25 Degrees

We have had a 25 degree change from yesterday morning to this morning. I don't know the overall temperature shift but it's pretty prominent. Yesterday was oddly hot and humid for the last day of September with temps starting at 74 degrees. I was shocked when I stepped outside to do chores. 74 degrees at 6am is crazy and usually only happens once in the summer (not in the fall). Had I known, I would have opened every window in the house! I love fresh air!


Fast forward to this morning, I struggled to get out of bed with a thunderstorm rolling in but it being so dark I had no motivation. It wasn't like a normal thunderstorm where I could see it rolling in. I woke to rain on the roof and rumbling thunder (a hard motivation to get up and get moving when snuggled under a warm blanket). When I did run out to let the big herd out to pasture, it was 49 degrees. Hello October! The rain, the clouds, the dark mornings and early nights are normal for this time of year so yesterday was a bit of a shock. My only regret is that I didn't take the day off the paying job to get a few outside projects worked on while the weather was warm.


I forgot what it was like to do chores in the dark (both morning and night). Now that the pastures are close to being done, I need to start supplementing with grain for the hard keepers. Some aren't exactly hard keepers but they aren't the ones that get fat on air. So now we are graining Lace, Jim, and Jesse. I want to start graining Dude but he hasnt' figured out what I'm asking of him just yet so he doesn't stand at the door waiting his turn to get in.


I set up corral panels to let Lace in to grain her. She gets annoyed because the ponies try to bother her. Jim has the entire barn to enjoy his mash. We'll be moving the ponies shortly but I want them to get the most of their lawn time as possible. The less I have to throw hay to them, the better! Then there's Jesse. Because I'm still getting used to her, I can't take as many liberties as I would with others. I can't feed her in the pen with Ransom and Diavlo because they push her out. So that means I have to halter her and lead her out, making sure the other two don't try to escape (darn boys). I can't grain her in the stall in the hay shed because she will freak out (or so I'm guessing). The geldings are very insecure without Jesse there with them. They aren't happy that she's on the other side of the fence in full view of them. But Jesse is quickly figuring out the grain thing. I halter her, lead her out, and I stand patiently while she devours her grain mash.


She's much too thin for my liking. I really dont' know if she'll make it this winter but I have to try before making the decision to put her down. This could very well be a simple lack of extra nutrition and bad teeth. She didn't lift her head the entire time she was eating. Usually the others always life their head and spill their grain (some do it on purpose to make eating last longer). But not Jesse. She didn't lift her head until she had the feeder almost licked clean. That tells me she's hungry and of course she loves her food. We are starting her off slow with the grain. I suspect she's not had grain before, just treats. Because I don't know the condition of her teeth, we are soaking everything. She's on one scoop of Purina Senior at the moment but after she adjusts, I want to increase that amount and possibly mix in a few other grains to help generate more weight gain. We'll see. Every horse is different for gaining weight. Jesse was more than happy to go back to her pen after she was done eating but I think she would have been content to eat her grain longer. But doing chores in the dark with kids that need to go to bed limited the amount of time she could stand around and lick the entire dish clean.


Jesse needs a sponsor. She needs teeth done, farrier work, and massive amounts of grain, besides a new blanket. I'm not sure she's ever had a blanket but it's definitely needed if she's going to survive this winter. She lost weight after coming to the Sanctuary. She's in a pen and that's not to her liking. She needs to be on pasture but I'm not yet ready to split her herd up and put her in with Lace and Mayhem. I'd rather not stress out Lace yet. So we are keeping a close eye on Jesse and will have to figure something out if she continues to lose weight because of stress.


Tomorrow we are supposed to try loading the last mare to get her home. If not, I'll be walking her this weekend to get her home. So stressful. Hopefully with the other mare home, Jesse will calm down.

Boredom Antics

Sunday after I let the big herd out of the barn, Maverick wanted to play. His playmate is Lightening. No one else really wanted to play after a blizzard. Maverick is one of those that dont' go in the barn (for multiple reasons including he'd tear up the barn with boredom).


