Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

 

Last night was the coldest we’ve experienced since moving up here almost 4 years ago. When I woke up around 3am, I checked the gauge and was shocked to see –12. I’m guessing that the wind chill lowered that another 6 degrees easily. Brrrr!

Poor Dobbie was happy to just step outside, do her business and come right back inside. She wanted to go to the barn with us, so I put her coat on, but she got stuck in the foot deep snow and had to be carried back to the house.

The goats, llamas and Apache fared much better, even though the barn, basically a three-sided shelter didn’t provide much protection because the wind was blowing in sideways from the east, which rarely ever happens up here. Our storms tend to blow in from the west or northwest.

The night before I laid a deep layer of straw on one side of their stalls, so they must have hunkered down together all night and they looked none the worse for wear this morning. Everyone felt warm and cozy underneath their thick wooly coats.

But we’ve never had our water buckets freeze completely solid, even before we bought electric buckets. Unfortunately the evil gophers destroyed all of our electric to the barn last summer and it’s too far to run electric cords up there, so we’re living like the pioneers and dealing with frozen water this winter.

And it was –5 degrees when we headed up to the barn this morning through the dense snow, with Ranchman John hauling the big blue camping water container filled with hot water, hoping we could melt the solid ice with the hot water. But it  proved impossible even when we tried using a hammer. So hubby was an unhappy camper, grumbling the entire time how his hands were frozen and how much he hated winter.

I’m sure Apache’s not fond of winter either and would rather lay out in the sun on a summer day, but she still gave me kisses and seemed happy to see me.

I’d rather not waste my energy on negativity when there’s a job to do, so we gave up on the frozen solid water buckets and I found a couple of empty feed tubs in the tack room and we filled them up with the warm water and placed them in Apache’s pen and the llamas and goats’ pen. I sent him back down to the house to thaw out (before he popped a vein from being a cranky pants) and I went about handing out hay to all the critters and making a warm grain mash for Apache, which she eagerly devoured after she had about 30 minutes of exercise running and gallivanting around in the paddocks, while I was setting everything up.

Of course, I did get some video and photos. I just love watching her run and play in the snow. Yesterday, not only was she bucking and running, but when she got down to the fence line we share with Val’s horses, Scout and Yalla! trotted over and Apache shook her head at them and reared up playfully. She looked like a wild mustang. So pretty!

I kept trying to get video of Apache running and playing at the bottom of the hill, but as soon as she’d see me she’d come running full tilt back up the hill toward me.

I have to admit that it’s a little disarming watching a 900 lb creature barreling it’s way straight toward you, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d stop in time before she ran right into me.

But I think it’s an honor that she eagerly runs to me like that. I’ve only owned Apache for a year and it took almost a year and half before my first horse Baby Doll did that, albeit in a 200 acre pasture with 5 other horses. Watch one of my favorite videos: 

It makes me laugh to see how she was giving the other horses her ‘Back off. That’s my human!’ face. lol!

It was lightly snowing this morning, even with the sun shining. And they’re calling for more snow showers throughout today, but I think the worst of the storm has moved on. Now if only it would warm up again soon. Brrr!

Here’s my Apache girl running up to me right after Ranchman John trudged back down to the house, growling and grumbling the entire way. I think Apache was glad to see him go. lol!