Diggin it

Well with temperatures rising overnight we had the deluge of snow slides off from the roof tops of our buildings. So Christmas morning I saw the forecast was for heavy rain and more melt...then freezing.

So it was time to get out the shovels and start digging out gates to different pens and paddocks. If I didn't, we'd have to use ice picks to get Mica's gate open in the next 24 hrs.

Next it was onto the young Dexter's gate. The skid steer got stuck in a real soft spot and we had to dig it out. The cows and this year's calves looked on.

We got fresh large bales to those who needed it and today we'll probably put out a corn fodder bale for them also.

The rain and winds swept in yesterday afternoon with thunder and lightening.

As hubby and I sat and watched a really odd movie called The Lobster, we heard the rest of the snow come storming off from our roof valleys.

Morris jumped off from the couch and ran around the house stiff legged and growling.

I have to admit, it was an unnerving sound.

Christmas is over and I'm ready to take on the rest of winter.

3 days of working in the rain

Last night or early this morning we had another round of storms that added about 2" of rain to an already soaked ground.

We had begun our 'winterizing' projects a week ago and worked earnestly at them for the past 3 days.  Yesterday we worked nearly all day in rain.

Coveralls are good to have in nasty weather.
We cleaned the Jack pen on the east side of the shed and then moved on to the south side and began to work.  
There was a lot of shovel work involved as we had to scrape away and clean along the shed wall and shovel under the metal panels.

The sky literally looked as though it were boiling on and off above us today. Gusts of wind would switch around in our hollow.  It rained off and on and we slowly plugged away.
At one time it felt as though it were hailing, but to me it looked an awful lot like sleet.

Bob liked his new paddock on the east side of the shed, he could poke his head around and watch us work.  I think he was smirking at us.  After all we were cleaning his old pen.

We finished Little Richard's pen and moved him off the tie out and into his nice comfy new pen.  He trotted around and did some fancy kicking and bucking to show us his pleasure before he got down and rolled.  He got up and pranced around his enclosure as if he'd just won the lottery.  Such is the life of a crop out mini.
We fondly refer to him as our Guard Pony and our Organic Weed Wacker.

Summer shot of Lil' Richard hard at work.

I'm tempted to train him to ride.  He would make a very hand pony-moped.

Soon hubby had the area cleaned and we restrung the electric wire.  By dark we had things ready so we can move Dinah.  Fred, Siera, and Mica will get their own paddock to share and the rest of the gals will move into their winter quarters perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

In the summer the equine are on 'summer' pasture and just before gun deer hunting season we move everyone much closer in for the winter.  We can keep a closer eye on all of our animals and the stock tanks can all be plugged in so the farm critters can have warmed water.

It is like a ritual each year.  Spring ... out.  Winter ... in.

Another year has passed.

Archived shots of the girls playing in their winter quarters.