Ugh!

Today's heat and humidity were nearly unbearable. Like the cows, I can't stand days like this. I'll bet even the chickens were sweating today.

During milking, with rivers of sweat running down his face, Glen joked, "Yeah, you guys had saunas up north. Down here we have dairy barns." (I will agree that the summers in Stearns County are about 10 degrees hotter than they are in northern Minnesota, but we had hot days up north, too — just not as many.)

I think I'm genetically predisposed to handle cold weather better than hot. I always joke that there's a reason why most of my ancestors chose to settle in Minnesota and it wasn't June, July and August. Even though my grandmother was from Nebraska, I don't think any of her heat-tolerance genes were passed down.

I'm sure glad our house was equipped with central air when we bought it. Glen and I would never have dedicated the funds to install it ourselves. But since we have it, I use it. Mostly, so that everyone can sleep at night. To me, there's nothing worse than sticking to the sheets. Add a small child to your bed and you might as well be trying to sleep in the sauna.

Our first summer here, Glen and I would battle over the A/C control. He'd shut the A/C off before going to bed and open the windows, without me knowing. By 2:00 a.m., I'd be stuck to the sheets and cussing about the function of our air conditioner. So, I'd go downstairs to check the thermostat and find that it was off. Words can't adequately describe my irritation. It took me a couple nights to convince Glen that it's the low humidity in the house that makes it comfortable, and opening the windows lets all of the humid air into the house. So, when I would turn the A/C back on in the middle of the night, the air conditioner would have to play catch up, rather than just maintain.

We now leave the thermostat mostly alone. We don't keep the house all that cool, but the A/C helps keep the humidity low enough to make the house a refuge from the sauna outside. And, today, we really needed that refuge.