Apache Moon on one of his grazing times in our back yard, thanks to dear husband who has taken this on and made it happen many times a day for this stall-bound pony boy.
He’s doing very well and as of today has 12 days left until he can move to turn-out from his stall into the little barnyard that adjoins it.
Rafer Johnson continues to be a very good friend to the Little Man, with his open stall across the barn aisle and at nights access to the big barnyard where Little Man can see him and know he’s close by.
I’ve read that if a horse does well for the six months following this kind of surgery, and wasn’t prone to colic before, they generally return to that low risk zone. I so hope this beloved little man takes that path.
Right now our focus is on getting through July 4th and this wave of high heat days. At that point, we’ll be anticipating Rafer Johnson’s birthday celebration on July 19th! As I say at every birthday at the barn now, it is mind blowing that he will be 17 years old. I hadn’t thought about the difference between Little Man’s age (24) and Rafer’s until right this moment, but wow - these two boys have been friends for 16.5 years now. In any case, it will be a wonderful excuse to celebrate Rafer’s life and also the fact that these two can move on to many more happy years of friendship.
The forecast today is 97 and thankfully/hopefully the trend that it’s been a few degrees cooler on the farm than what is predicted will continue. We have a good breeze this morning and that too may help the heat not feel quite so intense for those of us who cannot come inside!
I am grateful on these hot days for the fans and for the big oaks that shade most of our barn and keep it cool.
Yesterday I did more watering of some garden beds and also in the morning did some weed-eating of stilt grass to keep it taking over. The upper terraced bed looks quite good thanks to my weeding efforts in the spring and also with the addition of the short-leafed mountain mint, which is thriving. The two button bushes on either side of the driveway are now blooming and creating a kaleidoscope of activity as the bees and butterflies and moths and birds go back and forth to the flowers.
In a moment of possibly heat-induced irrationality, I decided to power wash the front porch, was thwarted mightily when the outlet on the porch died and took the two inside outlets with it, but I rallied enough to just use the hose by itself with my finger the only engine to make the water flow stronger. The porch really needed some attention, and as dry as it is, the water surely gave some relief to a number of insects and the plants around the porch. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you the cats stretched out in the afternoon as the porch finished drying and looked especially content in the clean and tidied space they love so much.
All the litter boxes got a good cleaning and even the loss of power for 4 hours in the heat of the afternoon did not bring the feeling of accomplishment down!
I’m not planning any big or sudden such projects today though!
May we all stay safe in this severe heat and may we also get a break from it soon.
2 comments:
So happy to see Little Man doing so well. It's hard to believe how old the little donkey is, I remember when you got him. It seems like yesterday.
Hope your heat wave passes soon. We've had the same here only in the low 90's some days not as high as you. But it's the humidity that makes it just that much more miserable. I need to do some power washing of the fences at the farm but my machine died and won't start so I'll have to wait until I can buy a new one.
It looks like a full week at the least ahead of us with these temps. So far no rain - if we can get some relief from thunderstorms at the end of the hot days that would help!
I’m now afraid to plug in our pressure washer! I don’t know if it knocked out an already weak outlet or fried it!
We are also happy with Little Man’s progress thus far. I’m going month by month with him and hoping for continued good recovery time.
It does seem like yesterday when little Rafer Johnson joined us. I need to find the photo of the herd when they first laid eyes on him! :)
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