Let There Be Light

I’ve been doing chores in the dark for the past few days. And let me just say, it is DARK. Not just dark but pitch black to where you can’t see the hand in front of your face dark. The yard light burned out awhile ago and I’ve been struggling to do chores in the dark ever since then. I didn’t realize how much I relied on that yard light until this past week. When we had the full moon it wasn’t a big deal but this past week we’ve had no moon and lots of dark clouds (and blinding fog). The plan is to get the light fixed this weekend (fingers crossed that all goes well)!

The past couple of mornings it’s been foggy and pitch black. I have my little flashlight that I carry. I used to carry a maglight but it burned out or the batteries died or something. It died when I was up tarping hay. So I have a tiny little flashlight that doesn’t give off much light but works because it fits into my pocket.

The other morning I went out to do chores and I was struggling to carry hay and the flashlight. The hay hid the light from the flashlight so I was pretty much walking blind. I stood up from moving a pile of hay to be greeted by a gigantic head standing at my shoulder. It took me a minute to figure out who it was. It was Ivan! Then I turned around and about jumped out of my skin. Zeke was standing right behind me. Being that he’s a white horse, it was easier to spot him, whereas Ivan is dark brown/black.

I have been having a heck of a time picking everyone out to make sure they are up for breakfast and supper except for the two mostly white horses (King and Zeke). The rest are a lost cause unless I can make out their star or blaze.

Yesterday morning there at least wasn’t fog during morning chores but it was again pitch black. I was carrying an armload of hay and the flashlight was hidden under the hay (so no light whatsoever). And I walked smack dab into the back of a black horse! Luckily it was once again Ivan. I swear that horse is loving not having a yard light on. He is always right by my side trying to steal hay out of my arms without me knowing it. I’ve run into him at least three times just this week. I think he secretly likes the extra attention.

I had been debating on going to the auction scheduled for tomorrow. It’s the same auction were we rescued TenMan, Savanna, and Sahara (and unbeknownst to me Sir Prize (aka Jett)). Unfortunately, we’ve been turning away horses so I was torn on whether to go or not. If I can’t help one of the horses, what good is it for me to go except to give them each a pat and let them know that they won’t be forgotten. I’d cry the whole way home knowing that I didn’t do anything to help and I’d be heartbroken. But I was still considering going. But then I was able to finally catch up with my farrier and he suggested that we do some trims Saturday morning so now there’s no way that I’ll go to the auction. I won’t feel so guilty about not going because we are doing something horse related instead. I’ll still feel guilty but at least this way, I won’t be sitting on my butt doing nothing. I would love to stop turning horses away and also have the opportunity to rescue one or two horses from auction in the late fall/early winter. Maybe some day.

I’ve been throwing out hay this week both morning and night. The pasture is gone and the horses are anxious for their hay. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to start throwing hay until later but we’ve been throwing out hay at night for the entire month of October and this past week we’ve been feeding both morning and night. I’m worried that our supply of hay won’t last through the winter. If it’s going to be as bitterly cold as they’ve predicted, then we most definitely won’t have enough hay. So now I’m starting to worry about what to do. For now I guess I’ll just wait and see how things progress but we are already burning through more than a bale a week and I’m not doing heavy hay feeding yet. Even with having lost Babe this fall so there’s one less mouth to feed, I’m still worried that we don’t have enough. I guess I prefer to have extra in case we bring someone else in instead of having to worry about making sure we have enough or having to go in search of more hay. So the hay situation is weighing heavily on my mind already.

I’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming for fundraiser ideas. I’ve received a lot of great ideas and I’m now trying to figure out if they will work for this year or next year or I few need to table them and work the kinks out in another year or so. It’s fun to hear all the ideas and it really gets me excited to do another fundraiser.

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s already November first! The days are just flying by and I’m not ready for winter. There’s so much more that I’d love to get done but the days are getting shorter very quickly. I know this weekend we’ll gain an hour but that really messes with me because we don’t really gain any sunlight, we only gain an extra hour of dark. I wish we wouldn’t keep switching. It’s hard on the horses (and the little Bear). But maybe that’ll give me time to get a little bit more accomplished each night. My hope is to sew up ripped blankets each night but so far that plan hasn’t happened. I’ve been busy with work or have been falling asleep early each night (trying to put Garrett to bed at a decent time and Mike and I are the ones falling asleep instead!) But we desperately need to get the blankets repaired before winter hits. I have a feeling we’ll be using the blankets a lot this year! I sure hope I’m wrong. But the weatherman is calling for another system to roll in Monday night into Tuesday so we may throw sheets on a few of the hard keepers and older horses so they don’t get chilled (or that I worry about them).