Dog Days

The weather people were right for a change and this past week has been pretty miserable, with temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees and humidity around 70%.  Reminded us both of the last several years we lived in North Carolina.  I got a surprise this morning, though, when I researched the statistics on both states and found that the average humidity for both North Carolina and Wisconsin is 74%!!  I would have sworn that the air up here was significantly drier than that soggy southern stuff.  Further investigation yielded the information that how we perceive humidity depends on the accompanying temperatures.  The hotter it is, the more miserable we feel.   So the fact that I don't sweat like mad here is only due to the fact that our average temperatures are 15 to 20 degrees cooler.  We learn something new every day.  If we're lucky.

 The water in the animals' tub was getting too hot for them to drink and I wanted to keep them well hydrated, so I floated a gallon jug of frozen water in the tub all day:

I was worried that they'd be afraid of the new thing (some new predator, perhaps, waiting to SNAP! at an unsuspecting nose?) bobbing around suspiciously in their water, but they took it in stride.  Bella actually acted as if she were thinking it might make a good toy:

So what did I do to pass the time yesterday (the worst day of the whole week)?  I turned on the oven, of course, and heated up the whole house so I could bake bread.  Sigh.  I had a real craving for rye bread for some reason, and didn't want to drive 30 minutes to buy a decent loaf.  So I whipped out my handy copy of  "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" and made a loaf of what actually turned out to be rye bread!  It really takes hours from start to finish.  The book title refers to the fact that you make up a large batch and bake small portions at a time, and the fact that the authors' technique does away with the usual kneading time.

 

Ta Daaaaaa!

So for supper I had a couple of pieces of my homemade rye and a bowl of Mom's homemade cauliflower soup.  Mmmmmm!!  Who needs meat?



The temps have moderated some today and we're supposed to get stormy weather over the weekend, so I'd better get on my riding mower and get the grass cut.  Otherwise, we'll be overrun with vegetation, as we were when we first moved in!