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The Weather Thread #9

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Hi Beantree, I hope you are feeling better today.  Although its easy for me to say, perhaps use the rest of this year to think about your chooks, how many you have and how they are housed.  I know its super difficult in the temperatures we have, and I am certain you give them the best care possible, but when you are feeling calm, maybe think carefully about the balance between the cost/pleasure ratio.  Your health is not something to take lightly.  I can honestly say the only things I do outside regularly at the moment is to water the tomatoes and some young trees first thing and and last thing, once your core temperature has got out of kilter it is very hard to get it back again.    

As far as the house is concerned, I think we live in similar properties - an old stone building with thick walls.  You may be luckier than me if you have proper French shutters.  I expect you know all about keeping windows closed as soon as its warmer outside (so for me they are open between say 9pm and 9am latest).  I have to say its been a game changer fixing cheap Lidl fly screens on most of the windows (make a frame and take them down at the end of the summer, so they last a few years) so they can all be open at night on the upper storey, meaning we get a decent nights sleep, plus for the very hot nights we use a floor fan.  As far as curtains go, getting blackout linings or having interlined curtains is the only thing that helps, lightweight curtains are a waste of time for me.  I also use black out material, cut to size, and stuck on small door windows (with tape, just temporary), and the down stairs windows that I don't want to leave open.  Essentially we live in darkened rooms during extreme heat, and in fact its completely normal for houses here to have small windows, life is all about keeping the heat out, not letting light in!  We don't cook indoors, just use the barbie, but really we try to eat cold food, or cook first thing and heat through in the microwave so you aren't pushing heat out.

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Slightly better today @Daphne, but I've lost my tolerance to heat and get too hot even at 30C. Said on the TV one of the symptoms was not sweating and on reflection, after being outside for too long on Saturday, that was indeed the case. I had a hat on drank a lot of water and limited my movement but clearly that wasn't enough. You are quite right about the chickens, they are a lot of work, as is the management of this place. But we are running the chicken numbers down naturally; some are quite old now so perhaps won't get through this years moult? Improving the organisation here constantly to reduce the work load but this changing climate, with three heatwaves already this year, is costing a lot of time and slowing progress. The land is now in good shape and getting better every year. Our new wild flower patch, although small, looks great.

We have proper shutters on all the windows (an insurance requirement if away for more than 3 days) and are lucky to have a big elm tree to the East which shades the South of the house until about 10.00am and which we have pruned, so Winter sun isn't affected. We have the fly screens on some windows but can't leave them open at night because it stays hotter than the house until the early hours. 6.00 am everything is opened and then closed, as you say, when the temperature approaches that inside the house. All our lights are low energy, so we aren't heating the inside with them. We also only cook outside once the house is closed up, but we have a big extractor fan in the kitchen chimney, so breakfast isn't a problem. We have power to the barn for the chip fryer, a gas hob and now a decent barbecue. The open-fronted barn overlooks the chicken enclosure and faces East, so wind isn't a problem blowing the gas out. Same as you, we cook early and re-heat it later with the microwave. Summer is the season I don't like, the rest of the year it's great to be here.

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I am wishing you a full and speedy recovery.  Once you have your equilibrium back physically, the rest will be fine, you will feel up to dealing with it.  You are doing everything you can in the house but its a real shame about the night time temps.  I had one summer when I felt I couldn't cope at night, and I was agitating for A/C, but the screens have made the difference (although there is a lot of toing and froing to open/close things depending on prevailing breezes etc).   We are on a ridge, and at 500m, so its probably cooler at night for us.  Is A/C feasible, just in one room, so you always have somewhere to recuperate?

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We used to have a cellar at 18C maximum to escape the heat. Only 20 minutes was enough to recover and cope with another few hours. We have a spot for A/C but it uses an awful amount of electricity, but we do have some out buildings we could just sit in; plenty of spare chairs. We have a new meter here called a 'Linkey', which sends your consumption readings back every day. There have been complaints about headaches which have been upheld, so compensation paid. In our case it set off the smoke alarms at 2.00am so they have gone. Could be (conspiracy theory) that they are able to shut specific meters off in times of high demand? We have generators but they wouldn't be able to supply an air conditioning unit

So earlier I wasn't sweating outside so using an atomiser spray. Now I am, so perhaps I have recovered.

