As I head off for this "vacation" that marks the end of a long, long year, I wanted to say thank you to my friends and colleagues at BSU. I've so enjoyed getting to know you all. Special appreciation goes out to Randy, Kathleen, Sherry, Phil, and Steve, for all the projects, papers, and powerpoints we've worked on together! Having you all to bounce ideas off of helped me make it through a difficult year. Not sure if I would have made it without our camaraderie. ( I hear Sherry's voice saying, "My Peeps!") Thank you, as well, to my professors who kept throwing reading, projects, and great paper/research ideas at me, to keep me busy and distracted! I'll be back January 1st, ready to hit it hard. That's fair warning, dear dissertation committee of mine. :) You know who you are. I hope!
 Far Pasture, December
| Winter has only just begun, and I'm convinced humans were not designed to live in this kind of climate! Yeesh. I have cold callouses on the tips of my fingers. Seriously! However, I do believe I've got systems worked out. The horses have a tank-de-icer that keeps their water just above freezing, which means they drink plenty of water. Colic can be a problem in cold weather, I've heard, if they aren't drinking water because it's so cold. They have plenty of hay, and beauteous inverted tire-feeders to keep the hay clean and fresh. I go out several times a day and rake the frozen manure in their stalls into piles so they aren't hurting themselves on the frozen golf-balls of manure. Giovanna is wearing her blanket, and Ber is wearing his thick hair.
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My only concern at this point is hooves. They build up these ice balls in their feet, which makes them walk around like they're on stilts or high heels. I know, horses in the wild were fine. But these aren't wild horses, they're domesticated. And Ber has very thin soles. So he's hurting. After searching all the remedies, I tried spraying their cleaned-out hooves with WD-40. Miracle of miracles, it helps. The ice pops out rather than adhering to their soles like it's glued in. And it seems that spraying once or every other day works good. But Ber may need to go into boots or padded somethings, because he's walking like an old, old man. I now understand why he was so lame, for so long, this spring and summer--must have done some major solar bruising last winter when we moved up here. I'm prepared to give him the summer off to heal, once we move back to Humboldt.
As far as the rest of winter preparation goes, Jetta stays in the garage, but even then, morning start ups are tough. Once she gets going, though, it's all good. The house is warm enough, though the static electricity is impressive. I see arcs and sparks! Now that the snow and ice has settled in, I feel pretty isolated out here, but not in a bad way. It's very quiet.
OH, the copper pipes leading to my washing machine popped Wednesday night. I came home at 6 pm to a flood going across the washroom and down the stairs to the basement where all the electrical/furnace/etc are. Took me a while to find the water shut off. Since it was down in the basement, with the flood, I shut off the main breaker for the house before going down. I was so scared of getting electrocuted. I know it was probably a long shot, but better safe than sorry. Seen too many movies, I think. Anyway, got the water shut off, and cleaned up the water (swept it out the back door, turning the steps and deck into a sheet of ice, as the water froze almost as soon as it hit!) and mopped up with towels. The entry rug to the washroom is still sitting on the deck in an oddly contorted, frozen shape. Not sure if I'll get to use it again before May!
Plumber came out, and he was a nice fellow. He was able to repair one pipe, but the other needed a new cap, and soldering just wasn't working- everything was too wet and the cap was too old. So he came back the next morning and finished. But he let me turn the electricity back on, so at least there was heat! I'm leaving keys with the people watching my horses while I'm gone, so they can check on the house. Ugh. Give me fog and rain any day. :)
I better start my packing and such. See you next year!!!! |
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