Gearing Up For the Rainy Season

Today was Veterans' Day, so Bill was home from work for the day. We had a steady rain falling for most of the day. About 2:30 this afternoon I went out to do chores, and discovered there was so much wet mud in both barnyards that the alpacas were having trouble walking. I ended up hauling load after load of 3/8 minus gravel from a pile beside our driveway out to the barnyards. Bill woke up from a short nap, and realizing I had never come in from cleaning up pacapoo, he came looking for me. A few minutes later he joined me with a second wheelbarrow. We worked until dark, and then I turned on the outside lights, and we continued to haul and spread gravel until after 6:30 p.m. The West barnyard now has about 3-4" of new gravel, but we ran out of time and energy before we could finish the East barnyard. We actually need at least 6" more added to both barns and barnyards, so I'll need to order more gravel tomorrow. I'll take pictures tomorrow morning if it isn't raining too hard.

By the time I came into the house, I was soaked to the skin, and my muscles were already stiffening up. I took two ibuprophen tabs, and a long hot bath. After relaxing on the computer for a while, I threw together a kettle of chili with canned mushroom soup and diced tomatoes, salsa, black beans, and leftover chicken. We had leftover biscuits that I had made on Sunday night to go with our chili. It all tasted pretty darn good after four hours of hard work in the rain.