Summer Returns

The cooler weather didn’t last long, the heat has returned today with a vengeance. I remember a few years ago when I first got my first swimming pool that the water was cold all summer. I had to get a solar blanket for it, I didn’t think that having a pool was worth the cost of the chemicals because it wasn’t used that much. Some friends that I know got rid of their pools after that season because it was never warm enough to swim comfortably.

I got the pool for my Grandkids because I wanted them to learn to swim. It worked well, my oldest Grandson can swim well and my two oldest Granddaughters are floating, dog paddling, and swimming expertly underwater.

This year has been the best year ever for owning a swimming pool in southern Indiana. The girls have lived in the water this Summer. They are dark brown from the sun and their hair is a couple of shades lighter. But today the water was cold after a couple of cool nights. They were shocked in more ways than one when they jumped in because they are used to nice warm water. They keep getting out to warm up in the sun.

It’s hard to believe that it is almost September, this Summer has been just one long, super hot, steamy blur. It started out stormy with lots of rain and is ending up dry and dusty. We have gone from grass that wouldn’t quit growing to grass that is drying up and not growing at all. I wonder what this Winter will be like.

Zircon Memories

It was a lovely day today, warm, sunny, a nice breeze. The horses and goats are all shedding, so there was hair in the air. I let my two does out in the yard for some green, tender munching and some exercise this evening. They kept their noses to the ground, so I worried that they would get too much of a good thing.

When my DH got home from his job, he worked with a new 2 year old filly that we just got in, she really needs some work! The only lesson she has been getting so far is how to be caught without tearing down fences.

Then he brought Zircon to the barn to trim his feet. With 30-something horses, hoof trimming is going to go on and on for awhile. He managed to get Zircon, a 2 year old and Sky, our only yearling done this evening.

I took some new pictures of Zircon, he is such a good boy. I remembered back two years ago this June when I helped bring him into the world. You can read that story here.

Zircon has gone from being an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan. I knew he would!

When the horses were trimmed, I casually said something about trimming Rancid's feet. My wonderful husband whose back and legs were already hurting from the work involved in trimming two horses, one of which was an inexperienced yearling, told me to go get him. Well, I jumped at the chance to get my doe's hooves trimmed and brought out Collette instead. When he finished with Collette, I put her up and brought out Calico. He is an absolute perfect Husband. Rancid will have to wait, I didn't want to push my luck too far.

The last few days have been such perfect weather that I hate for it to end but from the look of the weather map and the forecasts, we are in for some stormy weather. There may be some severe storms tomorrow. I haven't had to shut my computer down because of lightening for months, unfortunately with the Spring weather comes the Spring thunderstorms.

Sludge

Our barn is just full of it, last night it was rain water, today it is sludge. It has been years since we have seen this much rain. Indian Creek has rerouted itself into our lower pasture and is still rising. The roaring sound of the creek, that is temporarily a river, is filling this valley.

Poor Calico and kids are on the only high spot in the stall. She isn't even wading the waters to go to her hay feeder. I was awake all night, it started with a glance at the weather radar when I knew something bad was going to hit us, there was no escape.

By the time that I got the computer shut down because I was starting to hear the thunder, it was here. There was no sleep after that. The lightening, thunder, hail and wind were really scary. I was just sure that we were going to get hit by a tornado any second. My DH just kept snoring, I talked to him anyway, he even answered.

I was expecting to find things blown all over the yard this morning and trees down but nothing seems out of place but our spring creek and Indian Creek. However, it does look like a jungle out there, the grass and weeds all grew several inches over night. The horses will have plenty to eat, they will all start getting obese again.

Poor Angus was outside in all of that mess, I don't know where he was but he didn't come into the barn before I had to close up everything. I had just closed the big sliding door to the barn, locked it and gone back to bed when I heard the cat hollering to be let in. So I went back out to let him in and he had already found another way. He looked like something that the cat had drug home. There was a lot of hail so I wasn't surprised to see him looking quite confused.

Predictions

As I sat here reading different blogs and message boards tonight, I found that most interest was centered on the weather. We are currently under a Winter Storm Warning and are suppose to get up to three inches of snow tonight, three inches tomorrow and so on.

I just went out to see how that was coming along and discovered that there is already three inches of snow and ice on the ground here at a few minutes after midnight, so that means that it will have to stop snowing immediately for the weather predictors to be correct. I looked at the radar and it doesn't seem that we are being skirted by this storm, so I think that for once they have underestimated this storm for our area.

Normally they tell us that we are going to get 10 to 20 inches and that we will be trapped in our homes with no electricity, food or water for many days and we wake up the next morning to see the pretty snow and not one flake has fallen. I remember one year that the predictions were so bad that schools totally dismissed classes before one flake fell and it never did snow that day or the next or even for the rest of that winter, if my recollection is correct.

Perhaps the Predictors are tired of getting caught with egg on their faces, so they just didn't tell us the terrible truth this time. It will probably be the worst snowstorm in decades and we will be unprepared.

Just in case that happens, I am filling all of my pitchers with water, that is about all I can do at this point. I am also blogging now in case I have no electricity tomorrow.

