Posts Tagged ‘horses’
Scattered Thunder
We haven’t solved the drought, but we got a little more relief yesterday from scattered thunderstorms rolling through. A fresh batch of heavy rain showed up right as we were heading out to feed the horses. The roar on the metal roof is so loud it becomes hard to hear each other talk. The intensity of the downpour became a little unsettling to the horses. Mia didn’t want to eat in her usual spot and kept retreating to the other side where Swings and Light were.
When a close lightning strike hit, the clap of thunder made all four of them jump and scatter for a few seconds before settling back down. Throughout much of the day, the sky shifted between bright sun and dark clouds. It seemed like thunder was happening around us regardless of what the sky looked like.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I needed to keep looking up the radar view on my phone to see whether I should be concerned or not. It ended up being mostly not.
Meanwhile, I received notice of an extreme heat warning in Missouri, where my friends and I will be riding the Katy Trail for a week.
I can’t help feeling like all the warming planet impacts that are simultaneously playing out should be catching more people’s attention than it seems they are.
Fossil Fuel use continues unabated. It’s heartbreaking. We will need to get creative about finding a way to ride in these conditions. I sure wish we had a team car like the professional racers do, so we could get handed blocks of ice to tuck into the backs of our jerseys.
Maybe we’ll get lucky, and the high heat will trigger some scattered thunder to give us something else to cope with on this adventure.
I’m planning to post from my phone for the week (if it doesn’t melt), so don’t be surprised if you find little more than a picture a day here for the next 7 days.
Bon Voyage!
.
.
Trailer Loads
We resumed moving trailer loads of composted manure to the high spot of the hay field yesterday. We got to this just one day after an overnight thunderstorm would have soaked it in nicely. Better late than never. We received a whopping quarter of an inch Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
It was nice that the horses came out to graze while we were working in the field. It’s rewarding to have them calmly accept most any project we do that infringes on their space or disturbs the peace of their surroundings.
Being free to open gates and drive inside their territory without them threatening to take advantage of an opportunity to get beyond their fence line makes our activity that much easier.
Coincidentally, Cyndie discovered that neither of us had chained the barn gates earlier; an oversight that could have let them escape through the barn. We leave barn doors open all day for airflow, although there is a hanging screen that covers each opening and keeps pigeons out.
No harm, no foul, as they say, but mistakes like that trigger a chill down the spine when we discover them. On the plus side, it renews our vigilance for quite some time afterward.
Maybe Swings was aware the gate wasn’t chained. When we showed up to serve dinner, she was giving Mix the business in a most demonstrative way, pinning her ears and backing up toward Mix with an unusual intensity and duration. She absolutely would not let Mix get near the alleyway between the two sides under the roof of the overhang.
The alleyway is where the unchained gate was. Mix is the one most notorious for nosing that gate open while I am doing the housekeeping and Cyndie is filling feed buckets. Maybe? Although, I don’t know why Swings would have a problem with them getting out. Maybe she doesn’t want to jeopardize a good thing.
I eventually opened a gate between the paddocks that is beyond the waterer and coaxed Mix to come around the long way to get over to her side for feeding. At that point, the four horses stayed put and focused on food.
Earlier in the afternoon, Cyndie and I went out and shook down as many ripe plums as we could from the wild American Plum trees populating the brush and bramble along our northern property line. By dinnertime, Cyndie had canned 10 jars of plum jam. I helped pit the olive-sized fruit these trees produce.
It was an extreme exercise of tolerance for me to allow my hands to become covered with squished fruit, which meant the knife handle was a mess and all my sensibilities were tripped well beyond my usual comfortable mode of operating. Yucky! Somehow, I survived.
Today, Cyndie will be heading to pick up her mom to drive to the lake for a long weekend. I leave tomorrow to begin a week of biking and camping in Missouri. No more trailer loads will be moved in the foreseeable future.
.
.
Special Visit
Despite the prolonged drought, some of our flowering plants continue to put on a show and attract hummingbirds.
The 10-day forecast shows no sign of precipitation to ease the suffering of plants that are clinging to life. I think most of them have simply started their transitions toward the end of their growing season.
Even though our grounds look far short of their best, I enjoyed the pleasure of hosting a visit from a couple of my Eden Prairie classmates, Jodi and Kelly, yesterday. (Cyndie is up at the lake with a friend for a couple of days.) This was the first time Kelly had been here. It was a great chance for me to notice through Kelly’s eyes how many different things we’ve done to enhance the property over the years.
As always, the precious energy of Wintervale comes alive whenever people visit to experience the natural beauty of our sloped terrain, forest trails, and open fields.
It doesn’t hurt to have the eye-catching labyrinth and mystical spirits of four beautiful Thoroughbred mares on top of everything else special about our place.
