Summer Post ~ Warm as Toast

Whew......it is 88 degrees and humid out.  Thank goodness there is a little breeze to keep our dogs, hens & my husband from collapsing from the heat.  All of a sudden, the summer is upon us & it's not even June yet.  This, I hope, will mean that our garden will explode in a few months.  We have planted most of it but there are still green beans, zucchini & some more seed potatoes to put in.  We have a smaller garden where we will plant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers & broccoli.  So far we have about 150 potato plants, lettuce, onions, blue hubbard squash, parsnips & strawberries planted.  We also have a small orchard ~ a peach tree, an apple tree & 2 small apple trees that will probably fruit next year.  There are a lot of wild blueberry & raspberry bushes too (we can't count on them since the birds usually get to them first).  All in all, lots to keep us busy.
The hens are laying furiously lately but no baby chicks so far.  I'm trying to leave one of the nesting boxes alone to see if the hen that is setting there will become broody.  It would be nice to have some new chicks in the pen.  We had let our hens run around the yard but it was getting very messy on the porches so we decided to pen them in.  Another reason for this was that there has been a beautiful red fox frequenting our yard and, so far, we have been lucky that only 1 of our beautiful Buff Orpingtons was taken.  The hens will be much safer this way. 
My daughter is setting up my grandsons' pool this afternoon & I am going to offer to help.  It is only about 3 feet deep and 15 feet wide but it's enough to keep the boys happy during the scorching days of summer.  I'm sure that they'll be anxious to take a dip even before the water has a chance to warm up.  To keep cool, I'm going to stand in the middle of my garden and turn the sprinkler on.  Chilly but effective.