Mild

It’s hard to believe what gorgeous weather we are having. I was thinking to myself this morning during chores that it feels more like mid-March rather than the first of February. I’m very thankful that this winter has been so mild. I know for a fact I would be struggling if we were dealing with the 20 below temps and the 40 below wind chills we dealt with last winter. I do expect to get a decent amount of snow sometime in March. It’s just a feeling I have, no hard facts/evidence.

I’m hoping tonight to get into the drylot and do some serious cleanup. Although it has been warm, it’s always dark by the time I get out to do chores so I haven’t had time to do any cleaning. Now that we’ve had gorgeous weather for a week, I want to take advantage before the temps drop and the snow starts to fly.

I haven’t really been paying attention to the weatherman lately. I probably should. I know they are trying to decide which of the three weather models to follow for this upcoming storm. But as long as the winds aren’t screaming and the sky isn’t dropping feet of snow in hours, I’ll be content. I’m usually such a worry wart when it comes to winter but it’s been nice this year to sit back and enjoy the fantastic weather.

The horses are enjoying the mild winter too. Every morning and evening when I go out to do chores, no one is crabby; no one is fighting with another one. Everyone has a fairly even temper (although occasionally Chaos will go after Maverick or Bo). But for the most part, everyone is content and I love content horses. I’m hoping also with the milder winter that we won’t run through as much hay. I am still saving up for this year’s hay (long story). My hope is to not burn through it all so that I won’t have to buy any for the summer months. By the rate the blind pen is going through hay, I’ll have enough rounds to make it through until mid-summer. It’s not the highest quality (not like the big squares) but it’s still decent and what the blind pen doesn’t eat, we push to the fence line for the other horses to eat.

I was hoping to sneak a ride in on Maverick this afternoon but if I’m cleaning the drylot, I guess it’ll have to wait. It always seems like there’s something else that has to be done before I can go and “play”. Usually when we get a January thaw, we start getting ice and that means absolutely no riding. There’s barely any snow left and just patches of ice from where I’ve been walking. I expect when I go out to do chores tonight there will only be the snow piles Mike pushed up remaining. I’ve actually been rather shocked in the amount of snow that has disappeared over the past four to five days. I was tromping through snow earlier this week and now there’s just a little bit left. I won’t complain, that’s for sure. It just seems odd to not have snow in February. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that 2012 will be mild winter!