Freezing Rain

This morning before breakfast I walked over to the barn carrying a bag of clean towels. The sky was a deep red on the way over.

The drives were slippery but not terrible. The freezing rain was predicted to start around 9:00 am and I wanted to get the upstairs finished before that started. The golf cart was fully charged so that was taken out of the barn and driven around to the kitchen door. Towels were left at the gym door and the kitchen door for the guests coming in this afternoon. I organized the sports equipment in the barn, used a zip tie to fix a broken basket, threw away the slam dunk game and realized I would need to buy another mesh bag for the dodge balls and another for the pickleball balls. I made breakfast before 9:00 am then sat down to check out Amazon. I found the mesh bags so those were ordered. I went back to the barn to measure a missing basket but Phil and Anna's family were there and Anna knew where the missing basket was. She also helped zip tie one of the other baskets that had been pulled off the ball rack for the bats. Mike called about then to let me know he would come help move the colts in 10 minutes.  By the time I left the barn it had started with the freezing rain. The stall was made ready just in time. Both boys hung their heads over the gate to put their halters on. Mike led Oliver while I led Madiera's colt. By the time we got them inside the freezing rain was coming down hard enough to make everything very slippery. They were given a square bale of hay in the tank, 2 fresh buckets of water and 2 grain buckets each with about a half of a scoop of grain. Of course they needed to check out their new accommodations. 

Their halters were left on while I ran back to the house to get some scissors to cut the hay bale twine. I usually have one on the stall shelf but couldn't find it. Our apartment guests all came out to see the boys. I showed them how they have that entire tub full of hay but think it is a real treat to be handed the hay. Funny boys. When I got back to the house the laundry was started. With all the towels we used at the Meister Christmas we had 4 loads to get done today. Speaking of the Meister Christmas Rachel made a video, I tried to share it here but evidently it is not allowed to share it from Facebook. We got the idea from Joyce Waibel's reunion this summer and all thought it was a wonderful idea. If you would like to see it you would need to go to Rachel's or my Facebook page.

We were missing at least 43 family members but the kid helping out had some trouble getting those who were there in the video and if there had been everyone we are not sure how it would have worked. I've had the colts in the foaling stall with the camera on so I can watch them and today learned how to take a screen shot of a picture on my phone. 

The rain is still coming down so they will need to stay in for the night. The picture below was taken after dark. 

I'm thankful for stall lights and thankful they are both eating and drinking. The good news is that the temperatures are going to be rising not falling.  The bad news is there WILL be mud!

I went up at 8:00 pm to fill water buckets, do a little cleaning of the stall and then turned out the lights. It was pouring rain on the ride up to the barn and back. Before going to bed I checked the camera again. I'm amazed at how well the camera can see in the dark.