Week In Review

And what a week it was! Last Monday we saw a snowstorm blow through that dropped a good four inches and blew snow into two foot snowdrifts. On Tuesday we had below normal temperatures thanks to a cold front. On Wednesday we had more rain and in the evening the scattered rain switched over to snow.  I’d left the neighbor’s mare and filly out Thursday night thinking that the temps wouldn’t get too cold and that it wouldn’t rain. Sure enough, dark clouds roll in and it started to sprinkle so back out I went to put the mare and filly inside. But by Friday we had 70 degree weather. Crazy how we can go from a snowstorm to beautiful weather in just four short days.

This past week has been a blur. The paying job has me hopping so there’s very little time left for me to do anything but minimal chores and back in to work more. But I have been in the saddle a lot more in the past three days. I was sick Thursday night so couldn’t go to drill team practice. But I went to drill team practice Friday night and had a great time. Saturday we loaded up early to attend the Horse Power Horse Show and perform with the Cowboy Way Ridin’ Angels at noon and then headed home. Mike worked on the plowtruck to turn it back into the spray truck. He even got a chance to spray some of the weeds in the pasture. I think he’s jumping the gun a little bit but I won’t tell if you won’t. Sunday, on a spur of the moment, I decided to go on a trail ride with the Lake County Boots and Saddle Club. I took Rain and realized not too far into the ride that I needed to take someone else. Luckily the clouds rolled in otherwise, I think Rain would have gone into Heat Exhaustion again. That poor horse. I forgot that once the temps reach 80, he’s no longer anything but a pasture puff standing in the shade. But that also means I need to get Chaos and Maverick going as trail ride horses. My goal this week and coming weekend is to work with them.

A number of the horses are overdue for their trims. I need to call the farrier this week and get it scheduled. The problem is the weather. The weather has been my holdup for so long. It’s been so crappy for so long that I can never predict the weather long enough to schedule an appointment. Every time I turn around it’s storming out. I guess I wont’ complain because it is moisture.

I filled water tanks last night and pulled water heaters. I’m wondering if I didn’t just jinx myself. We are still in the 70s for the next two days but there’s supposed to be a 20+ drop in temperature from Tuesday into Wednesday. I’m always a little nervous when we have that drastic of a temperature drop. I always keep a close eye on the older horses to make sure they won’t colic. Not that it’s ever happened, but I know it can.

I think Jim is depressed. I can’t figure out why he’s acting different than normal. He’s been this way for awhile and I can’t put my finger on it. I’ve taken to pulling him into the barn to let him eat a little bit of alfalfa. I haven’t been graining him lately because the mare has been in the barn. But I will have to resume graining to see if that makes him happy. There’s just something wrong with him and it’s bothering me that I can’t place it. I have such a hard time dealing with depression in horses. I don’t know how to fix it.

Rabbit’s heaves have flared up something terrible again. I haven’t been giving her medicine because she’s in with three others that would steal her grain. I am going to have to set up a little pen so she can go in and eat without being bothered. Maybe that way she’ll actually get her medicine. Until I can get pens together, I’ve started a different feeding method. I read somewhere that if you soak the hay, the dust, etc. wont’ be so bad and horses with heaves can eat a little easier. For whatever reason, in the winter when she’s only eating hay, her heaves don’t act up as much (although maybe they were and I didn’t’ notice because it was always dark when I was feeding her). So last night I drug out a tub and filled it with water and soaked her hay. I either need a bigger tub or less hay to soak. I didn’t think it worked at first because she was still breathing heavy. But then I noticed she wasn’t coughing. I guess we’ll be soaking her hay from now on. I soaked her hay overnight last night and tossed it out. I didn’t hear her cough this morning either although in the mornings I don’t think her heaves are as bad thanks to the  moisture/dew. But we’ll see how it goes. Maybe tonight I can move some corral panels around and get her situated in a pen away from the others so she can start back on her meds. I’m afraid she really does need to be on her meds all through the spring, summer, and fall. I had hoped that the heaves were getting better. I should know better.

