On Sat. evening our wood stove started spewing smoke all through the house. We were struggling to fix it until after midnight - finally had to remove the burning logs and throw them out on the lawn (at least our present 2 feet of snow keeps disposal of burning logs from being a problem - no fire danger there.)
We went to bed with no heater on, as our wood stove is our only source of heat. Sunday the temperatures dropped bellow zero. On Monday morning it was 29 below zero when I got up to feed. And we haven't had a working wood stove in two days.
Dave put in a heroic effort on Sunday and Monday keeping the house from dropping bellow freezing by keeping our fire place lit (a fire place does not heat a house, really, that job is left to a wood stove. But we did manage to use it to keep the temperatures around 50, so our pipes wouldn't freeze.) We were up at 5am this morning, trying more things to fix this problem, but just couldn't figure out what was wrong. Finally called every chimney sweep company in Missoula but no-one would come up and work on our chimney in -30 degree weather. We were about to go buy a chimney cleaning pole and have me climb up on the roof myself to see if I could see anything that might have fallen in there and was blocking the air flow, when one of the chimney sweeps called back. He said he thought he couldn't just leave us with no heat, so he would come right up. He was great.
Turns out to be a really good thing he came - the stove pipe had been nocked out of kilter and we never could have fixed it (or even diagnosed it) ourselves. He tromped right up on our roof (through a good foot build-up of snow) and got the thing fixed. We now have a fire roaring in the wood-stove and the temp in here just broke 70. Its heaven!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sat. January 19, 2008
On days when I am feeling good enough (when I have a little extra energy) I try to take a snow shovel around to all the pastures with me when I feed. I shovel a path from the house to each pasture, and through each pasture to the various spots where I have to break ice in the creeks, or carry hay to feed. It is a lot less work to walk a clear path than to trudge through heavy snow, and we have been getting a few inches of fresh snow per day for the past few weeks, so there is plenty of snow out there.
I did the paths today, and had good enough energy to shovel everywhere I go on a daily basis - that's a lot of ground to cover, but I actually had some energy for the first time in a week. Today's work should make things a lot easier until the snow builds up again. (One of these days we will figure out what is wrong with our snow blower and then I wont have to shovel any more...)
My normal routine right now is to get up around 9am and go to the Upper Little Barn. I load two bales of hay on a sled (150 lbs) and pull that to the feeders in the Lower Little Barn, usually doing two runs and putting out between 3 and four bales. Then I load up two more bales and drag that all the way across the Little Barn Pasture to the Middle 20. I throw flakes of hay over the fence all the way up the fence line between the Upper Little Barn and the Middle 20.
After that I take a maul (very heavy headed ax) and a shovel and walk to the far side of the Lower Little Barn to the creek spot and break it open. Then I walk to the Big Barn Pasture.
In the Big Barn, I take two bales and distribute it between 9 feeders. Then I take the same maul and break open their creek.
Every few weeks we have to do extra work on the creeks. Did that today with Dave's help. This time of the season, the bank of the creek builds up with a couple of feed of snow. However, when the horses walk on that spot over and over it tuns into ice, not snow. So there is a solid bank of ice built up around each of our watering holes and if it gets too high or too steep, the horses can't reach the water anymore. Either the water is too deep down for their necks to reach, or they slide down the ice too much and just can't stand in that spot anymore. Dave and I take a pick-ax and a couple of shovels and try to lower the bank and make it flat instead of steep. We spent about an hour doing that today and counted that good work, which will hold us for another week or two.
One of these days we will manage to water without the creek during the winter. We just found a propane heater for water tanks that would allow us to keep a water tank from freezing without electricity. Still looking into its effectiveness, but something like that would be great both for us and for the horses.
In any case, I worked for about 3 hours today - best energy I have had all winter. Slept most of the rest of the day, but am quite happy to have had that kind of energy for a while.
