Thanks for the rain!

While you people out west have been flooded, we’ve been painfully dry.  So thanks for sending some much needed rain on Wednesday and Thursday this week!  I had to haul water from town to fill the spring-fed tank because it couldn’t keep up with the herd.   We hadn’t had a decent rain in weeks and it’s been so danged hot!  So two hours after I bring home water, dump and scrub the tank, then refill it (with an eager audience impatiently surrounding me), we got one hellacious storm!

Now, I’m not the type that is afraid of thunderstorms.  On the contrary, my favorite past time is sitting out on the porch watching the lightening and listening to the thunder.  However, this storm had even me a little worried!  Some of the cracks of thunder were right over our heads and made us all jump.  Stormy, Cody, and Heidi were cowering under whatever furniture they could fit under in the house.  Thor, Xena, Lucky and I were out on the porch.  Xena did pretty well with the thunder and didn’t seem to mind until this one crack that sounded like the sky was falling – she took off and ran a circle around the house as fast as she could, then came bounding back onto the porch with her tail between her legs!  After that, she hid in the house with the rest of the wimps.  Thor didn’t bother to even wake up during the storm and just kept snoring.  We should have named him Rumpelstiltskin instead!

The big problem with Wednesday’s storm was the wind…

 

 

I loved that tree.  It was the lone tree on top of the ridge in front of the big barn.  That barn you see in the background is across the road at Cattle Baron’s place. There were also trees down all over the roads and Cattle Baron lost a couple that fell across the road and took out our fence.  I was waiting to see if he’d fix it, but it was still down earlier today.  Up here, you’re responsible for any trees or limbs from your property that fall down and block the road.  But we all know that ‘responsibility’ is too big of a word for Cattle Baron.   I lost electricity for almost 24 hours, and it took DSL a little longer to come back up.  The wind took down half the roof of our first attempt at a run-in shed in the back pasture.  I knew it wouldn’t last long since we did a piss-poor job at building it, and was actually hoping it would fall down so I’d have an excuse to build a better one.  All things considered, we came out of the storm in pretty good shape. 

We just had some wet and unhappy rumps afterwards.

 

These girls were standing in the shed when the sky fell, then quickly ran out and went romping around the pasture, bucking and kicking in the rain.  Silly mares!

Speaking of silly mares, go check out Jewel’s latest update over on Training the Unwanted!

Taste the Rainbow

I got up this morning and moseyed outside barefoot in just a t-shirt to see how many layers of clothing I’d need to put on before feeding .  Who needs a thermometer when you’re dumb enough to walk outside half naked to take the temperature?

It was REALLY warm.  And windy!  It was the best of Fall weather that greeted us when I opened the door.  The air smelled fresh and clean, the wind felt good on my face, and the guineas were off in the pasture so things were fairly quiet for once.  Donkey brayed good morning when he saw me come out and Timmy looked up from the hay roll to give me a whinny and beg for food.   All was as it should be with the world and I didn’t think it could get any better.

Then I looked right at the beginnings of what could have been a beautiful sunrise.  Not a cloud in the sky – the promise of a beautiful day.

 

Then my eyes wondered west to look up on the ridge…

and found not only a rainbow, but enough clouds to make me wonder if rain was on the way. 

I went about morning chores and as I was picking up empty buckets after everyone ate, the temp suddenly dropped at least 10 degrees, the wind died, and the rain started.  I was soaked and shivering within minutes, slipping and sliding barefooted in the mud, and the dogs were standing on the porch waiting for me to let them in.  We all went inside to dry off and turn on the heater.  Even Lucky didn’t want to curl up with me until I put on a dry shirt.

 

 

Now we’re all just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring and trying not to think about the pile of dishes that need to be washed.  These are the days when being on call for work isn’t so bad after all. :)

Happy Halloween!

Chivalry is dead

and so is my garden. :(

Let’s start with chivalry.  When I left the house last night to get hay after unloading the feed, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and there was no reason for me to think it would rain.   As the last roll was being tied down to the trailer, the skies began to darken and distant thunder could be heard. 

Yug.

Problem number one:  Bessie can’t get into the pasture if the ground is the least bit wet, which means I can’t offload the hay.

Problem number two:  The wind was blowing like crazy and I was afraid to drive to quickly in case I came across a tree blocking the road so there was no way I was beating the storm home.

Which leads me to chivalry.  I did indeed come across a small tree blocking the whole road.   The rain was coming down in buckets, the wind about knocked me off my feet when I got out of the truck, and there was another truck coming from the other direction.  Yay!  Help has arrived!

