The rain has come and gone

We had a tremendous amount of rainfall over the weekend - based on the amount of water in the rubber feed buckets in the pastures, we estimate about 3 inches.
Having grown up in flat Sarasota, I am used to standing water after a downpour lasting for weeks. Especially during the winter when the ground doesn't seem to soak up any moisture.
This property is a different story! We've had torrential downpours and the puddles have lasted only a day or two. That was the case this weekend. We trudged through sopping wet mud to feed horses Sunday morning, but by Sunday afternoon the ground was hardly damp!
We are very pleased to have "high and dry" pastures for the horses.

Some of you may know exactly what goes in to maintaining and managing a boarding facility and some of you may not have as much experience with this side of the barn. For the record, boarding horses is not at all lucrative! As a matter of fact, for the many hours that John and I put into the farm, be it feeding, cleaning, fixing, or planning, we make roughly $2.75 per hour. But we love that we can provide a wonderful environment for wonderful people and their wonderful horses!
That said, we continue to try to offer ways to help YOU save money. We offer a limited board exchange "program" that allows you to do some work to reduce the cost of boarding. We basically pay you about $7/hour (this is 3 times more than we make when we're the ones doing the work). We can't pay everyone to work as frequently as they want or else we would be paying for feed out of our very empty pockets! But we do want to offer opportunities for you to not only take a few bucks off your board, but also get involved on the farm.
I mentioned in previous posts that we'll be offering a "Work Day". There will be a handful of tasks to accomplish such as picking manure from pastures, picking up tree limbs, picking up old hay from pastures, and so on. We'll likely have to restrict the amount of hours, but I think it will be fun and worth your time!
If you're interested, let me know!

See you at the barn!