Wednesday, December 17, 2008

It Won't Stop

Paint Girl has nearly 8 inches of snow and it's still coming down! That means My Boy is living in a winter wonderland.

Here they all are late this morning. My Boy is by his gate with his head down.

Poor boy. I can tell he is a bit miserable from these pictures. He looks a bit wet and disheveled, with snowy icicles in his mane. I wish I was there to hang out with and take care of him.
Looks like My Boy is having....a bucket of snow for desert!

Yesterday, Paint Girl noticed that one of her mares was acting unusual. She wouldn't go up to eat her hay and didn't seem to want to move about the pasture as usual. My sister was sure it was frozen snow compacted in her front shoes. However, it turns out her hooves were fine. Rather, it was the wet mud in the pasture. Or rather, frozen mud in the pasture. It had created hard holes and craters covered in snow and was difficult for the horses to maneuver around on. My sister tried putting the hay in the barn but she wouldn't go in there to eat either.

Fritz had hit a tree and knocked snow onto herself. She looks a bit surprised!

Paint Girl made the decision to move the mares to the paddock between My Boy's Pasture and the mares' and goats' pasture. This "run" has come in handy. It is a great place to isolate a horse (when My Boy and Fritzy had their abscesses, they were temporarily housed here.) The mares seemed relieved to be on solid land again. They won't have shelter here, but have their blankets on.

Looks like Sadie the Aussie dog is digging for something in the snow. She likes to hover near grain buckets and eat spilled scraps. Both she and Bailey probably have a the most flexible joints in four counties, with a daily dose of My Boy's glucosamine supplement coursing through their system!

My Boy's pasture is frozen too, but Paint Girl said it wasn't as bad as the mares as his is less muddy in general.

The goats have not left the barn at all. Goats are not into bad weather. Perhaps we should ship them somewhere warm? Maybe my Auntie J has room in her backyard in Palm Springs? Jasmine and blooming bougainvillea aren't poisonous to goats, is it?

Paint Girl and her Cowboy have their work cut out for them. More snow is on the way. As many of you know, livestock care is more challenging in this kind of weather and they are doing a good job keeping an eye on the horses eating habits and hooves. Luckily the trough heaters are working, keeping the water defrosted, so there is no need to haul water. Unless the power goes out. Knock on wood! When it rains it pours (or should I say, when it snows it blizzards?)

On another note, after my post on the barn fire tragedy that happened last week, a reader sent me a link to another disasterous fire which happened recently at the Magic Heritage Ranch in South Dakota. Over 40 rare mulefoot hogs, sows and their babies, the owner's stallion and cats were lost in the fire. They had been breeding to preserve this rare breed of pigs. Here is the link in case anyone wants to help out: http://www.maveric9.com/. This reminds me of severe flooding in Washington state last year. I cried watching people scrape the mud five feet high off the walls of their homes and talk about how all of their cattle- generations of family breeding, had been drowned and wiped out in an instant.

Please stay safe and warm as the weather throws us all curve balls into the holiday season!

27 comments:

  1. I think that weather like that is tougher to deal with if its not your norm. I believe you said before that you tend to have more rainy/wet winters than snowy winters.
    Hard to believe you've got at least as much snow, if not more, than we do right now!
    Definitely keep an eye on those ponies. Weather changes and lack of adequate water intake can lead to the "C" word.

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  2. Just remember girl , you did order the snow(lol) Stay warm and safe.

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  3. Hope "My Boy " and all the rest are coping well

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  4. Believe it or not we have hardly any snow here! I kinda wish we had some. It’s COLD and slushy here and the girls would love to be romping in snow, but instead they were relegated back to their stalls after a few hours of turnout.

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  5. Actually we are having to haul water out to the troughs. The water is frozen in the hose and can't get any water through. But the troughs themselves are not frozen thanks to those wonderful water heaters. I remember back when we were kids having to haul 5 gallon buckets of warm water out to our horses troughs when they froze in the winter. That was not fun. I am having flashbacks now.
    We have over 8" of snow now and it is still snowing like crazy. It hasn't stopped yet. I am beginning to think we'll end up with a good foot by tonight. It looks pretty but it will be a mess when it melts.

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  6. Ugh! Nice to look at, but I wouldn't want to deal with it. Stay warm!

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  7. Lovely pics! We just got hit with about 6 or 7 inches of snow here today too. And have a Blizzard wanring for overnight. Yikes! Glad my ponies are all inside and warm!

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  8. Wow! I am sure it is cold, but it is really pretty.

    You do need to go to NFR, but just give yourself several days. I was so rushed.

    I hope Santa brings me a camera too... I love pictures....

    Have a great day and I hope you stay warm! =]

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  9. Woo Hoo...the snow is here huh.
    Pony's always look so darned cute in the snow!

    Ours melted today and I am kinda glad for the reprieve on the frozen water and bucketing. I can relax till the next one hits... Enjoy your white wonderous days!
    KK

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  10. We are at 11 inches now and still snowing like crazy. I had a feeling we might hit a foot of snow but now I think I underestimated and might get more like a foot and a half! AHHH!
    Looks like I might get a snow day tomorrow! Hope my boss can make it to work.

