Wet weekend . . .

It's been raining and raining and raining . . . "fronts" keep coming through causing storms, then they pass and  the temperatures go up to 80.  Gees.  So glad the pasture got graded so the water has someplace to go, that's for sure.  But at this point, the "pond" is so full that the tiny stream that drains the water off the rest of the property has gotten to be about 6 to 12 feet wide!

When Buddy and Lisa were here today, Buddy dug a ditch out from the pond out to the big drainage canal next to the property so that enough water could run out of the pond to lower some of the water in the stream. 

Duke is standing there watching, but note that he is NOT touching the fence.
He seems to think ALL of the fences are hot now -- not just the wire portion -- a fine thing!

Mark had planned to dig a DEEP channel from the pond out to the drainage canal, put in a big drain pipe, then put the dirt back over top so it would still be possible to drive across there, but the pond could still drain.  But we didn't think that would be necessary until spring.  Instead, this has been an incredibly warm AND wet winter so the pond needs to be able to drain NOW.  In fact, although we did have about a week of freezing nights that killed all the plants, the ferns have grown back up (before I even got around to cutting back the dead stuff), and the azaleas and jessamine are blooming as if it were spring.  In fact, even the tulip tree has budded and is about to bloom!  Of course, this IS Louisiana -- we'll probably have yet another serious freeze soon that will kill them all AGAIN.

Oh, look at this - when Buddy and Lisa got here today, Lisa got out holding a tiny baby goat!  Soooo cute!  

When their mother goat started to deliver earlier in the week, though, it was a nightmare for her.  Buddy was at work and Lisa could not get the poor baby out.  She ended up having to haul Momma Goat over to LSU where they eventually did a C-section.  Mom and baby are both fine now, but that incident scared Lisa to death.  I can imagine!  So NO MORE BABIES.    Anyway, "Dixie" - this baby - came along today so Lisa could feed her every couple hours.  Talk about adorable!

Duke was having a "different" sort of day today.  He usually acts like a giant puppy while they're around, but today . . . not so much.  He did come over and watch while Buddy dug that pond drain.  But he had a different sort of "stand up" attitude.

Duke not only isn't sticking his head through the fence, he doesn't even TOUCH it anymore.  Excellent!

Instead he was acting like he wanted to protect Lizzie or  something.  He kept standing there by the pond staring over at the guy across the road who was working in his yard.  That guy never looks like a dangerous guy to me, but apparently Duke wasn't so sure about that.  He'd stand and stare, then race around for a while with his head and tail both high in the air -- very "superior" looking.   But tonight he was back to his old sweet self.  So no telling WHAT he was thinking at the time.

I went over to Wal-Mart just after I took these pictures to get some things while Lisa and Buddy were still here, but just as I drove into the parking lot it got suddenly very dark and the sky opened up and it started to storm BIG TIME.  So I just turned around and drove right back home.  The rain was so heavy it was hard to see, but it only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes and by the time I got back home that front had passed and the rain had almost stopped, so I hosed down Duke's legs and ALL of Lizzie.  (She was COVERED in mud AGAIN.)

Messy girl.

So she's locked in her stall now until tomorrow so she can't go roll in the mud AGAIN.   I brushed her down after they ate tonight.  I still couldn't get her hair to straighten out but at least she COULD be brushed.  Her hair was a solid muddy mass that could NOT be brushed before, so at least it's an improvement.   I was hoping if I could keep her clean I'd be able to saddle her up tomorrow, but although they WERE saying it wouldn't rain until tomorrow night, I see on the latest weather report that there's a 90% chance of rain by noon now.  So I guess it depends on whether I get up at dawn or not.  We'll see.