Brrr!

Well, winter has arrived in full force. And then some!

I had taken last week off, and we got our first sizable snow fall during that week. Maybe five or six inches total, which wasn't too bad. Since we had the most wonderful fall, it was rather nice to see the change after all the dust from the big winds previously.

Now, we have cold. This morning it was -13 at my house, and it's -18 here at work. I moved stuff around in the shop and made space for my car inside-it does not have a block heater on it.

Boy am I feeding out a LOT of hay! Easy 30 plus pounds a day per horse, and I am very thankful I have as much local hay as I do. Warm mashes too, of course, but no blankets on either horses as they aren't shivering. I have them at hand of course, just in case.

My wonderful hub put the covers on the stock tanks, and rigged up a heat lamp for the chickies. He put a thermometer in the new coop, and even at these temps, it is staying about 18, 20 degrees inside. The chickies seem resigned to their jail, and have started laying eggs again now that the light is on a timer for 14 hours a day. I may need to drop the heat lamp down a bit, but for right now, it's warmer up on their perch than on the floor.

The poor big dog, he's having a heck of a time with the cold. I am only taking him out for a few minutes when he needs to go, but we are still letting him blow off steam in the arena every evening. Little Jethro is having trouble too, due to apparantly having frost bit his pads a little bit last winter. So I am watching them both very carefully and they are immediately rushed inside (or into my car) at the first sign of discomfort. Now that I am back at work, they are both sacking out on a spare horse blanket, with the heater blowing right on them, lol The floor is pretty cold since it's concrete with vinyl over it-I need to find a couple of crib sized mattresses-one for the office here, and one for home. Those would make good beds for the big dog.

Other than that, it's life as usual here. I have one hay van en route, and then that's it until after the first of the year for hay. I have been spending entirely too much time doing the hay and I need to cut it back some so I have time for other things-like my own horses!