Big bird is watching me type this, in fact she is now on the table looking at the screen. She has a 3" scar but it is fully healed. A low tolerance to temperature but hopefully there are no any underlying problems apart from being very fat.

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News today says that this is probably going to be the driest July since 1958. We might see some rain on Friday, but it's all looking very brown here and the grass crunches under your feet. Reminds me of the Summer of 1976. Temperatures remain at the seasonal normal of 30C but we are among the 90 of 96 'Counties' on drought alert. Means we can't wash the car (which only happens once a year anyway) and watering the wild flower patch can only be done between the hours of 2000 and 0800. Watering vegetables is not restricted. Lots of wildfires breaking out; over 20 times more area burned than this time last year. We've now cut all our pasture land, so there shouldn't be a problem here.

Saw on the news today that England may be drought struck in August?

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We all have adegas (wine making room) which are often under houses, and are always cool (stone).  Ours has a beaten earth floor and is full of wood, so hardly comfortable, but our neighbour takes his siesta in his!

I saw an aerial shot of a major river in Portugal taken one year ago and last week.  The difference is shocking.  It has prompted me to abandon watering everything except one tomato patch and a few perennials I planted earlier in the year which still need to establish.  I can do the perennials using grey water from the house.  We have not had a drought order all the time we've been here, but I won't be surprised if one starts soon.    Have you got an emergency bag/s packed in case of fire?  I strongly urge you to do this, better safe than sorry.  Remember your important documents, a few clothes including long sleeves, water, food, valuables and any sentimental things like photos.  I also pack loo roll, towels, something that smells nice (for a psychological lift), and vaseline/body lotions.  I leave the bags together in one room and forget about them, but we both know where they are.

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On 7/27/2022 at 10:34 AM, Beantree said:

Saw on the news today that England may be drought struck in August?

They’re saying that here (England) it’s been the driest start to a year since 1976. We’re currently officially in Prolonged Dry Weather (apart from the north-west perhaps) but we (I work for the Environment Agency) have activated our drought incident response ‘cells’ and the multi agency government drought group has met to discuss the situation, so I should think we’ll be in ‘drought’ before long. There’s no significant rain in the forecast for southern England. I think the Isle of Man already have hosepipe bans.

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Yesterday it said that Toulouse has only had 1mm of rain this month instead of the normal 40mm. Today they may have had some, because we have full water butts now after 10mm. It was nice to stand outside and get wet. Next week we get our 4th heatwave this year! House full of chickens again.

All our hay is now chopped down @Daphne, so even if we had a dry lightening strike we should be able to control any fire with the hoses. Good idea about the emergency bag though. We have to carry all our important documents with us when we go out, so they are all ready. Haven't any valuables. Couple of pictures can be picked up and put in a bag. The neighbours cut their hay two months earlier in complete disregard for the requests to support the wildlife. But that doesn't leave them with a fire hazard in an early dry spell, so really I can't blame them. The hay is at its best cut mid-May here, but we don't need any anyway and we are trying to improve the land and not degrade it by letting the farm cut it for cattle feed. So I guess we will live with the fire risk.

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I just wanted to check in with you Beantree - are you anywhere near the mega fire?   My OH sent me a pic of the Loire, its even more frighteningly dry than the Tejo is here.  I know there is another heatwave in the UK and you are all on fire alert, just know where your important docs/sentimental stuff is.  As is always the case when the weather in the UK is extreme for some reason or other, our weather here is just normal, so paradoxically we are not in any more danger than usual whilst the rest of Europe is.

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We're a long way off @Daphne, but we can still smell the smoke. Equipment and manpower has been sent from other Countries to help and it seems the big one, which has burned 7400 Hectares in three days, in now under control.

Due to be the hottest day for us today at 39C. We had all the chickens in last night and they will be in again today, starting in an  hour or so. Then the weather begins to break with 36C tomorrow then falling away to 'cold' with rain starting on Monday for several days. The Cou-Nu have been in the back room for nearly two weeks now; only 28C in there. Might take them back up to their parched enclosure on Sunday, if not certainly Monday.

Hope this is the last heatwave of the Summer. Certainly don't want a fifth.

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As beautiful as it is to see the sun every day, sometimes I wish for just a little bit of rain.

