unsettled

The weather has been so strange the past week or so...  We had six inches of heavy snow on the ground before last week's snow was over, and it's been cold and dreary ever since.

The back pasture should start greening up now... finally... it's been bone dry all spring.

The sun is finally out, but it's very windy.  The front door has blown open twice since the wind picked up... once last night after we'd gone to bed. We woke up to a cold house, but at least we didn't end up with any wild "visitors" that wandered in looking for shelter.

The wind has Murphy in a tizzy... Usually when I go out in the morning he's at the fence nickering to me about his breakfast. This morning he was running wildly around the pasture, twisting, bucking, and scattering the donkeys... slipping in the mud and slowing down to get his balance... then off and running again. He did come to the barn to eat, but stood panting, trembling, and pawing the ground even after he had a feeder full of hay in front of him.

I stayed with him as long as I could this morning, talking to him and reassuring him, but he was still worked up an hour later when R went out and even shied (shy-ed?) away when she went into his stall. She spent some time grooming him and just being with him and he seems calmer now.

I think the wind is unsettling for people as well as animals sometimes... M has been unsettled the past couple of weeks...  having the basement torn up for so long, and all the workers in and out, has been hard for him. I hope the wind doesn't add to it and leave him feeling the human equivalent of Murphy's mood this morning.