April Fool's Week

      The first five days last week became increasingly warmer as the week progressed, but were all quite windy. The four day school week went really fast. It is nice that we had Good Friday off.  Hard to believe that we moved in out here on Good Friday last year (4/9/09). How time flies.

      

     One day last week the foolish barn kitties were playing in the tree that has poison ivy (and English Ivy) growing all over it.  Kaysha did not chase them up it, she came by to see what they were up to.  Can these silly kitties transfer poison ivy oil from their fur to some poor fool (like myself) who picks them up?  The ladder is sitting there waiting for the next non-windy day for me to rip out as many of these vines as possible....and then jump right into the shower.

    
     Seen below is Bro, who has decided the gravel pile is like a giant kitty litter pile.  I have also caught him doing this in our pile of extra wood shavings out in the barn.  He's no fool.

    
     Thursday Courtney and I had our usual 5:30 riding lesson.  It was windy but warm so we went out in the outdoor arena and round pen.  The horses did quite well, and we 2 girls weren’t too bad either. Working with the horses almost every day has really made a big difference.  Zorro continues to be reluctant to get on the trailer and I thought we had Amiga trained to exit slowly….but she came flying out when we got home that night. We tried to re-load her so we could practice a slower exit, but several times she would jumped on and then right back off.  We finally gave up (ending on a rather bad note).  Shoot….what is she going to do next time we try to load I wonder?  "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."  Even though Amiga is an angel, she sometimes acts foolish.
    
      Friday I enjoyed the day off from school.  A friend came out mid morning to dig up some Columbine I wanted to get rid of, so that got me started working outside.  First I walked around, observing new growth

everywhere.  These little flowers popped up over night.  Not sure what they are, but there is a big patch of them in the yard.  I soon stopped fooling around and got to work moving more plants and dirt. It was a warm 76 degrees....but boy was it blustery.  Looking at the thermometer fools you into thinking it is nice...got to factor in that wind chill though.  The weather station said 30 mph winds gusting to 36. I had to come in to take a break because it was drying out my eyeballs, not to mention my face and arms.  My loose fitting wind pants were flapping so hard it was scaring the horses.  The same thing had happened with a different pair of pants on Wednesday.
     
     Because of the rains we got Friday night, and the cold and clouds Sat morning, I stayed inside and worked on school work.  By noon I had had
                                                     enough, so went out to help Joe in the tack room.  We are putting up a ceiling with insulation between it and the hay loft floor boards to make it better weather proof and insulated.  It was drafty and dusty or moist in there depending on the weather outside. We got more than half of the boards up….and it is already nice and cozy feeling.  Other than each of us getting hit by a falling 2X4 (me in the side of the jaw and 15 min. later, Joe in the back of the head) we managed to do quite well.  It was sort of like those foolish Three Stooges, except there were only two of us. LOL
     
     Through out the week, once home from school, I would do a little more work on my rock garden.  I continue to weed, transplant Day Lilies, find and haul more rocks in, and move dirt.  Joe used the tractor to spread and flatten the load of clay we got.  Boy is that stuff ever gooey and difficult to
work with. We still need to do a little more work with it to get the slope just right.  (That would be according to my standards, not Joe’s….the poor guy just doesn’t see things the way I do….but is sweet enough to try to please me….even if it means 2 or 3 extra attempts.) 
     I started digging up a rock from the paddock that was slightly exposed, and ended up uncovering a huge slab.  I had to get Joe to finish digging it up and take it to my rock garden using the tractor.  In this photo you can see several of the rocks Joe and I have been hauling to the hillside.  The big, flat rectangular one, kind of in the middle of this picture, is what I had dug up from out in the paddock.
Joe also used the tractor to clean out the corn crib “drive through” area.  It had a bunch of urine soaked hay (mostly from Chuck) and manure in it. This was also the case with the area around the hay bin on the south side of the barn.  Excess hay the horses and cow have left behind, has been piling up there all winter.  It was a huge pile…and a big stinky mess.
   
     Easter Sunday I tried to get a picture of the sunrise.  I really need a better camera for this type of photography. I took a bunch of pictures, and
this is the best I

could come up with.  It was a busy morning with Church and helping out in the nursery.  Then I spent some time working at school.  Once home I helped Joe move railroad ties to use as a border for a raised bed vegetable garden.  He moved dirt into it and then some horse manure. Again, the chickens really enjoyed digging in the fresh dirt.  Only problem is, those fools were kicking it in every direction, including out of the garden. And they were eating the good earth worms along with the bad grubs and who knows what else.

      In the evening we had a tornado watch which was soon lifted, but then ended up with a severe thunderstorm.  It came up so quickly, I ran out to the barn to put the horses in, but then bam! ....thunder, lightening, hail and high winds.  I never could get the horses into the barn, but Chuck came a running.  I think the horses went to the corn crib. I went back out once it had blown over and the horses came right in to the barn, a bit wet.  Zorro spent no time having a nice roll in the saw dust and dry dirt. The next morning, the storm's moisture left us in another fog and with more mud.

     Yesterday was very productive.  I completely cleaned out the two stalls, and then we dumped the small pickup truck load of saw dust that Joe had just brought home into the stalls.  They are nice and fresh now.  The wind made it challenging, but we managed.  Because all the old stall bedding wasn’t that bad, I “spread” it out in the paddock.  I would swing the full wheel barrow back and forth, and with the strong wind, everything blew out all over in the paddock, not piling up but making a thin layer of saw dust, old hay and some dust/manure. We also finished putting the rail road ties
 around the garden.  Getting them level was the big challenge.  Then we finished filling it with dirt and worked on leveling it out.  We are almost ready to start planting.  Courtney came out to the farm, but because Joe and I were so busy she groomed both horses.  Usually we do this together and take turns working them in the round pen.  She worked Zorro in the round pen, and just before dinner I work with Amiga.  I got pretty sick by evening.  I could feel it slowly coming over me through the afternoon.  Bad sore throat, achy body all over, and a 103 temperature.  It was early to bed with a night sleep aid/pain reliever.  So, I didn’t even hear the storms we had through the night.  I think the barn kitties decided to sleep in as well.  Bro is the bigger, blacker one on the right.  You can see some brown stripping on Sis if the light is right.  These two love to fool around, even though they are not fools.

      Today I felt much better. It rained and stormed off and on throughout the day, sometimes fairly bad with thunder and lightning, strong winds and heavy rain fall.  Our farrier came today and trimmed hooves. Because of the winds and mud, I only ventured out a few times to do a few chores.  Here at my desk I worked on lots of grading and then this blog.  I still have a sore throat and slight head ace, but am so thankful the temperature, and other flu symptoms didn’t last too long.  God continues to answer my prayers, this time getting me over the worst part of this virus quickly.