Weather

The weatherman had been talking about storms and rain for a week now but it took until last night to get any bit of rain. I was actually starting to worry. I can't remember the last time we had any rain.  I should have paid more attention to Mayhem. When there's drastic weather changes, she doesn't feel good and she didnt' feel good the night before last. Some days I'm on auto pilot that I don't always pay attention like I should.


We've had 90+ degree weather and lots of wind Sunday and Monday. I'd keep watching the sky waiting for the storms and nothing. I hate storms so I'm always a bit antsy. We were supposed to have storms the week before and with the hot weather I was sure we were going to get a nasty storm. I always get spooked with storms. Guess it comes with age. So Sunday and Monday we'd been dealing with extreme heat. It's not 90 in June usually! Monday night there was a line of thunderstorms that I thought were moving in. I sat out and watched them but we didnt' get anything. When I woke in the morning, they were still where they had been the night before. Odd that it would stall out like that.


On Tuesday the temps fluxuated so drastically it was hard to keep up. It was actually decent out in the morning in the mid 70s and no one was sweltering like before. Mid morning the temps dropped and that should have been an indication that the storms were finally moving but again I was on auto pilot. I left our place in the afternoon and it was mid 70s, I saw 80 just north of the Sanctuary and by the time I reached Madison 30 minutes (30 miles) later, it was 67 and it never got any warmer.


Then the storms rolled in early evening and we got our much needed rain. Of course I didn't get out of Madison in time and had to drive in the rain. I must have missed the majority of the downpour because I saw standing water in fields as we drove home. There wasn't standing water when we drove by in the afternoon. I havent' looked at the numbers yet. With all the tiling going on, I expect our pasture to be flooded again. I'm so mad about that but that's for another post. I have my idea on how to fix at least one of the issues.


The rest of the week isn't supposed to be too hot. It's actually a little chilly at this moment but I'll take it after 90s. I'm too fat for it to be this hot. And it's so hard to keep the horses comfortable when it's 90. We also have August flies rather than June flies. I call them August flies because they are mean and bite and they know the end is near. This time they are here early. They aren't the face flies that swarm the horses's head but they are the ones that go after the legs and bite hard. I dug around and found my shoo fly boots but I don't have enough to go all the way around. I wish I could buy a pair for each horse but at $45 for a set of four, it's not possible when you have 14 horses. I try to buy one or two pairs a year and then at least get the leggings on the fronts so there's a little less stomping going on. Sadly, they wear out faster than I can afford to replace them AND buy enough to get everyone covered. And we didn't have the horse expo this spring so no chance of buying them already. If I remember right our local Fleet Farm might have them but I haven't been in a store since mid March. Mike goes in and does all our shopping while I stay home and watch the kids. It's a struggle since I'm the one who keeps track of what all we need. But a trip in to Fleet Farm might be in order to buy fly leggings for the horses. It would be relief for a few more horses and I could rest a little easier.


We have a working/cleanup day this Sunday and already have a few volunteers willing to come out. We are going to do some vaccinations and deworming and then I'll let them get the grooming brushes out and take care of all the witches knots that seem to be taking hold of the horses' manes lately. I'm sure the horses will love all the attention. Lets hope it's not 90 degrees on Sunday so we can get a few things done.