That's SD For Ya

We are going to have an almost 30 degree weather change in the next 24 hours. I knew we were going to get some type of weather but I didn’t realize it was going to be so drastic! We had drizzle and light showers Sunday. It was a good day to relax and enjoy watching the rain fall. If we could have a week straight of that type of weather, I think we’d have a reduced threat of another drought.  I don’t think we got enough rain last night to amount to a hill of beans though.  That’s South Dakota for ya.

This morning we woke to fog. Not just any ol’ type of fog. Dense Fog. I rank fog up there with blizzards.  I hate driving in fog. The only time I wish we had wind is when we have dense fog. I want the wind to blow it away. Instead we had wind and rain yesterday and fog this morning. Yeah, that’s South Dakota for ya.

Depending on which weather service map I look at, we are predicted to get rain tonight. Both the weatherman and the weather map online say we are going to get freezing rain tomorrow along with lower temps, almost a 30 degree swing. Oh goodie.  Except when I read the forecast, they say little to no ice accumulation. How does that work?  “Rain or freezing rain. High near 34. Breezy, with a north northeast wind around 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no ice accumulation expected.” That’s South Dakota for ya.

I guess from Tuesday night until sometime Thursday, we are predicted to get some snow. At least we aren’t getting the six+ inches of snow that’s predicted in the middle of the state. Don’t get me wrong, I think we need the moisture but I’d just as soon have it as rain instead of snow. It takes a lot of snow to get a decent amount of moisture. I’ll take it in spring rains, thank you very much.

I’m not looking forward to this drastic temperature change. I’ll be busting my butt tonight to get all my chores done before I have to head to another meeting. I swear I’m gone more now than I ever was.

The mare and filly will definitely go in but I may reduce the number of stalls they have to play in. Moving them to only two stalls would give me four stalls in the barn for Jim, Rain, Zeke, and Brego. Those are the four that need to be in out of the weather the most.  I know everyone else will stand in a leanto to stay out of the nasty weather. I’m debating on either putting Rabbit and Mayhem in the hay shed stalls or just throwing a blanket on Rabbit. My preference is in a stall but we’ll see. If I stall them tonight, they will be stuck in their stall until Wednesday  morning because of the weather. I guess that’s not all that bad. The only catch is that the one stall is demolished thanks to Sahara and I never got around to getting it fixed. So I’ll have to come up with something tonight quick if I want to put Rabbit and Mayhem in and I’m really leaning towards that option. Rabbit’s heaves are starting to flare up. I need to make a little stall for her in her pen so that she can eat her grain in peace and get the meds she needs instead of having Mayhem steal them from her. I desperately need to separate those two. I’m debating on putting Mayhem into the Colt Starting Challenge that’s going to be held by Gentle Spirits Horse Rescue and Sanctuary. Then she’d be adopted out but I am not sure yet. I need to just get through the next 72 hours first.

Even though Bo and Babe have shelter, I may end up putting blankets on them too. I’m worried that the temperature swing might bother them. I’m sure I’m being over protective but I don’t care. You can be over protective of an oldster and a hard keeper.

So the next 24 hours is going to be absolutely crazy and I’ll definitely be scrambling to get everything done before the nasty weather sets in.

In other news, I was so exhausted Saturday that I didn’t really do too much with the horses other than chores and filling water tanks. I don’t typically take naps but I took at least two yesterday without even knowing it. You know you’re tired when you’re reading a book and don’t realize you’ve fallen asleep until you almost drop the book.  Here I thought I was still awake and reading the story! I did mess with Mayhem a little bit. If I don’t enter her into that Colt Starting Challenge, I won’t be able to send her to a trainer until next year. She still has her umbilical hernia that needs to be repaired. We’ve had too many other expenses to take care of that issue. But I also want to get Ivan in to the trainers for a quick refresher. I guess I’d prefer to give Mayhem an extra year. Her actual birthday isn’t until June 24^th so I’d prefer to let her grow a little bit more before putting her into vigorous training. But she is lacking in ground work so I thought I’d mess with her. She also cut herself on the fence. She’s taken to squeezing her neck in between the gate and post to snitch the hay that falls from the wheelbarrow (that I don’t scrape up and toss over). So she ended up cutting her neck. I swear those young ones are so accident prone!

Sunday we ended up running around town for a good portion of the day. When we did finally get home, it started to rain so I ended up doing my chores in the drizzle.  Teach me not to go out earlier.

Mike is going to go turkey hunting this coming weekend so I need to get everything figured out for when he’s gone. When he was gone for training, we had everything figured out so I wouldn’t have to worry about feeding and making sure the Bear was ok. I need to get everything figured out again so that I don’t have to stress over it. Luckily he’ll only be gone over the weekend so there won’t be too much stress of having to rush around to do chores. Hopefully the weather will be nice for this weekend.

I’m sure to be absolutely exhausted tonight making sure everyone is safe and dry. At least we are going to get moisture so I won’t complain.