Fickle Weather

Snow, No Snow

This morning winter was in full bloom with snow at least an inch deep everywhere. Tonight, there is hardly a patch of snow to be seen.

The temperature is up and it has rained--hard all day. The only momentary saving grace is that the ground was frozen so hard it has not yet deteriorated into the deep mud I am expecting. However, since it is going down to the 20's tonight, perhaps it will "freezedry" a bit before the air really warms up on Friday.

The hardest part of the fickle weather is trying to decide just what kind of blankets/rugs to put on the Boys each day. Right now, they are in their winter weights--just as well since they offered added protection against the really bad rain today. I pulled out their lightweight sheets, but will likely use the slightly heavier ones for tomorrow and save the others for Friday.

Fortunately, I have a nice four day weekend due to the Presidential birthday holidays--Lincoln and Washington. That let's me be a little more cavalier about what the Boys are wearing as I can change clothes at will.

I am blathering on here because I obviously didn't do any riding. It was really WET. The rain has drifted into a mist so I managed to do some chores including cleaning the water tub and cleaning out the drainage ditches at the wet spots in the arena. Hopefully, it will drain and dry enough to be rideable by tomorrow. Right now, with the very wet top layer and some still frozen clay layer underneath, it is not only soggy, but slippery. Some sunshine would be a nice bonus at this point.

I am also rethinking the new run in shed. I was going to put it in the arena on the east side, facing west. Now I am thinking of saving all the my riding room by putting it outside on the west end, facing east. We will have to take down some fencing and maybe move the gate at that end, but....or, I could move the fence at that end to make the arena longer on the west end and put the run in on the east side, anyhow. From the looks of the ground, it was leveled out on the west side at least 10 feet past where my fence line is, so I have room for either the shed or the arena expansion.

If this sounds complicated, don't worry about it. The east end shed would offer more protection, so that is a plus. The west end ring expansion would require another panel of fencing--no big deal either. If it ever dries out, I am going to investigate the ground on the west side a little more to see if it really would be good footing.

OK, enough already! See what happens when I can't ride?