Happy Groundhogs Day

As most have probably heard, the groundhog says six more weeks of winter. In South Dakota, it's pretty well expected to continue to have winter until mid April. At least I am not surprised if we have an April blizzard, it's happened in the past.


Last night doing chores was (as my son would say) brutal. The wind was awful. It is so hard to adjust from almost 40 degree weather to teens but wind chills in the negative numbers. I ended up putting blankets back on Rabbit and Rain. Rabbit gave me that look and Rain is so thin skinned that I knew he'd be hanging out in the leanto out of the wind if I didn't put a blanket on him.


All of the blankets are starting to look tough. From tears, to the major rips, to the "mud" all of the blankets are showing their use (and age). We could use a handful of new/used blankets. Jim keeps destroying his and I'm not a good enough seamstress to repair them. Too bad I didn't follow in my heritage and become a seamstress like other women in my family tree.


On the bright side, with the 40 degree weather, most of the snow melted. The slush turned ice isn't too bad as most of that melted as well. There are a few spots that are still tricky (mostly right where I walk to feed and water the mares and Junior). Luckily I've only fallen once on the ice this season. I'm so glad no one was around. I'll just say I was making a snow angel rather than falling!


I'm keeping a very close eye on Bo. His back end is bothering him. I noticed the other day that he was down in his stall after eating his grain. I figured he was tired. But I found him down in his stall again last night after catching his foot on the door. It was like he'd stunned his leg with catching it. He mysteriously comes up lame every once in a while. I'm guessing  with the mud/muck and now frozen ground that he twisted something and its' still sore. But I'm going to keep an eye on him.


Bo has some how gotten demoted. When I brought Lightening home, I was afraid that he wouldn't make any friends. I hate having an odd number of horses in a pen but I had to put him in with the big herd. After a week, he became Zeke's best friend. It's odd to see the pair of Arabians hanging out rather than Zeke and Bo. Now Bo is off on his own. I don't like it. But Bo hates Lightening. I still cant figure out where Lightening is in the herd. He gets pushed around but he also pushes horses around.


Lightening is no pansy. The other night when I went to do chores in the dark, I hung out around the corner and watched Lightening and Chaos interact. It's fun to watch the when they don't know I'm there.


I'm still too far behind on our fundraiser so I might have to scrap the idea. I'm bummed because even if we only raised a few dollars, it would still be more than what we have now. And we need to get our pay paid for. It's been a tough year in getting stuff together and planned. Every  night I'm asleep with the kids and cant' seem to find the time to get anything accomplished. Anyone want to take on helping me with fundraisers? I could really use the help.