Deluge

Yesterday morning, I woke up to find the barn pasture had turned into a quagmire, there was a sizable pond where none had been the day before, and the trickle in the creek had become a mini-torrent.

I was very glad I'd moved the horses the day before. Someone I know recently lost a horse to a broken pelvis, caused by the mare slipping in the mud. Scary thought. I'd rather they're out in the dry field with no shelter than in the muddy one with a shelter. One day we'll have a shelter in the dry pasture.

When I went out, the wind was blowing the rain horizontally. The horses were hunkered down in the lee of a low fence, backs to the wind. I learned long ago from my Dad that a vertical barrier provides wind shelter to a distance of several times its height. They stayed put and didn't pay any attention to me when I came out - so I decided to feed them later when things had calmed down a bit.

One of the cats kept wanting to go out, but every time he poked his head out the door, a blast of pounding wind would make him retreat back into the house.

Today the ground is frozen, and the wind has dropped. I have to get Rose started on her Chinese meds, which she likes not at all, despite assurances that all horses find them delicious. I need calm weather and a calm mind to go out and deal with this.