not to be necessary on the Fourth of July.
He finally decided to spread gravel on the back path. The path is super muddy in the winter, because melting snow runs down it.
I thought the paths looked pretty good when they were dry, which is most of the time.
So he crawled under the hedge of New Mexican privet (Forestiera pubescens), scooped a bunch of gravel into two plastic buckets, dragged the buckets under the hedge to the path where the wheelbarrow was, and ultra-carefully poured the gravel into the wheelbarrow.
Now the path looks like this. The guy I live with admits it looks pretty awful, but assures me it won’t when he’s done with it. For one thing, it still has the fine whitish dust that “new” pea gravel has, and it will darken eventually, if it rains enough.
The empty area on my right will be left empty; that’s my space for observing comings and goings in the green belt.
He ordered some seeds of galleta, Hilaria jamesii, which can be sown now, and will be, bordering the path, here and there. The seeds sometimes have low viability so he ordered a bunch of seeds.
This is galleta.
Look how happy it is, especially compared to the hens and chicks in the dish. It’s more drought tolerant than blue grama or buffalo grass.
And, apparently, since a 90-degree day wouldn’t be complete without moving some heavy rocks, some heavy rocks were moved. 
The bunny-chewed part of the lawn doesn’t look as bad in real life, and as I said, the buffalo grass just grows right back.
So that’s all I have for today. It’s hot. I stay inside making sure the swamp cooler works properly, and the guy I live with moves flagstone, gravel, and rocks.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
The newly graveled path does not look all that bad. It will probably be better than mud.
Thanks. It gets really muddy sometimes, because the back part of the garden is a lot lower than the front part.
Nice pathway, Mani. Stay as cool as you can. I’m so sick of this heat. ‘Only’ 78 days until autumn arrives. Can’t come soon enough in my books.
Thanks. The guy I live with thinks it’s going to be hot forever. He actually doesn’t mind the heat like I do, but he says it would be nice if it rained more, but he also said the places where there are fires need it more than we do, because we hogged all the rain two weeks ago.
You are a very sensible border collie, Mani. I bet you enjoy your new path.
Thanks; I am extremely sensible.
Great looking path. I think Mani has the right idea!
Thanks; I agree. The guy I live with said getting the portable swamp coolers was a good idea. They make a nice gurgling sound.
I tend to think that the amazing downpour we had 2 weeks ago *was* the “weather calvary” and that we are on our own from here on out! Hot and dry – lets see what survives. I’m not confident about the ‘buffalo gourd’ Cucurbita foetidissima in my garden, which has a few more leaves and hasn’t died yet but isn’t exactly taking off; how is your melon experiment going this year?
The guy I live with has pretty much given up on the melons, but he gave away most of them anyway.
We had the buffalo gourd here but it disappeared; maybe bunnies got it.
I admire your friend Mani because as soon as it gets hot I’m in the shade with a cold drink. Fall is a good time to move rocks as it’s cooler. However, the end result will look great. Your new path looks wonderful but probably not as easy on your feet. Will keep you cleaner though. Stay cool
The guy I live with is now horrified by how the path looks and is going to “fix it”. All the paths here have gravel on them except this one, and this is the one that gets the muddiest, except for the area under the arbor.
He says it’s hard to think of anything being muddy right now.
90 F degreess Mani? Mee an BellaSita with you…let’ss go happy nappy neer THE Swamp Kewler!! Mistur Guy you are so-o brave! An purrhapss hot blooded to enjoy THE heet??? Wee think yore place looks grate as it iss….butt wee nose you like to keep busy. Wee bee over heer nappin OKay? **nose bopss** BellaDharma an **giggellss** BellaSita Mum
Thanks. The guy I live with likes hot weather, but not day after day after day of it without any rain.
Wee aGREE with Guy 150% purr cent Mani!! Iss ucky up heer again today hue-mid an rainy…