Momentary panic

Last night

when we got out to the farm
to check the horses
they weren't there.

G had opened the gates back to one of the middle pastures he usually reserves for the sheep. No horses on the hill sure made my stomach drop there for a few minutes, though!
After a week, Thunder's gash looked much better. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture prior to applying the salve, but it's healing cleanly from the inside forward. We'll take the hose to it tonight again, but I think it should heal without leaving much of a scar.

T wore his hat out last night, and they all had to take a good look at it. I borrowed it to see if we could get some stretchy shots - this was about the best one.

The duck continues to grow - although if the cats had anything to say about it, they'd have duck dinner!
Nunu and Ducky

Rain

The road we took last night
where we drove through the water
CLOSED

As well as three others we tried this morning.
It made getting back and forth between horse-locations
a bit more challenging than usual.

After a rather long night of keeping up with the incoming water in the basement, in the grand scheme of things, we don't have it all that bad. It does give me a new appreciation for the amount of work happening in basements locally and across the nation after the massive rainfall amounts we've been seeing lately, though.

And on the bright side,
I don't think I've ever seen
quite so much of the basement floor -
nor seen it quite so shiny!

Belly rubs are always welcome!

The rest of the ponies at the farm got their shots this morning. (Late, I know, but for whatever reason finding 6 doses of 4-way in one spot was a problem. Next year I'm just going to order it first thing and pay the shipping.) Sunny and Amyra & Rufus already had theirs a while back, but the other six don't get the West-Nile combo, so...

Feeding the cats at the farm this a.m. - there are, at last count, 19 of them, I think. None of which are reproduction-capable, thank goodness! All friendly, too - in fact it's a good idea to check the back of the truck and roll up the windows, as a couple of them have tried to go home with us more than once.

Water, water, everywhere

What else does 5+ inches of rain do? Well, when your neighbor vents his sump pump next to your foundation, it trickles into your basement.

The rain did stop about 9 a.m. After we turned Rufus's batch of ponies out for the day, picked up a feeder for the duck and some more betadine wash for Thunder's owie, we spent the day vacuuming, dumping buckets, and tromping up and down the stairs. Finally picked up a pump sometime in the afternoon, and then discovered that the floor drain had a clog - much better than the storm drains being backed up.

So, there's still water coming in, but not so much. First time in six years, too. This house has never needed a sump pump. Guess it will get one now! We're not the only ones, either. We bumped into one man this morning that had lived here for 30 years with no water. He was buying a pump, too.

The roads tonight were worse than last night.
I don't even want to think what the gravel looks like - this one was bad enough. (And yes, we did drive through running water - but we watched another car come through it our way first.)

Thunder's gash pre-wash - the swelling was down, and there wasn't any heat to it.

Post-wash, pre-salve...
It's clean, pink, and closing from the back to the front. I didn't give him any penicillin. It looks pretty good with the antibiotic salve for now.

And... yes, the trailer we tried out did come home with us!

It's an aluminum, 7x20', 4-horse, LQ combo-stock. Plenty of room for the horses, mats, front tack... It needs to be cleaned & disinfected, vacuumed, and we have to pick up a spare, but other than that - it made me smile every time I dumped a bucket of water out next to it!

Flooding, wire cuts & rain

So much for plans to ride today - at least this a.m. It's pouring steadily out there.

We're on farm watch again this weekend where Rufus lives, but no escapees there last night. The same, unfortunately, could not be said Sunny's crew.

See this innocent face? It was not on the right side of the fence.

And it was attached to this.

Not as bad as it looks - it was clean and draining, and with very little swelling. The storm the night before dumped nearly 5 inches of rain, and there was apparently some hellacious thunder and lightening rolling through along with it. The top strand of fence was on one side of the pasture Thunder was out in, and it looks as if he cut himself on a wire splice running into and over it. The rest of them didn't have a scratch.

We cleaned him up and applied some salve, and we'll flush it again and probably give him a shot of penicillin when we go out this morning.


I didn't get a good picture of it in the horse-through-the-fence excitement, but there was a crop duster working a field to the west, and his turning around pattern was RIGHT over the house and the field the horses were out in. He was close and low enough to skim the tops of the trees.

The horses completely ignored him. Sheesh!

So what does over 5 inches of rain look like? Well, in addition to all of the flash flood warnings we're seeing, here's the road we usually take south to where Rufus lives...

This is the creek we cross on the main road - it looks like spring snow melt season again.


And it was stacking up in the southwest again last night as we drove home.
(The weather man just said we had another 1+ inches overnight - good weather for ducks! Speaking of which, more duck pictures later, he's growing like crazy.

Two weeks vacation, a duck, etc.

It was a wonderful, very busy two weeks. a cousin and her husband stopped by on Memorial Day on their way out to the Hills. My folks were here, which would have been fantastic regardless, but we also managed to accomplish an amazing amount. Kitchen cupboards cleaned and reorganized, flowers planted, trim painted, a large section of gutter replaced along with three living room windows.... The list goes on and on.

My sister was here for a long weekend with my new niece - my first chance to meet her, and she's as precious as her pictures. She's already 8 months old!

We also did farm chores for two sets of friends which included the excitement of escaped cows/calves on two separate occasions - both my mom and dad got in on the fun of herding the escapees back where they belonged. No pictures of that, but it was exciting.

Unfortunately, the one thing the two weeks didn't include was much horse time. Grooming and fussing, but I didn't actually get my butt on a horse until this morning. It was only five minutes bareback in the pasture with a halter, but Sunny seemed as pleased with it as I was. Too bad it's back to work for me in the morning and it will be Saturday before I can get back out there.

Let's see... we also looked at a couple of acreages, ended up with an orphan mallard ducking, test pulled a horse trailer that I think just might be THE one, and spent the last two days dog-sitting (and slipping in some much-needed napping!).

Short duck video...