Whirlwind Trip and Crazy Weather

This ol' girl is tired! The past few days have been a blur.  I'll try to recount everything but there was so much happening over the past four days, it's hard to remember it all. :-)

Earlier in the week, we'd made arrangements to pick up some grain and other items from a couple who had recently lost their elderly horse. Mike went on Friday with the trailer. I'll have to post a picture at some point. Thanks to Jim and Maxine W. for donating a large amount of grain, some straw, barrels for grain, and plastic barrels. This couple had an old horse who recently passed away. As Mike said, it was rather refreshing to talk to someone who's willing to go the extra mile. Their horse could only eat soaked senior feed, and that's what they did. They wanted to make sure the leftover supplies went to good use, and it certainly will!

Mike swung by Gentle Spirit's Horse Sanctuary and picked up two plastic barrels, courtesy of Travis B. We will be making hay feeders out of them if we can ever get a few free minutes.

Mike came home, unloaded the completely full trailer and worked on the truck. When I finally made it home, we pushed in three round bales thanks to Glen and Carol S. and Tom J. We had to go out of town for the weekend and wanted to make sure that the horses had enough hay so that Mom and Dad wouldn't have to do much for chores while we were gone. We pushed three bales into the big herd and got the mares and ponies' hay ready and organized so that Mom and Dad wouldn't have to wrestle with the hay. We topped out the water tanks (which took about 14 buckets of water to fill because I'd been running during the week and not keeping up with the water, and it was windy earlier in the week).

Saturday morning I threw hay out to the mares and ponies and we loaded up the truck and headed to see family in Iowa. Anyone with kids will understand that traveling with kids or even a toddler takes a lot longer than traveling without. The eight hour trip took more than ten hours so we were beat. Sunday we spent time with family. We woke up early Monday knowing that there was a blizzard on its way. We left knowing that bad weather was supposed to be rolling in and knew we needed to get home before the really bad weather hit.

We packed up the truck and trailer and were on the road, with a tired toddler in tow by 3:30am. We'd only driven a few hours and the rain started. I  missed the lightening show (I was snoozing!) Mike and I were both afraid that we were headed in to bad weather for the rest of the trip but after a two more hours, we drove out of the rain and in to sunny skies. We both looked at each other in wonder. So much for that blizzard! But as we continued to drive west, the wind continued to pick up. By the time we reached home and the Sanctuary, temps were in the 70s but the wind was pretty strong. After unloading the truck (we're waiting to unload the trailer for a little bit), the wind had picked up even more, which I didn't figure could be possible.

We puttered outside for awhile enjoying the sunny skies but trying to figure out if we really had bad weather on the way or if the weatherman had cried wolf. Nope, he didn't cry wolf. About two hours later, the wind picked up even more and the clouds started rolling in. I went out to do chores at 4pm and the temperatures had dropped dramatically. With the wind blowing as strongly as it was, I could have sworn there was a wind chill.

I decided I would pull Rabbit and Mayhem into their stalls and blanket Rabbit. The mares were happy to get in their stalls. The wind was strong but we hadn't gotten any rain or snow. I then pulled the hard keepers in to the barn for their grain and decided I wouldn't keep them in the barn because there was too much wind to try and get into their stalls and they had three round bales to work on. Instead, I blanketed everyone that I could. We have a few more blankets but they don't fit anyone. I guess we have much bigger horses than normal. :-)

By the time I was done doing chores, it was starting to have freezing rain. I was done with chores and inside before the really bad weather hit (and before it got dark). We had freezing rain for about and hour and then it switched to snow. Everyone could get out of the wind so I felt better but I still felt bad for not putting everyone in their stalls. But I figured they had free reign on three round bales. Zeke porked out and looks pregnant. Unfortunately Brego and Bo still look thinner than I want them to be.

I've decided I'm going to start calling Brego "Bob" because he's acting like Bob more and more these days. Brego takes forever to eat his grain. I'm not sure if it's the mixture of grain I have  or what. I ended up soaking his grain and that seemed to help. We floated his teeth so those shouldn't be bothering him but at this point, it's a crapshoot to know. If it keeps up, I'll have to take him back to the vet to find out what's going on with that boy.

When I woke this morning, we only had a dusting of snow. Luckily we missed the two to four inches of snow and most of the ice. We also missed the tornado warning that Brookings had. Crazy to have a tornado AND a blizzard in the same county! But it's not unheard of. It IS South Dakota!!

Tonight I have a drill team meeting so chores will have to be fast. We are supposed to be getting another round of bad weather on Thursday and Friday so I'll need to get ready for more snow and icky weather.

We have two weeks until the fundraiser and I'm starting to panic.  I've posted in a few areas but I know I'm not spreading the word as well as I would like. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. I'm sure to be frantic these next two weeks. Add to the fundraiser panic, our normal routine, along with a few extra drill team practices and I'm going to be one worn out ol' girl.

Here's to April being a fast and exciting month of adventures!