Sunday, June 29, 2008

It's how hot?

I wouldn't know....exactly.

As some of you have heard, my husband is a bit of a weather nerd. His dream gift this past Christmas was a weather station. He loves to know the precise temperature, the wind speed, the amount of rain fall and, of course, the minimums and maximums of them all. So, we have a lot of different devices for reading temperature and all that other stuff around here, some of which are high tech, some of which are not, but the devices are everywhere.

Since Friday, Oregon has been in a rather sudden heat wave. Yesterday was absolutely sweltering and I decided to check the temperature.

I looked at the kitchen thermometer. Wow, that's hot:

But wait, there are two other thermometers right next to it, all reading different temps. Now I'm confused:

It's clearly HOT, but just EXACTLY how hot is it?

I thought maybe the dresser thermometer would narrow it down a bit.:

But no. None of the thermometers said the same thing.

There's still the thermometer under the eaves to check:

Holy cow! THAT can't be right!

Now, see? Sometimes too much information is a bad thing. If there were only one thermometer, I'd take it for its word, but with so many, I'm now on a quest to find the truth. What's a girl got to do to find out the exact temperature?

I decided to head to my most trustworthy source. I go ask the chickens.

All signs pointed to "very hot" down there with them, too. There was a lot of standing around under the tarp, wings held out, and mouths panting:

There was also a significant amount of activity around the water cooler:

Still, no one would tell me the exact temperature.

Pip, for example, just kept saying the same thing over and over: "Hot, hot, hot":
Rose-Uppity couldn't remove her head from the water pan long enough to even mumble an answer:

Even the coop thermometer was acting all wobbly and imprecise:

There was obviously no sense in even asking the donkeys. They were too busy baking in the sun:

So, I'll leave you with this and we all have to be good with it: It is very, very hot here right now.

P.S.
While I took the advice of one of my commenters NOT to plant anything new during this heat, I was able to harvest something new: yum...English shelling peas:

17 comments:

  1. What a fun post to read! You're right...too much information is not good. I think you chickens are better weathermen than all those thermometers. I've got ONE that is the indoor/outdoor type in the kitchen. I keep a dial thermometer just like yours in the chicken coop. And that's all I really need to know. Cute post!

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  2. You crack me up! You are funny. While I do have a thermometer or two hanging around here and there, I think all I need to know is "very hot" like the chickens told you.

    Your peas are beautiful, and I really like that rooster plate they are sitting on too!

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  3. Okay. Your nerd is now officially 2 for 0. I have to say. We have one thermometer. So, it must always be right,right?

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  4. Um... I bought my husband one of those high tech gadgety weather stations for Christmas! LOL! (Gosh I needed this laugh, Danni - thank you!) We actually ended up taking it back, though. Why? The house we rent is SO OLD and has NEVER been updated - so it couldn't be plugged in! So now - we, too, rely on the hot chicken method of temperature taking! :)

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  5. One of my commenters? That's all I am to you? After all we've been though together, princess? That hurts.

    I must admit that even though today wasn't much better, I planted a couple remaining eggplants and tomatoes that were still in pots in the greenhouse. I got sick of watering them every day, and they were given the choice of surviving a transplant or going straight into the compost.

    How's the donkey scrotum?

    How long I've waited to ask someone that question.

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  6. LOL...I'd be confused, too, but anything above 94 is Darned Hot, whew! Your chickens are lovely, even when near heatstroke. Of course the donkeys continue to be adorable, and your garden looks terrific!

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  7. Very funny post Danni!
    When I buy the feeders for the coop I'll be sure to pick up a dial thermometer too. Just one!
    The peas look great!

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  8. My oldest son is our weather nerd, only he acts like he isn't---too cool for that.:)

    I hope your heat wave passes quickly. It's not right for your part of the world. I can't imagine why the donks are basking in the heat?

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  9. Ha! I love all the thermometers.

    Now, to figure out the true temperature, you just need to come up with a formula that accounts for thermometer placement, wind speed, sun exposure, and humidity for each thermometer, add them all together and divide by pi, subtract the distance of the nearest chicken, and multiply by the square root of the total pounds of your pea harvest.

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  10. Have you thought about being a columnist or children's book writer???? You are so funny. Hope you guys cool down soon :)

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  11. See you don't need a thermometer to tell you it's hot! It's hot here too. At least you guys have "heat waves". That means it will get cool again. We don't get "heat waves". We just get lots and lots of heat!!! It was 93 when I was out at 11:00 this morning!!!

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  12. You had me laughing through this blog, thanks! I think the chickens are a good thermometer to let you know it's hot. With no TV connection, we didn't know Oregon was going through a heat wave. But we're on the coast, in Newport, where it's been in the low 70s and windy. We'll be heading inland tomorrow but we've heard that it's cooling down to the 80s and high 70s this week. I hope the coolness heads your way. BTW, the peas are beautiful. I can almost hear the pods popping as you shell them.

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  13. HAHA, you are funny! Pip is one awesome bird! I'm sorry it's so hot for you!-Here it's only about 70. Enjoy the peas! :-)

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  14. Fun post!

    I especially liked the thermometer on your dresser with the chicken beside it. Looks like it's going "Oh Wow! It's HOT!"

    so it would seem you have a lot of hot chicks at your house.

    Hope your part of the world cools down soon.

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  15. 108 under the eaves?! Yowzers. That yellow chick looks pretty upset about it, too! haha

    The donkeys seem pretty happy. I guess that explains why they can live so easily in the desert and in very hot places.

    The chickens know it's hot though. Poor Pip looks like he wants to take his fluff hat off to cool off abit. He sure is handsome, though.

    I suppose you could gather up all the temps and do an average, and probably round it out to the highest. That seems fair. haha!

    If it was me, I wouldn't have any of those weather stations. Too many choices confuse and stress me, which is why I am not a shopper. So, I'm so glad hubby can do that instead.
    When I want to know the weather, I just go online and check weather.com or wunderground, etc.

    Hope the temps cool off for you soon.
    We've had weird weather here in NM, too. Every afternoon and evening the temps drop from the 80's down to the 50's!
    That's a big drop. Brrr...

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  16. You are really funny!!
    It is not hot here...we have it actually too cool for this time of the year. Oh well. Better than snow ;-) It is in the high 70s today.

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  17. Pip just gets cuter all the time!

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