I woke this morning to thunder, lightening, and wind. I checked my phone and our local weather station said that there were over 500 lightening strikes. Yep, I do believe they were right. I debated on running out to do chores but figured I'd best not. But I did make the mistake of letting Farley out. He hates storms and disappeared before I could even think. I went to look for him but that's when the skies opened up and it started hailing.
I knew it was going to be a wicked storm when I looked out first thing before turning on any lights and seeing Zeke prancing around tossing his head. All the horses can feel this storm rolling in. Luckily Farley remerged after the storm. But during this round, we received lots of pea sized hail. In fact, the ground now looks like snow even though it's hail.
I do believe we are in for one heck of a storm. West river they already closed interstate. Funny thing is, I'm working from home today so no stress. But I was planning on working from home at the paying job to see Mike, Dad, and my nephew off to go hunting in the Black Hills (they were planning on leaving today). That all changed when they switched our forecast to a blizzard warning for tonight (for us and today for west river).
They are comparing this storm with the one from 2013, Storm Atlas that killed thousands of livestock. I can't imagine the devastation. Now is NOT the time to have these kinds of storms. With the calves coming, I'm sure that it's going to be tough on farmers. Luckily our horses are tucked into their blankets and they will be stalled later. I wish we had bigger stalls and better barns for them to go into but beggars can't be choosers.
I'm guessing that Lace, Mayhem, and Junior will be stuck in their stalls starting tonight and wont' get out until either Saturday night or Sunday morning. The wind is predicted to be out of the east, which means their pen gets the brunt of all wind. We have trees but its' not enough to keep the wind out. Junior has lost weight recently so I'm more protective of him. I think it's my fault that he's lost the weight as well. I havent' been as diligent about his nightly feeding since I moved him. The nights sneak up on me and usually by the end of the day I'm shot and don't feel well. He takes hours to eat.
Last night we did put in an extra bale in the big herd to be pre-emptive. If we are to get a foot of snow, when it melts, its' going to make a muddy mess and make it almost impossible to get hay in or tear up the yard too much. So instead we sacrificed the remaining part of the bale and put a new one in. Of course the horses attached that like they were starving (they. are. not.). I also got everyone into blankets that has a blanket. This season has been hard on blankets. Everything is starting to show its wear and tear. But I'd rather have dry horses and ruined blankets. We also topped out the water in the mares' pen so I wouldn't have to lug hoses around in the snow and mud. By the time we were done with all those chores it was after 10pm. Of course we didnt' get out until after the kids had gone to bed. Life of running a sanctuary isn't exactly all glamor and glitz. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
I had wanted to get stalls prepped and ready to go for tonight but that didn't happen. By 10pm I was done in and could barely stand. My back has been bothering me and after throwing the hay net onto the bale and all the blankets I wasn't able to throw straw and hay around to get everything ready. I may sneak out at noon to get some of that done, at least the mares' and Junior's stalls.
These kinds of storms definitely have me rattled. Of course I get rattled over any kind of storm but storms in general make me nervous.
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