We went to friends in the Forest of Dean a couple of weekends ago and it absolutely poured down.

It was so nice to hear and see the rain.

But it didn't rain where we live and hasn't done for ages.

Our water butts are empty and Bonnie, almost 9 months old now, has finally worked out that it is hot and she might as well just go to sleep.

Stay safe in any fires everyone and hopefully rain will come soon.

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At last we've had some rain. A thunderstorm gave us about 30mm and filled both water butts, so added about 1200 litres. We were fortunately at the edge of the storm so no damage. A few kilometres North and it brought hail and strong wind which flattened vegetable plots and wrecked gardens. Temperatures at season normal, so 16C in the morning and 28C in the afternoon. The house is now a reasonable 22C, but we are still opening everything up in the morning to try and get it lower.

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Not really noticed as most of my ducks are either looking after their growing broods or moulting.  In the case of the two hens left, Fudge has gone broody for the umpteenth time, while Fizz looks like a naked neck but with a beard and it looked like she sneezed and a load of feathers dropped in a ring around her!  I have to say it's a better time to moult and not when the weather gets cold.

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Some of ours stopped laying in the heat, but largely due to the change in environment when they went into the kitchen back room to keep them cool. For some the heat seems to have triggered a moult, so they have stopped laying and there are feathers everywhere. Perhaps all of yours are going to moult @Gezsan?

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About half of mine are moulting and most of the others have stopped laying so I only have one out of ten laying at the moment 🙄 I don’t think it’s the weather though, I think it’s fairly normal for my pure breed bantams at this time of year.

MUCH cooler here in Cornwall now too. 20 by day and 16 by night - we also had massive thunder storms that filled the water butts and have since had a bit of misty drizzle which is really good for no one.

Our reservoir’s are at below 50% full and we have a hosepipe ban in place.

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At last some rain! We've had a few isolated showers at the end of a 10 week dry spell which provided enough water to pump to keep the wild flower patch going. Now we've had showers for two days now, so no watering of anything. With a strong West wind we were going to put the debris netting windbreaks down on the top enclosure, but the ground is still too dry to push the bottom pegs in. The rain falls and is absorbed completely, but the ground hasn't softened at all. Perhaps the thunderstorms due tomorrow will actually arrive and do something?

What concerns us is next year. Will we have enough rain over Winter to restore ground water levels or are we going to have a full season of hosepipe bans? Said on a news report earlier that 70% of the water is used by agriculture, 20% by industry and just 10% is domestic. Perhaps agriculture and industry should be doing more, because the cost of putting in more water butts here is far too much for us with the current abysmal £ to € exchange rate.

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So the heat of Summer is a distant bad memory. The house is now below 17C (14.5C in the bedroom) and we have been having a fire in the afternoon. We've had rain but are still on critical, presumably because we haven't had enough to affect groundwater levels. Outside temperature is now 13C then down to 5C in the morning; we had frost in one area today. Tomorrow is forecast heavy rain all day, so no sun to warm the house, then three days of showers. I expect to be putting the central heating on tomorrow.

Spent the last month (stopped now though) pointing some of the stonework on the South side of the house. It is a terrible mess on close inspection. Originally lime mortar rendered it was later cement rendered, which subsequently fell off taking the lime mortar and some of the stones with it. The stones are tied together with a lime/clay/mud/straw mix which isn't water resistant. Over the years the very rare rain from the South has taken its toll, the material has dissolved and the smaller stones have dropped out. Decided to re-point with clay mortar, so lime/ local yellow clay/ co***** sand. It has good insulation properties, is moderately water resistant I read and is a nice pale yellow colour. Was the traditional finish for up-market houses built around 1770 when ours was. Pointed the stonework under the windows first, where the walls are only 9" thick and was surprised to find the house is noticeably warmer. It's a very slow job which would cost a fortune if tradesmen did it; I'm taking it easy and doing one square foot a day! Becomes quite addictive, so can't wait to start again in Spring. Should be finished in 2024.

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We have been having incessant rain as well, most unusual for autumn.  However, we are lucky in that we have lots of springs/streams, and the rivers are filling/full.  Your bedrooms are cool Beantree, I haven't measured ours, but they have no heating so its probably the same sort of level.  I prefer this for a better nights sleep (under a very thick duvet) but we do have electric plug in rads if necessary for guests!  Downstairs it is warmer as we have been having fires for a few weeks now and there is a bit of residual heat every morning, and we have to go out/do chores till after lunch as some sort of unwritten frugal rule, as we can't light a new fire till preferably around 16.00!

