(from Jason) I celebrated my first American Independence Day several years ago in Boston. Melissa and I decided to skip the fireworks and drive home minus the traffic as we both had to work the next day. At the time we lived in central Vermont and we arrived home early enough that I turned on our television to catch the fireworks shows. The first station carried the most spectacular fireworks display I had ever seen and they had an orchestra accompanying it. As it turns out the massive fireworks show and the orchestral accompaniment were in Boston….an epic, spectacular fail on my part.
A year ago today Nashville experienced it’s hottest Independence Day ever. The day time temperature was 105 degrees and we hadn’t had any significant moisture since early May. We were extremely concerned about the danger of fire but the saving grace was that there was almost no vegetation left in the pastures to burn. We had been feeding hay in every pasture non stop for a month.
This year couldn’t be more different! As I write this, the early afternoon temperature is 71 degrees and it is absolutely pouring rain outside . We are supposed to get between four and six inches of rain by the time this system lets up and the way it’s been raining I believe they may have underestimated it. On a positive note there is absolutely no danger of errant fireworks setting anything alight tonight. It’s so wet I’m not sure a blowtorch could set anything aflame. It has also been cool enough so far this year that our warm season grasses haven’t yet really begun to take off. Our fescue and other cool season grasses are still green and only semi-dormant. Usually they have long ago given up the ghost in favour of C4 warm season plants.
No matter what the weather is where you are I hope everyone enjoys a safe, happy Independence Day.
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(from Melissa) Another two-for-one blog tonight! As Jason mentioned above it has rained all day long. It was definitely not a day for Carter to be running around outside so I took one for the team and volunteered to do morning and evening chores myself while Jason watched Carter. I changed clothes three times today and completely soaked through two rain jackets. Each time I changed clothes I was so sopping wet I looked like I had jumped in a swimming pool fully clothed and had to peel my clothes off of me. I have two pairs of rubber boots and it was raining so hard I of course ended up with water in both pairs. I really detest wet clothes, wet jeans especially, but sloshing around with every step due to the water in your boots is the worst.
At the moment the farm is temporarily showcasing some new water features. We have a couple of swimming pools and two new creeks crossing the driveway. It looks like the rain is about to taper off for awhile so we will not be enjoying our water features for too much longer. Unlike me the horses loved the weather today, 70 degrees and raining is perfect weather to them and I saw lots of happy grazers.
On a better note I am hoping this means I can have a lower stress 4th of July. I love my country but will admit that having a lot of horses in my care leads me to dread the fireworks on the 4th. Hopefully the rain will deter a lot of people from putting on their fireworks shows tonight. You would have to be very dedicated to your fireworks to stand outside and set them off in this heavy rain.
Happy Independence Day to all, and I hope all of our fur friends survive the evening unscathed!
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one of our new creeks
another nice creek crossing to enjoy
Renny, Dutch, Wiz, Murphy, Johnny and Africa grazing in the rain
Africa and Johnny having some quiet time before breakfast
Rocky and Toledo having play time
Trigger and Chance playing
Leo and Trigger playing
Lightening, Lucky and Merlin waiting for breakfast
Thomas
Flyer and Lofty grooming
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