Musings on a(nother) rainy day

I'm sure that most of you here in Northern California probably got about as much sleep as I did last night due to our extremely windy and rainy storm!  We clocked 50+ mph winds here at the ranch, and there were several times I thought for sure the roof was going to blow off the house!  Luckily, I awoke to find that there was no damage anywhere on the premises - the shingles were still on the roof, the horses hadn't blown away, the garbage cans were all still where they were supposed to be, and the trees had most of their branches intact.  Amazing!  It was still windy and rainy this morning, but not  as bad as the previous night's tempest.  Like clockwork, Jake was waiting for me to come out the door this morning so we could go to work together.

I need my bone, then we can go down to the barn!

No one was going to be tying their horses in these cross ties today!

I worked a few horses, gave a lesson to the one soul who braved the weather conditions (Pat), then decided to grab my camera and roam around (under cover, of course) to see what was going on.  I walked down the aisle to go out the side of the barn, and there was Tristan - having his lunch in bed - a daily ritual for him.  There's nothing wrong with him, he just likes his lie-down times!

He ate awhile, then he started to get sleepy.

He let me come in and snap away....I love "shooting" parts of horses.

"Dude" came to pay a visit in the stall - he wanted some of the attention that Tristan was getting.  He looks pretty good for an 18 yr old cat, doesn't he?

Pretty soon, Tristan got even more tired, and used the hay as a pillow - oblivious to me being right in his face.

Sam couldn't wait to come in and cuddle with Tristan, so I said, "Sure!  He won't mind."  He loved getting pets and scratches while still lying down!

You're getting very, very sleepy.

More "intimate" shots.......

I love whiskers and guard hairs.

If you click on this image, you'll see his stall door in his eye.

I love the freckles on his lips.

Don't you just want to pet the soft part of his muzzle?

After about 20 minutes, he decided it was time to get back up - nap time was over!

Meanwhile, the dogs and cat were trying to figure out what to do with their boring day......

Feed me!

Jackson is forever trying to get Dude to run so he can chase him, but Dude is too smart to fall for that game.

"If I can't get the cat to play, I'll amuse myself with this toy."

Jake says he'll just sit there and look regal.

And then there's Draco!  He tried begging for peppermints, but didn't get a reaction from me on that, so he decided to amuse himself by playing with his fly mask.

"Not me!  I didn't do anything wrong!"

As I looked up the aisle, I saw that "Leo" was taking his nap standing up.

It's tough being an "indoor" horse, nice and dry in a stall on a rainy day.  

I thought about going out in the rain to get shots of the horses in the pastures with the wind whipping their manes, but......well, that never happened.  From the extended forecast of the week's weather, there will be plenty of days that I can do that if I choose to do so!    

This shot started out as a mistake, but I like it anyway!