Baymule’s Farm

[ducks4you]

Welllllll...heated hose is frozen at the end!!
It's the combination of below zero temperatures AND 25mph winds.
I had to carry 1/2 buckets of water from the basement this morning for the ponies. I will do the same in a few hours.
For those who say why? Because livestock can colic if they don't get water.
My boys could probably miss a week of hay, but that would lead to colic, too.
I have been throwing straw in their stalls and you let Them break up the flakes and spread it around.
The stalls look dry and pleasant.
They should get turned out by the weekend.
The hose will be working by Thursday. Some sun and temperatures in the 20's will make that happen.
The experts tell you to get them warm water, but with their coats and fat winter time bodies they can handle cold water. And, that's not possible in my knee condition, where I have to be extra careful where I step outside.
I also threw out the kitchen garbage and got the big cat to the street. When my help dug us out, he cleared the snow over the "sidewalk to nowhere" which starts at my driveway and that's where the pickup trash can has been going.
I took the time to dump the water and ice out of their small portable 30 gallon water tank and put it upside down. Won't have to buy a replacement that has cracked from ice.

 

[baymule]

Pictures of my very own personal snow storm. Yeah, kinda pitiful. But 50 miles south of me clear to the coast got slammed. Well, slammed for Texas. LOL

The South is having problems. News showed a blizzard in NEW ORLEANS! It will be 18 degrees here tonight but In Beaumont, right on the coast, low of 11 degrees tonight. That 11 degrees is sweeping across Louisiana. Those poor people aren’t any better prepared for that kind of cold plus snow, than we are. I feel fortunate that the snow stayed south of me.

I’ll be back on the Boiling Water Bucket Brigade tomorrow morning.

 

[baymule]

It’s 18F this morning, that’s real cold for East Texas. No fun! Still dark outside, I’ll be hauling buckets of boiling water to thaw out the buckets so sheep can get a drink.

 

[ducks4you]

Dunno about sheep, but keeping horses hydrated is VITAL. I am not an expert in everything horse, BUT, in June I will have owned horses through 39 winters.
A horse is a very tough animal. I own 3 HD horse blankets. They live on a shelf in my grain room and are covered in dust bc I rarely use them.
I would only use a blanket if my horse is ill and it's cold, OR winter trailering.
UNLESS you show your horse and have a winter clip there is
ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO BLANKET YOUR HORSE IN THE WINTER!
I keep my horses out of their stalls in the Fall and early winter until absolutely necessary. They can grow a coat in 3 days, grow a heavy coat in one month and all you do when you blanket in the winter is to make them sweat and give them a chill.
PLEASE don't blanket your horse in the winter just bc all of your friends do this.
I have stalls and a 16 1/2' x 19' shelter. My horses tough it through very cold and very hot and very wet and very dry.
The one way to kill a horse is to mess with their digestive systems and food that is too rich, too high in protein, and chronic lack of water will make them colic, which is an extremely painful twisting of their intestines, and if they can't be walked out of it, they die a slow and painful death.
THIS is why I have been carrying water from my basement to the barn 2x/day in this extreme cold.
Just FYI...