Friday, September 30, 2011

Last Day in September


Today dawned cool and clear! It is great to see blue sky for a change, not socked-in fog, overcast, cloudy or raining. I'll take the cool. And the best news was hearing that the Orchard grass mix is sprouting in the boy's field! This is a total cause for celebration! We plan on going camping this weekend; having them off the field for a couple days will do that grass seed a world of good!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Wet(test) September Winds Down


Apparently this September is the wettest in recent years, claiming one day, September 13, as the only day with prolonged sunshine. Dismal. When we finally clear up and dry out we'll all realize that it is dark later in the morning and dark earlier in the evening. We've missed a long stretch of Moon phase, too.

October is breathing down our backs and after this humid/wet/damp month I'm ready for a change. We're planning on going camping Saturday night and the forecast is for dry and cool weather. Cool like highs in the 40s? We're like Goldilocks: too hot, too cloudy, too wet, too humid, too cold. We have a heater in the trailer, the boys are growing their winter coats. We should do this!

Plus, we can't stain the barn because the product usage warns against applying under 50 degrees. We need to go camping with the boys and April and Irene.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Final Weekend in September




Rainy, warm and humid. That just about wraps it up! Actually, we got lots done, but no riding this weekend.

Tom continued power washing the barn, prepping for the stain application. I went into town for groceries.

On Saturday we went into Mt Airy to the two horse supply stores. I got new leather gloves, he bought herbicide (two different kinds) for the driveway and parking lot. We went to the other one for pasture-mix grass seed. It was not only on sale, I had a coupon, too!

When we returned he treated the parking lot with the first herbicide, spread the pasture-mix seed in and resumed power-washing the barn and I continued cleaning up the house, laundry.

On Sunday he finished up the power washing - THE BARN IS READY FOR STAIN - however, we have to wait for two days of dry weather and that's not going to happen this week. It rained on Sunday afternoon.

I worked on getting the LQ trailer cleaned up; we plan on going camping next weekend. Hope the weather permits that! Camping in the rain/wet is never that much fun, right? KC really hates standing in mud.

After he finished the power washing we went to the BIG TOWN to visit the new Wegman's grocery store. I'd never been to one, but have heard about them from others. I'm sorry to say that it failed to impress me. What was impressive was the size - too big to do grocery shopping in an hour or less. Like having a grocer in a Wal-Mart-sized space; you'd wear yourself out looking for this and that. They do carry some things that I've come to rely on others to get for me, but it is not worth the drive.

We were going to go riding, but as I was transferring saddles and stuff to the trailer it started sprinkling, so we went to Wegman's instead. We bought some bread and salsa and called it a day.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Third Weekend in September - Wrap-up

Friday was a complete wash (a dirty one) for Tom; the plumbing was backed-up at our old house. He took the day off, spending 11 hours at the old place, three trips to HomeDepot and two trips home before calling a neighbor - Rocket Rooter! The culprit apparently was DENTAL FLOSS. Do not put ANYTHING down a toilet unless it is what was originally intended to be put down a toilet.

Consequently, we didn't get home until after 8:00 p.m, mostly dark, the equines were mostly mad. Great way to get that weekend party started, right?

Mad dash to feed, water, hay, etc., then feed ourselves. And on top of that, I could not sleep. Couldn't fall asleep, couldn't stay asleep.

Saturday was cloudy, rainy, chilly. I busied myself with wifely duties: laundry, straightening up, sweeping, plus I had to take a nap. Tom 'practiced' power-washing the barn. He's now got it down to an efficient science.

Sunday was a better day, weather-wise and sleep deprivation-wise. We took care of this and that around the house, he power-washed a little more and the barn looks great! Then we trailered the boys to Union Mills, north of Westminster. We thought we'd have the woods to ourselves because of the two local NFL teams playing. At first we did have the woods to ourselves, but then the bicyclists showed up, other riders, and a motorcycle guy, who we talked to at length at a trail head. He thought he was older than us! and we had a nice conversation about planes, helicopters and horses.

Later we ran into other riders, from York, and ate lunch where they had parked their trailers. It was a beautiful day, a wonderful ride. We have so much more to do at home, but sometimes you just have to take advantage of the day.

When we got home he resumed power-washing and I made dinner, for everybody!

Since then, its been rain/fog/mist/rain/cloudy/cool/humid. And the days are getting shorter, beginning and end.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

This and That: Hurricane Clean-up

The tale of two hurricanes: Irene and Lee. These named storms were not twins, no hurricane is created equally. Irene was windy (55 mph sustained winds, gusting upwards of 60 mph), three inches of rain (we needed it) and a 5-hour power outage. Lee was a slow-moving storm with hardly a breeze, warm, humid air and 15 inches of rain over three days.

That's the short story. The long story is that Irene (not our cat) broke trees, limbs and branches, scattered leaves everywhere and watered the yard. Lee flooded the basement at our old house and broke some limbs, too. The boys spent the night inside four nights in a row. Warm but too wet to sleep outside, in my opinion.

We had made some headway on the burn pile after Irene, but now with Lee it looks like we burned nothing. A pending bonfire is certainly in our future.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Hurricane Lee


Rain, Rain, Rain. The entire week, from Monday afternoon into Friday. The creeks and rivers are rising, the kids stay in all night. The manure spreader is full, too.

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend was a fairly productive holiday for us. Three whole days blew by, as usual. We had planned on going to West Virginia but those plans fell through by Thursday night. I was relieved, really. We have so much to do, the riding is extensive and KC has been 'off.'

Plan B: Pick my Godson, Mario, up on Friday night. We have plenty planned for him to help us with. Farm life, right?

Feeding, pick up tree debris from Hurricane Irene and have a bonfire on Saturday evening, groundhog eradication, clean out the shed, wash four horses plus do their hair and trim them, too. Busy, busy, busy!

By Monday he was tired and bored and I took him home around 2:00 p.m. But he did work hard, especially on Sunday with the groundhog killing. My nephew, David, came over with two friends to shoot their guns, and the machine gun. I know, I'm the 'cool' aunt with 17 agricultural acres. We can do this!