Tuesday, December 28
Dec. 29th, 2021 01:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
An ever so slight relief from the cold temperatures. It was around -25C instead of -30 ish C. That might sound like not much of a difference, but you can actually feel that it is not quite as awful when you breathe, and it's not as bad on your fingers. There is a feeling of slipping into a noticeably different zone at -30C. The smaller animals like the goats can do okay at -25C, but not below -30C. I WORRY at below -30C.
The nice thing about having a proper house now, with a proper basement, is that the water/plumbing shouldn't freeze up unless the power goes out for a long time. With our trailer, the pipes all ran underneath it, but did not have the protection of a basement. Yes, the trailer had an insulated skirt, but we had to wrap all the pipes with heat tape, and sometimes that wouldn't be enough. At least once every winter the pipes would freeze up, and someone would have to crawl under the trailer and find the spot, and either put a little heater next to it or fix the heat tape, or both. Usually it was in the same spot where the house water pipe branched out to the horse waterer, and that meant the horse water would be frozen too, so we'd have to set up the backup tank with a little heater in it. -30C was a lot scarier in the trailer than the new house because of the constant threat of frozen pipes.
Having the little pen in the garage helps a lot too. With the previous goats, I hadn't thought of bringing them into the garage, so they just stayed outside. There were four of them, and they did okay, mainly because the four of them would curl up together and all kind of tuck their bodies into each other. They did have a little shed with LOTS of straw, but still. Being able to put these goats in the garage gives me some peace of mind. It is heated to just above freezing, which is more than warm enough.
We've been bringing the goats out for a while every day to walk around because the pen is small. We bring the ponies out of their corral, and walk them too, because I suspect that when it is this cold they just stand in the shed all day, and that's not good for them. So, we all walk around the yard a few times. We don't need to do this when it is warmer because they walk around more on their own.
We did go to see River today, and it was still too cold to ride, but we did our ground work and Liberty work, and he did well. I really enjoyed getting out of the house and moving around.
It is a tremendous improvement in my life to be at this current barn, because I no longer have to worry about whether or not he has enough food, or if his water is frozen and he can't drink. The previous barn a few times I had to bring it to the owner's attention that the water had frozen and I hauled pails to the horses until the owner could fix it. It was a constant worry about the hay, as she would often not put out new bale of hay the same day they ran out, so they would go sometimes a full day without hay in very cold weather. I really didn't know how badly I worried until I left there.
At the current barn, sure it's possible that her waterer might freeze, but she would be diligent in LOOKING to make sure they had water, and could just bring them into the barn to water them. She would be sure to do something. The horses always have enough to eat, and she even brings them into the barn to warm up when it is really bad, takes off their blankets to let their skin breathe, and gives them extra mash. Knowing that she is doing all of this gives me a LOT of peace of mind.
When we got home from the barn, we watched "Red Notice", which was a great movie, and tons of fun.
An ever so slight relief from the cold temperatures. It was around -25C instead of -30 ish C. That might sound like not much of a difference, but you can actually feel that it is not quite as awful when you breathe, and it's not as bad on your fingers. There is a feeling of slipping into a noticeably different zone at -30C. The smaller animals like the goats can do okay at -25C, but not below -30C. I WORRY at below -30C.
The nice thing about having a proper house now, with a proper basement, is that the water/plumbing shouldn't freeze up unless the power goes out for a long time. With our trailer, the pipes all ran underneath it, but did not have the protection of a basement. Yes, the trailer had an insulated skirt, but we had to wrap all the pipes with heat tape, and sometimes that wouldn't be enough. At least once every winter the pipes would freeze up, and someone would have to crawl under the trailer and find the spot, and either put a little heater next to it or fix the heat tape, or both. Usually it was in the same spot where the house water pipe branched out to the horse waterer, and that meant the horse water would be frozen too, so we'd have to set up the backup tank with a little heater in it. -30C was a lot scarier in the trailer than the new house because of the constant threat of frozen pipes.
Having the little pen in the garage helps a lot too. With the previous goats, I hadn't thought of bringing them into the garage, so they just stayed outside. There were four of them, and they did okay, mainly because the four of them would curl up together and all kind of tuck their bodies into each other. They did have a little shed with LOTS of straw, but still. Being able to put these goats in the garage gives me some peace of mind. It is heated to just above freezing, which is more than warm enough.
We've been bringing the goats out for a while every day to walk around because the pen is small. We bring the ponies out of their corral, and walk them too, because I suspect that when it is this cold they just stand in the shed all day, and that's not good for them. So, we all walk around the yard a few times. We don't need to do this when it is warmer because they walk around more on their own.
We did go to see River today, and it was still too cold to ride, but we did our ground work and Liberty work, and he did well. I really enjoyed getting out of the house and moving around.
It is a tremendous improvement in my life to be at this current barn, because I no longer have to worry about whether or not he has enough food, or if his water is frozen and he can't drink. The previous barn a few times I had to bring it to the owner's attention that the water had frozen and I hauled pails to the horses until the owner could fix it. It was a constant worry about the hay, as she would often not put out new bale of hay the same day they ran out, so they would go sometimes a full day without hay in very cold weather. I really didn't know how badly I worried until I left there.
At the current barn, sure it's possible that her waterer might freeze, but she would be diligent in LOOKING to make sure they had water, and could just bring them into the barn to water them. She would be sure to do something. The horses always have enough to eat, and she even brings them into the barn to warm up when it is really bad, takes off their blankets to let their skin breathe, and gives them extra mash. Knowing that she is doing all of this gives me a LOT of peace of mind.
When we got home from the barn, we watched "Red Notice", which was a great movie, and tons of fun.
