Crazy weather!

[Devin]

This has been the most MILD Jan I have ever seen! It has been in the 40's and 50's all month, and I just checked the 10 day forcast and it is supposed to stay that way. I'm not complaining!! I plan to have quite a bit of riding in this week!!!!

[ghostrider]

I know MO is just as nice. We've been hitting low 60's here. 63' Sat and I got a really nice ride in.
We are supposed to have one more nice day tomorrow but only in the mid 50's (ONLY!!!! LOL) and then rain is supposed to move in. Not sure about cold or if it'll warm with the end of that rain. I tend to only listen through my days off. Doesn't matter what those work days are like.

[appytrails]

Weather's been really strange here this year too. Very little snow. Temps in the 30's, 40's & 50's. I've ridden every weekend since before Thanksgiving. That's the first time I've been able to do that in the 12 yrs I've owned horses. Most of the time the horses come back sweating even if we've just had a short, easy ride.

It did snow here last night and this morning. Probably have between 2-3" but this is really the first measurable snow fall we've had all winter. However, it's suppose to be in the upper 40's again this weekend so it won't last long. Farmers are already worrying that we'll have a drought this year. Watch out for hay prices if we do.

[ghostrider]

What state are you in? do you rely on the snow for your water? In Wy if it doesn't start snowing more very soon they may be hurting too. Here though we don't get that much of the water from snow but from the rain. Can't remember exactly how much snow makes one inch of water but it's a lot.
It's been misting all evening and now is turning to ice on everything. I actually got the horses blankets out and put them on them because this is the weather that wets them down and then freezes thick sheets of ice on top their fur.
We haven't had more than an inch of snow so far though and they're saying we'll be in the upper 50's and even 60's in some area's on Sunday.

[vsolubo]

Really crazy weather here in KS! We've been in a drought; hay has tripled in the last 4 months, if you can find it at all! People are buying it by the semi full & taking it to the livestock sales to sale it; it is that sought after here. We did have a freak thunderstorm here tonight; lightening, thunder & hard rain; for about 20 minutes. Cound have used 2 hours of it!

[ghostrider]

Did Dennis get all his hay brought in last fall? or is he having to buy?
We've still got hay around here, I heard someone last week say the big panic seems to have ended and hay prices have dropped and become available again.
It was nice today, sunny and fairly warm although cold when the wind hit. I did not ride too long, just enough to blow the cabin fever away. I have been busy with all my other projects this last week or so.

[horsespoiler]

We were worried that we might have a very dry winter because we have had such mild weather but NO! We got our months worth in about 3 days and now there are storms lined up for a while. The ski area had opened in Nov and then shut down again in Dec and now they have plenty of snow but the power lines got knocked out for several days. We have only rain here at home but if we go about 10 miles out of town it gains a few hundred feet in elevation and there is snow there. Our supplier has plenty of hay for us at $4.00 a 2 string grass bale, salted and in the barn. He doesn't even advertise, just has plenty of repeat customers from church.

[ghostrider]

Salted hay? whats that?
We saw a big snow storm on the weather night before last. Looks like the mid west/north west area got hit good. It's in the 50's here, we took the boys out for a couple hours. I'll keep the warmth and they can keep the snow.

[horsespoiler]

Denise, salting the hay helps keep it from drawing in too much moisture and molding. They just put table salt between layers of hay.

[ghostrider]

Okay but how do they get the salt between the layers? does the machine do it? I've never heard of that. What state do you live in that has to worry enough about hay molding?

[vsolubo]

Heard on the news last night that today is 75 days without rain. Considering it was several weeks before the last rain with no rain; we are in a serious drought around here. The ponds on the farm where I board had all dried up, but luckily the last rain was enough to mostly fill up the ponds! The ponds are getting rather low again. Luckily it is staying above freezing so we can put water in the stock tanks.

[pjbishop]

Wierd weather here too. We had some snow early on, but nothing like what we need. I'm worried about hay this next year. My hay cost went up 300% (yes, that's 2 zeros) this year and we own 1/2 the farm! The guy who manages the operation only got 1 cutting and only 39 - 6 strand 1,200lb bales. We bought half. Hopefully we will get enough this fall. Maybe we'll have a wet spring . . . I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[vsolubo]

I, also, am hoping for a wet spring. Dennis (owns the hay farm I board on) usually gets over 3,000 small square bales of hay & usually about 1,000 800-1,000 lb bales. This year he got less than 1,800 bales total. Hay here has gone from 2.50 a 70 lb bale to over 7.00 a bale.

[ghostrider]

I have been keeping my eye on the hay here in our area, we've got people advertising one ton round bales in the Bolivar paper. It's $55 ea up from $30-35, not too bad.
It rained last night, just a good coating over the roads and fields. We get a good rain about every week or so. Weird weather though, was supposed to get snow after midnight but after a good soaking the stars came back out and it was almost 50 today.

[ghostrider]

Not sure how hot it got here but at noon it was 65' F. The wind blew slightly but it was a beautiful day for playing with and on the boys. Sarah is learning to do her own saddling (She's 10) but I still bit Boomer for her. She's also learning the safety tying.
It was cute cause we only got past our property before she was asking when can we run? I told her when we get back, she said "so this is like a warm up?" Gotta love kids.