So instead he wanted to play with Lightening. Lightening had been in the barn but he was ready to play too! I'm glad Maverick now has someone willing to play with him; otherwise, he'd be tearing up more blankets than I cannot afford.


I'll leave you with a few pictures of Maverick and Lightening's antics Sunday morning.

April Blizzard

Well, we survived the blizzard, not without a couple of scares but we survived. Everyone is fine and healthy but we are going to have to look at a few of our buildings a little closer.


It started raining Friday. Luckily I'd put blankets on everyone I could so they wouldn't be miserable. I'd rather have soggy blankets than wet and cold horses. I had thought the blizzard was going to hit around 7pm but it never did. I went ahead and put horses in knowing that the blizzard was coming and wanted to make sure everyone was protected.


The mares and Junior's pen get the worst of the east wind and it was coming directly out of the east. It was so strong that it raised the roof of the hay barn slightly. Just enough to scare the bajezees out of me. I wasn't sure if the building would last through the storm or not but it did. I ended up leaving the mares and Junior in their stalls from Friday night until Sunday morning because the winds and snow were so fierce.


I'd let the big herd out of the barn Saturday morning so they could stretch their legs. They were not impressed. Within a half an hour they were coated in snow and looking at me to put them back in. Luckily they have two runin sheds they can get into so I wasn't worried. But I did put them back in Saturday night.


I'm glad the storm is over but now they are talking about another storm Tuesday night into Wednesday. So much for spring. Mike was actually supposed to leave Friday to head to the Black Hills but his plans were cancelled when they talked about how bad this storm was going to be. I'm glad because we might not have gotten that much snow, but there were drifts up to my hips in front of the barn.


I know there's more to tell but I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things.


The following pics were taken Sunday after the storm had passed. I think everyone was ready for some nicer weather.

Brego and Zeke

Dude and Brego

Jim and Maverick

Friday the 13th Storm

I wonder if this storm will go down as the Friday the 13th storm?


I woke this morning to thunder, lightening, and wind. I checked my phone and our local weather station said that there were over 500 lightening strikes. Yep, I do believe they were right. I debated on running out to do chores but figured I'd best not. But I did make the mistake of letting Farley out. He hates storms and disappeared before I could even think. I went to look for him but that's when the skies opened up and it started hailing.


I knew it was going to be a wicked storm when I looked out first thing before turning on any lights and seeing Zeke prancing around tossing his head. All the horses can feel this storm rolling in. Luckily Farley remerged after the storm. But during this round, we received lots of pea sized hail. In fact, the ground now looks like snow even though it's hail.


I do believe we are in for one heck of a storm. West river they already closed interstate. Funny thing is, I'm working from home today so no stress. But I was planning on working from home at the paying job to see Mike, Dad, and my nephew off to go hunting in the Black Hills (they were planning on leaving today). That all changed when they switched our forecast to a blizzard warning for tonight (for us and today for west river).


They are comparing this storm with the one from 2013, Storm Atlas that killed thousands of livestock. I can't imagine the devastation. Now is NOT the time to have these kinds of storms. With the calves coming, I'm sure that it's going to be tough on farmers. Luckily our horses are tucked into their blankets and they will be stalled later. I wish we had bigger stalls and better barns for them to go into but beggars can't be choosers.


I'm guessing that Lace, Mayhem, and Junior will be stuck in their stalls starting tonight and wont' get out until either Saturday night or Sunday morning. The wind is predicted to be out of the east, which means their pen gets the brunt of all wind. We have trees but its' not enough to keep the wind out. Junior has lost weight recently so I'm more protective of him. I think it's my fault that he's lost the weight as well. I havent' been as diligent about his nightly feeding since I moved him. The nights sneak up on me and usually by the end of the day I'm shot and don't feel well. He takes hours to eat.


