This past week was really intense here at the farm. The temperatures of the Sacramento valley went from the 80s.....to 105f.....and then on the third day to 110f. No time to get acclimated to the heat.....and it was terrible. Even the horses were inside the shaded barn much of the day.
So I was thinking this: just what did the old timers do in the days before air conditioning? Before the days of that wonderful yet often not acknowledged .......that automatic ice machine in the ol' refrigerator. How did they sleep on nights that offered blast furnace heat?
Will I bet that our Boysenberries were begging for that cool refrigerated air. The crop came in early.....too early this year.....so the pickings were not completed. On the second day of the heat wave.....we a had berry patch of dehydrated berries. It was not a great loss since we were indeed growing the vines since expansion of the patch...and knew that there be not many berries this year.
Lucky us, eh?
Looking through some historic pictures of 1933............I saw folks that were sleeping out on their lawns during the heat.....and then there were those sleeping on their porches. Another realization came to my mind about this era............why there were porches on most of the farm houses. There was no TV.........no radio.....and too hot in the house. The porch disappeared after the introduction of air conditioning!
Would I be a farmer if there was no such thing as air conditioning? Do I have to really answer that question? :-)
