Rain

Jason and I have written about the weather off and on the last couple of months because it has been less than ideal. To date I believe we are about 12 inches/31 centimeters below normal rainfall for this year. The national weather service has placed the southern tier of counties in middle Tennessee, including ours, into the severe drought category. Northern Alabama is also "enjoying" the severe drought along with us. 

We are currently feeding what we thought was our winter hay supply right now. The horses aren't eating as much hay as they would during the non-growing season, but they're all eating hay. It is easy to get depressed when you think about the wasted thousands of dollars spent on fertilizer and weed control only to be feeding hay. However, dealing with the weather is part of farming so although we're depressed, we also know that this too shall pass. Maybe the saying "no pain, no gain" is also applicable. Farmers of all types are feeling the pain in our area. We have purchased as much first cut hay as we could find, and we're now on the hunt for good second cut hay to replenish the winter hay supply we are currently feeding. We are very grateful to have our recently built third hay barn. 

When we saw a high chance of a decent amount of rain in our Monday forecast we were skeptical. We've had a lot of rain chances that have brought us 0 drops of rain lately.  For a change this forecast was accurate, and on Monday we received slightly more than an inch of rain. It would be an understatement to say we were thrilled to watch it rain for a few hours. The rain isn't enough to suddenly make the grass look as it should, but it was enough to keep everything looking green, get a small amount of growth, and get rid of all the dust for a few days. 

The horses wallowed in their newly found muddy areas like they were pigs. They seem to have realized that these types of opportunities are limited at best this year, and they all rolled repeatedly.  The horses were definitely in "git-r-done" mode when it came to getting  filthy, and they appeared to be satisfied with their results. Here's to them having many more opportunities to coat themselves in mud.   

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Gus and George - they are both supposed to be gray

Baner, Havana, Hesse and Remmy were feeling frisky after the rain

Baner, Remmy, Hesse, Havana, Duesy, Bruno and Merlin

Gibson and Gus

Cocomo and Asterik - also both gray

Silver

Merlin - he could almost pass for brown instead of gray in this picture

 Taco and Happy grooming

Norman and Timbit

Calimba and Maisie

Roho and River

Apollo and Hemi

Sparky, Sabrina and Griselle

Flyer and Gibson