ThomasPowers Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 we finally hit 100 deg F but our heat index is only 95 degF 3% humidity does that to you and dries out all your hammer handles if you haven soaked the eye end of them in linseed oil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 It's almost unbearable! I know what you mean about the hammer handles..... Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 After last summer I planned INDOOR projects for this summer, I flirted with heat stroke several times last summer in spite of every precaution. It's the humidity down here that gets you, air so thick it's hard to even move. I sat outside under a covered patio today, "only" 90 degrees but I was dripping sweat literally just sitting there doing nothing. We talk so slow down here, drawling everything out, because it just takes so much energy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 I quit drawling when I lost my favorite pencil. Now I just doodle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 19, 2016 Author Share Posted June 19, 2016 Clear proof of what a lifetime of sweet tea will do to you! Please excuse me while I go pour me another glass... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Thomas, your place isn't in the large lines of fires, I hope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 Well they recently contained one near my house but I wouldn't consider it large; the Escondida Fire. Got close enough to make my wife anxious and she slept in town for a day or two. Small fires prevent large ones! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 I'm with you, Thomas, fire is natures way of clearing the understory, and plants have adapted to it. You should see an over grown pasture that has been hurt off in winter. The spring growth is amazing (you can increase your stocking rates by 10% or expect your stock to be fat) same for forests, but the issue is we have suppressed the fires to the point now the under story is so over grown with so much fuel the mature trees don't survive. Not that the standing timber isn't still valuable, but it takes decades for the ecosystem to recover. Goats and manual labor has been used to good effect, but their are conservation groops have blocked theise operations in the past (the Heber/Overgard fire in northern Arizona is a prime example, operations in the fall/winter were blocked, the next summer everything burnt). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 I remember the pitch pine forests in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The pine cones don't open to allow germination of seeds until a fire has passed over them---then you get areas of new growth so dense that even the deer go around them! The only reason I mow the brush on our acre is to just lower the amount of fuel. The stucco house with steel roof can withstand small fires very well. With me being away during the monsoon season I will probably end up doing controlled burns when it dries out later this year. Tumble weeds are scarey when they ignite! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Forecast for this week is 116°, but I will take this over freezing winters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 Sounds like good preparation for a possible afterlife outcome to me! The southwest---where smiths put their metal in the forge to cool off after picking it up out of the scrap pile with tongs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Make sure you cut your fire lines and do good back burns. "Controlled burn" is a misnomer, like "Army Inteligence". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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