Best Laid Plans

Seems my best laid plans never work. I’m wondering if I should plan less and expect more of the unexpected. But I’m a Type A person and this year I’m trying to be more organized (hahahah, for those that know me personally you know how unorganized I am and that I’m late all the time).

Saturday morning I went out to do chores and the herd hadn’t finished up their round bale with the cinch net. Last weekend we waited until Sunday to push in rounds so I had a feeling we wouldn’t push in rounds again until Sunday. There was still a lot left of the round but the herd has to work for it harder this time around (we got the bale in the feeder weird). 

Unfortunately, waiting to push in rounds for the big herd meant that I had to throw hay to Babe and Bo because their bale is gone. Not a big deal but different than the normal routine (I think Babe and Bo prefer the hay I’m throwing versus the round bale).

Saturday afternoon rolled around and the Bear got sick with his first flu. If I ever thought I was a nervous nelly when it came to a sick horse, I’m ten times worse with the Bear. As I sat rocking him in between bouts of sickness, I thought about all those kids that don’t get loved on when they are sick, that don’t have anyone to take care of them when they aren’t feeling well. Of course, then my mind flipped over to thinking about all those horses that don’t have anyone caring for them when they aren’t feeling well (or who are neglected, abused, and starved). It just blows my mind. The world stops when there’s a sick family member.  Any plans will have to wait until we know everyone is on the mend.

We had a long night Saturday and I didn’t want to shake the Bear up by putting him in the plow truck and bouncing him around to push bales in. Figured it was best to keep him quiet and let him nap the day away.  So I’ve been throwing hay to the big herd in the evening to ensure that everyone gets something to eat. I was worried that the aggressives would take over the bale and leave the more passive horses standing there watching. But I’ve seen the more aggressives standing in the sun to sunbath while the others eat (or I’ve seen them all hanging out at the round bale). But it makes me feel better knowing there’s some extra hay. Of course, now that they’ve had the taste of better quality hay, they aren’t as quick to demolish the rest of that round bale.

I have drill team practice tonight so there’s no chance of pushing in round bales to the big herd. But now the Bear is coming down with a cold so I don’t want him bouncing around in the truck if he’s still not feeling well. So my hope is that we can push in rounds bales Tuesday night. Mom is there to watch the Bear during the day and then we can scramble around to get the bales pushed in for another week.  We have enough round bales to get us through until the first of February. Then we’ll switch over to the big squares and chores will start taking longer than the standard one hour at night and ten minutes in the morning. I’ll notice it most in the mornings when we switch to the big squares. I’m going to have to learn to get up earlier or at the very least stop hitting snooze.

Although, driving in this morning was a delight. I was a few minutes late (shocking I know) and got to watch the predawn light show. On the bright side, the days are getting longer. I might not notice the longer days at night but in the mornings on my drive to the paying job, I am starting to notice. Longer days are something to look forward to.

And because the Bear was sick, I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures or get anyone dewormed. The weatherman is calling for another cold front to blow through this coming weekend. Maybe they’ll be wrong. They were wrong about the weather Saturday! It was supposed to be relatively nice but in the early afternoon the wind picked up and the snow started to fly (horizontal of course). The yard now has hard drifts to stamp through. Because the weather was supposed to be nice, Mike pulled the plow off the plow truck last weekend to do some much needed welding on it before it breaks completely but didn’t get everything done last weekend. With the nicer weather predicted for this past weekend, I think he was going to work on the plow some more. Amazing what one sick baby will do to all your plans.

We’ll see how this week goes. Mike and I are running on auto pilot right now. I was too exhausted last night to do much more than the necessary chores after getting back from drill team practice. I needed to haul extra water over to Babe and the mares but I was played out.  Hopefully while the weather is still nice, I can get caught up on some of the necessary chores that I’ve been putting off. So not looking forward to the even colder weather headed our way by the end of the week. I’ll just hope that the weatherman gets it wrong this time!