Snow and Ice This Time!

Inclement weather was predicted Thursday. It didn't start until the end of school, so there was no chance of a cancellation or a delay. I was happy about that for once. I had stuff I needed kids to learn!

It made it a lot colder to take Loki out at night for our bedtime pee (I need more practice spelling my name out in the snow).

Friday morning, we were covered.

They even cancelled school.....even though there was no school. They cancelled office hours but not the 3 hours of meetings already on the schedule (and I did an hour and a half of office hours anyway). 

The snow was pretty to look at off in the fields.

But it was a gross muck wherever the horses were.

The equines melt and churn the ground into a muddy, pock-marked bog.

I noticed Eddy walking funny and took a closer look at his hooves.

I picked up his foot and pulled this frozen hunk of mess out of it. The lots are littered with the like.

This is why we have to close off the pastures when it's too wet. The horses will damage the fields and have less grass to graze on. Which leads to a messier dry lot, going through a ton of hay, and more work for me, but it seems the smaller price to pay than ripping up the pastures before the other seasons have a chance.

The snow started to clear up a little, but Saturday there was freezing rain. 

It looked like the ice downed a tree across the way. 

It coated the electric fence lines. You always worry about power outages with ice, but we managed to avoid that.

Overall, the ice didn't slow us down. It was mostly crunchy and broke underfoot. The only places I had to slow down on were hills and only found a few places of true ice. 

It would have been a very different story if the temperature had dropped a few degrees. We were right on the cusp of horrific road conditions, but lucked out.

Those few degrees saved the road, but didn't change how ugly it was outside for everyone stuck out in it. I soaked my gloves and coat multiple times. Some of the horses had icicles hanging off their blankets.

Barn chores - They keep you busy. I couldn't scoop poop at first, so that was a bombshell I got to work on Sunday (I got 5 buckets full of wet poop out of the boy's lot alone...).

Maddy helped make up for the time I would've gained not scooping. Carrie's had her on stall rest since her shot. She had made her a new temporary lot so Eowyn wouldn't run her while she recovered, but she didn't want to leave Maddy in it for the snow and ice.

That meant a pissed off pony. Maddy pawed the ground and kicked her door every time I made food. Yet, she didn't like her medicine, so she sometimes refused to finish it.

I started to mix in hay with the dregs to make sure she got what she needed.

Maddy is a queen mess-maker, so I ended up stripping no less than three stalls over the week. 

I listened to a lot of Dice Tower. I caught up with all there Top 100 podcasts from January. 

Loki kept me company, too.

He doesn't like to be alone in the snow, but he was more than happy to be outside as long as someone was with him.

And it's not like the snow was high enough to cause other issues.

It was funny to see Loki run through the snow before it melted down. 

He's always got a little bit of a hop in how he runs, but it was exaggerated in the snow.

But all the wet weather made for a filthy, filthy, dog.

I hated to do it, but he needed a bath desperately by Saturday night!

Everything should be clear enough for school Monday morning. The snow came just in time to give me some good photographs at the cost of extra work throughout the weekend. I like snow, but I've had my fill for this calendar year. I'm ready for spring!