August or October

I was not prepared for last night's endeavor. This morning it dawned on me. We are having October weather instead of August weather (at least the last two days).

I knew just watching the weather out the window that chores were going to be long and painful. I forgot what it was like to do "winter" chores. Usually I have to work up to it but last night hit me full in the face how much has to be done on any given night for winter chores.

We've had rain. A lot of rain. Not a little shower here or there, but rain. All. Day. And at points in the day, downpours. At other times, I watched sheets of rain come across the neighbor's field. The wind also picked up. When I went to bed last night I had the reminder of winter, rather than middle of summer. The winds we had last night usually call for blizzard conditions in the winter.

I knew I'd put Junior in and leave in him overnight. I'm just realized that it's the only way to work on getting weight on him. Hopefully with grain, alfalfa, and now high quality hay he'll be able to put some weight on although we are planning on hauling him to Madison this coming weekend so he can enjoy some pasture. Junior was shivering and I debated on putting a blanket on but knew the alfalfa and hay would get him warmed up just fine.

I called for the big herd and they weren't all that thrilled with coming up. But they did and I was able to get some of them into the barn. Ivan and Brego need a lesson on stalling again. Ivan is NOT cooperative. I wanted Jim in the barn but he wouldn't cooperate (dont' blame him after all the poking and prodding we had to do earlier in the day).

So in to the barn went Rain, Zeke, Bo, Brego, and Ivan. If we hadn't had a broken stall thanks to Dude's big butt last winter, I probably would have pushed to get Jim in the barn as well. But those that went in were pretty happy to get in out of the wind and rain. The other four (Jim, Maverick, Chaos, and Dude) were huddled in the leanto. I threw hay and I would have sworn they hadn't eaten in weeks. But they were all shivering so I was happy to break open a bale and watch them settle down and relax.

I was worried about Rabbit and Mayhem but they disappeared into the pasture. Rabbit is lame and I need to figure out what's going on with her. I can't pull them into the haybarn stalls because all the corral panels are being used. There was one spare stall and I contemplated putting King in it because he looked miserable, but he had a round bale and could get in out of the wind.

This morning the wind was still pretty fierce. It's going to take a bit to get back into the mode of "winter" chores again. The big herd was happy to get out of the barn and out into the pasture. Luckily they didn't try and charge the gate. The drylot is now a soupy mess. I was really struggling to walk through the slop. I have a back/hip issue going on right now (think the baby is laying on a nerve) so I was really struggling and stumbling along. Everyone respected my space and my pace (i.e., snail pace).  I love opening the barn and seeing the horses completely content standing in the barn, dry and warm. But they were ready to get out as well.

I opted to leave Junior in his stall because the wind was still really strong and I didn't want to put him into the pasture. His pasture takes a lot of the wind from the west. Luckily it's Wednesday, which means it's Grandma and Grandpa Day (mom and dad watch my son) so dad let Junior out when it got light out and there wasn't as much rain/drizzle.

When I'd gone out to do chores, my lightweight coat was still soaked so I grabbed my old winter coat (and a stocking cap). When I came back in, I couldn't get out of my coat. The darn zipper broke. The coat doesn't owe me a thing but figured I'd use it until it didn't work, well this morning it quit working. So there I was in my pajamas, rubber boots, and stuck in a coat with my pregnant belly sticking out. I couldn't even get the coat off my arms (picture "fat man in a little coat"). I thought maybe I could just pull it up over my head. Ummm.. no. Baby belly in the way. I had to call for Mike to pull my arms out of the coat and then shuck it down around my feet to get out. So today, chalk it up to experience that I got stuck in a coat. Ain't pregnancy grand.

As I was driving to work this morning in the mist/drizzle (and wind), I realized that what we are experiencing right now is October weather, not August weather. Not sure what the rest of the week is going to bring us. Hopefully it's not a glimpse into the winter ahead of us. I'm going to start squirreling away as much hay and getting stuff ready for a hard winter (well, I'll start next month).