Historic Cold (The Stretch!)

School's out, so barn work is in.

However, a layer of frost sprouted on all the gear. The metal wasn't surprising, but the wood!?

It was a historic cold streak. Fashion sense went out the window. The name of the game was "Layers, layers, layers!" 

I remembered to take a few screenshots here and there to memorialize the occasion.

I was curious what a negative wind chill felt like, so one night I went outside with the dogs for the final bathroom break. I didn't put on a coat or any extra gear and my teeth started to tremble and threaten to clatter after a minute!

The cold weather meant extra work around the barn. Water buckets would freeze SOLID if left out.

We learned to store them in the tack room at night. Otherwise, we needed to dump and refill them every time we did chores.

We had to be careful with the spigots, too. We switched to using the portable water heater. We could roll it out, heat up some water, and then quickly re-store it when done. I learned the hard way one not to pull it out early one day. It froze in minutes. 

In the fields, we had to keep an eye on the automatic waterers. To avoid wet gloves, I would remove ice chunks by hand (which I typically saved for last, because wet hands in freezing weather isn't pleasant). 

You can be sure we put Shane to use! Hard work isn't fun as a kid, but it builds character. Hopefully, he remembers how annoying the cold was over break. That way the next time we have a freeze he can say, "It was worse that time and I survived!"

We worked as a unit each morning for the AM chores. I usually went out solo for night chores, but I wouldn't scoop poop. We'd tackle that as a team the following morning.

The fields are all closed and the horses are locked in the dry lots, so we're going through a lot more hay. Horses eat "to run their engine and stay warm" (Carrie). 

We would have loved to travel for Christmas, but Pop was still recovering from his transplant. The cruise was Shane's birthday and Christmas present, so we didn't have a large gift pile waiting for him Christmas morning.

But Carrie did get him something functional! She was tired of having three works and only two pitchforks!