It's been around 100 degrees down here for the past few weeks, and the daily chores have had to be carried out before dawn, or after dusk, to avoid melting.
Dave has been very busy (mostly in the very early mornings and very late evenings) fixing up a couple of additional stalls around the corner from home, which we now have use of in exchange for doing the work and for getting the place up to scratch. He's done a fantastic job of it and the stalls are now much more luxurious than our house will ever be! We had to invest in a heavy duty solar fence charger to make the fencing "live" around there... It's true, the grass is always greener... And curious hooves will go a-wandering. The acreage of pasture we can use is absolutely vast and requires an extra powerful unit to carry a charge all the way around the perimeter fence. It is money well spent though, and it will mean lots more wonderful grass for hungry newcomers. It is a beautiful place for our waifs and strays to be, with a big sand arena and miles and miles of woodland trails... Perfect for "test riding" and de-spooking the horses. It will serve us well in ascertaining what level of rider each horse might be suitable for and mean that we will be able to look for the right homes, in the right places, from the get go and avoid unnecessary upheaval for the horses. It's very kindly been offered to us by our friendly local hay-man and we're very, very grateful for his help. We're thrilled to bits about having the opportunity to use it and it gives us a chance to expand a bit, but it's been a good deal of hard work (not to mention expensive) to complete.
What with the weather being so brutal lately, and us being busy with getting that done, we have haven't had a chance to get much of anything done around here for a few weeks. Our regular routine of working with the horses has diminished to a quick check over, to make sure there's still a leg in each corner, and a daily hose off for all (the dogs and geese included). Each day sees us racing around to get the feeding done while it's cool enough to move around outside.
Despite the current temperatures, we now have to turn our attention to building an extension onto our small barn before the winter. We have space for two horses currently but desperately need stalls for two more, so that the less woolly varieties can be housed under cover when it gets cold again... And it will!
We have been trying to think of ways to do some "barn(fund)raising" in order to make the addition possible in time, and I am in the process of setting up an Etsy shop, in aid of CEHR. I will be parting with many of my vintage delights that have amassed over the years... It may take a while, I have a huge collection! There may also be couple of guitars up for grabs along the way too... So keep your eyes peeled! I will let everyone know once I get it up and running properly, but meanwhile, if you have any fund raising ideas or you'd like to contribute and help us turn our tumbledown tin-shack into adequate winter housing, please do get in touch, either via campesco@yahoo.com or our Facebook page. We also have our official site up and running too: campescohorserescue.com, and there we have a dedicated donations page.
There has not been a single drop of rain in weeks, at least not until yesterday afternoon, when it poured down for about an hour, monsoon style. Oh how we all danced, twirling around outside and splashing in puddles, enjoying the cool air. Sadly, it didn't last long at all and it was straight back to sweltering heat and humidity very soon after. We were, once again, wrapped in hot, wet bath flannels. Since we've been hosing the horses down like crazy, just trying to keep them cool, we are hoping that the measly amount of rain that fell yesterday will go some way to helping our (very slow) well get replenished.
As I type, there are some big ol' black clouds right above the house and it looks like there might even be some more rain on the way... Get yer dancing shoes on! Woohoo!
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