When it's brutaly cold and you have horses... and fire wood :-)

This is NOT a posting about "horses" per se.  It's about what the human(s) have to go through so the horses stay OK.  Horses by design, are cold weather, VERY cold weather animals... When it's -18F (yup minus 18 and that's NOT the wind chill), they still need to eat and even more joyous, get water...

So around Table Rock Quarter Horses this is a brief idea of what kind of misery one can encounter.

When it's this cold outside, even with insulated coveralls and Sorrel boots, well you're just NOT going to stay warm, or for that matter get warm (outside).  Just a mild wind plunges the "wind-chill" value into the minus 40s or 50s. 

The first and most obvious thing is neither truck, the van, the semi or the tractor will start. The old propane John Deere however does start, it's at the 80 acres 4 miles away.  The diesel pickups have an engine block heater, BUT we never use them and they are parked too far way from the house to get electricity. The barn tractor, despite the "glow plug" and ether (engine starter fluid) just doesn't get up enough RMP to fire off.

Just one little bit of water in a 100' hose, blocks the whole thing. With the hose not only blocked but as hard as a (trying to think of something polite) fence post, it's a LONG cold battle to get one into the house and thawed. FORTUNATELY over the years I've learned this lesson and I did have the hoses completely drained, thank goodness... Just an interesting observation, without water tank heaters over 2 inches of ice forms overnight when it's this cold. Four inch thick ice will support a car.

The electric garage door opener will not lift or lower the garage door. It is kinda old but it's been working OK until now. I think the door binds because of ice in the rollers. Now it is completely dead...

I have a 1300 pound bale of alfalfa in the driveway that I can't move because the tractor won't start. I don't want to open it or it'll never move, it will just turn into a pile of "lawn clippings" and it's no where near the horses.

I do have some 70 pound bales stored in the barn for just this kind of emergency BUT that's not the real issue. The "small" bales still have to be hauled from the barn in the cold, wind and snow, BUT still not the issue...

What  is the issue? would you believe Bambi, his mother, father, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, his friends, their friends.  All in all a herd of about 60 including some pretty good size bucks, complete with antlers... They all stand around in the driveway "arguing" about who's going to eat off the 1300 (soon to be 1000) pound bale of alfalfa.  I still haven't figured it out, three days before one doe and her two fawns were taking tiny nibbles and being VERY peaceful, three days later the whole herd. How did they all know? the doe tell 'em? I guess it really doesn't matter BUT if they get use to feeding here they'll start defending the food source... no thanks...

To make matters worse a small herd of elk have been through, leaving the fence in tatters as they just run right through it, Bambi and company at least try and jump over it. How do I know, Elk prints... I guess I should point out santas reindeer tracks to the kids huh? hmmm.

Now for the firewood. we rarely burn the stove as we've had little kids around for years and it's just too dangerous.  Plus the heat will drive you out of the house if it's not REAL cold outside (it is).  So I trudge down to where I DIDN'T decide to store the wood, and bring some back to the garage. I managed one load as my feet froze. I must say that it sure made it toasty in the house... I am however going  to move the wood back to where I decided to store it... 

Ahh now the best part. Every day, 365 days a year, 7-8:00 in the morning, then again around 4:30 in the evening (it gets dark at 5:00). Feed the equine friends... It's a Looong boring story, feel free to visit for a first hand look... I won't even make you help.

The real good thing is that this was not a SNOW event for us, maybe a couple inches of fine powder, not really a wind event either. A little wind when it wasn't snowing so no big deal.  IF it had been a snow event, I'd STILL be digging out the firewood, stored where I DIDN'T decide to store it.