Yeah, spending some time today getting the firepit mowed and trimmed. And getting the summer kitchen cleaned up and ready for cooking. Got the cool room in the barn set up. Still need to get a window unit or two set in. We got a pretty good warm streak, but it still cools down enough in the evening to chill the house and I just close it up for the day.

Good post, sleeve. We had our ac on yesterday here in SoCal. Working fine but due for servicing.

We run the A/C most of the year, and we recently got solar panels on our new house, which is reducing our electric bill drastically. We have back-up batteries that power the house until a bit after midnight, and so I wonder if we have enough of them. I'm going to wait a while before getting more, as they are expensive, and the price might go down.

Lars, I have an uneasy feeling that the price of things like that won't be going down any time soon - in fact, they might likely go up because of tariffs.

I, like most everyone growing up in the PNW, never had, nor needed air conditioning. Summer days could get hot, but it always cooled at night (at least on the west side of the Cascade Mountains). I don't remember days in my youth with temps close to 100 - very often at least. I do remember one summer in maybe the 1960's when people were frying eggs on sidewalks...a novelty around here.

But several years ago, things changed, it is much hotter and dryer, more wildfires and more homes with air conditioning now. I bit the bullet and installed two mini splits, mostly because when it's smoky, as it has been many summers lately, you cannot open the windows to cool things off at night. I don't use them often, but am relieved to have them when needed. I keep the filters clean, but only have to have them serviced every couple of years because they are used so seldomly.

No AC here but we always have a nail-biting moment in late October when we crank up our ancient heating system for the winter. Will it light up this year, or not? 🤞

Put the window AC in the craft room yesterday. We are in a few day hot streak, but we are within the lake buffer. Low cool and kick on the furnace fan to draw up cold basement air during the day.

Happy first day of summer everyone :)

I got away with not having to run my heatpump on A/C setting until Tuesday when it started getting into the upper 80s. My house is pretty shaded so it really only runs much in the heat of the mid afternoon. We are in a stretch of 90+ degree days with high humidity until midweek when it is supposed to storm and then cool down a smidge.