Last night we did put in an extra bale in the big herd to be pre-emptive. If we are to get a foot of snow, when it melts, its' going to make a muddy mess and make it almost impossible to get hay in or tear up the yard too much. So instead we sacrificed the remaining part of the bale and put a new one in. Of course the horses attached that like they were starving (they. are. not.). I also got everyone into blankets that has a blanket. This season has been hard on blankets. Everything is starting to show its wear and tear. But I'd rather have dry horses and ruined blankets. We also topped out the water in the mares' pen so I wouldn't have to lug hoses around in the snow and mud. By the time we were done with all those chores it was after 10pm. Of course we didnt' get out until after the kids had gone to bed. Life of running a sanctuary isn't exactly all glamor and glitz. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.


I had wanted to get stalls prepped and ready to go for tonight but that didn't happen. By 10pm I was done in and could barely stand. My back has been bothering me and after throwing the hay net onto the bale and all the blankets I wasn't able to throw straw and hay around to get everything ready. I may sneak out at noon to get some of that done, at least the mares' and Junior's stalls.


These kinds of storms definitely have me rattled. Of course I get rattled over any kind of storm but storms in general make me nervous.

March Blizzard

We are finally getting over our March blizzard. I'd stayed home from the paying job Monday knowing full well that bad weather was on its way. I'd woken at midnight to thunder. We normally don't get thunder in March. We normally don't get rain in march either. We normally get snow.


So when I woke up at 5:30 and headed out at 6am to do chores and was faced with a full on rain storm, I knew we were in for  trouble as the weatherman was calling for it to switch to freezing rain and then snow.


I'd had the good sense to blanket everyone that I could Sunday. Although I did question myself Sunday afternoon as it was in the 40s but with a biting wind. But I was sure glad when Monday morning rolled around and everyone was snug in their blankets, even if they were wet (but still dry on the inside).


At one point I couldn't tell if we were getting sleet or hail but by 11am we were getting snow. And I was sure glad I was home because the winds had picked up as well! The wind was so bad that it was actually coming straight out of the west. Normally it's north west so we are a bit more protected but not Monday. The wind blew the snow so much, that it blew right into the barn and now I have a snowdrift IN my barn.


I went out at noon to let horses into the barn. I figured, even if they had to stand in their stall for 24 hours, that they might not mind. The first horse at the door was Jim and his blanket was actually frozen in place. He was snug but the outer edges were a sheet of ice. I ended up letting Jim, Rain, Brego, and Dude into the barn and left the others out. I also put in Mayhem, Lace, and Junior into their stalls in the hay shed.


When I went back out to do my actual chores, I put Zeke and Lightening into the barn as well. Of course Brego and Dude broke one of the stalls so I need to figure out how to fix it. We don't have nice stalls and if you watch any of our videos in the barn, you can tell. They were all supposed to be somewhat temporary but the temporary stalls have turned permanent. I'd love to have something different but until there's time and money available, they will simply have to work.


The wind was so bad that by noon, there was no travel advised everywhere and by nightfall there was no travel on all the roads. That continued into the morning. I let the horses out of the barn and they were more than ready to get out and stretch their legs. I also put Junior, Mayhem, and Lace back in their stalls but I don't think they were nearly as excited. Their stalls are slightly bigger but they all seem to go with the flow a little bit better than the bigger gelding herd.


By the afternoon everything was back to normal. I had planned on pulling blankets last night but the temps were still too chilly to do anything with the blankets. We'll see how the temps wand weather go. We are supposed to get another storm this weekend so we'll see.


We do have robins. Those first few are always here way too early but it is a nice sight to see and I love to hear them. It makes it feel as thought spring is right around the corner and any winter storms we get now will all be gone in a matter of days.


What little snow we did get has already melted to some degree. Although the bottom of the pasture is now flooded with all the rain. It floods every year but with all the rain we received Monday, I expect the pasture to flood and to even back up into the field that surrounds us.


