I sometimes remember that we aren't even technically in Winter yet, and it blows my mind a little bit. We've been getting daytime temps in the 20's, lows in the single digits, freezing rain and snow and all of the crap associated with Winter. How can it possibly still be Fall?!
Today I got to battle with the water situation at the barn. Last week, the spigot we use met an untimely demise due to a very solid freeze. While it's out of commission, we are using the water connection on the neighbour's house. Lucy and Brantley share my 100-gallon Rubbermaid tub and it was getting pretty low, but when Maddy went to fill it this morning, she discovered the heaters hadn't been plugged in last night and all the tubs were frozen solid. She plugged them in and resolved to fill them later.
Well our little ponies must have been a thirsty bunch today, because they drank so much water out there that the heater was almost completely exposed by the time I got to the barn around noon. I just bought this thing and I know that is a really fast way to fry a heater, so I knew I had to fill the tub. No problem, even with the broken spigot, because I could connect our hose to the neighbour's house. I skated my way across the driveway, which is a sheet of ice, and grabbed the hose.
Oh wait, except it was 20 degrees today and whomever used the hose last time didn't drain it, and it was totally frozen! I was about ready to bang my head on the side of the barn, and of course I had cleaned and dumped the tub already, so now the horses had no water at all.
I called Kenny in desperation, and he came right over to the barn and filled the whole tub for me by hand with 5 gallon buckets!! I was so grateful. The water tub should be all set for another week or so and I hope by the time it needs filling again, we will be above freezing and able to use the hose.
I don't get it - what do you mean it's still fall? Isn't winter Dec, Jam and Feb for you guys? Summer is for us down here!
ReplyDeleteTechnically for us the first day of winter is Dec. 21!
DeleteYup, Tracy is right -- Winter doesn't even start according to the calendar until the 21st. Kind of crazy, though, because that's also the Winter solstice, and the days will start getting longer again. It doesn't really make sense to me!
DeleteOk you lot in the NH are just crazy people! :p
DeleteOk I've just googled it. I can't believe I've gotten to nearly 30 years of age and have never heard of other countries starting their seasons on the 21st!! That honestly blows my mind. It doesn't make sense. 0.o
DeleteI remember a really cold day where I was the night feeder that Someone had left the hose out and it froze solid. I had to carry 5 gallon buckets from the inside of the barn to the back pasture in the dark to fill a completely empty trough. That was a BAD day.
ReplyDeleteIt really dampens the holiday spirit, huh?! Maybe I should look into getting a heated hose.
DeleteIce... My one winter enemy!
ReplyDeleteDitto! I am glad I was smart enough to put snow pads on Lucy when she got her feet done last week, though!
DeleteThat's one reason I try to be the one to fill all the buckets so that I know the hose gets drained... I think it was the red head hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteI once had to carry buckets of water to an entire barn of horses when someone left the hose out and it froze. I was NOT happy.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain in more ways than I want to make public. One of my pet peeves is people not draining hoses in the winter. It takes about two minutes and it saves hours of work -_- I bought my own hose this week and keep it under lock and key... sad.
ReplyDelete