As I get older I notice my stamina for taking the heat gets less each year. Which has caused my orchard to get neglected in midsummer. So I am trying to think of ways to fight back. Here are a couple things I have been doing recently.
I always wear a wide-brim hat, both for the cooling and to limit sun exposure.
Work at night when possible. I have a powerful headlamp with which I can do about anything. Some nights there are too many small bugs that it gets really annoying but most times it works fine.
Or work in the early morning. I am not a morning person so this rarely happens. I did pick my apricots at 8AM this morning though, 8AM is âearly morningâ for me.
Wet my (synthetic) shirt under the water, squeeze out excess, put on. Then throw some water on my hair. This works surprisingly well for up to an hour, and the water is not too annoying.
I just bought an âice vestâ, it is a vest with little pockets you put ice packs in. It was a bit expensive but it does help a lot. It lasts a couple hours.
Any other hot weather tips? 95F high today here, get those tips in fast!
Scott, working in the sun just destroys me. Even 20 years ago when we roofed our house I suffered. But I heartily agree with the suggestion to work early in the morning - weâre usually out of bed by 4:30 or thereabouts, but we donât get anything done after 6:00 pm, so thereâs that tradeoff.
Great tips, @scottfsmith ! I have a few other tips from when I used to walk across the desert for a living. These might be obvious but they bear repeating anyway:
Stay hydrated. Itâs easier to run out of water than you think, and easy to forget to take a drink. Sweating keeps you cool, but it uses a lot of water.
Just as important, stay fed. Have some light, salty snacks. You lose a lot of salts when you sweat, too, and they need to be replenished. Your muscles and nerves have trouble working when these get low. An occasional gatorade or Emergen-C interspersed with water also works, but these should not be your only hydration. Also replenishing your carbs with a little something sweet can help keep you going. Fortunately, there are hopefully lots of fruits within easy reach as you tend your orchards!
Take a break! If you have to work in the heat, be sure to take frequent breaks, say every 30-45 minutes, and sit in the shade or go inside to cool down. Heat stroke and heat stress are no joke! 1 and 2 will go a long way towards preventing these, but itâs still a good idea to have some external help cooling down. As Scott and @marknmt said, sit out the heat of the day if at all possible.
All of these are even more important in humid areas (>50% humidity), as your sweating is less effective, so your body sweats more. I was shocked when I came back East from my Mojave Desert stint and went for a relatively easy hike on a relatively cool day, but ended up sweating buckets and using up my whole water supply.
Nothing like submerging your arms and legs into some nice cool water after getting hot. Might be too much shock if you are already not feeling well from heat exhaustion, Iâve never gotten that bad, but in that case you call for someone to look after you, lay down in the shade, loosen your pants, take off your shoes, elevate your feet, and then carefully wet your skin and clothes. Drink water slowly so you donât get nauseous.
I canât stress enough how bad heat exhaustion is, and how easy it is to treat. Doing field work in Arkansas, my tough and fit helper succumbed. It was very sudden. This guy had been over all kinds of terrain with me, in all conditions, and now he could barely move a few yards at a time. I had to gradually help him up the steep hill back to the road, then let him wait there in the shade while I got the truck. Gave him AC, lots of water, and a gatorade, and after a salty fast food dinner and a good nightâs sleep, youâd never know anything had happened. He was always careful to drink enough water after that.
Heat stroke is even worse. Your bodyâs ability to cool itself is so impaired that you risk brain damage. This requires immediate cooling and rehydration, and a trip to the ER ASAP. Iâm very happy to report Iâve never seen this in person.
Heat exhaustion is not a problem for me, Iâm not outside for very long. I missed one thing I always do, I come in a lot (your point 3. Jay). In fact the problem with high heat is I do get out in the yard but I come in so quickly and often get involved with something inside and donât get back out so in the end I get little done in the orchard. My goal is to get something like an hour or two max of work in one stretch.
At one job,we had these big floor fans on wheels,used to roll in front of a vehicle,as it was being tested on a dynamometer in hot weather.
When it was really hot for about a week and we werenât testing,I used one of those water nozzles,that have different spray settings,turned to mist,propped up on a six foot ladder.
The fan was placed a few feet away,so that it could draw some moisture and be cool coming out.There was no damage to the fan,because it dried fairly rapidly after using.
I am a morning person. I wander my garden as early as 6 am. When temp is 90 or over, I work in my garden until 11 am. Come back in and do other things in an air conditioned house until almost 6 pm before going out again.
