We need rain!

It has been dry, dry, dry.  This is the first summer that I've lived in NY that has been this dry.  The state actually declared an official drought warning - the first one since 2002!  Summers past, I've actually complained about the rain always washing out my weekend plans to ride Nox or sit out in the sunshine and regain some of my Hawaii tan.  Shame on me.  Now I walk around our pastures, eyeing the brown grass sadly, feeling sorry for the stressed trees, and I wish for rain!  Nox and Diesel go out in the pasture and pick around for a little while, but it's so hot and muggy that they retreat into their stalls pretty quickly.  I have a whole new perspective.  I take short showers (for me, that's serious!), wash my dishes with a trickle of water, and try to conserve our well water as much as possible.  So far, our well is fine but a few neighbors are trucking in water and I don't want to have to do that.

This morning we finally got a little relief.  Thunderstorms rolled in about 5:30 am and we are supposed to get showers all weekend.  The storms this morning were very strong and as one particularly dramatic one passed over, the cracking lightning and booming thunder sent me running out to the barn to be sure the horses were ok.  I found both of them standing outside.

Nox pretending not to hear me calling to him.

Diesel hearing me and standing his ground.

Nox spooks when a shovel is leaning against a different wall than usual, but doesn't flinch at lightning.  They both have clean and dry stalls but choose to stand in the rain.  I don't understand horse logic.   Eventually Nox heard me and came in to get a treat and eat some hay, but Diesel apparently likes the storms and stayed outside.

The sun is peeking out from the clouds as I type this and I'm glaring at it like Michael Phelps glared at Chad Le Clos.

Go away. No one wants you here.