POOF!!! One Hat Gone!

 Excessive Heat Warning!  I've gotten about six of them in the last 12 hours.  All you have to do is step outside to know it's too hot to do anything.  109 yesterday ... Accuweather says 110-114 for the next three days.  OH BOY!!  That means you have to get your work done by 8:00 in the morning.  

First up ... I threw that Sprinkler Repair hat in the trash.  How could something so simple become so complicated?  I was all ready to go ... just install that new sprinkler.  I turned the water on for a test.  The first valve where I replaced the seal?  It still let water run continuously through the sprinklers.  

If that wasn't enough to bruise my ego, the third valve kept running water through the lines even when the Control Box was turned OFF!!  By now my head was swimming ... what the heck?  I turned the water off completely and walked away.  I'll be patiently waiting for Mr. Dan to return.

It's only 5:30 am and I'm on the move yet again.  This time I'm scraping all the peeling paint from this patio post.  It looks like maybe they painted it without primer?  So tell me all you painting experts out there ... do I need to sand this before painting or can I just slap on a coat of primer and some color?  

I'm not worried about it lasting forever ... the house has to be painted in the next year or so.  

Next up ... RAT TRAPS.  Just one to start with.  I got out the bag-o-yummies and put three in a zip lock bag.  I smashed it up with a hammer and poured it onto a paper plate.  This styrofoam box is what I had covering the irrigation valves so the sun didn't deteriorate them so badly.  Those rats figured out how to squeeze inside where it was probably cooler.

I put a big piece of slate on top because I don't want any birds to get inside.  There's no way I could set it outside the yard, because the javelinas, deer and coyotes would knock it over and get the bait.  I'm not about to let THAT happen.

So here you go my little rat friends.  Brunch is served.  I'll check it in a few days and see if any has gone missing.  There's one good thing I can say about the heat around here ... NONE of those creepy crawlies come out during the daytime!  Including me!!

On to the next project before I melt.  By now my clothes are soaking wet and I can't see for the sweat in my eyes.  So hey ... let's put up a ladder and look straight into the sun to scrape and paint this facia board.  What a GREAT idea!  

I have to say I LOVE this ladder.  Thank you so much Bill and Patsy Richards for taking me to the Quartzsite marketplace and buying the last one they had.  This is the easiest to put up and feels completely safe to crawl up on.  

Don't look too close ... by now I'm way past the time to go in.  It's all of 7:00 am.  The top metal strip doesn't need primer, so I didn't cover it completely.  If I'm really REALLY lucky, it won't rain until I get two more coats of paint on it.  Of course that showed off just how bad the garage wall was.  Yup ... I'm going to need more paint.  

By 8:00 I was cooked to perfection and sitting on the couch with 3 bottles of water.  I tried to crawl in the freezer, but it wasn't big enough.  

That leaves the entire rest of the day to twiddle my thumbs.  So being the wonderful cook that I am, I decided to make some hot soup!!  And here I had just told Patty she was crazy for making bok choy soup. Soup when it's 109 degrees??  NO WAY!!

I couldn't believe it myself, but I had all these little leftovers that were going in the trash if I didn't use them up.  Waste not, want not.  I whipped up a batch of Panera broccoli cheddar soup in about 15 minutes.  Hard to believe, but if you chop stuff up small enough, it's a piece of cake.  Who knew?  It actually turned out very tasty for an internet recipe.  Tasted just like chicken!!

I'm kidding ... but I had to go sit in front of the fan for 30 minutes to cool off after eating it.

There is one other thing you can do when it's too hot to go outside, and that's clean your cupboards.  Definitely NOT on my to-do list EVER ... but boredom makes bedfellows of housework.  I filled my truck with stuff left over from the previous owner, along with lots of stuff that came out of my old RV, plus a couple of small quilts.

I dropped it all off at the local Thrift shop.  Sometimes I can be a packrat myself.  It felt good to make room in the cupboards.

I'm off to do more painting this morning while it's a cool 80 degrees.  I may require a big cup of Coffee Lover's ice cream to cool off ... you know, to be sure I don't get heat stroke!!!