So, what's been happening on the farm you ask?  Well, it's been another crazy winter.  Just to give you an idea, let me recap the last few days.  We'll start with Wednesday night.  It rained...  a lot...  all night.  So Thursday morning when I went to the barn I definitely needed my Stabilicers!  Tapper and Becca had all they could do to come in for breakfast.  I wasn't sure they were going to make it without falling but after some very harrowing moments they both made it in safely.  Of course, with the paddocks all ice, nobody could go out that day.  I managed to spread some manure on the worst spots and hoped it would warm enough to melt some of the ice.  6 of the horses had light blankets or sheets on, and they were all soaked.  The horses were dry underneath, but the outsides of the blankets were saturated and the insides were all damp - so they had to come off.  They were so wet and heavy they felt like they weighed at least 30 pounds each!  I hung them all to dry,  told the horses I was sorry they couldn't go out but to get over it, and set it up so Tapper and Becca could roam around the barnyard, right in front of the barns and in the hall of the smaller barn (everyone else has a run in stall so they could get out a little).  Oh, and did I mention it had rained a lot???  So of course, I had water in the washroom and the tack room.  I had to spread bedding in the tack room to soak it all up.  AND...  the outlet for Tapper's stall needs to be replaced so I had to run an extension cord for her water bucket - sigh...

The winds on Thursday and Thursday night were incredible, and the temperature dropped all day so I had to find blankets for at least Tapper and Dolly overnight.  I brought a few down from the house and managed to find sheets that fit the 2 of them.  Everyone else did without Thursday night, but they all had shelter from the wind so they were ok.  I had to flip all the hanging blankets inside-out so the inside would dry (the outsides dryed during the day Thursday). 

By Friday, the paddocks were still icy but not as bad, and the horses were able to go back out , carefully.  They all went slowly and picked their way around the ice - except for Ketu who decided to just run as fast as he could to get to the hay bags and since luckily he still has his winter shoes he did ok...  I ran some errands after moving the tree that fell across the driveway - high winds, remember?  Oh, and I had to wait a few minutes on Middle Rd. because the town crew was just finishing up clearing the tree that fell across that road.  Friday night everbody got their (now dry) blankets back on and Saturday was thankfully pretty uneventful - if cold - except for 2 things.  First was Ivan, who had managed to take down one line of his fence for the 3rd time this week!  He doesn't break anything, just somehow manages to get it off the insulator.  I changed it this time when I fixed it so hopefully that's the last time.  The 2nd thing was that Jazz and Scotty managed to get one of their small hay bags off the wall and outside on the ground.  After eating all the hay, SOMEBODY peed on it!!!  Yuck!

It's now Sunday morning, and I'll be heading to the barn in a few minutes.   I'll write some more when I come back inside...

Well Brrrrr!!!  It was zero degrees this morning, same as yesterday morning.  It's been colder, I think the lowest so far this year was -17.  Anyway, more news below.  Stay warm!

(By the way, the above pics are all from the last 2 days.  I love the one of Starlight and Dolly making witchy ears at each other...)

 

 

 

Cami:   As most of you know, Cami made it to New Orleans and was reunited with Kathi.  Kathi let her settle in for a while, but now she has her jumping again and she's doing great!  Hopefully she'll get some new pics to me soon.  This one is from just after Cami arrived at her new home.

 Shady/Wrenn:  So, remember how I told you that Shady was being a lesson horse?  Well, that actually didn't work so well because she was a little too much horse for the beginners to handle.  So her owner sold her - to one of her students who absolutely LOVES her!!!!!!!  M. is a high school student who has been riding and competing for many years.  She has renamed Shady - she's now called Wrenn.  She did some eventing this summer and Wrenn did really well in both cross country and stadium jumping portions as you can see in the pics (doesn't she look amazing???).  She needs more work on the dressage portion of the event but considering this was her first summer showing like this she did pretty well.  She also gets in lots of trail rides and fun, like swimming with her owner in the photo.  M. hops on her bareback sometimes and lies back and reads a book while just hanging out.   Wrenn couldn't have a more perfect home and I'm thrilled for her!!!

 

Recognize the handsome guy on the right?????
It's Roo!  This picture is from summer 2012.  He's doing great, still with Elaine in PA (of course). If you want to see more of him, Elaine has made a video from last summer.  The link below will hopefully get you there. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elainetweedy/8435662153/



 This coming Friday (Feb. 8th) is Rosy's birthday!!!  She turns 8 this year.  Hard to believe she was once such a tiny little puppy...  And yes, she had a pink nose with black spots and as she grew, the spots filled in and her nose is all black now.