rain, rain, and possibly snow

It is a complete mess outside here, as it rained almost all day yesterday, apparently all night long, and is still going right now. The temperature is dropping, the wind is blowing, and for the first time in a long time, I've actually closed the geldings in stalls to keep them dry and keep the stalls from getting drafty.

Salina and the donkeys have the barn aisle plus two stalls, and I've left them two places they can look out if they like, but even so, Rafer Johnson is moping. He really dislikes this rainy, cold weather. I have tried to make things interesting by putting hay nets in two places, and hay piles in two more, and we had NPR on for awhile this morning, but of course what a donkey really wants is warm sunshine, an open field, and a nice dust spot to roll in.

Right now he has none of those.

I started Salina, Keil Bay, and Cody on a bit of alfalfa pellets in their dinner last night, and I am so happy to report they loved it. The animal fat smelled odd in the pellets we tried several months ago, and now that I am smelling the real pure thing, I understand why they blew and snorted and refused to eat the tainted ones.

I noticed yesterday that the Southern States alfalfa pellets label had alfalfa and soybean oil listed, but no animal fat, so perhaps they have gotten some feedback and changed the way they're making them.

I can hardly bear to mention the forecast we are looking at for later today. Depending on how things track, it appears this rain may change to sleet, and then later tonight snow. Right now they're saying an inch of sleet and up to 6 inches of snow!

As a child, or even a young adult, this news would have been cause for celebration, but now I view it from a different perspective, primarily, how it will affect my daily routine.

I have my February de-wormers ready and now will have to wait until we get through this rough weather. I don't like to de-worm the horses when it's too cold or we have adverse weather - I figure the stress on their systems is enough without adding more.

So that has to wait, and I'm focusing on keeping everyone happy and fed and hydrated and mucked out.

The crazy thing is that today we are looking at snow and a few nights of temps in the teens. Next weekend we will have temps in the 70s and sunshine again! Which is a good thing, but what a swing of the weather pendulum.

A good writer friend emailed that she planned to stay in this weekend, and read and write and relax. I think I'll make some tea, light a candle, and try to get on that wavelength!

the equine pantry is overflowing

I went by the feed store today to see if any of my orders had come in. She had two of my new items, and I was so eager to get them I piled the bags in the car (it's raining, so the truck was not an option) and headed home to unpack the equine groceries.

The laundry room and feed room are stuffed to the gills.

In the laundry room right now I have beet pulp pellets, alfalfa pellets (finally found the pure ones, no animal fat added!), vitamin E soft gels, l-carnitine powder, coconut oil, and something new I'm giving after de-worming called Ration Plus.

In the feed room there are more alfalfa pellets, whole oats, steam-flaked oats, whole flax seed, my mineral/vitamin mix, rice bran, wheat bran, iodized salt, and Quiessence.

I'm still waiting for the timothy balance cubes on order.

I'm fairly organized with all this stuff but it is not what I'd call convenient - when I head out to feed, I have two gallon-sized iced tea pitchers (the kind with lids that have strainers so I can rinse, soak, and then drain the beet pulp pellets), a loaf pan that serves as a deep tray for the l-carnitine powder, the coconut oil liquefying in its warm water bath, and the Vitamin E soft gels. During the winter when there's not much green out in the fields I give chopped apples and carrots with dinner, so usually the colander holds those. Now I'll be adding a container of alfalfa pellets to that, as I want them to soak a little before feeding too.

In the feed room, I have two large cans, one medium, and a number of smaller ones, so that the various items can be stored safely. I use masking tape and a black marker to label everything, and I have a small table for the very small containers and for the actual mixing.

This week I'll be adding a scale to the feed room, and a grinder for the flax.

I actually love making feed tubs, but sometimes I wish I had a dedicated space out there that had all the amenities:

A big double country kitchen sink with hot and cold water.

A refrigerator.

Airtight pull-out bins with the right size stainless steel scoops in each one.

A big white board with multi-colored markers.

A nice big island with clear space for mixing.

A smaller counter with scales and grinder.

XM radio and access to my iTunes library.

A big overstuffed chair so I could sit down.

As long as I'm dreaming, let's add a washer and dryer over in the corner.

May as well throw in a stove/oven because who knows when I might need to heat up something.

All that would be nice, but I suppose the way it is now, with Salina and the donkeys lining up outside the door, Keil Bay doing his most musical whinny across the aisle, and the quiet patience of Cody and the pony keeping the balance, is really not to be topped.

The best thing about the equines who live here is that they are very enthusiastic about mealtime, hang out with me while I prepare the tubs, and then the reward, the real music, is listening to them eat, and knowing they're each getting something they love that's also good for them, individually.

sometimes he just needs his own spot in the sun

dun gone crazy

With the ATV chaos, I forgot to write about the game my daughter and I had going yesterday while we were tacking up and then riding Cody and Keil Bay.

We have a history of this kind of game. One version - giving our animal family members and ourselves Ben and Jerry ice cream flavors. So the pony might be, for example, dark chocolate swirl with a Thelwell core.

Yesterday my daughter started coming up with what I call "Quarter Horse names." They can get pretty silly.

She decided Rafer Johnson would be "Dun Got A Dollar."

I countered with the pony. "Dun With Work."

She came back with Cody. "Dun Not A Dunce."

Yuck!

So she changed it to "Dun Lost My Money."

I decided Keil might be "Dun By the Bay."

Salina: "Dun By Midnight."

Redford: "Dun Won The Lottery."

Somehow we got off on a Charlotte's Web tangent.

What would Charlotte write about each of our herd members?

About the pony: "some pig!"

Poor Apache Moon. He puts up with a lot.

ATVs and neighbors

Did you ever hear the old saying, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?

There is only one thing I CAN say: their house is for sale and I wish them a speedy and lucrative offer.

Sigh.