We have another beautiful day today although maybe not as warm. I’m hoping to get just a little bit more done tonight and tomorrow night before the cold front moves through. Keep your fingers crossed that I wont’ regret pulling the water heaters out of Babe and Bo’s tanks!

Sure Enough

This morning doing chores was beautiful. Rarely do I get to enjoy a quiet and still morning when doing morning chores. Of course I was running a half an hour late and the horses let me know in no uncertain terms (even the neighbor’s new filly let me know she wanted out of the barn!)

The days are getting longer and the mornings aren’t so dark any more. Last night while finishing up chores, I was able to take a few minutes to watch the sun set. This morning I was able to watch the sun rise on my way in to work. It’s days like this that make me appreciate were we life (of course there was no wind so that helped!)

On Monday I said another storm was on the horizon. Boy was I not kidding. Within an hour of posting that blog post, we had snow. I’m not talking a dusting, a full on whiteout drifting type of snow. The drifting was bad enough that I couldn’t go on my normal route to work. There was a two foot snowdrift blocking the way. It was high enough that I didn’t think my car could bust through the drift!

Of course I left the hoses out but the sun came out late yesterday to help start the melting process. So we survived the snow, although I don’t believe we got six inches of snow. I think we were more in the four inches of wet heavy snow instead.

But again, I have been ignoring the weather and what do my ears happen to hear as I’m walking out the door to get to the paying job, we are to get more moisture. I have no idea if it’ll be in the form of rain or if it’ll be snow. But either way, we are predicted to get more moisture. Oh sure, when I finally let the neighbor’s mare and filly out, what does the weather do, open up and snow/rain! I didn’t let them out yesterday because I’d move corral panels Sunday to clean the drylot and I was too played out to move them back. Their pen was such a muddy mess yesterday so I didn’t bother letting them out. And it was nasty cold. So I decided they better get out and stretch their legs today. And sure enough, it’s going to rain. At least I had the good sense to throw a blanket on the mare. I hate that blanket, the belly strap doesn’t fit ANYONE! But a big heavy blanket is better than nothing and it’ll keep her dry. Sure enough, when I least expect it, we'll get another storm.

I took Babe’s blanket off. I need to worm her again. She ripped the tail flap all to heck so I need to repair it before I can put it back on her. I don’t think she really needs it. I prefer to keep it on so she doesn’t get wet and then chilled. But she’s looking just fine without it. I’m afraid she has cushings so she can’t shed out. The only reason that she doesn’t look like a cushings horse is because I do leave a blanket on her for parts of the winter to keep her dry. If she doesn’t shed out, we’ll have to shave her.  I wanted to shave her last summer when it was over 100 degrees for a number of days in a row but I was too pregnant at that time. Hopefully we won’t hit the 100 degree mark for more than one or two days.  But I’d prefer to shave her so she’s not huffing and puffing when it does get hot.

 It’s going to be a fairly quiet rest of the week at the Sanctuary (knock on wood).  Outside activities are starting to gear up so I expect I’ll be overwhelmed with those activities. I’m still brainstorming for fundraising ideas for the Sanctuary. So if you have any ideas, please let me know! All ideas are welcome (and wanted)!!

Another Storm on the Horizon

I'm definitely ready for spring! I haven't really paid much attention to the weather lately. I had thought that we wouldn't be getting much more for bad weather after the storm last week. Wrongo.

We are back in a Winter Weather Advisory from 10am until 10pm today. Guess it's a good thing that we ran our errands yesterday afternoon instead of tonight! We are predicted to get another 3-6 inches of snow! What the heck!! If I would have known that I would have brought the hoses in last night. It's going to be like last time, where I lost the hoses under six inches of snow and it took a week to dig them back out. Teach me not to pay attention to the weather.

We did do some serious cleaning in the horse pens last night. Luckily the Bear was cooperative and enjoyed helping Mike with the cleaning. He's such a good kid, so helpful even at only eight months old!

I haven't been able to clean the horse pens like I've wanted for a very long time. In fact, when I got pregnant, all cleaning came to a screeching halt (on my part but Mike did help with cleaning). I was too sick the first three months, and even though we didn't have any snow about this time last year (I believe we were in the 70s by this point last year), I still wasnt' feel well enough to do anything but the simpilest of tasks. 