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  11. Yikes! You can keep all that snow. We are expected to be 19 degrees BELOW zero again on Sunday. LOVELY...yep that is some major sarcasm!!LOL

    If your hoses are froze on the inside, just put them in the bathtub for the night. You can drain the frozen water out there and then they are nice and flexible when you take them back outside. I remembered to drain my hoses before the last cold spell, but below zero temperatures? Doesn't matter if they are drained or not-they crack in the cold. So I am bucketing water to the tanks as well. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having tank heaters. The horses drink a lot more water that way and I don't worry about colic.

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  12. Oh and if the snow gets so deep that it is difficult to carry the water buckets? Sleds!! Those cheap little saucer sleds work great-fill two buckets, set them in the sled and it pulls right on top of the snow. Sooo much easier!!

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  13. BEC- thanks for the helpful tip on the hose in the bathtub. I might have to try that tomorrow. Our power was out for a couple hours tonight (I am sure from all the snow on the power lines, or snow heavy tree branches falling on power lines). I am very worried that if the power goes out again than I will be hauling buckets of water out just so they can have water! We are not used to this where we live. I don't own a sled, but I am sure we can come up with something.
    We are at about 14-15 inches of snow now. And still SNOWING! What the heck?

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  14. Those little goats missed their ride to the desert over 6weeks ago with "uncle Jeff". And it's the "oliander" that you have to watch out for in the desert. Remember the book/movie "white olinander" now that can kill people too. Hay....we have snow in the desert too.I'll send you a picture. Today PDX was 34 the desert was 43 and non stop rain. We have 4 buckets in our house catching the drips. We have a lesser degree of the same storm you have!
    Luv,
    AJ

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  15. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of snow. It can all go away. Today.

    (Then again, that would leave mud...)

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  16. That is a horrible tragedy. I am so sorry to read about that.

    We have had ice here. Luckly my babies go under their leanto and come out only to eat and drink. I wish I had a heater in the water trough but we do not have electric there. We just monitor it and break the ice every day. My wonderful husband is great about doing that for me.

    I hope it stops snowing soon. That is a lot of snow for anywhere!

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  17. Huh. Why did I think you lived in Florida? Obviously not. Enjoy the snow. What the heck else can ya do??

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  18. I snuck over here from Lisas journal. Saw your link on her sidebar and had to come over and say hello :) My two billies are not crazy about the wet weather we are having day after day here either. I will trade you some mud for that snow...lol. I know your pain of feeling for the critters. Poor souls, you just want to keep them all dry and warm so much. Nice to meet you! Kelly

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  19. Kathy C~ Florida is sounding pretty good right about now!
    I am on day 2 of my snow day!

    BEC~ great idea about the hoses. They would probably freeze up again by the end of the day but it might be less of a hassle than hauling water! I remember as a kid hauling buckets of hot water out to the ponies and breaking ice.

    Auntie J~ sorry to hear about your weather woes...I heard Oregon got hit hard last weekend. Can't wait to see pics of the snow in the desert!

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  20. Wow, you are getting some snowfall!
    This wet snow is hard on the horses. My daughter's pony recently had huge snowballs stuck to the bottom of his hooves and I had to use a screwdriver and hammer to pop them out.
    BTW, I just love your blog header picture!

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  21. Wow, lots of snow. We don't have to deal with snow very often down here. Thank goodness. Try to keep everyone warm.

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  22. Oh yikes! It's coming our way tonight, supposed to get up to a foot starting tonight! I disconnect the hose everytime I water and reel it indoors and I have an outdoor spigit. Now that I do that, it never freezes even in below zero weather! Good luck with the water!

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  23. I'm visiting from The Wife's blog. Here in WI we're due to get another foot of snow between tonight and tomorrow afternoon. The horses look a little bit "flustered" with all that white stuff!

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  24. A lil' of that o' white stuff goes along way doesn't it?!?

    We've only got 4-6 inches of snow. But, it was -16 yesterday morning and reached a high of 14. This morning it was 20 and it's reached 32 now at noon...YES!

    The wind's blowing like a gale though...dang. It's bringing in another storm...sigh.

    Stay warm PG!

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  25. Poor My Boy. He looks kind of cold and forlorn. Does he spend much time in his shelter?
    I love seeing the photos of Fritzy in the snow wearing her blanket. She looks so much like my Baby Doll in those photos.

    With our temps in the 30's during the day, the ground gets mushy, and then the temps drop down to the low's 20's at night and the ground freezes solid. And left behind are hoofprints and holes from the animals.
    I'm not sure what's worse, the frozen bumpy ground or the mucky wet ground.
    At least the frozen stuff doesn't threaten to cuck my boots off my feet right? lol!

    Stay warm!
    ~Lisa
    New Mexico

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  26. The smartest upgrade I ever made was running underground pipe below the frost line to my horse's water tank, and topping it with a frostless faucet. The tank had a nearby electrical heater mounted on the fence post (outside the fencing, where the horse could not get it). So I had ready water, no hoses to drain/thaw and lots of good water all winter. If I had added some good sand to counteract the mud, I would have really gotten it right. Well worth doing the plumbing work next summer. A friend did it for me; it wasn't complicated. Just required will...This was in central NM. Now I live in AK where I don't try to keep horses! Though people do.

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I love hearing from my readers!! I truly enjoy all of your feedback, advice, helpful tips, and stories. You all make me laugh and I learn so much from you, too. I will try to post replies to your comments as often as I can.

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