No, not the Stephen King book, or the three seasons of the series based on the book that James and I hate watched every single episode of and then laughed ourselves silly at the snarky commentary at Reactor Magazine (then Tor). No, this was a week-long heat dome.

The heat dome moved away Friday night, but it is still blazing hot. We are on day nine of 90F/32C or above temperatures and it hasn’t rained in a week. We’ve had to water the garden from the rain barrels which went dry Friday and forced used to use water from the tap. There is a cold front moving in sometime tomorrow, Monday, that has a good chance of bringing some rain. Please think cool and liquid thoughts for us!

Along with the heat the wildfire smoke arrived Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday the air quality was hazardous and breaking records. The wind changed briefly Friday and we were able to breathe outdoors without masks into the early hours of this morning. But the wind changed again and within an hour I watched my AQ app go from low yellow (moderate) to orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) to red (unhealthy for everyone). I’m not technically a sensitive group, but anything orange or above I wear an N95 mask while outdoors because I value my health and my lungs. So many people don’t, and I was astonished how few wore masks Thursday when the air was visibly thick with smoke. 

Other than keeping the garden watered, it has not been a week for being amongst the plants.

We have a baby rabbit we keep evicting and who keeps finding their way back in. They have demolished the green beans. Friday we evicted them once and for all, but nope, I saw them this morning when I was briefly out masked and tying up tomatoes to their stakes. 

We also have a couple of raccoons that have taken to visiting our roof at 3 in the morning. They especially enjoy pulling apples from the tree and—thump, thump, thump, thump down it rolls. The apples are not ripe, so we aren’t sure if they just enjoy watching them roll down the roof, or maybe they are having apple fights and throwing them at each other like a couple of teen boys. Either way, sleep is impossible. James has gone out and banged on a metal bowl to scare them off more than once. I’m sure the neighbors love that.

In chicken news, one of the witches laid an egg! It is a tiny “starter egg.”

A surprise because they are only 3 1/2 months old and I wouldn’t expect an egg until maybe the end of September or October. We think the precocious one is Baba because of her size, but looking up breed information and their egg color, the egg is pale enough it could be Nanny. All that to say who laid it is unknown, the chickens aren’t saying, and we can merely speculate.

My latest sourdough adventure is a mixed flour bread—semolina, rye, whole wheat, and bread flour—and instead of plain water I used a strong brew of Earl Grey. The smell is divine.

We sliced it up and tried it out as part of a grilled tofu sandwich that included homemade zucchini relish (zucchini from the farmers market because I prefer to grow winter squash and since I save seeds, I don’t want the zucchini to cross-pollinate with the winter squash. Yes the winter squash might cross-pollinate, but that’s a different story.), a slice of grilled eggplant from the garden, arugula from the garden, and a little dijon mustard.

Does it taste as good as it looks? Oh yes, yes it does. The Earl Grey adds a subtle flavor note that compliments the flour combination. Will definitely make this one again sometime.

If it is hot where you are, take care in the heat. And if you too are blanketed with wildfire smoke, please take care of your lungs.