The hottest day of the summer so far. The chickens take refuge in the shade, either in a watering hole like this or in a dust bowl that they scrape for themselves out of the dirt.

We bought the raised growing bed last year, but had little success with it because of insufficient water. This year I hooked up a fairly elaborate irrigation system. The white hose connects to a hose bib with a timer on it, and the whole bed gets watered four times a day — every six hours, day and night. That seems to be what it takes.