February 27th, 2010

As most of you familiar with Windchill’s story know, Windchill died the night of February 29th, 2008. So that means from this point forward the dates of his final day on earth and the actual 2010 calendar won’t match up exactly. It’s just part of Windchill’s mischievous personality I think. Just as the final 20 days of his life were special, so was his last day and his death. To reconcile the final dates and time, I’m condensing February 28th, 29th and March 1st into a shorter time span. That way it stays as close to true to timeline as I can make it.

Jeff Tucker

February 27th, 4:47pm: Great news! I came home from work today and when Windchill heard me enter the barn he tried to stand up, leaning on a hay bale calling to me! What a great thing to come home to. I suspect the little man is going to be very easy for tonight’s lift. Must’ve been our pizza party for him last night (he ate hay just to make sure that that statement doesn’t get blown up into we fed the horse junk food and let him stay up too late).

I am sorry that some of you feel that his life was not worth saving and I’m also sorry that some of you feel that now that he’s famous that he shouldn’t be in a “smaller, uninsulated, backyard barn.” He doesn’t seem to mind and he’s grateful for the opportunity that we gave him to live. He’s surrounded by people who love him, in a warm soft bed. We feel that it is in his best interest to tighten security at Raindance Farms. All weekday visitors need to be cleared through us and we have added additional cams, one of which we will be web-enabling so that you can watch him along with us. The others are being placed for security. This colt is giving his all to survive – we are keeping him surrounded with people who love and care for him and constantly post the cards, well-wishes and prayers that people have been sending. Under no circumstances will we allow this colt to become part of a political agenda. He’s monitored by medical professionals who are routinely updated. He has passed his blood work  and lab tests thus far with flying colors – so his system is functional and his digestive tract is fully functional (as is the end feeding that). Additionally, There are only two people who can make arrangements for Windchill – myself (Jeff Tucker) and Kathi Davis.

Windchill in sling

February 27th, 7:35am: Good morning world. Sorry for the delay in updating, I should’ve done it earlier this morning but came back in and closed my eyes for a second and now I’m running late…groan…  Windchill was in pretty good spirits this morning I would say – you know when your kids are munching on something good and watching television and thus not paying a whole lot of attention to you? That was Windchill this morning. He’s got himself a good bale of hay, he was steadily munching away and completely oblivious to us ‘pit crew’ scrambling around him to roll him over, put now wraps on, swap blankets. We rolled him over and I’m not sure if he even missed a munch. It was too cute.

By the way, I don’t know if you’re telling your neighbors or what, but as of yesterday 2.1 million of you had visited my site in the last two weeks. There’s an average of 71,000 hits a day, and it averages around 3500 hits an hour. And most of you call if I don’t update! Seriously, I’m really amazed there’s so many that are apparently following Windchill’s progress and I’m very touched that when my, or our, spirits lag you folks take the time to send an encouraging email. Unfortunately the reality in this situation is it isn’t always easy to be upbeat and positive and not get angry, I’m only human. But I’m surrounded by a world of caring people who are sharing this burden with us and I want you to know we are all very, very grateful. Thank you for being here.

Oh, and one other thing. A shipment of three cases of deep dish pizzas arrived last night! WOW! We’re going to make lots of pizza for the volunteer crew. Thank you so much Vavra’s! And Patty – those chocolate chip cookies made the best dessert. We put the cookies the Skorich’s made out with the coffee and they’re gone so it was so nice to have more. Plus you’ve found my weak spot – oh man I like chocolate chip cookies. Thanks so much guys for everything.

SOME HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS FOR VISITORS: After last weekend and the constant flow of visitors we’re going to set some barn rules – rules for noise levels in the barn and for visiting the little guy. He loves the company, soaks up the love you’re bringing by carload and truckload but he needs his rest and nice quiet talking. This coming Sunday the barn will be closed to the public to allow him, and us, some rest and time to get to chores that aren’t getting done. According to one of the animal communicators Windchill had asked for a day of rest. She wasn’t clear on whether that meant nobody in the barn (including us) or not. Since he needs us to lift him up for water and grain, guess it’s going to include us.  Please remember if you do visit that our barn is like a hospital room right now – it needs to be kept calm and mellow. Thanks for your understanding. By the way, haven’t forgotten about the barncam, still working on that. FARM & BARN RULES