I'm ok with the snow and the rain as long as the horses are happy and dry. The more moisture we get, the less likely we'll be in another drought. I barely survived the first drought in 2012 and the dry conditions last year so a full on drought this year would be detrimental to us. I say, bring on the March snowstorms!

Winter is Officially Here

I'm so glad I have a job that lets me work from home and that I had the good senses to stay home yesterday.


I was able to do a majority of my chores during my lunch break and that saved me lots of anxiety in getting chores done during the first winter storm of the season.


I watched the radar and watched out the window as I worked and at 3:30, it started to sleet. I'd already put a blanket on Junior while he ate his grain and put Bo in. Any wind that we get goes right up the driveway and right into Bo's pen. So instead he went into the barn where I thought it was snug.


Fast forward to when I could finally get out to do chores at 6pm. Boy howdy! I was sure glad that Bo was in the barn. By the time I got out, we had snow drifts in his pen and the wind was whipping the snow around so bad that it hurt when it hit your face.


I did end up putting Dude and Rain into the barn with Bo. I figured Rain wouldn't let me put a blanket on and if Dude was in the barn, then maybe others wouldn't have to crowd around the opening of the shed. Dude was standing guard and not letting anyone else in. That bugger.


This morning everyone was ready to get out and stretch their legs. I ended up putting Bo into the back pen because the wind was still hitting his pen. I'm not really sure what to do with him now. He wont' touch hay so I've been throwing him alfalfa. I'm not sure I can put him in the pen that he's in. I may switch and put the ponies where he is and put Bo where the ponies are but that's not a long term solution. I don't know. I guess we'll see. Bo had another off day yesterday where his breathing was labored. But that's for another post.


I'll leave you with some pictures of last night during chores and right as I was ready to be done for the night.

Dude happy to be in the barn

The view from the house as I was going in for the night. The yard light is where all the snow and wind goes when we have a snow storm.

The view somewhat close to the red shed and right in the middle of me doing chores

Rain happy to be in out of the elements

It's hard to tell but that's the pen Bo was in and that's exactly where all the wind goes. There's a snow drift in his pen now.

Winter Returns

I really must pay more attention to the weather. We ARE in the middle of winter, no matter what the Ground Hog says. I'd been enjoying our January thaw for the past few weeks and apparently I got really spoiled. So did the horses!

No blankets, no extra worrying, no snow, no nothing. It was great. In fact, the only snow that was left had been melting.

But then winter reared it's ugly head and now we are dealing with 5-6 inches of new snow, the melting snow turned into a sheet of ice (which I did fall on yesterday during chores), and sub zero temperatures. Yup, I'm ready for spring.

I guess I shouldn't complain. We didn't get that much snow. 5-6 inches is good enough to cover most of the pasture and help keep it covered and provide much needed moisture come this spring. The snow starts falling Saturday late afternoon. When I went out to do chores Saturday morning, the wind was out of the east, which is never good for the horses. So I opted to put blankets on Rabbit, Junior, and Bo (Rain wouldn't let me). By evening chores, I decided I'd fight Rain to make sure he had a blanket on. These swings in temperature are hard on him. Bo doesn't ever get a chance to go into any leantos and Rabbit and Junior's pen takes the brunt of any east wind.

I opted to stall Junior, Rabbit, and Mayhem since the wind was out of the east and have to deal with the accumulating snow. I think they were more than happy to get in out of the wind. I left the big herd out but I debating long and hard on weather I should have put some of the harder keepers in.

By Sunday morning, everyone was anxious for their breakfast. I threw out an extra bale of alfalfa because I felt bad for them having to deal with winter returning after such a nice break. By evening chores, the winds had died down and the snow had stopped falling. The snow drifts were in really weird places this time around. I guess that's what happens when you get wind out of the north or north east.

