Sunday, August 02, 2009

Enough Already!!

Tucker takes a nice roll in the pasture after lungeing.

How Much Rain Can We Take? But I Did Lunge

Thank goodness my house is on high ground. So is the barn. I still get localized mud around the paddocks which I plan to address, but since the barn is on a little hill, if I can get the drainage right, I should be able to fix the worst of it.

That is if it ever dries out enough so I can fix the worst of it. Right now, I'm not even sure the tractor could handle it without getting stuck or at the least skidding all over the place.

Woke up to thunder in the morning around 7 AM. I brought the Boys in from the pasture for feed as soon as possible and closed off the field. It wasn't long after that the skies opened up and it started to rain. And rain....and rain.

Then somewhere around noon, more thunder started rumbling. I had the TV on and a tornado warning scrolled across the screen for the next county over--just a few miles from here. It wouldn't have surprised me as the thunder was really loud. At one point there was a huge crash across the road, so I suspect one of the trees might have been hit.

After that it poured for a while, then settled down to a lighter, but steady rain until just about ten minutes ago. Now the sun is peeping out. Looks like we might get a bit of a break before the rain rolls back in after dark. The good thing is that the forecast says today is the last day of serious rain for at least a few days. Since the local County Fair starts tomorrow, that's a good thing. It's always a shame when that gets rained out. There are still thunderstorms in the forecast for Wednesday, but it says, "scattered," so we might luck out.

Bugs and slop probably await in the arena. I haven't even looked today. When I go out to feed a few minutes I'll check things out. I'm not too hopeful. And with the flies and excess rain, even a hack is not in the cards.

We'll see....or sea....

I went out around 6 PM. It had cooled off somewhat. Amazingly enough, the footing in my arena is holding very well except for the puddles which include Lake Follywood, major and minor at the east end.

I have filled in parts of this puddle but as you can see, I need to do a lot more work. Since it's been so wet, the grass is even growing where I haven't been riding.

Below is the little jump I lunged Tucker over today for some variety. It's a bit over two feet, but not by much. You can see the wet spots in the arena but you might also see that the footing was still quite good. Look at all the bushes that have grown up around the arena. It is a jungle wannabe. I trim and they grow right back.

The Boys in the pasture, enjoying the interlude between rainstorms. You can see the clouds getting ready to build up again.


And, oh yes, look who was out in the pasture with the Boys. I am calling her Tosca. She is the smallest of the little flock that visits and seems to hang out here by herself. She runs from me, but is a bit braver than the others.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:49 PM

    Don't float away! It's certainly been an odd spring and summer, weather-wise. Last night we had a low in the low 50s and the highs this week are to be in the 70s, not more than 80. That's pretty cool for us for this time of year, but I'll take it - although my peppers and tomatoes aren't very happy.

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  2. Anonymous7:45 PM

    Thanks for the pictures! Love the one of Tucker rolling - he looks quite the devil - and the turkey! You are lucky (but I'm sure luck wasn't involved) in having an arena where the footing holds after rain - ours wasn't properly constructed in the first place so there's no proper drainage or base - it just compacts and turns all hard and crusty when it rains and can't be dragged until it mostly dries. Sigh . . . if we only had the money to fix it.

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  3. Loved the pictures. There is something so arresting in a horse on the ground. They look too big to be rolling around.

    What crazy weather you are having. Surely things will settle down soon! Much of the US is on fire watch but not NJ, I guess.

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  4. at least the tornado missed you ...

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