Thursday, July 17, 2008

Storm Clouds

We were hooking up to head to the barrel racing the other night and I watched Megan's cat go into "hunter" mode. He is a hunting fool and I love watching him put the stalk on birds, grasshoppers and pretty much anything that captures his attention.

I was a little startled to see that what he was hunting was a snake...
All the poor snake wanted was to get the heck out of there. But every direction he tried to go, there was this darn white cat in his way...swatting at him...
Pretty soon he had had enough and went on the fight...
At that point Megan and I quit laughing and threw a couple of rocks at the cat to make him leave. Naa...we didn't kill the snake. He was just a harmless bull snake. Unless they have rattles-they get a reprieve from Megan and I. The rest of the family...not so much. I never saw a couple of people so terrified of snakes as my mom and brother. They will hurt themselves or anyone in their way, getting away from ANY snake. Makes me laugh...A LOT-hehehe. I don't know why snakes don't scare me or Megan. Spiders though....those creepy things send me through the roof. First its the ewwwwww, then its the squish!

On the way home from the barrel race, Megan got some great photos of the thunderhead clouds that were to the south of us...
Beautiful...
Ummm...wait a second...there is lightening in those clouds. Thats not good. Uhhh...we have to GO that direction...
Thankfully, the storm stayed in the sky and we didn't come home to my pot garden destroyed by high winds or hail. I am really looking forward to those tomatoes and my little heart would be broken if my tomato trees get ruined.

The yesterday we got this put up...
Oops-the picture looks a little dark on blogger. Thats my new round pen. Yep-there are some ponies in trouble around these parts. Holy crap-did this guy think I was breaking Clydesdales? Those panels are 7 foot tall and each one weighs around 150lbs. Cripes-I guess I could always switch to raising elephants-LOL.

Last night the storm clouds blew up again and this time they laid a nice 1/2" rain on us.
Whew-cooled it down and settled the dust anyway.

On a less cheery note-my old mare is lame, lame, lame. I don't know what she did but the poor old girl can't hardly put any weight on her right front leg. Since there is not a mark on her, no scuffed hair and nothing in her hoof I have been alternating treatment between cold water soaks and warm water epsom salt soaks. Tonight she is slightly better and can actually straighten out her fetlock. Poor old momma!

12 comments:

Momma / Cowgirl said...

We have been having intermittent rain a lot lately. These are the monsoons here. I love the smell of the wet dirt, silly huh?

Great pics!
happy horsin' around!

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your horse being lame. we're about to get a lot of rain around here....Apparently there is a chance starting today and goes all the way through next thursday. We're still not dried out from all the flooding a couple months ago!

kdwhorses said...

Good kitty!

Rain is a good thing, but I agree not when you are hauling down the road! People can't drive already, let's not give them another obstacle!!!

Love the round pen! I so want one here at the house!

Sorry to hear about Woofer, poor girl! For a speedy recovery!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

not silly at all momma/cowgirl-Megan and I ran around in the rain like fools. It felt so good after the heat we have had. ;)

Bitr-does this have people worried about additional flooding?

K-AZ is the absolute worst for people who do not slow down for weather-those people are CRAZY drivers. Around here-we are pretty fortunate-we just don't have a lot of traffic and the traffic we do have is mostly locals-so they slow down when the weather is bad.

I did have to drive through a severe rainstorm in Nebraska one time-I was coming home from a rodeo, so had my trailer with horses in it. It was raining so hard you could NOT see and it was washing the whole rig off of the road. I was petrified but had to keep creeping along-couldn't pull over because I was afraid it would float my rig off of the road into the ditch(and I only had a 2-wheel drive p/u at the time), couldn't stop in the middle of the road because I was scared someone would rear-end me and couldn't see to keep going-Wheeewwww. That was worse than any blizzard I have ever driven through but obviously we survived. :)

sue said...

that is so funny about the snake thing... they don't bother me at all, and I often just scoot them along when I see one... BUT, drop one little spider in front of me... and I am gone!!! about "foundering on lobster" I don't think OR I would have been in big trouble LONG ago (dare I tell you that I had THREE of those little buggers that night!!!!) Love the cloud pics.... great shots!!!!!

Trailboss said...

Nice pictures. I need a cat like that. As far as snakes go I don't like and am deadly afraid of all of them. See, I was bitten by a Copperhead when I was 5 yrs old. I kind of think that gives me dibs on snakes. Maybe not. Either way I would just as soon never ever see another one in my life!

Thank you for your really wonderful comments on my blog re: my son. We are dealing w/it as well as can be expected. Actually I spoke w/him tonight on the phone and he was sounding much much better. Time will tell on that item.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Gosh I haven't visited your blog in such a long time. I missed it :(

I hope that sweet old mare of yours heals up quickly. Maybe it's a bruise or an abcess?

Those round pen panels are so tall! I had no idea they made them that tall. wow! Well at least you won't have to worry about anyone jumping out when they're in there! haha

I'm not bothered by any snakes around here either, except for the rattly ones. We, too, have bull snakes and like having them around as they are known to kill and eat rattlesnakes. Some people around here go out and gather up bull snakes to bring back to their farms to eradicate rattler problems.

So, do you all have monsoon weather up there, too. Here in New Mexico it's monsoon weather which means thunder and lightning and rain storms evey afternoon.
The storm can get pretty exciting!

Love your photos :)

Pony Girl said...

Hey there...fun post, lots happenin around your parts! Nice round pen! ;) Crazy weather and storm....and snakes? Yeek!
Actually, spiders are worse for me too! I've had to learn to deal with them! I don't like it, but I squish them. I think they are good for the environment and eat other spiders and bugs, but hello, can't they do that outside? Not in my place!

Sorry to hear about your mare. Do you think it's a hoof abscess? My sister's mare had one. Same thing- she was lame, no marks, swelling or heat. Hope she's on the mend soon.

By the way, I was watching barrel racing from the Calgary Stampede last night (my sister had DVR'd it for me) and thought of you! ;)

Holly said...

pretty kitty! I like a cat that hunts.

Hope your mare is sound soon!

MichelleSG said...

Rain! I wish we'd get some around here, dry dry dry out here. We don't mind snakes, my dd decided that she loved snakes when she was 4 and insisted she wanted a pink one for Christmas. So her daddy got her an albino corn snake. I needed another animal to take care of like I needed another hole in the head so it's his responsibility. So once a week I have to harass him to clean Sarah the snake's cage and defrost a mouse. Yeah, his job, right. Dang snake. She'd probably be real nice too if anyone paid attention to her. I would but I am sticking to my guns on this one, it was not my idea!
Hope you mare is feeling better.

Mrs. Mom said...

LOL Jane Doe Puppy is our "hunter" here. Bugs and creepy crawlies are not safe from her! Funny as all get out to watch her in pounce mode. She is really turning out to be a great little dog. Good thing- since it looks like we are stuck with her...

Great shots. Megan has quite the way with a camera!

And I am DROOOOLING over that round pen!!!

Andrea said...

You have one brave cat!! I would have run!! How much fun to have a big round pen! Those pannels sound huge!!
I am so sorry about your mare!! I hope she gets better soon!