But a year of not really doing anything but bare minimum, and our place shows it. I'm pushing to get as much stuff done this year to make up for not doing anything last year.  I have a number of projects on my list that I want to tackle to try and improve the place. I'm not sure we'll get to all of them. Cost is going to play a huge factor. The money that we used to have was eaten up by hospital bills (both mine and Mike's) and the increased price of hay.

I'm hoping that this extra moisture will help the pastures. I'm afraid our pastures are doomed though even with all the moisture. We overgrazed them too far for too many years. What used to be a lush pasture is now little stubbles of grass leaves. The pictures in this blog are from 2009 when the grass was still fairly lush. We should have been fertilizing, spraying, and reseeding the pasture every year. I'm hoping that with a little bit of thought, we can overseed parts of the pasture and fertilize other portions. I'm sure we'll have to spray the pasture again but maybe if we tackle the bad spots this year, we wont' be faced with five foot thistles.

But until this next snowstorm blows through, I'll just dream of blue skies and green lush pastures.

 Chaos and Brego

 King, Chaos, Maverick, (not sure who the black horse is), and Dude

Sam (a month after we got him. He was still too thin at this point)

Snowstorms

We survived yet another storm. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as last week's storm. The few inches of snow we did receive are blown into snowdrifts. Although, on my way to the paying job this morning I had to find a different route. We had a two foot snowdrift on the gravel road and there was no way I was going to bust through that drift.

Everyone seemed to be just fine after this last snow storm. I ended up putting Zeke in the barn last night because he was wet and shiverng. Everyone else seemed content to stay outside (of course I'd just thrown alfalfa so no one wanted anything to do with the barn).

The neighbor's mare and filly have been in the barn for the past couple of days. The weather has been too bad to let them out. I'm sure they will be happy to adventure outside tomorrow. I swear that filly came out half grown. She's already mouthing the hay and grain.

Tomorrow is the SD Horse Council meeting. I can't go because I have practice but Mike is going to go in my place. I am hoping that we can make some changes and see more horse activities in our community. In the past five years I've seen a couple different saddle clubs spring up and two drill teams. I know there are other activities too but I'm on the ones mentioned. It would be nice if we could get a wide variety of organizations and individuals to become members. It would be nice to see a wide range of horse rescues and sanctuaries be a part of the SD Horse Council. But maybe that's all in the works. I'm hoping next year to have the Sanctuary join. The $50 it takes to become a group member (not an individual member) is already spent on hay and grain.

There are four auctions this weekend and I won't be attending any of them. I'm a little disappointed but I don't think my heart can take it. The roads aren't the greatest so I fear that there wont' be a great turnout for the loose horses. The roads are still covered in ice and snow. I doubt any of the auctions will cancel their sales. I feel guilty for not attending but I can't do anything but give them a pat on the nose and tell them that I will remember them. It's so frustrating to have my  hands tied. 

There's simply not enough funds to go around.  That's why I wanted to focus on fundraising this year. So far our fundraising has been a success. My problem now is that I'm stuck on what to do for the next fundraiser. I have one or two ideas up  my sleeve but I'm going to wait to share those for a little bit. There's a few in the area that seem a bit jealous that we are finally promoting ourselves and possibly taking the limelight away from them. Which is too bad because the need is there.

I'm hoping the weekend will warm up and I'll get a chance to do some work outside. I was talking with Mike the other day and I mentioned that there were a couple of projects I want to start now because I want to get them done and be prepared for winter. That's right, I said it...winter. Here I am already preparing for next winter when we are still dealing with the final throws of this winter.  Of course at the time the weather was beautiful and everyone was thinking spring. But it seems as though we spend six month out of the year dealing with winter and trying to get through and the other six months preparing for the next winter. It's an odd concept to think about the next winter when we are finally getting out of the last winter. It's a hard pill to swallow but I guess that's the life we live in South Dakota. Always need to be prepared for the next snowstorm, even if it's at the end of April.



