Rain day

We received a record rainfall today: .84 inches. That shattered the previous record for this date of .49 inches.

It was the right time for rain.

• we are below normal for moisture this year, and it hadn't rained in a long time,
• better now than next week when my uncles and aunts visit,
• I needed a break from outdoor chores!

I woke up to the sound of rain, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Hours later....I got out of bed. I needed the extra rest.

Why you ask?

• the effort I made to burn the tree stumps,
• I limbed all the fallen trees in the pastures except for about 20 limbs on one tree (I am saving those for my uncles to do) ,
• I weeded around some of the trees I planted last year, and some of my garden area (though you can't really tell),
• checking gopher traps and filling in extra gopher holes to encourage the gophers to use the hole with the trap,
  
• I rebuilt the gate between the hayfield and yard. This is the gate I partially (accidentally) burned last year when burning the hayfield grass along the fence. The boards were old and caught fire too easily. I've had the replacement boards since last summer but never found time or made it a priority to fix until now. I also added a fourth board to the gate to make it higher. I later plan to add a fourth board to half the rest of the fence and rebuild the other half. I've found some cattle like to jump fences and this fence was one they could jump.
• the care and feeding of my cattle. (Those hay bales are not light!),
• and miscellaneous other things that escape me right now.

That is why I didn't post an entry to my blog last night. I decided to relax and watch a movie (Where the River Flows North) but I kept falling asleep while watching it (not a great movie story wise, but beautiful images of Vermont in the late Fall). The lead character, played by Rip Torn, looks very similar to my friend Francis with his long white hair and beard.

Today the rain was light but steady. The temperature was near 40 F all day. I got a fire going in my wood stove and then baked a pumpkin pie. I also washed and sewed some clothes. The recent work outside has been hard on my clothes, especially my pants. I can just step over some sections of my barb wire fence, but sometimes my pants snag. This is a problem when my arms are carrying stuff. I guess it is better that my pants rip than a certain part of my anatomy a few inches higher.

I imagine the rain has put out any smoldering tree stumps. As of yesterday two or three stumps (and the ant hill) were still smoldering under a pile of ash. The rest of the tree stumps had burnt up leaving holes in the ground. I'll fill them in another day.

With the rain my cattle decided sitting and standing in the loafing shed made sense. Previously they liked to lay along the chain link fences to have a view and avoided the loafing shed. Even with the loafing shed's protection they got wet when the ate and drank. That's not so bad as the rain washed some of the manure off a few of the cattle's fur.

I, on the other hand, had no manure to wash off me, but I got wet nonetheless when I fed hay to the cattle. Even in the rain I took time to spread the hay out from being tightly compressed in the hay bale. The cattle can bite and shake the hay loose, but I like to make it easier for them to eat.

We had a break early this evening when the rain quit and the clouds lifted slightly. It was 40 F in the Valley, but not that much higher it was colder. Fresh snow on the mountains went down to almost the Valley floor. Pretty.