And more BRRRR!!!

Today is the 3 1/2 day the ponies have been in. And everyone has been patient and not crabby until this morning. Tulip has been just a jewel. But then it all broke loose. My other lovely filly - Opal started it. She decided she had to buck and kick and rear, so pretty much the whole barn did a big hick-up. I had to yell at everyone to settle down. I reminded them they were in for their own good this week. Patience, if nothing else - patience.

Let me tell you that is a hard lesson to convey, when I myself, am fed up with the cold! My patience is just about at its wits ends! But forge on I must, composure to keep, sanity is checked (or lack thereof).

So I took my young stallions only play toy away ( actually not a play toy, but the electrical cord that heats his sisters water buckets). Smokie keeps pulling it out of the wall socket if he doesn't think I am moving fast enough with the grain wagon. Unfortunately at $70 a pop, I can't really afford him to break it right now. Stinker. So I took it away, and do at feed times. In retaliation - he decided to break his water bucket holder. Oh Man! I could not believe it. I thought it was Cookie moving her grain bucket around. (I gave Cookie her grain bucket tonight as she was insistent on eating from it instead of her regular feed pan). But oh no, I come out of the door and there it is, water bucket on the ground! Sheesh!

One more 1/2 day of this - hopefully they can go out and run and buck and kick for awhile tomorrow!

So on a sad note - two of the kittens went home with a young couple tonight. They did not pick the manx kittens, they picked my Freddy and Charlie. I can only take comfort that they took both, so Charlie would not be lonesome. That is an answer to prayer. Boom Boom has a home, but will have to stay with me for another 2 months while he waits on being old enough to neuter and declaw. Jet on the other hand is a bit agressive, so I don't know what I am going to do. Maybe he will settle down now that there will be more time for him.

Well I need to run out to the barn (yes its now -17 below!) and check waters and give more hay out. So off I go. Tomorrow - please be above zero, even for a couple hours!

Well if it wasn't cold enough yet

We are headed for a worse night tonight. I got home after a quick run to a few stores at 6:15pm and the ponies were all upset and HUNNNGARY! So I quick fed them. All of them pretty much sucked their feed down. Hay was what they wanted next and they got it. It was cold in the barn today, a north wind was blowing.

Guess what - no training today. I even saw friends on forums who are usually training today, on the forums! Guess they couldn't get anything done today either.

I keep thinking it is Thursday and we are heading for a warm up, but it is only Wednesday - and we have on more cold cold day. All I can say is - BRRRR! I will be out giving extra hay again and waiting for that around 20 degrees eagerly this weekend!

UPDATE:
12:00am - I was just out to the barn and oh man, I had an extra layer on - Thank goodness! It was cold. I gave everyone double hay, even if they waste it and lay on it, its a bale well spent tonight. I even bedded my dogs bed down with 4 flakes under his sleeping bag and comforter. He has a man's vest on (cheaper than a dog coat, $4 at the thrift store), I turn it upside down so the buttons are on his back, he can't reach them. And he's left it on indicating he is happy with the arrangement. I gave him some extra dog food when I was out too.

I talked to the ponies and told them they had to stay in another day and night due to the weather. Tulip pawed the entire time I talked to them, but at least she wasn't stomping! It is wearing to be confined to an 8X14 stall for so many days. But man, they wouldn't stay warm outside. So far, I haven't blanketed anyone.

One other thing - everyone is drinking normally or a little more. I had to fill everyone's bucket up this last trip. If they weren't drinking I would be really worried. But Thank God, everything is going okay.

Wait until Sunday - it'll be a whole day of cleaning stalls! LOL!

Hold Your Breath!

That's all I have to say for -28 cold weather! Hold you breath as you walk out to the barn. I made rounds at 12:30 am last night, gave everyone a little hay checked water. I am glad I did. When I left the barn at 7pm - I missed plugging in 6 water buckets. They were thick with ice, but there was still water moving in them. So I plugged them in and put a bit more water over the ice so everything would melt. And so they did.