Light and Mix were mostly well-behaved, but not the least bit bashful about insisting they deserved endless carrot bites from our guests. Swings stood back for the most part, not being as interested in trying to chew a carrot. I held a soft treat for her that I was able to serve up in a fleeting moment as she moved past when they all rearranged positions.
Mia removed herself from the area for much of our visit, then eventually made her way in, swinging her head up and down the whole way. She had a cloud of flies bothering her, so I grabbed her a fly mask, and that seemed to help. She even came close enough to receive some carrots, as well.
I expect that none of you will be surprised that I made sure to show off my composting area, but in my defence, Kelly brought up the topic first!
We were blessed with a gorgeous summer day, and the opportunity to spend some casual time with lifelong friends made for a really fine afternoon. I appreciated that they were willing to make the trip. It’s usually an hour-long drive minimum from the Twin Cities, and that can be perceived both as a long trip and as not so bad. Usually, after people have done it, they report the drive is worth it.
Cyndie and I have gotten so used to it that the distance seems perfectly reasonable to us. Still, I respect those who may not be inclined to drive so far, but on occasion do so for our sake.
Sharing our sanctuary with others is as rewarding for me (and Cyndie) as it is for the people who visit. I strongly believe that the horses and Asher tend to agree.
Great minds think alike, you know.
.
.
Tiny Bites
We took a stab at digging into the largest pile of unturned manure to loosen it up for transport to the hay field. At this point, it looks a little pathetic due to the small amounts I’m moving at a time with the trailer behind the ATV. We’re just taking tiny bites of a much bigger pie than our trailer can carry.
We ran three loads before it was time to quit and clean up for a dinner date with our friends, the Wilkuses. I was filling the trailer and driving up to the high point of the hay field, where Cyndie helped empty it, staying to spread the goods while I returned to the compost area to fill the trailer again. We have enough to eventually cover a large percentage of that highest portion of the field. Then we hope the next rain will soak nutrients in and/or run them downhill in every direction.
There was a chance of some rain last night, but I didn’t hear anything. We have another shot at it this afternoon. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Some less-desirable critters have been taking tiny bites of leaves around the grounds. Anybody else facing voracious Japanese beetles in their gardens?
Cyndie read that a local flower gardener had taken to hand-picking them off her plants and exterminating them. I watched my partner-in-crime practice similar lethal justice to test its effectiveness. I fear their numbers are too great to make a dent in them that way, since they are spread out all over the place.
Between my manure-spreading exercise and the Japanese beetle infestation, we are dealing with imperfect-scale operations.
Last night, the horses were finally taking tiny bites of their own out on the freshly cut hay field.
They have been spending the majority of their days napping on their feet under the barn overhang, so it was a bit of a thrill when we got home after dinner and found them out there on the grass.
If anyone is interested in a fun-energy neighborhood pub on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River, we were in Afton at The Lumberyard Pub. It was a great evening to be on their patio. Great service, good menu options, perfect pub-quality food.
It was also nice to catch up with Barb & Mike. The four of us shared tiny bites [as in, snippets] of our latest life adventures (if I can get away with abusing that title phrase one too many times) and caught up on family news. I am officially jealous of their new metal roof on the cabin.
For the record, I took too many not-so-tiny bites of my Crispy Chicken Caesar Wrap and have no one but myself to blame for my middle beginning to expand beyond my comfort zone. I’m afraid my caloric intake has been exceeding my calorie burn for too many weeks in a row.
Will our hero muster the commitment to reverse the trend starting today? Stay tuned to find out. We all know that weight reduction is a long, slow process. “Smaller portions” would be a good mantra for me to start with if I’m serious about doing something about the situation. That, and maybe… smaller bites.
.
.
Reunion Tales
Now that I’ve had a whole day of not going anywhere, life feels faintly familiar to the norm to which I have grown accustomed. Cyndie drove to the cities to visit her mom, so I had a quiet day with Asher. We went for a walk after breakfast and then took a nap when we got back to the house. It’s going to take me a couple of days to pay back the sleep debts I accrued last weekend.
The highlight for today is going to be a visit from two of Cyndie’s classmates who heard plenty of stories about our property. I wish we could host all the people who show a sense of wonder and interest when we describe our place. It is rarely a convenient opportunity for most people, so we are thrilled that this particular time it appears to have worked out just a couple of days later.
I got permission to share a story of Cyndie’s from an interaction at her class reunion. She was looking forward to talking with a guy whom she remembered had poked fun at her buck-tooth and thick-glasses appearance when they were young. The memory had always seemed curious to her because the guy was the only other particularly noticeably buck-toothed, thick-glasses kid in her year.
Turns out that it wasn’t him. At least, he has no recollection of it and doesn’t think he would’ve ever done that. Now Cyndie is questioning her memory. Was it someone else teasing both of them, and she mistakenly placed it on the other victim? We’ll probably never know.
