All the Creatures

I had to pop on over to the feed store today to pick up a bag of Allegra Senior for my 26 year old gelding. I normally pay $15.99 for a 50# bag. Today I got sticker shock, the price had gone up to $18.99 in 3 days!! When I got to the loading area of the feed store, I mentioned the price increase to the guy loading my bag into the trunk of my car. He whispered back, “if you think that is bad, they just increased the price of a 25# bag of bird seed from $12 a bag to $30 a bag.”

At that point I just had to remark, “are they blaming this on the price of gas going up?”

His reply was, “excuse or not, get ready for the ride, since they are about to take us for everything they can get.”

Don’t you just love American greed? I guess it is back to shopping around for the best price on horse feed again.

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I have a small herd of beavers, at least they think they are beavers, they nibble on trees and bushes out in pasture. When we lived on a ranch that had no trees in the pastures, the horses would nibble on the wooden fences. Horses will also reach over fences to nibble on anything that interests them. I had a beautiful young willow tree that had been growing about 6 feet outside of our pasture fence. The willow tree was to be a shade tree for our deck that was another 15 feet from the tree. One day, Kid, one of our horses, just stretched out his neck and reached the trunk of the tree and snapped it in half.

The willow tree also serves as a reminder that anything located within reach of a horse can be damaged. This includes car mirrors, which often get chomped off, if the car is parked too close to the horses’ pasture. This is something that your cheap car insurance will not cover. I was once at a boarding stable that the manager had to explain to visitors why they could not park next to the horses. Most of them were not aware of horses dismantling things within their reach.

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The rains in the Pacific Northwest have been falling for almost non-stop for 2 days now. I was coming back from town with my groceries when I happen to see a field flooded where a creek runs next to it. The creek was now a raging river. I immediately thought of my friend who lived just up stream from that property. Her road was the next turn so I went to her house. To my shock and horror, she and her 3 children where trying to get their horses to higher ground. The the little creek was in its banks just 20 minutes prior to my arrival and now was overflowing and was nearly 2 feet deep in her barn. Large trees and logs were floating by in the raging river. I stopped to assess the situation, talk to my friend and then left. She probably thought I had left her to deal with the situation on her own, but I was heading home to change into rubber boots and rain gear.

When I returned about 20 minutes later she was shocked to see me. In that 20 minutes some of her neighbors also came to her aid. They were loading steel panels into pickup trucks to make a fast pen for her two horses on a higher portion of her property. I helped unload the panels and then helped her salvage the remaining hay in her barn. After the horses were put in their new pen, all her help left except me and together we set up feeders and  water trough for her horses. As it was now getting dark, she sent her kids off to town to pick up dinner for them. I left to come home to take care of my own horses and told her if the water threatens her house and the horses need to be moved again just to let me know and I’ll move the horses to my house.

Tonight I am crossing my fingers that her home and pets will be OK.

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