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For the past several days, and the projection of several more to follow, the temperature has been between 95 and 100 degrees. I am not one that usually complains about warm weather, but this is getting ridiculous. People suffer from the heat, and I complain about it, but I am sure the wildlife and livestock have it much worse than do we.

The horses, dogs, and I have a routine. When I get home from work, the dogs and I go feed the horses. The dogs get a nice run when we drive out into the pasture, and the horses, upon hearing a vehicle come, will run to greet us. For close to a week, I have not seen the horses, except in the wee hours of the morning before the sun has fully risen. They stay in the timber and have become totally nocturnal in their grazing. They are hot and miserable enough, walking to get some grain is too much work. The dogs do not care if I am going to the pasture. They are waiting on the porch where the breeze is blowing. I can go but a quick jog to see the horses is much to much bother for them.

I can only imagine what life is like for the deer, turkeys, and other wildlife. Deer like to move at dusk and dawn. The temperatures at dawn have been warm, but at dusk, it has been unbearable. In the early morning hours before sunrise, my wife and I enjoy a cup of coffee on the porch. It is then we see the most wildlife getting in a full day's activity before the heat sets in. Does have their fawns out for a run while the mothers browse. The bucks are moving in groups from their bedding area to food plots or crop ground. During the day and well into the evening, deer have been barely moving. They spend their time in the shade, on a hilltop, trying to catch a breeze and hoping for cooler weather.[[In-content Ad]]

Turkeys do not see well at night so they move only during the day. Their feeding time has been severely limited. We see them out early in the morning and I am not sure what they do the rest of the day when they would normally be eating fresh clover and teaching their young ones to catch bugs. The heat could be as hard on them as the extreme cold of winter.

Today is also the first day I am doing chores for my son, Damon. His three coyotes hounds are tied up, with dog houses, and in the shade, but I still worried about them. He and his family left on vacation last night so I needed to feed and water them this morning. His place is about a mile away on the other end of the farm. If the wind is calm, we can hear the hounds call when he leaves for work in the morning. This morning, I could hear a hound, not calling, but hunting. There is always the possibility someone is out coyote hunting with one dog, but a much likelihood of one of Damon's dogs being off hunting on its own. I cut my coffee time on the porch short and went to do Damon's chores. Sure enough, one of his hounds, Luke was gone. I knew better than to try to find him. A coyote hound on a trail can cover fifteen or twenty miles, even on a hot day. I decided he would either come home or be gone a long time. If the former happened, nothing would need to be said. If it were the latter, I would never be trusted to do chores again.

I spent most of the day worrying about Luke and the hot weather. When I checked on him this evening, he was waiting by his food dish, happy to see me. He survived the heat of the day, just as did the horses, deer, turkey, and rest of the wildlife. Perhaps I am the only one that complains about the extreme heat of the day. Everything else puts up with it or perhaps even enjoys the nice warm weather.

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