Spring Fever

It's way too early but.... I'm getting spring fever. Of course it could be the terrible cold/flu bug that I caught that is causing me to be a bit feverish. But I digress.


The other day I was out doing chores and I heard a robin. It's February. In fact, it rained just three or four days before Valentine's Day. How crazy is that? Rain instead of snow?! But I did see and hear that robin and I've heard him since then as well. I guess this is what global warming is all about.


I also noticed that the geese are starting to fly. The geese just started flying this week. I thought it a bit odd but put that in conjunction with the robin, maybe we are headed for a dry and hot summer. I hope that we get enough rain. I'm not in a position to try and deal with another drought. I'm barely hanging on after the drought we had a few years back that wiped my entire pasture out and forced us to buy over inflated hay prices for the fall and winter.


But I'm getting antsy. I guess it has to do with the fact that it's supposed to be almost 60 degrees by this weekend. There's no snow left unless it's in a pile or it turned into ice. My barn is subsequently flooding. But I'll deal with the flooding it if helps dry out the place sooner. I hate mud. We need to figure out when to pick up another load of hay. We mad a mad dash a month or so ago but only had time for one load. Now that it's super muddy, I'm afraid it's going to be difficult to get back to where we load our hay. It's a field tucked away behind another field with no approach. It's a field I've spent years riding in and know the terrain well. It's fun to know which field your hay comes out of, even if you dont' get to ride in much in that area any more. I spent my teenage years riding all through the fields and used to know all the hills and valleys and what was crossable and what needed to be avoided. Oh for those days again.


I friend mentioned that they saw someone posting that they would like to come out and help with horse chores. Well, that's fine and dandy but what people want to do with horses is exactly what I want to do with the horses. Play, groom, ride...not muck stalls, fix fence, trudge through mud and deal with hay in unmentionable places. It's a bit of a sore spot for me for some reason. We do need the help in getting the cockleburs and knots out of the horses's manes and tails but I also have to juggle my work life, Sanctuary life, and personal life and can't exactly do that around someone else's schedule. At some point hopefully we'll be set up for a volunteer day to come and play with the horses, until then it'll be willy nilly and when it works for me (apparently we run a lot more than I realized).


Hopefully as the days continue to get longer, I can spend more time outside and get a few minor projects started and hopefully finished. Little steps is all I can do on these projects but little progress is better than no progress I suppose.