Junior had me a little panicked last night during chores. I apparently have gotten lazy with him. I've taken to putting a halter on him and simply opening the gate. He loves his grain so much that he goes straight for it. Except last night. Of course I didn't put a lead rope on him either. He started wandering but after I called for him he headed for his stall. But instead of going into his stall, he saw the open door to the hay shed (which is normally closed). I figured I better grab his grain bucket to catch him (since he's hard to catch without grain). But by the time I got to the other side of the building, he'd disappeared. I should have looked closer for his tracks. I knew the barn door was open so figured he might have wandered into the barn. Mike was out pushing snow so I thought maybe he would have stopped and gotten Junior but he kept on plowing (which made me think maybe Junior hadn't gone that way). He wasn't in the barn but the red shed doors were wide open and we have a few bales of alfalfa in there. So I tromped up the hill to see if he was in the red shed. Nope, I took a quick peek into the pasture thinking he may have wandered in just to investigate but didn't see any tracks. I should have paid more attention. I figured I'd better go back to his stall on the off chance he was there. Sure enough, there were the tracks and there was Junior. Enjoying his grain mash. He simply wanted to do a quick investigation of the place and get down to business with his grain. That'll teach me to leave the shed door open!

Mayhem seems to be going through a major growth spurt. I've always viewed her as small and petite. But in the last few months I've noticed she's really filled out and looks much thicker. I'm over feeding the back pen with Rabbit, Mayhem, and Junior.  Junior is such a hard keeper I want to make sure that he's getting food without getting pushed out. But he's so slow that I'm not sure the extra hay isn't getting snatched up by Rabbit and Mayhem. Mayhem seems to be full of herself these days and I'm wondering if she's finally filling out and growing up. I'm guessing that anyone that sees here wouldn't realize that she has a heart murmur. I'm starting to think that her heart won't affect her at all. She's full of vim and vinegar these days. I think some of that has to do with Junior.

I am so proud of Junior. He's such a passive horse but last night Mayhem came up on him and he turned around and let both hind feet fly at Mayhem. He even made contact. Now I don't normally agree with that type of rough housing, but Junior is finally confident enough to put Mayhem in her place. That makes me happy. If he can put up with Mayhem's antics and Rabbit's crankiness, maybe he can handle the herd of geldings this summer. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

But for now, we're going to hunker down and try to stay warm against the sub zero temperatures and winter returning.

Snowdrifts and Winter

The weatherman said we had about four inches of snow. I would have to agree. Unfortunately, we also had wind, which meant drifting. I am hoping that Mike can get out with the snowplow and push snow around so that I don't have to  haul water back to the mares and Junior in four inches of snow. I really don't want to drag water buckets through the snow.

When I went to let the mares and Junior out of their stalls, their blankets were still crinkling. I guess the stalls in the hay shed aren't as warm as in the barn. The horses in the barn all had dry blankets. I'm a little worried about Jim's blanket. It's canvas. The inside was nice and dry but the canvas part was wet. I'll check it tonight during chores and see if I have to swap out blankets. I like having a few spares on hand but I'm running low on spares. Spares consist of torn up blankets that will do in a pinch but can't be used long term...or are someone else's blanket.

This morning I got ready to go to the paying job. Chores took me longer than expected but they always do when I have to stall everyone. Chores normally take 10 minutes (just throwing hay). This morning they took over a half an hour. I hopped in the car and headed on my way knowing the roads would be slick. I was a little worried when I plowed through the first snowdrift but didn't think anything more of it until the next snowdrift loomed ahead. I didn't think it was deep.

I. Was. Wrong.

My finger was on redial until Mike picked up. It didn't take long to get back out of the snowdrift but I'll be avoiding that road whenever the wind picks up. The only problem is, that's the main (and fasted) route to get to a paved road. Some of the other roads are just as impassible as others. Luckily the paying job is fairly understanding but I ended up staying home with our son to avoid getting caught in another snow bank.

Winter has returned. :-(

On the bright side, Mike did go to work (and got stuck in the same snowdrift that I did but managed to get out after a half an hour of digging) and went to pay the hay guy for our hay. I'm hoping that we'll have our six round bales delivered some time after Christmas.

