Ducks 4 in '24

[ducks4you]

Dunno about you, but I am willing to enter online contests. I entered one for the Gardening Tower Project, an expensive indoor hydroponic growing tower.
I received 3 emails pressing me to collect bc I won 3rd place. Here was the email:

​ Congratulations:​ Betty, your registered giveaway entry (xxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com) was selected for third place:​

​ ​ THIRD PLACE: Exclusive $100 web store discount towards a Garden Tower® 2 and Free Heirloom Seed Packet + Seed Saving Ebook Betty your Unique $100 Discount Code: F86VC2TN Must be redeemed on or before Sunday, February 11th, 2024.​

Really?!?!? Sounds SO MUCH like when Ralphie decoded with his Little Orphan Annie decoder, and the message was:
Drink.your.Ovaltine.

ANYBODY that wants to use my discount code and buy this...go for it.
I was only interested in winning one.

Garden Tower 2™, 50-Plant Composting Vertical Garden Planter

The composting 50 plant accessible Garden Tower® 2 is the perfect vertical garden planter for organic balcony, urban, and indoor vegetable and herb gardening. Recently named the “Worlds Most Advanced Vertical Garden Planter”, it features food-grade American made non-toxic components...

www.gardentowerproject.com

 

[ducks4you]

With the blue heated hose toast, and it's still connected, frozen, the red heat hose, which I Think is still heating, I am filling water buckets in my basement, carrying them 5 1/2 steps up to the landing between the 2 basement doors, then up and over the 10 inch high threshold, THEN, carrying them to the barn, 2x/day.
I can only fill them up 1/2-way, else I cannot carry them, so I half fill 4 buckets 2x/day.
It is just enough for the ponies, who are Still captive in their stalls. Everyone seems ok. My mare has been laying down a lot, but she gets up for hay and water and hay, water and sweet feed, and the bedding is still pretty dry.
I have been dropping down 3 bales/hay every few days to save my knees from climbing up to the loft, which is a set of steep stairs, not a fireman's ladder.
I have plenty of hay, plenty of bedding.
I am now shopping for a new heated hose. Just about ready to order it.
Tomorrow's high is 22 degrees F. I should be able to pour boiling water over where the two hoses are connected so that I can separate them and use the red hose again. It's only 40 ft long, but easier to use than climbing the basement stairs a couple of times a day.
We got our typical dusting of snow, no need to shovel, only had to sprinkle icemelt on the top step of the side entrance. The back door opens onto a flat cement pad, no extra steps.
Better than a sheet of ice...
Hopefully my knees/legs will be better this year, what with no allergic reaction to clothes washed with Downey Unstoppables.
Even 2 years ago I had no trouble toting full water buckets to the barn from the fenceline, where the blue heated hose used to reach.
One good thing--R knee has pretty much stopped snapping. Now I have a pulled muscle back and right of right knee.
My language as I carry water is as blue as the sky. Eva is my only witness.

 

[ducks4you]

SUCCESS!! I got the blue hose disconnected from the red heat hose, which is still kicking out heat!
I was able to fill buckets this morning close to the Inner Sanctum gate and carry FULL buckets to the barn!!

 

[ducks4you]

MORE BETTER SUCCESS!!! I just ordered the last Pirit 100 ft heat hose, with a thermostat and it keeps the water going to -40 degrees F, a temperature that I have Never experienced here.
Went online and this was top of the line recommended. 100 ft will take the hose just outside of the barn.
I bought the last one (locally) in stock, and I am picking it up tonight.
Wish it wasn't white--it will disappear in a snowstorm.
I will keep the red one, and store it.

 

[heirloomgal]

MORE BETTER SUCCESS!!! I just ordered the last Pirit 100 ft heat hose, with a thermostat and it keeps the water going to -40 degrees F, a temperature that I have Never experienced here.
Went online and this was top of the line recommended. 100 ft will take the hose just outside of the barn.
I bought the last one (locally) in stock, and I am picking it up tonight.
Wish it wasn't white--it will disappear in a snowstorm.
I will keep the red one, and store it.

Maybe you could wrap some of that colored red vinuyl or electrical tape around a few places on the hose so you can find it if it gets buried?

 

[ducks4you]

Good thought! Actually, it's blue. I was thinking about the other one, that I Didn't buy.
I was so surprised to find a good one locally. The blue one that died recently was a $200 model that was a Christmas present some 8 years ago, and there weren't many on the market.
Now, the price has gone down and they are many extra features.
I know that the power cord won't reach the outside outlet, but I have a weather proof cord cover to use for an extension cord.
I can wait until tomorrow morning to switch them out.
It's hard to part with~$300, but I really cannot manage climbing 5 1/2 steps with buckets of water, although I used to do it.
Ponies are pretty much dry and comfortable. Buster Brown might need some more pine pellets in his stall tonight. Neighbor kid is coming over Saturday to strip stalls.

 

[SPedigrees]

FINALLY found a new farrier!! He came out and trimmed everybody today. I don't have a "before" for my mare, but she was terribly long and overgrown in the front. Here is the "after" photo.
Funny, Buster Brown behaved better than Cup and Cakes...

Looking good! And your boots too!

 

[baymule]

When WINTER shows up here, I carry half full buckets of boiling water for the sheep. It’s a pain. When I build a barn, I’m going to run power and water to it. Heated water buckets sound like heaven to me.

 

[ducks4you]

You might consider a heated hose.

 

[flowerbug]

Maybe you could wrap some of that colored red vinuyl or electrical tape around a few places on the hose so you can find it if it gets buried?

or spend a few hundred for some of that big black drain tube stuff to put it in to protect it from everything else that wants to eat it, mow through it, trample and otherwise turn it into leaky irrigation hosery.