No Loses

I didn't lose any chickens yesterday, this is an improvement. We are making progress. I did sell Copper yesterday evening, he went to a good home. He will be used as a buck. Angel didn't like it, she is still looking for him this morning. That is the sad part of selling my kids, it upsets Angel but his mother didn't seem to mind at all. I think she was ready to let him go.

We had storms all through the night and I have water in my living room this morning. I don't understand why sometimes the rain comes in and sometimes it doesn't. I wish some philanthropist would give me about $100,000, I could really put it to good use. I need a house.

Or better yet, it would be nice if a couple of people would retire from the Post Office and my Husband would get a regular postal route and become a full time employee instead of a substitute or RCA, no one wants to retire anymore. Another possibility is that we could sell all of our 30+ horses at reasonable prices. That would really help out, think of the money that we would save on feed alone.

We did sell a yearling filly, Biscuit is moving to Texas on Monday to become a broodmare. She will be raising spotted mule foals. We will really miss her, she has the sweetest disposition. You can sweet talk her into anything and once she learns something she retains it.

My orphan chicks are all doing well so far. The two barred rock chicks have taken up with another barred rock hen and they are roosting in the goat/chicken shed at night on the highest perch, next to the biggest rooster.

My three little banty chicks have tried to join the other banty chicks but the hen won't allow it. So they are on their own, they roost in the same nest that their mother always took them to at night, they have no protection at all. At least one of them is a rooster and he is trying to protect his little family but it is a big responsibility for such a young chick.

I was tempted to put them in a cage but the barred rock chicks were so unhappy in the cage that I hate to do it to the banties after they have been free all of their lives.

Well, that is the news for now, nothing very exciting, which is a good thing. If you are a philanthropist and have some money that you would like to put to good use contact me but please not from Nigeria.

Disappointed

I stayed up all night, well, I did lay down at 4:30 this morning, then got back up at 5:30, then laid back down until 7:00, still no baby. Quizzy got turned out of the foaling stall, she is back out in her muddy, grassless lot. The DH said that she was waxed heavy this morning when he turned her out.

I will be running between the neighbor's house and animals to our house and animals all day. If Quizzy doesn't foal during the day today, I will be up all night again unless she foals early tonight, that would be nice.

The neighbor's rain guage says that we got another two inches of rain overnight. The storms passed through quickly and weren't too bad. However, after this rain, I am not looking forward to going into the goat lot, but I don't have any choice. It's a dangerous job but someone has to do it...

Storms

I haven't had time to blog for several days because I am trying to take care of a neighbor's house and pets while still trying to take care of my own. They have four house dogs, a cat, two cockatiels and a loud mouth parrot that I just adore. The horrible storms haven't helped much either. My computer has been shut off most of the time recently. It seems like there is a new storm moving through every few hours.

We only got 2 inches of rain here on Friday night, but central Indiana got 10 inches and from what I have heard it is nearly impossible to get to Indianapolis from the southern part of the state. Bridges are out and roads are under water.

Our barn did flood again on Friday night and I did fall again yesterday in the same place that I fell the other day. This time I didn't have time to try to catch myself, so I am not quite as sore. I walking into the goat/chicken house and all of the sudden I was laying flat on my back looking at the sky trying to catch my breath. The good news is that only my backside was covered with mud and manure this time. I have told my DH that I am not going back in that lot unless the ground is dry.

Our last mare is getting ready to foal. The foaling stall has an inch or two of water in it, so we are hoping to get it dried out before she decides to foal.

I will probably blog more than once today if it doesn't storm.

Disbudding Disaster

We finally got Copper and Zinc dehorned, but it was a very disturbing event. We have disbudded several kids, so this wasn't our first rodeo. This time it was totally different than what we have experienced in the past.

We got everything prepared on Friday evening, put Copper in the box first, he fought so hard that I was afraid that he would hurt himself. Both of us together couldn't hold him still even before we started the burning process. It was difficult but we finally got him finished, he was whimpering pitifully when we took him back to his mother.

Next it was Zinc's turn, he was ten times worse than Copper had been. He struggled so badly that the iron slipped a couple of times and we had to start all over again. When we were finished with him, he was bleeding from both sides, we had never had that happen before.

Both kids continually scratched the burns with their hind hooves, they whimpered and cried all night long, we had never seen this before either. Normally the kids just start playing and acting as if nothing had happened. Jasper and Onyx started running and chasing each other as soon as we released them back to the mother.

The next day Copper had recovered and was fine but Zinc still cried most of the day, he got under the goat/chicken shed and wouldn't come out. I don't understand what caused this and why this time was so different, we did everything the same as aways. We have done them younger than these two and older.

On Saturday a friend stopped in and helped me get Zinc out from under the shed and one of the burn sites was infected. We sprayed it with blue lotion and by Sunday he was starting to act some better. On Monday he was completely himself again.

I started this blog this morning but severe storms hit our area and I had to close the computer down. I was glad that I did because our electricity went out for quite awhile after that and then came back on long enough for me to wash some dishes then went out again. All is quiet at the moment but I think that we are still suppose to get more storms tonight.