How Time Flies

I just realized that today marks Rain’s nine year anniversary with us. I figure it’s his birthday too since he’s grade and we have no idea when he was actually born. I know Rain isn’t a rescue horse but he’s a part of the herd and represents Borderlands anyway. So happy birthday/anniversary Rain. Hard to believe it’s been nine years. I still remember the trip bringing him home. Hauling him in a four horse straight load steel trailer (embarrassingly painted turquoise) bucking a headwind the entire way. At the time I didn’t own a truck or trailer so Dad was driving. We made it a family affair.

 A week ago today would have been Ace’s birthday. He too wasn’t a rescue although only because we weren’t running a rescue yet. He’d had numerous owners in his life before we got him at the age of 16. That horse taught me a lot about horses and it’s probably the reason why I prefer to ride Arabians over anything else. Most people want a calm and quiet horse but I’m not used to it and think there’s something wrong if a horse stands still for more than 30 seconds.  It’s been a few years since we lost Ace but he’ll always be remembered and missed.

Crazy how time flies.

Changes in Eight Hours

At 10pm last night (before heading out to do chores), the upcoming spring storm was predicted to only drop about 2 inches of snow and that we’d get a bunch of rain. We weren’t in any type of advisory either. Eight hours later when I was racing around trying to get out the door for the paying job, the weatherman changed the entire outlook for this storm. Amazing what eight hours will do!

 Now the upcoming storm is predicted to drop 4-8 inches of snow or possibly 3-7 inches of snow and we’ll be dealing with slush. I couldn’t figure out how to read the map correctly and I didn’t have time to stop and actually listen to what he was saying.  We are also in a winter weather advisory now too.

I doubt this storm will be as big a doozy as the last one but I’d sure like to know exactly what was coming our way so I could prepare a little. I didn’t have time last night to get anything ready for this upcoming storm. I had drill team practice and didn’t get home until 10pm. Lucky for me, there was no wind to fight. Unfortunately this morning there was wind.

I know we need the moisture but I’d prefer it to come in warm spring rain rather than another snowstorm. For the amount of snow we would need to get us out of the drought, we’d be buried in snow until July!

From the latest update on the storm:

A complex storm system will give us plenty of forecasting challenges the next 24 to 48 hours.  First, snow has accumulated in much of western SD with over 6” around Rapid City and points south and west.  The first wave of snow extended overnight north to Aberdeen where an inch or two has been reported as of 7am.

The main challenges today will be watching a band of t-storms with rain and sleet in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.  Rain mixed with sleet will be possible in Sioux Falls today.  Heavy rain is possible in northwest Iowa  (over .50”).   The snow and precipitation will expand to the west and north of Sioux Falls through the afternoon. 

There may be a lull in the activity late this evening before another round of snow develops tonight and tomorrow across eastern KELOLAND.  Sioux Falls and much of the southeast will be under a winter weather advisory and could get more than 6” of sloppy wet snow with this storm.  Even northeast KELOLAND will have a chance of 6” of snow tonight, and that’s why a winter storm watch is in effect.

Part of the problem with snow forecasting with this storm will be the t-storm activity in the warm sector of the storm across Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  Since the nature of those storms will be volatile, so will the moisture return to KELOLAND.  Also, the snow that falls will be very heavy and wet, difficult to measure, and compacting during the day.  The other issue is the strong wind.  Northwest winds will gust over 40mph tomorrow in much of eastern and southeastern SD, NW IA, and SW MN. 

Greeeeaaaaat. Six inches of snow. At least most of the snow from last week’s storm is gone. The only telltale sign that we had a massive storm last week are the tree limbs lying around. At least this time I’m keeping an eye to the sky. And as I did this morning, the skies looked very dark to the south with the threat of the storm headed our way.  The neighbor’s mare and filly are tucked away in the barn. I want to keep them safe and warm in the barn. Most of the “delicate flowers” are snug in their blankets.  If we are going to get a lot of rain, I’ll be running most into stalls tonight to dry off. It’s going to be an exhausting next 48 hours.

Upcoming Auction

There are two different auctions scheduled for this Friday, April 19th. One is the Sioux Falls Regional Livestock Horse Sale and the other is the monthly Mitchell Horse Sale. Anyone interested in going with me?