I would love to fundraise for more hay. We got asked to take a mare but without more hay, I can't. And we are currently fundraising for Mayhem's hernia surgery. I have decided to up the anty on the fundraising but haven't gotten everything lined up just yet. So keep checking back for more details!

Boo To Winter

I'm already tired of winter and seeing white so I thought I would post just a few pictures of color! Yeah to fall, boo to winter.

Winter is Here

The calendar might say that it's only November, but winter is here. I'm afraid winter is here to stay. We received our first snow fall on Saturday and had over six inches of snow. I wouldn't mind so much but we still had a few things that we needed to get wrapped up. But those things will have to wait. But with six inches of snow and me being only 5ft 3in, tromping through snow hauling two 5-gallon buckets full of water back to the mares and Junior is a little tough. The buckets were dragging in the snow. It wouldn't be bad either if I only had to haul back two buckets. With Junior, I know have to haul back six buckets to keep the 100 gallon tank full. I let it go one night and it took me umpteen buckets to get it back to full.

I've also been stalling Junior at night so that he can eat in peace. That also means that he needs to have his own bucket of water. I think I'm hauling about 50 gallons of water every night between the horses, ponies, and dogs. It's going to be a LONG winter.

I'll tell a story about Junior later. Or go over to the Senior Equine Care blog where I'm chronicling Junior's progress.

I was able to do all of my chores Saturday in the daylight which was lovely but every other day I've been out in the dark doing chores. I'm not ready for winter and winter chores. Six months of this is six months too long! Yesterday the wind picked up and it was bitterly cold. I guess the Farmers Almanac was right. Normal amount of snow but bitterly cold. It's supposed to be below zero degrees Fahrenheit tonight. The rule used to be that it the temps fell below zero that the horses would go in. But everyone can get in out of the wind and hang out under shelter so that rule might have to change. Junior will always go in just so he can eat all night. I threw in his hay, alfalfa, and grain mash last night and this morning I caught him with a mouthful of hay still! It takes him that long to eat.

The weather is supposed to warm up by the end of the week. I hope it actually happens. I did keep track of the fog we had earlier in the year. If we are technically in an El Nino, then the snow we had on Saturday was spot on! For those that might not know me, I'm a little weird when it comes to winter and storms. I follow the old wives tale of 90 days from fog is rain/snow. Starting this past week and going for another three weeks, I have fog marked down in my calendar each week. We'll see if it was just a fluke or if we truly are in an El Nino. It would make tracking predicted snow a little bit easier.

The farmers around us didn't get their corn out either. Our farmer friend has a field just to the west of us. We normally have to put up a snow fence to keep some of the snow from drifting up into our driveway but he still has corn. I doubt he'll be able to get the corn out at this rate. I really didnt' figure we'd get six inches of snow in the middle of November.

Winter is definitely here!

Wind Chill

I just hopped on to our local news website and for some reason, the first thing I saw was the wind chill. I am SO not ready for winter and dealing with wind chills. My mind really must be on winter already.

Lets hope that we have an open winter and that it's tolerable to handle. I sure hope the Farmers Almanac is wrong.

Although, the horses are already starting to fur up. Jim was the first to start getting wooly. Rain will be the last (he doesn't put a decent winter coat on).

Four Corridors

I know some might think I’m a little over excited about winter weather. If I worked close to home, I probably wouldn’t be as concerned (although I’m not sure). To give a better perspective of my typical drive, I deal with the I90-I29 corridor. For you folks in South Dakota, I’m sure you’ve heard the news/weather talk about it. For you folks in other areas, it’s a magical and mysterious place where odd weather hits.

It’s actually rather odd. I live in the south west corridor. I work in the north east corridor and drive through the north west corridor from home to work. Each corridor I travel through is different. Take for example this morning, I heard a report about fog so I hopped on interstate instead of taking my beloved back roads. No fog at home (south west corridor), and had I traveled my backgrounds, I would have encountered some light fog in the north west corridor, and we were socked in with dense fog in the north east corridor.

