Whew!

When we fed the horses this evening it was cloudy, but it really looked bright enough that we thought that storm was going to stay to the south of us.  But by 9 tonight we had begun to get drenched by the outer bands of storm.  So during one of the lulls between bands, I went out to close the horses into their paddocks to keep them away from all those super-tall trees in the back pasture.  Got the girls, but couldn't find Duke.  So Mark went out with his flashlight and as soon as Duke saw the light, he came racing up.  

I definitely feel better now that I know they're all inside their stalls and  safe 

Mark heard a news report earlier that said that a lot of trees were going to come down this weekend because of that long drought we had that's about to be followed by the flooding.  I'm not sure why, but they said that the drought makes trees more vulnerable to flooding for some reason.  Given that huge branch that fell off one of those trees in the back pasture last week, we figure there may indeed be a lot more serious tree damage over the next few days.  So the horses are going to have to stay in their paddocks until this is over.  

Fortunately, we DO still have enough hay to keep them supplied for the next  week or more.  Once we decide where the heck we want to store the stuff, we'll call and get some more hay delivered.  Hate to put it on the porch again.  We're thinking we might just pour a slab for that big tent thing we used as a temporary shelter over at Al's and put the mowers and horse trailer in one end and pile hay bales on the other end.  But of course we'll have to wait for the weather to clear up before getting a slab poured so that's no help in the immediate future.  Oh well -- one day at a time.