It’s official, this storm broke a 40-year old record. I knew it was bad! Here are this morning’s pictures – 6 more inches overnight!
We are expecting about 4 more inches today. And keep in mind the ice layer packed down the first snow layer, so it was probably even more than this!
Poor trees couldn’t handle the weight of the snow and ice. There is a picture of this tree leaning yesterday if you scroll down.
I can’t get anywhere near the horses because of the weather, so you’re getting a storm update instead. I had almost a foot of snow, and then came a nice thick layer of ice over all that. I’m housebound because chains are required on all vehicles, but I did get out on foot and take some pictures. Here you go:
This one was from yesterday morning when it was just getting started.
My poor Christmas tree this morning, buried under snow and ice. Believe it or not, that thing is potted – you just can’t see the pot.
Look how the snow piled up on the fence – this is fascinating!
Side yard.
Look how far that tree is leaning due to the weight of the snow and ice. Everything is so heavy that trees are breaking and power lines are going down. My power company currently has 40,000 customers without power, but luckily I’m not among them (yet). One grocery store without power is taking the milk outside to keep it cool!
This is a piece of ice that was covering the snow on my driveway. I tried to shovel, but the ice is breaking into large pieces that are hard to scoop up, and when I do get it scooped up, if I don’t throw it all the way over the drifts I made when I shoveled yesterday, it just slides right down the hard surface of the drifts and back onto the driveway! I gave up without getting much done!
There are 3 of those large cedar planters under all the snow!
Here are some videos of my poor dog trying to get around in this mess!
And more ice keeps coming down:
Now the good birds are starting to come out: flickers and woodpeckers!
And this is a picture of the branch on my cherry tree, and the ice on it is thicker than the branch itself:
My poor pup usually drinks out of a little pond in my backyard, but today it’s covered in a bunch of snow and ice. He went out to get his drink and had to use his paw to break through the ice and then nosed a little tunnel through the snow. He did a lot of licking, but I’m guessing he just got snow because the ice on the top of the pond was pretty thick yesterday.
Natty and Chance wish to thank Auntie Alisa for creating this lovely card for them!
Natty and Chance are living in a winter wonderland right now. It’s beautiful and snowy where they are. I can’t quite get there in my car but did get within walking distance today before I got stuck, so I was able to check up on them. They seem to be doing quite well, and they are behaving themselves with all the fun new stuff like water trough heaters and blankets. I’m sorry I didn’t get any new pictures because it really was beautiful with all that snow and all the Christmas trees around them snow-covered, but I forgot to pick up my camera when I left the stuck car and started hiking up the road… Maybe next storm I’ll think ahead and leave the camera in the barn and ask someone else to take pictures for me!
It was snowing today! Not sticking while I was there, but plenty in the air. Chance didn’t seem to notice – I guess the snow needs to steal his pasture before he’ll take notice… Here are the pics:
I’m pretty sure Natty is thinking, “good god, woman, some days I miss the PMU ranch!”
The eyes in this last one just scream, “I’m gonna get you for this someday!”
These last two pictures aren’t from today but are fun to see how much Natty’s color changes throughout the year.
Here’s one from last Thursday:
and here’s one from mid-July with a similar angle:
Turns out the first night apart didn’t end as smoothly as I had thought. When it came time for turnout, Natty went out first as usual, and then Chance just ran right over the poor man trying to turn him out and made a bee-line for his mama. That little stinker knows better than to act like that! He tried the same thing again the next morning, but they were ready for him so he didn’t get away with it. This afternoon, I had Chance out by himself because he hadn’t had much attention since I started riding Natty. I walked him down the driveway for the first time since the scary encounter with cars a few weeks back. He hesitated a few times, but he walked the whole way with me, even when a car went by. Meanwhile, Natty was flying around the paddock and calling us. She worked up a good sweat today! Chance and I did some trotting in hand today for about 3 laps up and down the driveway, and he did a wonderful job! He’s so light on the lead rope – he stayed right with me and didn’t crowd me or pull or try to buck at all. He only broke into a canter once and dropped back into the trot immediately when I asked him to. Right turns need some work, but I was very proud of how well he did today. He has long legs, so I was hard-pressed to get a really extended trot, but he paced right with me. He has the prettiest Morgan tail set. I found one of his relatives, a purebred Morgan colt from the same lines also born this spring, on Dreamhorse, and the similarity between the two colts was amazing. He’s such a beautiful, sweet boy. And he hasn’t chewed his stall at all, knock on wood! Neither stall shows any signs of horsie damage. Natty did dump her water bucket the first night (into the feeder naturally) but neither horse has even made a water mess since the first night. I added two more toys to the center of the stalls tonight – a milk jug with holes cut in it filled with berry treats for them to shake out and another string of turnips (actually strung this time instead of just wrapped up). Hopefully they’ll play with thoe tonight.