So I know I sometimes I get freaked out and talk about it. That’s because I drive through three of the four corridors and each corridor can (and occasionally does) have a different weather environment. It’s hard for me to estimate the weather, especially when the bad weather typically comes from the west, so I head straight in to bad weather.

My favorite is when a blizzard warning is issued for the county next to ours. Unfortunately, we live only three miles from the county line. Mother Nature doesn’t pay attention to those county lines. There is a weird phenomenon with the interstate though, so I blame those four corridors for my interesting and sometimes hairy drives to and from work.

So the next time I ramble on about work and you can’t figure out why I’m over reacting, keep in mind I’ll be driving through possibly three different weather environments before I can reach home. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll be an easy winter.

Horizontal Snow

Oh how I dread the word.....

SNOW

It's an evil word around these parts because we are faced with it for six months out of the year (it feels like anyway). It's only October 27th and we have snow. It's not the light fluffy kind that gently falls from the sky. It's the hard pellets that hurt when it comes flying horizontally across the open plains and smacks you right in the face.

Luckily last night we had a reprieve from the rain. But the wind was terrible, terrible, terrible. Had there been snow at the time, it would have been horizontal (like it is this morning). The horses were happy to stay out in the pasture until I called Sam in for his evening grain. I need to start in with my winter routine instead of my summer routine. It gets dark so darn fast these days that I'm doing half my chores in the dark.

Luckily everyone behaved for the most part and were happy and willing to snarf down the grain and hay I threw out. Even Thor decided he'd hang out for a little while and eat some hay. I need to clean out the yards a little better so I have more places to throw hay.

A few weekends back we started building an open front. At the time we only had a skeleton frame for the building. Last night it was leaning pretty good. This morning it was in a heap on the ground. I was rather disappointed. I'd hoped to have it done by now. The fencing is contingent on the open front being done and now it's lying in a heap.

When I went to feed Rabbit, she was shivering like crazy. She still doesn't have enough weight on her since she's spending all her time feeding Mayhem. I did order some waterproof sheets but they didnt' come with leg straps. I've learned my lesson with putting a sheet with no leg straps on a horse that is not stalled. I decided that we'd go with a winter blanket instead. I know it's too early and she needs to get her coat on but I couldn't let her stand there and shiver the entire night. When I flopped her grain dish in front of her though, she did stop shivering. But I wanted to make her feel better so on went her winter blanket. She must have been pampered in her earlier years because she stood like a pro for me to put on the blanket. She didn't even spook, like the others do so I'm sure she's worn a blanket in the past. Mayhem wasn't so sure about the blanket but she checked it out to make sure "mom" was still under there.

This morning I woke to the roaring wind. The only problem with winter is that I can stay in bed listening to the wind howl and not realize that there is horizontal wind blowing. It's not until I step outside that the shock hits me. This morning was a shock to the system. I knew it was supposed to be nasty out but I didn't think it would be pelting snowballs at me. I was NOT impressed. Everyone but Thor was up by the barn. Poor Thor, I'm guessing he was out in the pasture somewhere. I may have to start stalling Sam (so he can eat his grain, alfalfa, and hay without being pestered) and throw Thor in too. Thor really likes being in the barn even if his stall is too small for him.

I've found that the older work horses love being in the barn. Dictator (my first horse who happened to be a Colorado ranch horse) loved being in the barn. I couldn't get Bob out of the barn. Sam hated the barn at first and now prefers to stand in there (of course the barn means food). And now Thor is loving the barn. So we'll see how it all plays out.

The weatherman is saying the wind won't die down until after 7pm tonight. So I'll have to deal with the wind for a little bit during chores. I can only hope that the weather gets better so I can scurry around and get some of my final projects done before the real snow hits. I'm starting to panic that I'll not get everything done that needs to be done before real winter sets in and we're dealing with a few feet of snow.

Snow....it's an evil word.