The eventual outcome is the best of results. The two of them ended up having a wonderful exchange and quickly bonded in their shared experience. I might add that he turned into as good-looking a guy as Cyndie did into a beautiful woman. They might not have even talked if it weren’t for this mysterious memory.
Happy surprises like this are one of several reasons I am a big fan of reunions.
I enjoyed reuniting with the horses yesterday. They don’t offer up grandiose gestures of being happy to have us return after several days’ absence like dogs do. Asher doesn’t hide much with that wagging tail, licking kisses, and leaning into us for scritches. No, the horses are much more subdued in their acknowledgment.
Swings just stood stationary when I put my face to her nose to exchange breath and stroke her neck. Staying put was her way of telling me she was happy to see me.
The amount of food I found spilled beside her bucket last evening was more than I’ve seen before. We need to start soaking her food to help her cope with failing teeth. Do they make dentures for animals? [not a serious question]
Moments after I took that picture, Mix moseyed over to eat most of what had been spilled.
.
.
Indoor Projects
Staying indoors, away from the smoke, was our priority yesterday, and it led to some interesting projects around the house. I’m trying to find items I may have stored in various locations over the last ten years. There’s a lot of guesswork involved. One interesting result from my searching has been finding other things I didn’t know still existed, like 40-year-old photos and an odd document or two.
I pulled out an old hard drive in a search for videos and found that an internal connector had broken loose from the circuit board where the USB cable connects. That’s one I probably won’t be able to fix myself, but I did find out how to get the plastic cover off by searching the internet.
It didn’t get as oppressively hot yesterday, but Cyndie still provided the horses with some extra cooling methods. Since they are stuck breathing the smoky air, we can at least help take the edge off the heat. Mia is still the one most likely to take advantage of the shade sail protection. You can see in the photo above that Mix is in the vicinity, but on the other side of the fence.
We’ve had some big storm clouds billow up nearby, but they’ve been just to our east and moving away from us. A rainstorm would be a welcome way to scrub the air and bring down temperatures a little bit. Unfortunately, the ten-day forecast doesn’t currently have any hints of rain at all. What it does have is some days with high temperatures not even reaching the 80s (F). Seventy-degree summer days are not something you will hear me complain about.
By the end of the day yesterday, it seemed like our air was getting a little better. There is a glimmer of hope for improvement moseying its way in. I’m hoping to get back outside today to do some trail trimming through the woods. It’s getting to be so jungle-like that a few of the pathways have become hard to detect.
That’s not very different than the hunting I’ve been doing in search of things I stashed somewhere in the house ten years ago.
.
.
Stress Compounded
As if the high heat wasn’t enough, we now have the added stress of wildfire smoke dropping our air quality to unhealthy levels. The combination of environmental issues simultaneously becoming problematic gives the impression that we are living the very apocalyptic catastrophes climate scientists have been warning about.
I was indoors at a meeting in Eden Prairie when the visible smoke settled over the region last night. The sight of the thick haze that greeted us as we walked outside shocked us. Over the more than an hour drive to get home, I felt increasingly ill, developing a headache that increased in intensity with each passing mile.
The smell was clearly identifiable as wood smoke when I reached home. Cyndie had been offering the horses some cold carrots and a sweetened block of ice to munch on to give them some distraction from the heat, but there isn’t much we can do for them about the smoke.
As the sun was nearing our horizon, Cyndie found the herd out grazing on the hay field, looking like they were coping fine enough. That takes some pressure off our concerns about whether we are doing enough for them.
If extreme heat and wildfire smoke are something we need to adjust to as a new norm, I don’t want to find out what the next compounding stressor will eventually be that joins them.
Will weird coincidences start to occur? I experienced a freaky one yesterday.
I drove halfway to my meeting and parked my car to ride the rest of the way with someone else. In my car, I had been listening to my music library on my phone through Bluetooth. It doesn’t turn off when I shut off the engine. It stops playing when I open the car door, leaving an earworm of the song in my head as I walk away.
The song was “Times Like These,” by the Foo Fighters.
When my friend started her car, that same song started playing, from the same point where my earworm memory was looping. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, asking if my phone could have possibly connected to Bluetooth instantly when she fired the ignition.
She said, “That’s KQ.” (KQRS-FM, 92.5 MHz)
I tapped “skip” on my Apple Music just to make sure it wasn’t my phone.
Nope. It was her radio station.
What are the odds of that? I gotta say, that freaked me out a little bit.
.
.
Cumulative Stress
From the National Weather Service:
Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses. Prolonged heat waves lead to cumulative heat stress for those who cannot adequately cool down and recover each night. Cumulative heat stress significantly increases the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke as time goes on.
