And the heat goes on....

La da da da da.... like the old Sonny and Cher song..... 

The heat wave continues. We have dropped from the low 40's to the mid 30's. so that is a mild relief, but the land is so parched and fires are a real threat. My willow trees are dropping leaves, when I sit under their graceful branches in their welcome shade, the leaves are floating down on me, or if it's windy, whapping me in the face! We are in dire need of rain. 

I have given up on my pasture; it is all brittle and dry . The weed spray worked, but the heat hasn't allowed the grass to come through. I will replant it in the fall and let the moisture from the snow help the seeds to germinate next spring. I do have one small field that I can use for turnout and grazing, it has enough ground water to keep its grass green. It only has electric tape for fencing so I mostly use it for Beamer. I need to check the voltage all the way around it and see if it has enough juice that if Dally touches it (and she will investigate!) that she will get a little zap and leave the fence alone like she does in her current pen. It has been so hot that I haven't had the gumption to go do that, and I wanted anyway to keep them close to the shade of their shelter and the trees in their pen.

Speaking of Dally, she is quite helpful at chore time. 

She would benefit from having another foal to play with. She is getting quite independent from her mama, so I may start taking her for little walks. She will be 2 months old on the 16th, and that is when I start supplementing her separate from mama and start her kindergarten training. I will have to keep her in sight of Jayne though, as I think Jayne won't be too happy if her little darling gets out of sight. 

Dally is starting to rub out her baby coat. A lot of that is normal shedding, but she is getting itchy and rubbing too. (No she's not turning black, that's just her skin colour.)

You know how foals always turn their butt to you to get scratches? I don't scratch them when they do that, I move up their side and and scratch their wither and then around the neck, chest and top of the back. Then I will give butt scratches. I think rewarding them for turning their butt to you is a bad idea. We don't want them to do that in training later on, so as a foal it's a good time to start.