Farmers Almanac

I think the Farmer's Almanac was right; frigid with lots of snow. Looks like I'll be spending all of my extra time making sure that the horses of Borderland are warm. It sure looks like the first day of 2010 is going to be darn cold.

I was naughty and left the horses out last night even though they were calling for below zero temps. I need time to dig gates open so that I can actually let the horses out of their pens/pastures. I need to dig out barn doors so they actually open.

I guess I should have paid more attention to the Farmers Almanac and prepared for this winter. Maybe next year!

Preparing for the Storm

In preparation for this massive storm (so the weathermen keep reporting), I took some extra time last night to get stalls ready. There's still a little bit of work to be done tonight to ensure that everyone is tucked away safe and sound. But the majority of the work is done.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be as bad as they keep predicting. I keep thinking of all those horses out there stuck in this storm. Maybe I just like to pamper my "kids" a little bit but I do want to make sure they are fat and happy. And by the looks of them, they MUST be happy because they are FAT!

We ran in to TSC earlier this week since I'm running low on beet pulp. Just my luck TSC is out and won't get any until sometime next week. So I'm trying to come up with a different grain mash concoction for Sam. He has picked up a bit of weight but I want him to have more. I guess from now on I'll pick up more than one bag at a time of beet pulp!

I'm sort of hoping that the weather will be bad enough that they will close down work. I don't want to kick the horses out first thing in the morning. It's always so hard on them to take them out of their nice dry stalls and put them into cold, dark, wet pasture.

Maybe over Christmas I'll be able to post some more pictures. I keep meaning to blog about all our hay adventures. I have pics to prove they are adventures too! Until then I guess I'll keep an eye to the sky and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Hope Santa makes a stop at your barn to give your horses a christmas present.

Winter Blahs have Arrived

I realized I haven't been posting lately. I think it's a combination of things so if you don't see me for awhile, it's not that we aren't busy at Borderlands; it's just that I'm so far behind I have to let something drop.

I think it's a mix of crappy work, constant winter chores, bitter cold temps, and the winter blahs setting in. I typically don't get the winter blues until January or February but they seem to be here sooner than normal. I'm guessing its' because of the constant cold temperatures we've been having.

I'm hoping around Christmas I'll be able to get back into the swing of things and actually start posting more. But if you don't see me, it's not that I'm not busy, it's probably that I'm sound asleep on the couch. :-)

Freezing Temps and Wind Chills

So this weekend wore me out emotionally. These last two days have worn me out physically. I was not prepared for this snow storm and still need to get a few more things set up to make my life easier.

Least to say I spent three hours last night getting everything done. When the surrounding schools started closing I took that as a sign to head home. Luckily I did. The roads were fine the entire way home and I could/should have stayed. But I started doing chores around 3-3:30 and I didn't get in until 6:30-7 and that was without any breaks. All I did was pull horses into barns/stalls, feed, water, and try to set up a couple extra wind breaks since the wind was out of the east instead of the west.

Poor Jimmy and Longhorn seem to be getting the brunt of this storm. I was so worried about how cold they would get that I had Mike pull the truck out and pull the trailer around to act as a windbreak. I really need to come up with a better solution. I'm hoping soon to have Jimmy in with the big herd so that will help eleviate some of my issues.

But I've just come in from an hour of morning chores. I'm skipping work to take care of the animals. I believe the temp right now is 1 degree F. I wasn't inclinded to kick the horses out at 5:30 this morning in below freezing temperatures with wind chills at 20-30 below zero F.

I'm planning on going back out in a few hours to get the barns/stalls ready for tonight. Forcast calls for 10 below so I want to try and get everyone settled for the night a little earlier. Hopefully they will be able to stay warm. Luckily the wind is supposed to die down around 3pm today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will. That wind just bites right through.

I'm sure I'll blog a little bit more since I'm home. Maybe I can get some cold weather pictures (if my fingers and camera dont' freeze). Hope everyone is staying warm.