Prepping

We had sweltering heat over the weekend. I'm sure some are used to the higher temperatures but I and the horses are not! 88 degrees with a heat index of 100 degrees is a bit much for anyone. The big herd hung out in the run in shed off the barn for the entire time it was scorching hot. Luckily the heat broke Sunday and we had cooler temperatures. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the cooler weather. Well, cooler as in less humidity.


We are focusing on some home improvements for now so the horses are enjoying their time without me pestering them. I walked out to the pasture to find fly masks and do a check on everyone least night. I need to put up a bit more temporary fencing so that they can enjoy the grass at the bottom of the pasture. I need to get that done this week so I can let them out next week. I want to try a different set up than in the past to see if it helps ease the stress on the other two portions of the pasture. Last year it worked out ok that we did some flipping around of pastures but this year is different but still not ideal for the horses to get down to the bottom part of the pasture. The horses love that pasture the most. I think they enjoy wading through the water even if it is standing water from the slew backing up into our pasture.


Jim is enjoying his nightly grain. We paused his grain in hopes that the summer pasture would help him gain weight. Sadly it didn't so we are back to graining him and he'll have to have more added to his diet to keep him at the right weight. He lost weight so we'll be doing our best to try and pack on some pounds before the first snow flies. It hurts my feelings to even talk about snow in the middle of summer but its' a reality.


I spend 6 months dealing with snow and winter, all of spring dealing with the after effects of whatever type of winter we had, have one month of summer where it's too darn hot to do much but make sure everyone has water and pasture, then it's back to prepping for the first snow fall and back into winter. It's a vicious cycle.


I had thought our hay was baled and getting moved off the pasture but apparently that hay is more cow quality rather than horse quality. I'm very picky about our hay and have dairy quality hay. That means it's soft and easy for the horses to eat instead of more brittle and course. The softer the hay, the better so those that have a hard time chewing won't have as difficult time. I'm hoping that our hay will be baled soon. Then it can sit in the field for a week or two before we haul it home. I used to be paniced about not having it home until our hay guy said it's better to not have your hay all in one spot because it can start a fire. I had never thought of that so now I'm ok with leaving the hay sit out for a week or two before bringing it home. We don't have any place to spread it out so once it's home, they are close to one another and if a fire broke out, we'd lose our entire supply of hay. It pays to have a farmer as a your hay guy.


But I'm hoping the hay will get baled soon and I need to make arrangements to see if we can pick up some small squares. There's lots to do but we are heading into August, which is our crazy time of the year. We have two birthdays in August (and another in September) so planning for childrens' birthdays is always crazy. Throw in COVID and trying to figure out birthday presents and such when not going into the store, I'm a bit of a nut case. So you may or may not see much of me in August as I frantically prep for birthdays and school starting. The stress level has risen a lot in the last week and then prepping for winter stuff (to take advantage of the heat) also has me bustling as best I can.


But if you happen to notice a considerable lack of posts, it's not that we aren't around, it's that I'm trying to get everything done and some things have to give, which includes social media. But if you have any questions, drop me a line and I'll get back to you!