Everyone has been pretty good today about being in. When I went out to do chores tonight, Satin was loose, hadn't been loose for too long, only one pile of manure, a few bites out of an alfalfa hay bale and of course, she was teasing the boys! But the boys were behaving themselves. Satin walked right up to me and let me catch her. Put her back. Poor baby.

Lady has picked up in her eating needs, seems I am having a hard time filling her wooden leg. Will keep feeding her and hopefully get her filled up! LOL!

I stayed a few minutes extra, as I watered, I said a prayer for each member of my family...... My hopes, dreams and life are so intertwined with my ponies, my dog and my cats. Each one has made its way to my farm for a reason, I truly believe that. I pray they all come true.

Batten Down The Hatches - Or Whatever else....

We have been hearing it for a week now, below zero temps with even worse windchills. It's -1 at 10:00PM but with the wind its really -18. BRRRRR!!!

Today it was battening down the hatches for the farm. Chores got done and then the barn cleaned. Only one pony didn't make it out to stretch his legs, but the snow was coming down too fast and accumulating too much on the ponies backs, so I pulled them in around 2 pm. By the time I would have normally pulled them in, they would have gotten wet down to their skins. Have you ever tried warming up a wet, cold pony in below zero, windy weather? Trust me its not easy.

Everyone seemed to be ready for it, I have been talking about it for days. So they all came in nicely for me. Only one gave me crap about getting the snow scrapped of her back. Can you guess who? Lady. LOL! Silly little girl.

I borrowed a pickup and got a few extra bales of hay. When it is this cold - they need more energy in bulk to keep their furnaces burning. You see it churns in their hind gut, which gives off heat, thus heating their body. They tend to go through 2 times the hay or more on these cold days.

I also helped on the parents farm, they had some broken windows on their barn. Which really would leave a very cold impression on the animals inside. It might be a bit better than the actual outside, but still very cold! So I helped fix windows. BRRR! is all I have to say.

When I got done there, I came home and had the bales to put away, I pulled all the outside watering holes down and drained them, unplugged them. The ponies won't be out much for the next few days, so don't need them running. Will set everything back up when this cold snap breaks. I won't be able to make manure dumps, so will dump in a pile and then clean it up later as well.

I will make the rounds a couple times tonight, although I sealed in the north and west side of the barn pretty well - so there isn't a lot of leaking seams. But it is still way cold in the barn, some of the ponies have frost on their backs.

So as far as training goes - I don't think anything is going to get done for the next few days, I will start researching things I need to do for the summer showing season.

Stay Warm!

AAAAHHH Sunday

Today had its definite funny side. I watched an indie film called Into The West - it was filmed in Ireland with only one American actor in it. It was a story about a couple boys, the youngest, his mother died at his birth. The father and mother were from the Travellers clans, when the mother died, the father decided to take the boys into the cities and find work. Instead what he found was despair, pain, agony and the bottle. They lived in what they called the stacks. The two little boys left to their own devices most of the time. The mother's father, the grandfather, came and visited. Then he pulled his wagon to the edge of the city and taught the boys about the Traveller's way. He also weaved tales of fairies and their mother. Somewhere a white stallion showed up in the film (okay so I took a break somewhere in here) and the stallion's soul was actually that of the children's mother. A long story short, the stallion was stolen, but the boys got him back. Then they started heading west, they thought they would find cowboys and indians. Instead, they found the coast of Ireland and the stallion kept swimming into the sea. The boys father of course, found the boys there, but the stallion was lost, set free, etc., according to their beliefs.

Well here's where the interesting part was - while the stallion was set free, so too in my barn a stallion was setting himself free. Yeppers, Shiner finally figured out how to untie the three knots, that ties his stall. It's only taken him 3 years, one for each knot is what I figure. But right after the movie ended, I headed out to bring Smokie in and take Cowboy out. Well did I get a surprise! Of course Shiner looked like a deer in headlights when I opened the barn door!

The only damage done, the boys killed the fan that hangs on Cowboy's stall, but no one was hurt and Shiner let me catch him after a few minutes. I promptly put him back in his stall an scolded him. Of course a back scratching and a few kisses to remind him he was "MY PONY" and that seemed to settle him some. Then I let Arnold out a little later to go socialize. I figure he was on his way over to socialize, but he couldn't figure out how to get back to his stall. Oh well!

