Almost midnight and the wind is just howling. Seth went out and moved Neil's truck before he went to bed. The huge hackberry tree that shades the front of the house is hollow in the center. After all this drought, I was afraid it would be brittle and not able to handle the first big winds of the season. So far, it is holding.
When I last checked the rain guage at about 8pm, we had about a half inch. I am grateful for every drop and it has rained off and on since then.
Late yesterday afternoon, I went with my neighbor to drop off some goats at the sale barn. It is a little over an hour round trip and it was a good visit. We were both hoping for rain today and she is just as concerned about pond levels as I am. She was looking at it from a view point that I had not considered. We are heading into winter with no water supply for the cattle if it gets really cold and freezes. Usually, we hack a big enough hole in the ice on the pond or creek to get them a drink. Her comment was, "How are we going to chop mud?"
I had not even thought about watering in a dry WINTER....... how do you haul water when it is below freezing?? I better be thinking about this issue and designing a way to get the herd close enough to the barn to have a stock tank with a de-icer on it. The cost of watering and heating it enough to keep it thawed for nearly 40 head of cattle and horses is going to call for some strict budgeting...... Then I have the goat herd- another 20 or so head of thirsty beasts.
Unless..... we get enough rain........ Think I will pop over and take another look at that radar before I go back to bed!
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