Pedley's Ponderings

With the rain finally stopping and floodwaters receding, we've been left with rather healthy conditions for growing green things around these parts. I think you can both hear and see the corn growing these days if you concentrate hard enough.

That also applies to the ever-healthy crop of weeds in my yard, particularly in my landscaping. I don't know how many hours I've spent yanking weeds and other unwanted vegetation this summer, but if my sore back is any indication, it's been quite a few.

Making matters worse is the ravenous mosquitos that have taken control of the region over the past few weeks. I did myself no favors on this front, as there was a kiddie pool full of rainwater sitting under a pine tree unbeknownst to me. After I drained it, there was a still bit of water remaining. It was so loaded with mosquito larvae that it looked like a microscope slide of pond water writhing with life. I promptly dumped it out after gagging.

Nothing I do really seems to affect the bloodsuckers. I use the deep woods bug repellent, which only seems to work for 10 minutes before they start attacking me again. I've just come to the conclusion that it's their yard for remainder of summer and I'm just a guest.

Mosquitos aside, I have been able to make headway on the landscaping in recent weeks. The southeast side was the worst, but I called in the cavalry two Sundays ago.

I was discussing my plight with a friend when he jokingly suggested that I burn it down. I wasn't in the joking mood, and I told him that I actually wish I could dump gas all over it, light a match and eliminate the overgrowth wholesale. He then informed that he had a propane torch and volunteered its services.

I promptly obliged and retrieved it the following the day. My neighbors were treated to quite the show as my landscaping smoked while the torch licked the weeds with fire. The house didn't burn down, and as of this week, the weeds seemed to get the message – nothing much has been growing in those rocks and that's the way I like it.

• Sweating through it

The heat from the torch might short lived, but a recent stretch of sweltering temperatures and humidity has felt endless at our household thanks to no air conditioning.

Our unit is slated to get replaced...sometime. Recent flooding has loaded up the work schedule for HVAC servicers, and they'll get to us when they can get to us. At last check we're a week or more away from getting it replaced.

As you might imagine, tensions have been thick over the past week as we all dealt with the heat and humidity. On Monday, it was 84 degrees inside.

Mitigation efforts are few and far between – we can't have window units, as our windows are the crank-out type. We considered rigging up a portable AC somewhere, but the same dilemma applies. For all intents and purposes, we were forced to face the misery head-on and embrace it.

We've been opening windows at night and closing them in the morning to cool down the house. This has worked with mixed results, as the evenings sometimes don't get cold enough to do anything other than make it more humid inside. We've retreated to the basement for relief and also skipped town one night, but have just endured it for the most part.

One of my more laughable attempts at beating the heat occurred Monday. I looked up a video on how to build a makeshift air conditioner out of a Styrofoam cooler and quickly assembled the apparatus in about 10 minutes.

This "worked" in the sense that cold air was crawling out of the "vents," but it by no means cooled down a room like the video promised. The fan power needed to be much stronger than it was, but with limited space on the top of the cooler, there was no way to up the ante.

Oliver was pretty impressed with my redneck AC despite its lack of functionality. He asked if he could keep it when I'm done with it, to which I responded that he could take it now-a cold cloth on your forehead provides more relief than that thing.

Even so, if you're looking to cool down a room the size of a small closet, I've got just the air conditioner for you.

Nick Pedley is the news editor and ad manager of The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News.