Or not.

No one got out of the other truck, so I continued yanking, pulling, and otherwise playing tug-o-war with this tree, eventually moving it at least enough so that one car could pass by at a time.  I got back into Bessie thinking the driver of the other truck must have been an older person or another woman.

Or not.

The driver was a youngish man, about my age.  He was wearing coveralls with his name stitched on his chest.   He waved and smiled, then drove on by.

I rest my case on chivalry.  Now on to the garden. 

We got A LOT of rain in a very short period of time.

 

 

And as I’m driving home I’m thinking that at least I don’t have to water the garden.

 

Then I got home and found that I will probably never have to water the garden again this year.  Or harvest, or can, or freeze.

Hail.  Yet another four letter word.  I was hoping we’d be done with four letter words until October.

 

 

It was a good weekend.  I finally got the garden fenced in this past weekend to protect it from marauding chickens, and got all 40 tomato plants and most of my peppers planted.

And then this happened.

 

 

 

Even my potatoes and beans were affected.

 

One pathetic mater seedling was split in two.

 

Oh well.  I hadn’t put out the eggplants yet and still have a few extra tomato transplants I can put out.  Hopefully, everything else will recover in time.   Meanwhile, I think I’ll curl up into a fetal ball, suck my thumb, and hook up an IV to some Cherry Garcia ice cream.

Rain, glorious rain!

I don't know if we're getting Faye leftovers or just some nice summer rain, but whatever the source I'm darned tickled about it. It's been weeks since we've had decent rain and of course I just watered the garden last night. The pastures are dry and cracked, the pond is so low we're starting to see things that the previous owner put in there (you really don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss in this case.), and I've been hauling water from town once a week for the garden and several times a week for the trough for the main herd. Fortunately the bachelors have a spring-fed tank that stays full and fresh on it's own. The main herd has been going through about 275 gallons every other day.

Jewel has finally gotten to the point where she can be caught easily so I've removed her halter. I kept talking about starting her on the lunge line before, but for some reason or another it just never happened. So last night was our first workout together, but I think I probably got more of a workout than she did. I've never bothered getting a lunge whip because my horses simply don't need one. Kita has been trained with voice commands since she was a munchkin, Junior has never needed extra incentive to move forward, and Semi has her own pace and I've never asked for more from the old girl. I now need a lunge whip. Seriously. Tossing the end of the lunge line or the lead rope at Jewel's butt did NOTHING to make her move forward. Want to talk lazy? This horse could kick my ex-husbands' butt in a laziness contest. And trust me, that is saying something!

Glenn was the guy behind the camera last night since Brie still hasn't gotten past the whole lack of opposable thumbs problem yet. Sometimes Glenn gets lucky with the camera. Last night was not one of those times. But granted, I was chasing Jewel around a pretty big area trying to get her to just move and it was difficult for him to keep up. Once the quarantine/nursery paddock and barn are finished a round pen is next up on the to do list!

Note the totally idiotic look on the BDD in the background. This is another reason we need a round pen. Heidi, Brie, and Thor decided that under my feet was the best place to be to get the action. The BDD thought maybe right in Jewel's path was the most exciting place to be. And he's so trusting that he just assumed Jewel would go around him. Why get up and move when you're hot and tired?

The odd thing about Jewel is that sometimes she would gait instead of trot. Huh? A gaited appaloosa? It's possible, just not something I see very often. And it may have just been a "fluke" last night. I'll know more as I work with her more. And another note, not once did this mare even lay back her ears while I was working her. She even got to the point where she'd welcome my touch if it meant killing the deer flies that were swarming all over her. And look at those perky little ears! She's going to be such an adorable little horse once she's broke to ride!

I hopped on Classy again last night... I haven't been able to ride her near as much as I'd like, but hopefully things will start slowing down a bit soon and I'll be able to get more saddle time in on her. The potential adopters are coming out tonight to try her out, but won't be able to take her home for awhile because they are fostering a Percheron stud and only have the one pasture. So until the Percheron goes home or gets gelded, I can't let Classy go home with them. But that's okay, as it will give me more training time with her before she leaves. She's a good girl for the most part, but is still nervous and a bit herd bound to her sisters.

Sleep is still coming in bits and pieces at night thanks to the allergies. Hopefully, this rain will wash a bunch of the pollen out of the air and give me a little bit of a reprieve. And for those of you who don't have allergies, allow me this moment of childish behavior.