I hope everyone is able to stay cool in this heat wave.
What we're experiencing now is likely to be typical summer weather for the rest of our years, so we would be wise to take this chance to consider how we will cope with extreme heat.

We were especially lucky that our home came with geothermal heating. It's not something we would have installed on our own, but we are grateful for it, as our heating and cooling costs are quite low. The cost of this is maintenance inspections every six months and the possibility of expensive replacements some day. All the houses in our neighborhood were built with similar geothermal service, so we get good advice by sharing our geothermal news up and down the sidewalk.

The north side of our house has large windows for solar heat in the winter. For summer I've added a sun sail, just large enough to shade the windows when needed. (Low cost if you can use a prefab size.)

A week ago there was a 36 hour advisory from the county water service that water should be boiled before drinking. Water in the river has gotten low, and there was concern for backflow pollution. Fortunately water tests showed it was o.k. and the advisory was lifted, but not before supermarkets were sold out of bottled water. So now we are stocking at least a few gallons of emergency water, at least enough to keep us hydrated for a week if needed. Looking into filter systems, we could not find anything affordable that really filters microorganisms.

We're doing our dog walking mornings and evenings, not as fast or far as usual and following the shade as much as possible.

What concerns and methods have folks used to deal with extreme heat? What are your future concerns...and hopes?

Stay cool!!!