Cowboy was amazingly calm for all the huff and puff that went on. Usually when a boy gets loose its chaos for days. But I think my being home has helped a lot.

Okay so I cleaned stalls after bringing Smokie in. He was a little lost today. He kept coming up to the front of his stall wondering if I was going to tack him up. Nope its Sunday. I only wanted to clean stalls and putz with the kids today. And that's what we did. We putzed. Kids got extra hugs and kisses, butt rubs, back scratches, etc. And so that ended Sunday!

Beautiful Day

It was so nice out today, a little chilly, but hey, the sun was out. I worked on the boys and shuffled Arnold around a bit. And then brought some of the girls up a little later.

Smokie got tacked up again today and I brought out the driving reins. My niece came over and walked up and down the driveway with Smokie and I. Not sure I needed it, but I wanted to be sure if he decided to be playful, there was a little extra insurance around. She had all she could do to keep out of his way. Smokie did fine his first turn around the block, but then he figured he would be playful and kept walking into her. It was only playful. So maybe next time, she just stands around or walks behind with me. I still want a second pair of hands around, just in case. But all in all, Smokie walked drunkly straight, turned well to the right and joltingly turned to the left. Can you tell which side he favors?

Honey and Mizzie came in for their turn with the foo foo stuff. They didn't have quite the same reaction that Smokie and Cowboy did, so now you know how female it smelled! Anyways, Mizzie did great, only took and 1/2 hour to get through mane, tail and forelock. What little forelock she has. Her mane is coming along nicely, her tail I wish was a little longer, but we are still 4.5 months off from the first show. So that's maybe a couple more inches.

Honey did way better today, she only took about 1/2 hour too. I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and take a couple inches off of her mane and tail as they are so sunburned I don't think the hair is recoverable. But, at least she will recover from the hair cut.

BOTH had the "I don't want to be tied up" ants today. They both were chewing on wood, stinkers. I don't want that to be a habit, so I was scolding just as much as putting gunk in their hair.

Opal and Tulip spent the same time I was working on the fillies in the weanlings paddock behind the barn. They thought that was "SNAP!" Finishing up whatever the weanlings didn't eat. The weanlings were watching everything with keen intent and then Lady started bugging the crap out of me to pay attention to her. Cookie wanted attention too, but she just sticks her nose out at me and waits for me to kiss her. Stinker!

Tomorrow I need to bring Tulip and Opal in and get their manes and tails done before the big freeze coming in this week. Oh didn't I mention that, live in the deep freeze - literally!

Friday - the morning after

I got a lot done yesterday, or maybe I didn't. I am still debating. But in any event, I didn't get to blog last night because I was tired when I came in.

I only was able to work with Smokie yesterday. I got him all tacked up and then did the left, right, and center - high and then took him for a walk with his tack on.

My trailer I haul poo in broke, that took a lot of time. The trailer was full and I dumped it 3 times before actually got it to the dumping grounds. So it took an hour to to the dumping grounds and come back. Thank God it was decent outside yesterday. Got it temporarily fixed. It is just a wagon that usually runs around a yard and lifts leaves. So not a heavy duty wagon, but for the money I paid, it works just fine. Has paid for itself over and over.

So, Tulip was looking for me all day yesterday and I didn't get to go out and spend time with the ponies. I need to find time in the next couple days as they most likely by the middle of the week, will be confined to the barn and their stalls. So! LOL!

I have to get blankets washed in the next two days as well. If it really does hit -25 and the windchills are worse, it could do damage to the babies. Ponies and horses for that matter, could loose up to 10% of their bodyweight in a small stretch of very cold weather. Doesn't matter if you grain them normally or up their grain. They are still dealing with the cold constantly, there is no break. They could have a hay bale in front of them 24 hours a day, but their bodies still have to deal with the cold. Last year, I only blanketed one stretch and it was a couple days where it was -25 below.

So for now, I best get going, lots to do today.