Snow, Raccoons, and Bullwhips

Not since 1976 has this area had snow. Guess that’s a record we broke today.  We are having very weird weather today. Mom came from Madison this morning and it was clear until she got half way to the Sanctuary. Then the skies opened up and it started to rain. A few miles outside our little town of Humboldt, the rain switched to snow. I was a little surprised to see snow on the ground when I stepped out to do chores but I shouldn’t be surprised by anything these days. Just three days ago we were enjoying 70 degree weather and now we are back to dealing with 30 degree weather.

The I29/I90 corridor changes everything. I drive through three of the four corridors and each was a little different on my way to work this morning. At least it was light enough out that I didn’t have to worry much about the roads.  Figures, I put away the tank heaters and now it’s going to be cold and snowy. I guess that’s the joys of living in South Dakota.

Our drill team practice was cancelled last night and I think it was a good thing. I was able to get all of my outside activities wrapped up before this latest storm blew through. I wanted to top out the water tanks with the hoses before they got buried under four inches of snow again. I was smart this time and brought them back into the house. I ended up putting Jim and Zeke in the barn along with the neighbor’s mare and filly. I left the mare and filly in the barn today. The mare can’t handle any cold temperatures right now. She’s still too thin and has her summer coat on already. Poor girl has been through too much. I’m hoping to kick her out of the barn tomorrow but I have a blanket ready and waiting for her tomorrow if she goes out.

I think I figured out Jim’s problem. It’s the neighbor’s mare. I have had the neighbor’s mare here for four months now and that’s about the length of time that Jim has been depressed. I think having him in the barn overnight last night helped brighten his mood. I’m going to have to start pampering him a bit more until he gets out of his funk. I think he was mad at the neighbor’s mare because I haven’t been running him into the barn. I figured I’d let him and Zeke in to grain and give them a small sliver of alfalfa.  It’s time to get back to pampering my horses instead of the neighbor’s horses.

Now if I could just figure out Bo’s deal. He’s perfectly sound until I start thinking about pulling him out for a ride to get him in shape. Then he acts like he’s got problems in the backend. When I put him on concrete, he turns up lame.  I think there might be an issue with his feet. He’s sound on soft ground but the concrete makes him hurt. It’s a quandary. I don’t have the funds right now to do the investigation on him. I still have the hay bill to pay and yearly shots are coming up fast. I’m also past due on trims on everyone.  If the weather would ever cooperate, I could get the farrier out but every time I think it’s finally nice, we get a dang snowstorm.

I was going to post earlier about the blasted raccoon but figure I’ll just add the story here. That blasted raccoon! So the other night I was soaking Rabbit’s hay and tossing it over when I stood up from tossing hay (and grumbling to myself), when I noticed the raccoon. He was slowly (and trying to be sneaky about it) walking on the leanto off the south side of the hay barn. There’s a big enough hole where a board broke that varmints can get in.  He saw me and was trying to be sneaky but then I noticed him. He stopped, looked at me, and continued to try being sneaky to get into the barn. I gave him a tongue lashing but that’s about all I could do. I know he thought he was getting away with murder.

My thought was “Oh great, now I get to finish up chores with a coon in the barn and tomorrow he’ll be in the barn and I’ll have to deal with him during chores.”  But that raccoon proved me wrong.

I went and grabbed the live trap and drug it over to the haybarn. Of course I had to haul it through the pen with the mare and filly, lift it up and over the gate to the big pen (by the way, the gate is more than six feet tall so it was a good “heave-ho” before getting the trap up and balanced on the gate and then not dropped it to the concrete and damage it!) So as I was gently lowering the trap to the concrete (and managing to not fall while hanging off the gate), I climbed down and looked up only to see that blasted raccoon! He was out of the haybarn and waddling over to get under the garden house.

Of course when I saw him, I gave him a piece of my mind. He just stood there and watched me.  When he got tired of me cussing at him, he trying to act all sneaky and scoot under the garden house.  I happily set the trap in hopes that he would investigate but I didn’t bate it.  I’m going to have to move the trap and find something tasty. That raccoon was my nemesis that night.

But what do you think that blasted raccoon did, the next morning he was out bright and early to greet me for my morning chores. He was climbing up the hayshed wall to get to the hay barn. I’m not sure what he had in his mouth. I think he’s living in the haybarn. The grain bin apparently got too crowded. There’s another raccoon living in the grain bin and I hear them fight often.  He and the other raccoon were having an argument this morning. I heard them screaming at each other. It always makes the hair on the back of my neck raise up. Now, to actually trap the little bugger and “remove” him.

On the bright side, I think most of the horses are going to turn into great mounted shooting horses.  I had Rain at drill team practice the other night. We’d finished up and were tying horses up when someone got out a big bullwhip and cracked it a couple of times. All the other horses freaked out. Not Rain. He even got kicked and he just walked by my side like it was nothing out of the ordinary. Guess it pays that Mike shoots a lot of varmints on our place. I’d just as soon not have to but if he does, I guess the horses are used to the crack of a gun (or in this case a bull whip).