The hottest heat wave yet

We are in the midst of a very hot heat wave.  Having lived most of my life in the Midwest, I can count on my fingers how many above 100*F days I have lived through.  This week there were two 100+ days on our farm.  Yesterday it got up to 103*F and today it topped out at 104* (note that for the previous week it has been in the 90's which for our area is extremely rare, there are summers were never hit 90* all summer).

While I love summer and I like hot, this is a bit much for me.  And worrisome for all the animals I care for.

I've been filling this pool twice a day for our guardian dog, Spot:

He loves it filled with fresh cold water, he won't use it once it's dirty (even if it was his own feet that put the sand in there).  So at least twice a day I dump it out, rinse the pool, and refill it.  It's worth it to see him happy and splashing in there.

We've been hosing the alpacas off multiple times a day.  And on the 4th of July I figured out how to use our soaker hose to help them too.  We had the soaker hose out in the pasture area, but none of them ever used it.  I was outside hosing the girls off around noon time on the 4th, it was in the upper 90's and I was sweating just standing there hosing them.  I couldn't bare what the heat was like for them.  I got an idea to move the soaker hose to the places they cush anyway, the shady areas under the trees where they hang out.  So I set out to do this, not caring that it was in the 90's and I was sweating bullets, not caring that once I get done they might not even use it. I figured it was worth a try.

And it was totally worth it!   Maddie made my day when she went over there:

Later on I caught several of the ladies out there cushed on the soaker hose.  But of course when I opened the door to take a picture they all jumped up:

We had a cria born on July 5th, early in the morning.  I will get a post about that whole story up soon.  The concerning thing is how to keep a newborn cria from overheating in this weather.   I've been keeping on eye on all of them, trying to keep the cool and comfortable.  They really need a break from this unusual very hot weather.