For me, drinking some water with ice in a bottle gives faster relief than just plain water. Also, remember to carry the cellphone and have someone ready to help just in case. I mostly work from around 6pm until it gets dark and the bugs come out
Yesterday set a record here, in Seattle high reported was 106, we escaped to a high mountain lake and took refreshing swims all day! I dreamed about my fruit trees while staying cool, but on the way home at 4PM my van thermometer registered 118F as we drove home, a reminder that we had to return!
I second the water in the hair. I will fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and dunk my head in it. Works great and is quite a rush.
On hydration, listen to your body. Headaches often mean dehydration. If your urine is starting to develop a pronounced yellow color, youâre dehydrated.
I donât think i have a lot to add to specifically âhot weatherâ tips.
-pick a spot on the day when itâs cloudy. (look at weather forecasts)
-if itâs a dry heat and you donât mind getting wet, you could try putting on a lawn sprinkler. Youâll be amazed how much temperature can drop when evaporation starts. (if you look at temperate drops during rain, youâll see what i mean)
But working efficiently with lower effort is something thatâs always nice. But especially when itâs hot and everythingâs a little more effort or harder.
-using the right tool for the right job.
-using quality tools.
-designing your orchard to be easily reachable. (avoid long âdead endâ: walkways where you have to walk around a bunch of stuff to reach the other side of a tree)
-leaving enough walkways and room to move around, so your not stretching your body uncomfortably to move around. or having to constantly turn sideways to get past something.
-keeping your treeâs low enough to comfortable reach. Even if you can reach 7-8 feet high, does not mean picking fruit standing on your toeâs with a fully stretched arm is comfortable, especially in high heat.
-donât carry a lot of weight with you. Put that in a wheelbarrow or something that you can put down on the ground.
Wet towel on your neck works wonderfully, use thick but small towel, wet it, then roll width wise to get long roll. It dries much slower but gives good cooling effect.
Iâm like Scott, the older I get the less tolerate I am of extreme heat. I sweat a lot and during days like yesterday I literally look like I jumped in a pool. I try to plan my orchard work around cloudy or more moderate conditions. Iâm also a morning person so that has helped a lot.
Me too.
I used to go out and stay out for hours and hours, but I have always hated the heat - and now itâs even worse. I feel like a SLUG in this hot humidity. Itâs hard to get everything done in short spurts - but it is true that âslow but sureâ can win the race. So, now I go out for an hour, hour and a half. I like to cool off outdoors - in the shade - rather than hit the AC. I sit for awhile and âwatch the tomatoes growâ - and then go inside.
Sometimes I take a small towel - like one of those microfiber rags - wet it and wring it out and drape it across my shoulders. That works wonders. Or I wet my hat. Hats are hot, in general - but it cools me if it is wet.
I tried a fan one year. I took one of those box fans - not too heavy - and put it on the deck near my vegetable garden. It moved the air around and made it âless agonizingâ to work out there.
If Iâm going to work outside a lot I try to stay outside. If I go in the AC for a while then going back out is super miserable. But if I stay outside in a shaded patio with a fan running then venturing into the sun once in a while isnât too bad.
I had to spend the last two days outside on the Chesapeake Bay totally unable to find any shade at all. Big hats, long sleeves and lightweight long pants to keep the sun off our skin and I wetting yourself down once in a while goes a long way towards making it tolerable.
All good suggestions.
I also have gotten in the habit of making sure that I have everything I need - when I head out to work.
It wears me out, all the trudging back and forth through the orchard grass - to go back to the house to grab a tool or some cable ties - or âwhateverâ.
We are looking into getting some sort of vehicle - so I donât use up all my âumphâ just âgetting out there and backâ! And to carry the tools - AND the spray equipment! Right now I put it all - along with a 3-gallon sprayer - in a âGorilla Wagonâ, which I have to pull. And that is getting very old! (along with me!@#$%^&*!!!)
Scott, Iâm a bit south of you - it has been a brutal few days! My poor blueberriesâŚ
My retired schedule - I work 7:30-11:30 (wide brimmed hat, cotton clothing - have an ice-vest, but havenât worn it yet this year), go back out around 3:30-7:00, drink cheap, watery light beer - hydration, nutrition and pain relief! Alternate 1 beer:1 seltzer or water for optimal hydration. On my acreage, the key is reducing the slogging from one end of the property to the other and back every time you forget something - so the electric golf cart is key. We outfitted it with a large bed that holds the sprayers, all the tools, buckets of water - that way I have 90% of what I may need. If not, itâs a quick ride back to the shed to collect the missing item.
