A River Runs Through it

Well, almost.

And it's not supposed to!!! At all!!

I am not sure when I became such a complainer?! I used to be, and strive to be again, a "the glass is (at least) half full" kind of a person! I am not sure at all when that changed! And about that me striving to get back to being that "glass is half full" kind of a person.. Well I will get back to that , "after" this story.

I haven't seen dry ground around here, for what seems to be going on a good couple of months!

I think November? I don't think the ground staying wet for so long is completely due to the weather though. There have been a few days here and there, of beautiful warm sunshine and soft breezes. And staying that way for as many as 5 or 6 days in a row.

Beautiful Indian Summer kind of days that let you remember what Spring time is like. Days that had you thinking Spring time is back! But, "no".. not yet.

And despite those beautiful and now it seems at least for now, "rare" sunny days the ground, is still not dry. And just when you think those days might go on, and the ground will dry out, it's back. Winter is back. We get the rain, the sleet, the days on end of freezing damp fog. Off and on, and it seems as soon as you think it's over, and it's gong to dry out.. It starts all over again. The ground doesn't change . It got wet, and has stayed that way. "Wet"!

The ground staying wet, seems more to do with the ground though then the weather.

They type of ground.

And the ground we have here seems to be like, ... Well "Clay"! It's Clay!
Having said that, the mud or shallow lakes are everywhere!

The whole north pasture, what was in the summer time green grass with some old Oaks through out for shade on the warm days,



has since turned into a lake. Brownish gray water surrounding moss covered tree's with the thoughts coming to mind of "swamp lands".

This north pasture was "home" to "The Girls".

"The Girls" being varied but close in age. three mares and three 2 year old fillies.
So now that "that" home has turned into a lake, I had to move "The Girls".

They are now in their new "home", the back pasture. That means "sharing".

Something that normally I would not have them do. I don't like putting mixed ages together, let alone the boys and the girls. So as it stands now, I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying that they are learning to play nice. Putting them together on 40 acres, though stressful is a lot less stressful then this 5 acre area!

The Boys, both Geldings. One of them, had once been a rather aggressive breeding Stallion. The other slightly younger, had never bred, nor had he ever seemed to have been interested, at least as far as knew.

Remarkably, to my surprise, the younger one of the boys, with this new arrangement, I found to be a trouble maker. , And not the older one, who I had worried a little about.

Have I said I am not happy at all about this arrangement.

I do not normally put "The Girls" and Boys together to play, but as of now, I just do not have any other options!

Anyway, this back pasture is also Mud.

Along with the mud there are several ribbons of little streams running through, as well as some area's of higher ground. So while they do not have completely "dry", they do have some area's of damp, where they can get out of the wet.

With the older "Kids" all sharing one pasture, learning to "hopefully" play nice, that leaves the younger ones to tend with.

The Weanling's, moved off of their moms at the end of September, just over 4 months old. Two romping colts and one more on the shy side filly. With just along side of them, the coming yearling's. Also two romping colts, but the filly not so shy, in fact she probably likes to "romp" more than her 1/2 brothers!

The "Babies" have a stall they can move in or out of and a large paddock area to run freely around as they choose. The older kids,. the boys "Ren" and "Merlin", and the filly "Abby" are moved out to paddock area's during the day and brought in at night.

That brings us to the real part of this story.

The weather and the clay type ground turning everything to mucky mud. That.. it seems was not enough for one of my talented with his lips yearling colts "Ren".

"Ren"

I got up in the morning and looked out the window on my way to the kitchen to get my morning coffee. "Wow" I thought! "It must have just poured rain all night long!" No longer was the ground just wet outside, but there was a very wide stream of water running down the drive to the road. "Oh well, nothing I can do about that" I returned to the morning tasks, coffee, email, getting ready for the day and then heading out to the barn to start the morning chores.

As I get closer to the barn I notice that some area's are not near as "wet" as other area's. As I get closer to the barn.. I can hear water running! "Oh no!! A broken pipe".. #$%#$%#...

I turn the corner and I see the faucet is on!! A cascade of water falling to the ground and running out the barn down the drive and to the road! The water is not turned on to just a trickle, it's open full !!! Darn Colt!!!

Now.. A coffee can covers that faucet! Two days later and so far.. though there are still some out in pasture, there are no more Rivers running through my barn!

(I am keeping my fingers crossed that, now that I have posted this,.. I won't walk out in the morning to find another river!)