Prepped and Primped

Ready for Whatever

I bought a really big grass/trash can at Home Depot. Not sure how big it is but I am suspecting it's about 50 gallons.  I filled it with water right by the regular water trough, along with a muck bucket I bought a while ago to put water out in the pasture.

I also had three 50 gallon water troughs, but one of them was missing the plug.

Thus the search began. You would think that with three Rubbermaid water tubs, two with the drain plug replaced by an electric heater, that I would have the plugs I'd taken out.  I have three cabinets in the feed room along with numerous buckets holding various hardware items.

On the upside, trying to find the drain plug required that I look everywhere, and looking everywhere meant that I couldn't simply rummage about without cleaning up as I went along.  So, the morning of search became the morning of clean.

Cabinet one, no plug. Cabinet two, no plug. Nor was there a plug in any bucket, shelf, or place I looked. I did manage to fill five feed bags with stuff to throw away, and I found a nice collection of double end snaps along the way.

I called the tack store, and sure enough, they had the drain plugs I needed.  I cleaned myself up a bit as I was covered in grime at that point, and headed off only to run into what looked to be an endless traffic jam on the way into the first little town I needed to drive through. So I took a convoluted detour and got to the store.  

I figured I'd pick up some shavings for the stalls but they were out, so I drove to Agway, just a few blocks away and bought four bales there--they had plenty.  Home again, I tidied up the barn, unloaded the shavings and, on the brink of exhaustion knee wise, decided to go for a short swim.

It was hot, humid, and sunny. The water felt absolutely wonderful but I only did five laps before riding around the Lazy River a half dozen time, just relaxing.

Dove home, stopping at the WaWa to buy some chocolate milk--just a craving. The gas station there was a madhouse, with tons and tons of cars. Everyone was buying gas before the storm.

Home again, I started the water hoarding. I filled all the tubs, buckets and new barrel out at the barn, as well as two buckets of water in each horse''s stall.

I'm guessing I have water for the horses for perhaps four days now.  I may fill some more individual buckets in the barn aisle when I feed in the morning, and I still need to bed Tucker's stall. Of the three, I am going to have to keep him in as the rains blow in. The hurricane seems to be weakening as far as the winds go, but it's still going to bring some heavy rain.  It the course doesn't change, we will be not far away from a direct hit, leaving us at the very least, in for a really bad soaking with pretty windy conditions.

I'm about as ready as I can be, so now it's just a matter of "wait and see." Besides, that's about all my sore, worn out body can do right now anyhow.