Another Snow Storm

Thunder, lightening, rain, sleet, snow, snow thunder, snow sleet. We've had it all. The ice is just now falling off the trees as the sun shines down on everything. We missed the worst of the storm with only getting six inches of snow but we had a day's worth of ice on everything.


We only lost power for 24 hours. There's others who are still without, including our summer retreat location. It's expected that it will be a couple more days before power is restored to that location.


Spring storms are always the hardest. The only bright side to a spring storms is that it won't last long and that usually we won't be left with much of the storm after about a week. Everything will be melted away so we'll only be left with mud instead of snow for another 3 months.


But it's now been a month since the last spring storm that dumped a foot of snow, and then a week later dropped 3 inches in just a few short hours, flooding everything in sight. We've been here 13 years and have never seen that type of flooding before. This storm, one month later wasn't as bad but they were predicting it's ferocity. I think it was pretty bad just not in our area. The last I read, the count from the electric company was 400 poles needing to be replaced and that's after two days of work replacing poles and getting power back to many individuals and communities.


Spring storms mean wet and cold. We knew the bad weather was going to come so Tuesday night I went ahead and blanketed all the hard keepers and only left a few unblanketed. Wednesday when the winds picked up, I stalled the mares. They were happy to get out except My Girl was uncomfortable. Not in the uncomfortable not feeling well but nervous uncomfortable. She has been trying to tell me something for the last couple of days but I can't figure it out. Poor girl is new to our routines, new horses, new stall, new hay, new grain, new water, new blanket (well new to her), new everything. Then throw in a spring storm and it really does mess with them. Hopefully she'll come around. She's very sweet and understanding but I know she's having a hard time adjusting.


I ended up leaving the mares stalled all day Thursday because the weather was so bad. But they were happy to get out Friday morning. I'd stalled all the horses Wednesday night that I could. We have a small barn and it's not exactly the greatest but it works for what little we stall horses. It's really just a few boards slapped together to keep the horses separated. It's been working for the past 13 years but I'd really love to have a different set up. But we are a humble sort and will take what we can get. But the horses were happy to get out of the pelting sleet. I did find blankets for Maverick and Chaos. They were happy to wear something but who knows how long they will survive. Those blankets never last long on horses near Maverick. He likes to destroy everything.


I didn't stall them Thursday night, which was a good move on my part because I became fairly ill and couldn't crawl off the couch. I am only getting back to my normal self. I'm not sure what bug it was but it was enough to knock me off my feet for a solid 24 hours. The problem is, even sick, chores still need to be done. I'd let the mares out and fed the ponies but by the end of the day, had to beg Mike to care for the ponies.


But today the sun is out, melting the snow and the ice off of everything. Hopefully we won't flood too bad. We are lucky in that our basement is not finished and we have a couple of holes from previous jobs in the basement so no need for a sump pump. The roads are completely shot. We live on gravel and with all the moisture, it's getting pretty tricky staying in the middle of the road.


We rescheduled our farrier visit yet again because of weather. I had scheduled a farrier appointment last month but that's when we got 3 inches in just a few hours so we rescheduled to today. But with all the snow, we figured it would be safer to wait until the end of the month. My highest priority is to make sure that no one gets hurt. I don't want my farrier out on the roads when it's not nice out. There will be no plows on our gravel because it will tear the road up even more. Same goes for our place. We aren't pulling the plow out because it will tear up the yard. I'm just hoping it'll dry out enough that we can get the big round bales of hay into the horse pens by the end of the week because they will be out coming Friday or so.


We are to get more rain Wednesday and Thursday so I'm not sure how that will affect everyone. It's definitely been a trying winter/spring. I know I'm at my wits ends. I feel bad that I lost it on someone the other day asking for us to take in their horses. We are at capacity. We've now been asked to take in 14 horses in the last 4 months. If we were to have taken in all 14, we would have doubled our numbers. It maybe 14 doesn't seem like a lot to many, who have more than that in their personal herd. But I'm the only one doing everything and I'm feeling stressed. I'm feeling the stress because I have to say no. I do crunch numbers every time to see if we can bring in a horse but usually the answer is no so I'm feeling stressed. Saying no means there's negativity in our direction. No means we cant' help. At this point, we can't even offer assistance because we ourselves need help. To add to the insult, I have been trying to make up time from the paying job, what with all the time I've had to take off due to weather. I have no vacation time built up thanks to the furlough and medical stuff. So any time away from the paying job, I have to figure out how to make that time up, which means less time working on Sanctuary stuff. It's starting to really stress me out. I could really use some help, any help. There's always researching for grants that needs to be done, looking at ways to connect with others, etc. It's all stuff that needs to be done online so if you're interested, I would be more than happy to point you in the direction we need to go and set you on your adventure of helping us out. I'm a one woman show, stretched too thin and could really use some help. Anyone want to step up and help?