Rambling

I feel like I've been running ragged the last few days so last night I sank down in the couch to put a heating pad on my shoulder (don't think it's a pinched nerve), and promptly fell asleep. I woke to thunder and lightening. When I finally rolled off the couch, I discovered it was already 5am. So much for getting to go back to sleep. I didn't move the entire night. Guess I was really tired.

But I figured with the storms coming, I better get ready and in to the paying job. It paid off this time. Everyone else is walking in totally drenched. But we are supposed to get more storms tonight and some people are saying they will be severe. It all depends on who you listen to. I'll listen to whoever is saying we will have severe weather because I'm still spooked from having the tornado so close to us.

I had to heard about the upcoming bad weather so I went out last night and got a few more things put away in case we had some severe winds or hail rip through our place again. A month or so ago Mike and I picked up some fence posts so that we can start repairing fence. Mike unloaded the trailer last night. We've been so busy that it's almost impossible to find time to get everything done. But Mike is going to pick up more pallets today. We are selling pallets for $3 each in case anyone is interested. They work great for storing hay both small squares and big rounds. The pallets are big enough to hold one round bale off the ground. I loved using the pallets when we had round bales. We didn't have to worry about the net wrap freezing to the ground. Since we didn't have a tractor at the time that could life the bales, we had to be ingenious and used the pallet to drag the bale to where we needed to go. Worked like a charm.

I've also been working on slowly cleaning up the big red shed. We need to get it cleaned up so that we can put trailers, tractors, and equipment in it again before winter sets in. It turned in to a dumping ground for all our stuff without being organized. So that meant a huge shed turned into an itty bitty shed with room only for a few things. When the tornado hit, it damaged the roof of the shed. We have to get up there somehow and repair it but I'm not sure that's going to happen this year. If we don't, we'll have snow in the shed but  I'm not sure how to get it fixed.

It's been awful humid lately but I think that's our saving grace for the grass. We are finally getting some rain so hopefully that will help the pastures grow. I pulled the mares off their pasture because it was done. With the dew and now this rain, maybe I'll be able to put them back on that pasture for a few weeks. I'd filled their water tote on Sunday night but didn't check their automatic waterer. Yeah, someone decided to mess with it and the connector came off and drained the entire tote. I was very displeased with those mares last night when I discovered what they'd done. They also got into a bunch of cockleburs. Someone asked me why I dont' go out and cut the cockleburs down. Because I don't have time. If I didn't think I had time before, I certainly don't have time now.

The days are getting even shorter. When I finally get out to do chores at 8:30 after putting my son to bed, the sun has already set. It's dark by 9pm so I'm doing half my chores in the dark. I'm going to have to come up with a better idea but hate to miss out on so much family time. A catch 22.

I'll be keeping an eye to the sky today and tonight.  We've been super busy since last week. I'll post more and let you know what all we've been working on. I am also planning a cleanup day for Labor Day weekend if anyone wants to come. There's icky projects like scraping and painting, washing horse blankets, sewing horse blankets, and fencing. But there's also fun projects like grooming horses (and getting all the cockleburs out of their manes and tails). So if you're interested, we will be around the entire Labor Day weekend if anyone wants to come out and help. We could sure use the help!