Mule Attitude

So the big snow is occurring. I don't think it is going to be a 5 to 10 inch snowfall here, however ... the 'event' is not supposed to end until this evening.

I added bedding and hay to Sven's indoor pen. I considered shutting the door to his pen but the other day when I did have it closed he 'locked' himself out. He has access to a rather large area outside and spends most sunny days observing his Kingdom from a mound.

Here Charlie is checking for yummy goat poo.

I loaded a huge hay net for Mica and Sunshine to put in the large stall I built.

Suffice to say that Mica turned into an evil beast when I put her in the stall and put Sunshine in with her for company. She kicked at Sunshine and shoved her around.
I think a few factors entered into this. Mica has a paddock next to the shed and I separated her about a month ago from the others. She has Sven on one side of her and Little Richard on the other. I've been giving her a bit of sweet feed twice a day.
One: Mica wasn't in Sunshine's herd anymore.
Two: Mica preferred Little Richard and Sven to Sunshine's company
Three: Sweet Feed has helped her maintain her weight but has not helped her attitude.

Hmm. I may have to start thinking about using some beet pulp.

Anyway, I got them calmed down and dumped the hay out of the net and separated it into the far corners of the large stall.
Meanwhile, the storm did rage on outside with high winds and blowing snow.

The other mules huddled around their piles of snow and then disappeared into the woods to get out of the stinging winds and snow.

Morning:

Sundance says good morning!

Fred. No good morning.

Get my breakfast!

Fred is 33 yrs old.

Siera and 15

These two are nearly inseparable.

The Breakfast Club

This morning it was obvious that Mica feuded with Sunshine all night. Sunshine was dry as a bone and calm. Mica was sweaty and high strung. I had to tie Mica up in order to take Sunshine back out to the pasture.

Sunshine met up with her herd mates, and walked calmly into the bigger pasture and took a snow bath.

I brushed Mica and fluffed her coat. I walked her quite a bit in the shed to cool her off and at times she wanted nothing to do with me. Once I put her out in her paddock she went and stood by where she gets her morning sweet feed and paced the hot wire.
I ignored her and put out hay.

I'm happy to report that she is back to her peaceful self. I'm guessing the old saying that sometimes when you try to be super nice to a mule, it backfires on you.

Cold as a...well

My mom used to have a saying about that. It was not really printable, but it included a Well Digger and his rear end, if you get my drift.

I was rather productive yesterday. Cleaning the house, cleaning the stall, making Wild Soup [that includes Bart Beef]. I used canned tomatoes from my 2018 garden along with good helping of dehydrated corn, green beans, morel mushrooms, and some wild rice and squash to thicken things up like a stew.

The mist that fell yesterday made the driveway and mud into icy walkways. I could have gone to CrossFit, but decided with the dense fog to stay home and do all those homey things I didn't do over the weekend. Besides, I thought Rich would enjoy my company after I was gone for two days.

Funny. He was rather irritated that I vacuumed when he had decided to sit and watch NCIS of some form. I just did it. If I can't clean when he is napping or watching TV, then the house would remain dirty all of the time.

I came up with a brilliant plan for Lil' Richard the tiny pony. I moved him to another paddock that I'd made with a tarp for overhead shelter. When the winds decided to gust up to 30 mph it became a poor idea. He didn't really react much to it, but wouldn't get under the flapping thing for shelter.
I ditched the tarp until I can think of a way to make it work better.

OH! So...I should say that I shouldn't complain about the 'stuff' my husband accumulated, as some of that stuff came in handy yesterday.

I went back in the piles of odd pieces of plywood leftover from construction and found two pieces that were not square but would provide Lil' Richard with a wind break.
I got the cordless drill out and drilled holes in the plywood so I could attach it to the metal panels. I used old twine string to tie it to the panels.
The difference those pieces made in Mr. Pony's comfort was amazing. I stood behind the plywood while adjusting to it and was much warmer than I would have been in the wind!

I'm going to grab another scrap piece of plywood and make a little temporary roof for him since the tarp worked out badly.

Lil' Richard also gets to enjoy the indoor stall once in a while but with the cold spell coming on, I have pretty much reserved it for Mica who is a 'hard' keeper. Mica and Sunshine don't seem to appreciate the indoor accommodations much. They are rather restless in the morning when I get ready to do chores.
But at least I can halter the both of them up and they lead quite nicely together down the driveway to the gate and out to the wooded pasture.

The temperatures are at zero, the wind chill is supposed to be something like -10, but the sun is shining and all my critters are out sunning themselves as they eat their hay.

I do love living in a 'hollow'. The cold winds don't always get down here and when the sun shines, it is very pleasant.

I must say, I was pretty darned proud of my hillbilly solution to the windbreak.
Hmmm.

The Big Shed

Update:

This is the area that needed to be cleared out.

There used to be an indoor stall here but at some point Rich decided that this would be where he stacked lumber and hay. He took 4X4's and made a floor for the hay and stacked sheets of plywood against the wall. At some point, he decided to stack the pieces of a large cabinet he purchased at some auction for future use.
It has resided there for about 9 years.
The cabinet will never be built so it had to go too.

Close up of the stack of metal...

I purchased some masks to wear over my face as there was a lot of hay chaff and bird poo, mouse poo, and dust over everything.

The plywood was moved just to the left. I started to pull up the boards that Rich had screwed together. I wished he had used nails as it would have made the job easier to take it all apart.

No matter. He'd coached me well over the years on how to take 'stuff' apart.

With some elbow grease and a lot of pulling and pounding, I got the boards all apart.

The stall will be 12' by 16'. The rings are still in the supports for attaching the 12 foot panels.

Here is what it looked like in 2008 when Sunshine had to be placed on stall rest for a collateral knee ligament injury.

This 'stall' will house the elder mules together with plenty of room for them to bicker.
Neither mule will tolerate being in a shed/barn alone. So I am banking on the fact that they will keep each other company on those horrible days we get.

It rained and blew all of yesterday, but I got the rest of the metal pieces loaded into the skid steer bucket and started to drag the pieces that didn't fit to the 'metal' pile where it can sit until we have an auction.

This weekend I should have help to set up the panels and secure them. I will be prepared to keep Fred [Circa 30 something] and Mica [25 yrs old] on their special feed and help them maintain weight without fighting the elements.

Well, that is my best laid plans so far.
I'll be working on the rest of the shed all winter. Organizing the thousands of piles of bolts and other items. I need to make room also to put the riding mower and the 4 wheeler inside where I can use the trickle charger on their batteries once a month.

Lots of work to do!