Saturday, March 07, 2009, 07:12
Sloppy
The temperature was in the lows 40s on Friday here at Rural Route 2. So now the pastures and the driveways are getting sloppy and muddy.
I took the barn fork and started to clean up some of the sloppy wet hay Kajun has not eaten over the winter. Every time I feed him hay, he always leaves a few wisps and does not clean it up completely. Isabelle does not believe in leaving hay. Kajun does. I suppose his teeth are not quite what they used to be when he was a younger horse, making it harder to clean up hay.
At any rate, I heaved many forkfuls of wet hay mixed with mud over the pasture gate and onto the pile that will have to be hauled out to the hayfield when the ground dries up. I also tried to pick up the hay in such a way that I left channels for water to run away from the barn. Kajun's pasture slopes to the south, so if obstacles are removed, the water drains away.
Still, with six or seven feet of frost, it's going to be a while before the frost works its way out the ground.
The weather forecast is predicting snow on Sunday, a break on Monday, and then more snow on Tuesday. It doesn't sound like it's going to be much snow either time, but I wanted to get a tiny start on spring cleanup around the pastures.
LeAnn R. Ralph
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Thursday, March 05, 2009, 07:15
And So It Begins. . .
Tuesday morning when I went out to chip up frozen horse manure with the shovel, which I have been doing for the past three months, I took the brush with me and stuffed it in my back pocket. It's not really a horse brush. It's a human hair brush. But it works great for brushing manes and tails. And it also works well for collecting loose hair off the back and flanks of the horse.
My little black mare, Isabelle, was delighted to see I had brought the brush out with me. She loves to get her mane and tail brushed and just generally likes the attention.
After a few strokes with the brush across her back, I looked at it and almost fainted.
The brush was full! Of horse hair! Of loose horse hair! Of loose horse hair that Isabelle was shedding!
I picked the hair out of the brush and tossed it on the ground.
Then I brushed Isabelle some more and got another clump of loose hair that I tossed on the ground.
I know that spring cannot be all that far away when there are clumps of loose horse hair on the ground that I have brushed out of the horses.
Isabelle and Kajun have a looooooong way to go before the weather is warm and they are completely shedded out and are sleek and shiny in the sunlight.
But it's a start.
LeAnn R. Ralph