As most of you have been experiencing or are aware, the heatwave has been affecting quite a few people in the Southern Hemisphere in general and in Australia in particular recently. It is not very easy to keep cool in this heat. I hope everyone is trying to look after themselves as well as others these days. Caring for others in this heat could be as easy as knocking on the door of especially some elderly neighbours just to check up on them and also see if you could help them with anything to stay safe.
However, we also need to keep in mind that us human beings are not the only living that feel the heat.
Dark red dominates this image, indicating temperatures that were significantly higher than average between December 27 and January 3, especially in Queensland and New South Wales. (Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82790)
According to this article here, the heatwave also had some deadly impact on the wildlife. For instance, 100,000 bats have died from the heat in Queensland.
Here are some suggestions that come to mind that I would like to share with you with the hope of making a small difference in the life of a living creature. My suggestions are mostly on keeping your pets and also small sized wildlife safe.
* Keep your pet hydrated. Make sure your pet has an access to some fresh water at all times. In our case, we have chickens and we leave them a few extra sources of water in their pen where they can freely access to in case one gets dirty or evaporates quickly and we don't realise it soon enough.
*Add some ice to their water source at times, if possible/applicable, as the water will warm up quickly in this heat.
*Depending on the type of your pet, you can wet them at times to cool them down.
*Try to offer some cool ground for them. It could be that you have a cool place you can keep them in, or you can put some wet sheets underneath them etc. We wet our chickens' pen as well as the ground under trees at times as they are the places they often stay at.
*Offer some green leafy vegetables if possible as they contain water and are often easily consumed by many types of animals.
*Leave some water outside for lost/homeless animals.
Stay safe!
2 comments:
Here are some suggestions by some readers (the comments are copied from their comments on Facebook):
by Shirley Evans: "Back in the "olden days" lol ,50's and 60's wet nappies or towels used to be hung in front of oscillating fans and even over babies cots and open windows to cause a chilling effect. We can also so do that with animals"
She also wrote: "In the summer my Mum used to make egg flip ice blocks . Just milk vanilla and beaten raw egg all whipped up together . Pore the mixture into ice cube block trays with nutmeg liberally sprinkled on top and when frozen place them in wafer iceblock cones( they used to be a square shape not a cone ) and easy to sit on the bench . Very refreshing and I think healthy with little or no preservatives"
Caroline Overbeek wrote: "Going to bed with wet hair?" and "Sunnyboy ice blocks! Now that's old school cool"
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