Posted by Ed Kiser on June 13, 2005 at 15:12:07 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Milk, perishables posted by Owen Roberts on June 13, 2005 at 11:45:50:
In several of these descriptions as to how to keep perishables cool, the concept of having STONE available becomes an essential. The thick stone walls do help greatly in moderation of those outdoor temperatures. It becomes similar to living in a deep cave, where the temp seems to remain rather fixed regardless of the time of year, uninfluenced by the weather topside. Stone is very good at this kind of storage of a fixed temperature.
Here in South Florida, we see quite a different situation. Any "stone" is really ancient coral rock taken from some prehistoric reef from what used to be under the sea. This whole state is essentially just a big reef. Real "stone" (rarely seen) is imported from out of state.
Our structures are primarily CEMENT BLOCKS, sprayed with a stucco covering that sometimes is grooved and painted to look like "brick". The roofs are curved tiles of baked clay. No stone. The thickness of that cement block is hardly enough to provide that immunity to the temperatures on the outside.
There is the concept of a basement as being a place with moderation of temperatures. Here in my part of the world, there is no such a thing as a basement. The houses here are all on one big SLAB of cement. Any attempt to start digging as if hoping to make a basement would immediately turn into a pool of water, as the water level here is a foot or so below the ground surface. I have a canal beside the house, so its level is essentially where the water level is in the ground under the house.
In this sub-tropical environment, the air conditioner is on for at least ten months of the year. Without that, the interior easily gets above 100 F degrees which is impossible. That can become a serious consideration when hurricane season damages cause power outages that sometimes last for several weeks. Without electricity, there is no refrigeration, and there is no "slab of stone" to keep the milk cool, and there is NO airconditioning. Suffer, suffer...
The description of a "wet cloth" and its cooling effect reminds me of my early years living on a farm in North Carolina. When we went to the fields, we always carried a half-gallon jug of water, wrapped in a large towel, soaked in water. This is placed at the end of the row under the shade of the tobacco leaves. When we work our way across the field, then back again, that jug waiting for us there at the end is a strong motivation to get back to that end of the row. The water, while not COLD, did remain cool, and quite refreshing. By noon, that towel was dry, but it was time to go in anyhow, to refresh the jug at the pump, and to re-soak the towel, ready to go back for an afternoon back in the fields. It seems that drinking a half-gallon in the morning, and another in the afternoon, was hardly considered to be a lot of water, as it also seemed that by the end of the day, that gallon was ready to be wrung from my sweat-soaked clothing. But it definitely used the evaporation of moisture from that towel to keep the water in the jug to where it could be plesantly drunk.
The real treat was at that noon-time pause, back at the house, working the handle up and down on that pump, bringing up that cool water from the deep underground, and letting it run over my head, and over my arms. The cooling of that flowing water did so much to aid the body in its battle against the heat. Especially effective was the running of cool water across the wrists, as the blood vessels seemed to be close to the surface, and the cool water took the heat from that bodily flow, thus cooling the entire body.
On very hot days, it sometimes seemed the thing to do to take a short pause and jump into the irrigation pond, clothes and all, then return to the field soaking wet. Again the principle of evaporation of that moisture, this time from the clothing, had a remarkable cooling effect that was even better than just being in sweat-soaked clothing.
At least, that concept of cooling by evaporation was common in my experiences, and in those situations others have described on this forum.
One interesting observation as I look through my daily slide show presentation of the LAKELANDCAM photos is the presence of stone. It is in so many walls, and it seems every building is of thick stones. There is slate slabs on the roofs, or in some cases, there is thatch, a roofing material I can never understand why and how that seems to work, as one would think that water would soak all the way through a pile of hay. There is also that wonderment about the ages of these stone structures, both walls and buildings, and of the amount of labor (excuse me, "labour") it would take to gather all those stones, lift them into place, and then to make them "fit" one another. At least, termites are not apt to eat that stone. But all in all, all these observations and wonderings just add to the fascination of learning more about All Things Ransome.
Ed Kiser, South Florida