Foot of Snow

We had a wake up call for winter. I left for the paying job Friday morning without a snowflake in the air. By the time I left for my kids' event at 10am, there was snow up to my ankles and it was still coming down.


We were NOT prepared for almost a foot of snow on Friday. Luckily we didn't have any wind and the temps didn't get too cold, although it did get into single digits overnight. I am NOT ready for winter. I'm just now starting to get back into the swing of things and now have winter full in my face.


We didn't have water tanks filled or heaters going when the snow started to fly. We were still debating on where to put horses. I'm still not convinced that were the mares and Junior are at is where they will stay. They are still in their pasture but I'm not sure the heater can keep up. BUT... if they stay where they are at, it'll mean hauling water will be WAY easier. In fact, I may be able to simply pull out a hose and fill up the tank every other day or every three days instead of having to haul bucket after bucket after bucket half the distance of the buildings. We'll see how the heater holds up before I fill the tank completely.


The only catch with keeping the mares and Junior in the pasture, is that they aren't as close to their stalls if we have bad weather and I have to stall them. It also means that I'll be putting Junior in the barn instead (better stalls than the hay shed stalls), but we'll see how it goes.  I'm just not sure how to work the stall/pen situation this year.


I also want to move the ponies back to their winter shed/pen. It would mean I haul the hay farther but it would mean I haul the water not as far. I hate hauling water. I'd rather muck out stalls than haul water. So we'll see. We still need to pull down corral panels and rearrange them before I can move the ponies. Hopefully we can do that before the next snow, which is predicted for Thanksgiving day.


I do have to say I am totally spoiled by using round bales. Of course the nets are driving me insane. The one keeps slipping off. The horses have the ability to pop the nets off and throw hay everywhere. So frustrating. But it does save me a ton of time and even though I have to wait for horses to finish their evening grain, it also means I don't have to wait to throw out hay afterwards. I think my time for chores is almost cut in half. Now to get the remaining hay out of the field before we get another foot of snow!