Chillin

What is going on around here?!?!


The beginning of June we saw some extremely high temps. It felt more like July rather than early June. We were talking mid 90s, which isn't normal for early June. I was worried because the change in temps had been so drastic. We'd gone from 60s to 80s and 90s in a matter of a day or two.


This morning I woke to a chilly breeze blowing through the house and I froze when I let the horses out to pasture.  I am not used to this temperature change. It was only in the upper 50s (I wasn't properly dressed for chores). I know I shouldn't complain but it's hard on a body, any type of body. The high today is right at 70 degrees and tomorrow, the high is supposed to be 68. I'm not complaining because Rain has to perform at the Irene Rodeo tonight and tomorrow night. I was petrified that it would be stinky hot and he'd get sick. I am no longer worried about him getting too hot. Now I'm a little worried he'll get chilled on the way to the rodeo grounds. Go figure.


We're supposed to get a warm up early next week so I guess I should just chalk it up to normal South Dakota weather. I remember blanketing a couple of older horses (Queen if I remember correctly) during a rainstorm in July. She'd gotten chilled and couldn't get warm again. Odd to have to blanket a horse in July...but it has been done.


Yesterday evening was still when I went out to do chores. I decided I'd take advantage of the stillness and do a little bit of spraying. It's a never ending job and I'm afraid I'm so far behind, I'm not sure that spraying will do any good. But I have to try.


I sprayed the drylot to get rid of the cocklebur plants. It's not technically burdock as these cockleburs are the sharp, painful kind that don't rip apart when you try to pull them out. Instead they stab you. Normally we disk them under but it rained a few days ago so the drylot is a bog and typically when we finally get around to disking them under, they already have seeds on them so we aren't doing myself any favors. My hope was that if I sprayed, then we wouldn't have to disk...and disking only really sends them back into the ground to regrow. So I'm hoping I fixed it. But when I went out this morning. Nothing looked sickly.


I also wandered out to the pasture to try getting some of the thistles out there. I didn't have enough to really do much damage but something is better than nothing these days. I'm anxious to see if the spray did any damage. We are getting over run by thistles and it would be lovely to get rid of even half of them. My goal this year and next is to get rid of thistles. The first year of a thistle is the rosette stage and the second year is when they bloom. So if I can tackle the rosette stage, maybe I can go after the older thistles after that. Wishful thinking really. I'm just spraying whatever is in reach of my spray wand. But I'm again going by the theory that anything is better than nothing these days.


I did notice that stuff I sprayed in the older pasture where Lace and Junior were is coming back. So I'm going to have to go after that with a bit stronger weed killer. I don't have time to go back and respray the stuff I already sprayed but I guess that's just how this game is going to be played. Just call me Weed Killer.


I let the ponies and Mayhem out this morning and Mayhem must have had a burr up her patooty because she just kept running everywhere. I'd let the big herd out into their part of the pasture and then the ponies and Mayhem. I guess Mayhem is tired of being with the ponies. I don't blame her but I need to figure out a better system. Once the ponies and Mayhem have the lawn eaten down, I'll throw Mayhem into the remaining small pasture (next to the road). I'm debating on who to put in with her. She hates Bo but I think that would be the better bet. Although I'm not keen on having Bo next to the road. He looks so rough right now. I'm trying to figure out how to extend all of my pastures. With the heat we had earlier this month and from conversations with my hay guy, I was worried that we would be going into a drought and wouldn't have enough feed. There's still that possibility so we'll see. But I'd rather be prepared. In other years, I simply stuck my head in the sand and pretended that nothing was happening. I can't do that any more. So I'm playing pasture rotation by ear these days. I have one last place on the Sanctuary land that I could use as a last resort. I'd been vetoed before on using it but if it does come down to having a pasture or feeding hay, I'll use it.


We've got wind this morning. About the time I sent the kids off to daycare (working from home this morning at the paying job before taking the afternoon off to get ready for the Irene Rodeo), the wind picked up. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing or if it's just a thing. I'm hoping the wind will go down before I have to leave and if not before I leave, at least before the performance. I'd rather not eat dirt....and now the wind picked up even more....oh goodie


I'm betting I'll not have anything more to post until Monday. This weekend is packed with horse stuff. Non-sanctuary horse stuff but at least it's horse stuff. Performing with the Dakota Thunder Mounted Drill Team tonight and tomorrow night at the Irene Rodeo and then the Minnehaha County Saddle Club Potluck Trail Ride on Sunday. And I sort of have to be at that ride. I've skipped all of last year's rides but this year I need to get Lightening going..and I'm in charge of the saddle cl ub. I think Lightening was used only as a trail horse. If I don't use him, I'll use Maverick or Chaos. They both need some saddle time too. Not enough time to get everyone exercised and keep their minds entertained (and keep them out of trouble). Hopefully we can come up with more ride dates for the saddle club. I've been struggling to get participation up the last couple of years, especially this year. So I guess it'll be a wait and see kind of thing.


But for now, I'm going to go find a sweatshirt because I'm freezing!