In Which We Are Very Hot

Phil was in town this morning, getting more screws and ordering the rubber roof. I headed out to milk Belle and found that she and Charlemagne were on the lam. It looked like they had simply unstrung a corner of the electric wire and let themselves out. I went looking later, though, and found five posts pulled out and a third of the line on the ground. I'm thinking a full-size cow and a bull are a bit too much for a 10' space between trees.

Belle and the bull weren't going to go far, I figured, with most of their cow companions just on the other side of a fence. I didn't find them, but sure enough, they must have just headed into the woods near the fencing, out of my sight, as we saw them throughout the day, butts toward us, looking longingly at their cow friends.

By late afternoon, it had been almost a day and a half since I milked last. I went to find Belle, but after fifteen minutes, I was dripping with sweat and had no sight of her. I went to tell Phil, working on blocking for yet another day, and he said, "Oh, she's just right out here." She had camped on the outside of the wall. It was far to hot to flee, so Phil easily got her lead on. I milked and put her back in her pen. We'll figure out Charlemagne later. At the very least, if Belle goes into heat, hopefully he'll show some interest and be easy to corral.

One of our friends, formerly of Houston, said, "This feels like Houston." If the air temperature is only 93, it feels like 110, and Phil can work only so long before he is dehydrated and faint. Happily, the evenings have been dry, so he has about four hours of focused time in the "cool" of the day (when it feels like maybe 99), along with whatever he gets done in the morning.

Today he finished the last set of blocking, the fourth. He can do all the roof decking except the last section! As dark fell tonight, Phil held the ladder and I climbed up to see his handiwork. It was surreal to stand on the future floor of a greenhouse, high up in the air. A different perspective, certainly.