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Beat The Heat

By Debbie Williams

A Baldwin County man found a creative way to stay cool. Beat The Heat

Published: Tue, July 31, 2007 - 4:45 pm Last Updated: Wed, August 01, 2007 - 2:42 pm

Anyone who has spent any time in the south knows the summer heat can be brutal. Now, add yard work to the mix and most folks just say “No”. But one Baldwin County man wasn’t going to let the weather defeat him so he figured out a way to beat the heat.

Neal and Fran Shults have only lived here a couple of years. "We just like it back here."

Transplants from California, "People are a lot nicer back here. I sound like a traitor."

It didn’t take long for Neal to feel the full affects of a South Alabama summer, "The biggest adjustment probably the weather...the weather in the summer."

His wife Fran will tell you, he’s a man used to doing things his own way. "I'm just use to this, he's just always thinking of a better idea.”

He had an idea about a vest that beats the heat while you mow the lawn. He found a vest on-line and after a few modifications, "We're ready to go and it's just as cool as can be in here. I can mow the lawn on a day like this not a drop of sweat just cool."

He hasn’t come up with a name for it yet, but Fran says the neighbors have, “They were just chuckling because of his cool suits."

Shults maybe getting the last laugh, his little contraption works and it’s made at least one chore of summer a little easier to take.

Shults has a cooler attached to the back of the lawnmower filled with ice water that circulates through the vest. Shults says it takes about three hours and 20 pounds of ice to cut his lawn and he never breaks a sweat.