They survived their first night in separate stalls just fine – no visible damage to horses or stalls. I looked over everything really closely, and I don’t even see any teeth marks, which is great. Their water buckets have been relocated to the far sides of the stalls from their feeders, though! These horses love to make hay smoothies with their water, and the sides of the feeders are pretty wet and nasty from last night. Now they’ll have to carry those mouthfuls of water a lot farther to spit them out in the feeders. Natty’s bag was pretty engorged today after her night without nursing. She was a little fussy about letting Chance nurse, so I bet she’s probably uncomfortable. She gave him a squeal and two-footed kick at one point, so I think she’s starting to look at him more as another horse and less as her baby. Hopefully she’ll dry up quickly and he won’t keep trying to nurse. They both had quite a bit of hay left in their feeders after breakfast, so I think their appetites were a little off due to the new living arrangement. I carried some of the leftover hay out to their shelter so they could munch this afternoon. I’m glad they did so well in their own stalls last night!
Natty and Chance’s second calendar is now available. This one benefits the MareStare Cares group that helps people pay vet bills after problem foalings. Natty and Chance are in it because they won third place in MareStare’s Beautiful Baby Photo Contest (Mommy and Me category). Here’s the link to buy a calendar:
http://www.lulu.com/content/5200877
I had a lovely ride on Natty today. We went around the pasture several times again, and today she trotted for me! This is a real accomplishment for the laziest mare alive. Somehow, when I ride her, Chance is the only one who gets a workout. Natty has a nice, quick trot, and posting doesn’t seem to bother her at all (as usual). She is getting to understand better what I want, so as long as we are out and about, she’ll keep moving for me. In the arena, she still won’t budge.
After our ride, I took the horses to check out their brand new stalls! These were just completed this afternoon, and they are so pretty that I really hate to put the horses in them. Cross your fingers they don’t mess them up! Anyway, this is the first night mama and baby will stay in separate stalls, so Chance won’t be able to nurse. They can still nuzzle each other, though, so hopefully they will stay on their own sides (should I start a pool on whether or not one of them jumps in with the other?). My vet thinks keeping them in separate stalls at night to prevent Chance from nursing will help a lot with Natty’s weight loss and also get Chance almost weaned before they are totally separated (which I can’t really do right now). When I left them, they both seemed pretty calm and were eating their hay (Natty was reaching over trying to get Chance’s). They had both made messes by taking big swigs of water and drooling them out all over the place, and Natty had sloshed her bucket on purpose and did a fair amount of pawing on the rubber mats, but other than that they seemed fine. Cross your fingers they handle this first night of separation well! Here are the pictures from today – Natty is very dark red these days and Chance is huge. I have more pictures of Chance in the stall because it was getting dark before they were done and I put Natty in, too.
Checking out the center divider wall – think he can make it over?
Beautiful boy looking at a dog in the Christmas tree field next door. The next picture is the view from Chance’s stall. They look across the arena at the Christmas tree field and then on to the forest. Pretty nice, huh?
I hung some toys between the stalls where they can play with them and swing them around. This next picture shows Natty reaching over the wall into Chance’s feeder – the big pig has a feeder-full herself!
And here are some outdoor shots:
These next few are the view – Natty and Chance live in a beautiful place. The butte in the background has trails and there are more trails the other direction.
