It’s getting hot! Are you ready? 🥵

AidaB

AidaB

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Thinking cool thoughts!


We are keeping cool as best we can with our usual eclectic mix of old bedsheets (now dust sheets) & a random selection from the fabric stash.

Piggies have frozen bottles in socks which they are continently ignoring, or treating like alien intruders.

Here is the HOT weather guide for anyone who needs it.

Putting up sheets in front of the windows before the sun reaches them really does make a huge difference.
I love walking into our cooler house after being outside.
 
AidaB said:
Thinking cool thoughts!


We are keeping cool as best we can with our usual eclectic mix of old bedsheets (now dust sheets) & a random selection from the fabric stash.

Piggies have frozen bottles in socks which they are continently ignoring, or treating like alien intruders.

Here is the HOT weather guide for anyone who needs it.

Putting up sheets in front of the windows before the sun reaches them really does make a huge difference.
I love walking into our cooler house after being outside.
Click to expand...
I'm glad its not just mine with the sock in a bottle fear....

My cat used to be the same
 
We have a few things keeping them cool, the most popular are gel cool mats which we rotate between fridge and pig pen. The only bad thing is if they wee on them.

I'd link them but the ones we bought have gone up by 50% in price compared to a month ago.
 
I have an ice pod and a frozen water bottle ready.
We also have an air conditioning unit in the piggy room to help keep the room cool.
I may have to spend more time in my tiny corner of the piggy room, aka my study

Thanks for flagging this up @AidaB - a timely reminder as it sounds as if we may be getting our summer next week.
 
We’re managing to keep the room to 22. Dottie’s response to the heat wave is to crawl under her vet bed (her usual favourite place). Is it safe to assume they know what they’re doing?! Or should I try to weigh the mats down better so she can’t do this. She loves to burrow!
 
Herman says “What heatwave?”

IMG_0784.webp

Your Dottie is not the only one, who’s decided it’s burrowing weather. I have just left Herman to it. He pops out to say hi occasionally. ( & when offered a snack!)
Temp near pigs is currently 21.2 C, but it’s about to start climbing as the sun hits the front of the house.
 
LucyP said:
We’re managing to keep the room to 22. Dottie’s response to the heat wave is to crawl under her vet bed (her usual favourite place). Is it safe to assume they know what they’re doing?! Or should I try to weigh the mats down better so she can’t do this. She loves to burrow!
Click to expand...
I tried to stop my late Caramac from doing this but they always find a way. I never had any issues with her over-heating despite her lack of common sense!
 
Hope everyone’s piggies remain healthy. Reading this thread makes me grateful to live further up north. It’s a whole 10C difference between where I am and my English family so the temperatures can vary hugely. Stay cool! 🧊
 
Rumblestiltskin said:
I'm pretty much always jealous of people in cooler spots...
Click to expand...
I don't tend to be jealous in winter! Had enough growing up in a climate where you measured harsh weather by how fast exposed skin would freeze. (They'd announce it on the radio with the forecast.) I can recall wearing two wooly hats to prevent my ears from freezing, on a very windy route I regularly walked in winter, when it was too cold to cycle. -20°C was my cycling cut-off point daytimes and short distances, -15 everything else. My older brother was walking the same route one day with only one wooly hat and crying and swearing with pain, he must've been about 20yo, not a child. Our city wasn't the coldest or windiest in the country either.
Or maybe that "always" of yours is referring to summer only!
 
@Truffolo & anyone else this might help, these are my awkward window solutions.
Our house is not good on hot days, we get the morning sun on the back & afternoon at the front.

Back door….. no space for a proper curtain pole.
Tension pole with command hooks & blackout curtain.
( I have to remember to remove the pole before opening the door.)
IMG_0816.webp


Stuff the fabric outside & hold on tight as you shut the window- don’t recommend it’s not been great for a couple of our window frames, but needs must.

IMG_0809.webp


This upstairs window defeats me every year- this year I have attached ribbon & wiggled it around the tricky bit. Held on tight to the ribbon, shut the window & tied the ribbon on the window handle.
IMG_0815.webp

& this year’s experiment picture hanging command strips- bit pricy but so far they are successfully holding up thin fabric. Not sure how they will hold up in the rain. I am being very carefully removing the fabric so as not to unstick them, as they don’t recommend using on fabric.


IMG_0814.webp

The skylight gets an old fitted sheet pulled over it.

We have some spare blackout fabric that gets used inside too. Easily brought by the meter from our localish fabric shop.


My neighbours probably think I am nuts, but the guinea pigs & us enjoy our cool house. They are all probably overheating with windows open!
 
AidaB said:
@Truffolo & anyone else this might help, these are my awkward window solutions.
Our house is not good on hot days, we get the morning sun on the back & afternoon at the front.

Back door….. no space for a proper curtain pole.
Tension pole with command hooks & blackout curtain.
( I have to remember to remove the pole before opening the door.)
View attachment 284839


Stuff the fabric outside & hold on tight as you shut the window- don’t recommend it’s not been great for a couple of our window frames, but needs must.

View attachment 284840


This upstairs window defeats me every year- this year I have attached ribbon & wiggled it around the tricky bit. Held on tight to the ribbon, shut the window & tied the ribbon on the window handle.
View attachment 284841

& this year’s experiment picture hanging command strips- bit pricy but so far they are successfully holding up thin fabric. Not sure how they will hold up in the rain. I am being very carefully removing the fabric so as not to unstick them, as they don’t recommend using on fabric.


View attachment 284842

The skylight gets an old fitted sheet pulled over it.

We have some spare blackout fabric that gets used inside too. Easily brought by the meter from our localish fabric shop.


My neighbours probably think I am nuts, but the guinea pigs & us enjoy our cool house. They are all probably overheating with windows open!
Click to expand...
This is wonderful, thank you. I see you have a window like mine with the arm on top. The ribbon trick is excellent as ribbon is thin but strong 🥰
 
It's already cool mat temperatures in Kent, as modelled by Cheryl.

They have the upstairs box room of our house, sun facing, so it gets hot quickly. When at work in this heat I do come home at lunch to swap bottles, mats, use a fan in their room.
 

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AidaB said:
@Truffolo & anyone else this might help, these are my awkward window solutions.
Our house is not good on hot days, we get the morning sun on the back & afternoon at the front.

Back door….. no space for a proper curtain pole.
Tension pole with command hooks & blackout curtain.
( I have to remember to remove the pole before opening the door.)
View attachment 284839


Stuff the fabric outside & hold on tight as you shut the window- don’t recommend it’s not been great for a couple of our window frames, but needs must.

View attachment 284840


This upstairs window defeats me every year- this year I have attached ribbon & wiggled it around the tricky bit. Held on tight to the ribbon, shut the window & tied the ribbon on the window handle.
View attachment 284841

& this year’s experiment picture hanging command strips- bit pricy but so far they are successfully holding up thin fabric. Not sure how they will hold up in the rain. I am being very carefully removing the fabric so as not to unstick them, as they don’t recommend using on fabric.


View attachment 284842

The skylight gets an old fitted sheet pulled over it.

We have some spare blackout fabric that gets used inside too. Easily brought by the meter from our localish fabric shop.


My neighbours probably think I am nuts, but the guinea pigs & us enjoy our cool house. They are all probably overheating with windows open!
Click to expand...
Some great creative solutions there.
 
We're actually getting up to 27 today.

For this morning the heat is on but I anticipate maybe putting on the A/C later.

My house is a hot box. American houses are kind of cheaply built with drywall and don't retain their temperature very well. So in winter my heating bill is quite high and in summer my electric bill is high.

My air conditioner is environmentally friendly.
 
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