I am actually in Normandy for a week (very sad news, my MIL died on Thursday, we hope the funeral is this Friday) and we chose a gite based on the fact it has CH!  Its such luxury, instant heat and no filthy ash or having to lug the wood about.  I have reached the age where practicality is beginning to win over what I have preferred for decades.

I am interested in your pointing story.  Our house is stone under a layer of render and I know from living in a C16th cottage that render over stone can be really really bad if you don't use the right sort of paint, because it doesn't let the stone breathe.  I can see its a problem here as plasticized paint is popular and it has been used in some places on our house.  It is possible to chip all the render off (labour is still quite cheap) and if you are lucky the house will be made of really beautiful schist.  But it could also be made of schist and rubble!  Locally, the old lime mortar was infused with a pale reddish pigment to harmonise with the stone.  A friend has just renovated her very old house, doing a lot of the work herself, it was painstaking but the end result looks fabulous, although its as hot/cold as all the other traditional houses.  On the other hand, another friend has built his own house from modern materials, installed 23cm of insulation everywhere and I have never ever been in a warmer house in my entire life.  Its hard to know which road to go down.

 

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Sadly our house has been thrown together with anything available with the intention of a render over the mess, so any stone plus broken tiles. You can't get tradesmen realistically. Whilst they have the skills you wouldn't want the price. What little stone there is needs carefully pointing around, so the 'slap on lime render' approach won't get a happy result. Large stones are few and far between, but I think we will get a good visual result with care. I've speeded up quite a lot with experience, but I still don't want to spend a whole day on it. Hour in the morning, other jobs then an hour in the afternoon is fine.

Still raining and cold. Fire is just keeping on top of it and I wish for a ton of money so we could just switch the boiler on and not worry about the cost; but I would still worry about the environmental issues, so a ton of money wouldn't work with my conscience. Could get some sun on Thursday so something to look forward to as the chickens are a bit miserable, as we are.

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Unseasonably warm here at the moment, so we are saving a lot of heating oil. All due to change on Monday with rain and a sharp fall in temperatures back to the seasonal normal.

Had a surprise in the post yesterday; notification of a rebate on our 'council tax'. The grand total of €17 to compensate for loss of crops due to the (12 weeks?) drought this year paid on the agricultural sections. I looked into it in a bit more detail. We received payment on two of our five parcels of land. Three of our parcels were omitted, but one is tiny and contains just one very large oak tree. Of the other two, one is clearly residential land because it contains the house and barn. What is surprising is that the other section, which is the flattest area we have and has nothing on it, is listed as residential, so unknown to us previously we have a separate registered building plot. Quite how that happened is a mystery?

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We've had some rain (30mm) but over the last 12 months we are nearly 40% (275mm) down on the average. Today is warm and sunny and some more grass has been cut. Big surprise was our first two extra-large eggs of the year from the Cou-Nu. Due more rain tomorrow but then dry until Sunday when it will turn cooler.

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Good news. After the situation worsened to the extent that we were 300mm short on the year we had two days of rain which gave us 100mm so we are now just 23% short. But most importantly there has been an awful lot of snow in the mountains. This will melt in Spring and top-up our main reservoir in time for summer. More rain due tomorrow and Friday which might restrict the 'general strike' effects. Pension age is rising from 62 to 64 in 3 month stages until the heavily underfunded (€34 billion a year) system reaches equilibrium in 2030. The absolute minimum has been raised to €1200 a month (the average is €2500) but they are still complaining. France is going bust, with the second highest deficit in the EU, Greece being top, but people are still insisting it's all the fault of the government. Of course they would have something to complain about if they were in Britain, retiring at 66 with just €900. One minister said that it's impossible to live on just €1200 a month and another chap wants the system to allow him to retire at 60!

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Its bitterly cold, even here.  There is a picture of snow lying on a road just up the hill from us, which is very unusual.  Retirement is 67 in UK I think.  I happened to see a Hairy Bikers programme last week, half about Poulet de Bresse, the other half about the rare Coucou de Rennes!

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