Cyndie and I enjoy the luxury of geothermal air-conditioning that allows us to cool down and recover every night, but the horses don’t have that same luxury. We have been watching them closely during this current heat wave. So far, they appear to be coping with the hot weather just fine. Still, we try to do what we can to bring them some relief.
We already have had fans placed under the overhang where they like to stand, mainly as a way to reduce the number of flies bothering them, but fans work just as well to offer cooling, too. Although at the temperatures we are experiencing this week, it makes it more like a blast furnace to blow such hot air at them.
As an alternative, yesterday we put out a sprinkler to spritz the air with a cool water mist.
Mia was the only one to show interest. She approached very tentatively at first, then put one foot into the spray, and then the other. When she put her face down into the mist, I knew she was liking it. Eventually, she turned all the way around and let the spray reach each of her back feet.
If they didn’t cool off enough overnight last night, we’ll turn the spray on again today to see if the other’s level of interest changed.
The Extreme Heat Warning lasts until Thursday night, and we are now under an Air Quality Alert through Thursday as well. I do miss the luxury of having a lake out our door to immerse myself in for an instantaneous cooldown. Thankfully, stepping into the air-conditioned house works almost just as well.
.
.
Hot Mowing
One way of looking at the crazy amount of overgrown grass (and weeds) that were waiting for us upon our return home made it seem almost disastrous and barely manageable. There was an Extreme Heat Warning in place that dampened my spirit about rushing out to begin mowing as soon as we unpacked the car.
I dawdled a little bit, putting some things away and grabbing a bite to eat, but the mowing really needed to get underway. I wanted to make immediate progress in catching up. To my great relief, when I set out to begin at probably the warmest time of the afternoon, it didn’t feel entirely overwhelming. On the riding mower, there isn’t a lot of effort needed. Rolling along actually augmented the light breeze at times, increasing the cooling effect. We also have a decent amount of shade from trees around most of the areas I mow, and that definitely helped to limit the heat stress.
All that remains to be cut today is the labyrinth and the areas around the house. I was able to complete 2/3rds of the total mowing by heading back out into the heat after dinner last night. It looks like someone lives here again.
Another way to look at all the overgrown grass is that it doesn’t require an unreasonable amount of work to get it back under control again.
Asher showed great affection for having us home and sat with me at our lookout spot after I finished mowing for the day, so we could survey how good everything looked freshly cut. We watched the horses for a while, and I thought Mix was moving a little better than she was in videos we received a few days ago. She is limping again, like something is hurting one of her back legs.
Cyndie took a picture of Mia (with a fly mask on) and Swings out in the hay field grass. At that time, Mix was staying in the paddock, and Light appeared to be remaining with her to keep her company. By the time Asher and I were watching them, they were all moving around together inside the large paddock to graze.
For the rest of the summer, we’ll only be away at the lake over 4-day blocks of time, so I shouldn’t have this problem of falling behind on the mowing again for the rest of the growing season. That is, if I plan correctly and the weather cooperates.
There’s still some catching up I need to do in the manure composting operation, but that can happen after I’m done with all the mowing. Even though that work occurs in a shaded area, the heat of the composting piles greatly compounds the heat stress of hot, humid days. If I don’t get to it first thing in the morning, it will probably wait until the next day. I can’t put it off too long because the horses just keep producing more by the hour, regardless of how hot it gets.
.
.
Pile Diminished
Amid sweltering heat and humidity, Cyndie forged into hard physical labor on her first day back in our home time zone. I asked if she felt up to moving the horses around to make room for me to dump lime screenings with the big tractor. The horses didn’t get the memo. No matter how she tried to coax them out of the way, they remained a nuisance the entire time we worked.
On the plus side, they weren’t the least bit jumpy about the loud revving engine, the jerky movements of the tractor, or the sudden banging of the loader bucket. They give every impression of fully understanding what we are up to and seem to fully approve.
The added cushion of the screenings is an improvement over the hardpack they have been stomping on to dislodge biting flies. Although it won’t be long before they have the new stuff packed down, too. The old surface we are covering was once loose screenings, too.
The slope to the south end of the overhang is just enough steeper than the north that the tractor wheels would spin before I made it up, unless I made a run at it with a higher than comfortable speed. It made for a repeating series of “Coming in HOT!” situations. I only almost busted fence boards one time.
After working two separate sessions in the heat, we were ready to call it a day.
The pile is now greatly diminished. We may go back to using a shovel and wheelbarrow to finish the rest of it off, spreading it in any low spots or other high-traffic areas that get muddy after rain.
The forecast predicts we will be able to find the muddy spots as early as sometime today. Soaked lime screenings that haven’t been well packed will take on the texture of wet cement. It’s a price we are willing to pay in the short term while making improvements for the longer term.
.
.
Relative Something 