I did the paths today, and had good enough energy to shovel everywhere I go on a daily basis - that's a lot of ground to cover, but I actually had some energy for the first time in a week. Today's work should make things a lot easier until the snow builds up again. (One of these days we will figure out what is wrong with our snow blower and then I wont have to shovel any more...)
My normal routine right now is to get up around 9am and go to the Upper Little Barn. I load two bales of hay on a sled (150 lbs) and pull that to the feeders in the Lower Little Barn, usually doing two runs and putting out between 3 and four bales. Then I load up two more bales and drag that all the way across the Little Barn Pasture to the Middle 20. I throw flakes of hay over the fence all the way up the fence line between the Upper Little Barn and the Middle 20.
After that I take a maul (very heavy headed ax) and a shovel and walk to the far side of the Lower Little Barn to the creek spot and break it open. Then I walk to the Big Barn Pasture.
In the Big Barn, I take two bales and distribute it between 9 feeders. Then I take the same maul and break open their creek.
Every few weeks we have to do extra work on the creeks. Did that today with Dave's help. This time of the season, the bank of the creek builds up with a couple of feed of snow. However, when the horses walk on that spot over and over it tuns into ice, not snow. So there is a solid bank of ice built up around each of our watering holes and if it gets too high or too steep, the horses can't reach the water anymore. Either the water is too deep down for their necks to reach, or they slide down the ice too much and just can't stand in that spot anymore. Dave and I take a pick-ax and a couple of shovels and try to lower the bank and make it flat instead of steep. We spent about an hour doing that today and counted that good work, which will hold us for another week or two.
One of these days we will manage to water without the creek during the winter. We just found a propane heater for water tanks that would allow us to keep a water tank from freezing without electricity. Still looking into its effectiveness, but something like that would be great both for us and for the horses.
In any case, I worked for about 3 hours today - best energy I have had all winter. Slept most of the rest of the day, but am quite happy to have had that kind of energy for a while.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sunday January 13, 2008
What a weekend - it started out one of the hardest weekends we've had in a while, but ended up quite nice. Somehow we pulled through a few challenges and got everything to work out as needed.
Thursday a snow storm caused the trailer to be difficult to get out of the driveway, and we spent hours digging it out of the yard after it slipped back down. Four hours after I had intended to take Cory to town for a brand inspection so he could ship out that night, we finally got him loaded and on his way only to find out that the brand inspector couldn't do the inspection after dusk (we got there 15 minutes too late). Spent the night trying to find a way to get him on the transport anyway, and finally did. They arrived at 11pm and took him on to his new home in Colorado. So, while we spent a frustrating day fighting the snow and much of the evening thinking that we'd have to drive him to Colorado Springs ourselves and on our own dime, we finally finished the day with everything working out well.
In the midst of all that craziness, we got a call saying that our trainer (whom we love, but who just moved 8 hours away) found a good transport option to get 3 of our horses to her if I could have them ready to go by Sunday. So, after being up most of the night on Thursday seeing Cory off, I got up at 6am on Friday and rushed these three horses to town for Coggins tests and health certificates (and brand inspections) so they could travel the next day. On Sat. we got them onto the transport and sent off to do a few months of training.
Add to this weekend that we weaned all the babies on Sat. - very smoothly and successfully (the easiest weaning we have done yet) - and I feel like it was really a great weekend.
We now have one herd in the Big Barn pasture of yearling boys who are on Free Choice feed. I just put out multiple bales in feeders once per day, making sure that they always have food, and they eat as often and as much as they want (since they are growing, they need this). Now I also have a herd in the Lower Little Barn Pasture with 7 weanlings, 2 yearling girls and Blackie who are also on Free Choice which I just keep full all the time. And additionally, I have 8 mares in the Middle 20 whom I feed twice per day. Ryder is away at training for a few months so that I might start riding him on the trails more often this summer. All in all, it was a good, productive weekend at the ranch and all is well.
Thursday a snow storm caused the trailer to be difficult to get out of the driveway, and we spent hours digging it out of the yard after it slipped back down. Four hours after I had intended to take Cory to town for a brand inspection so he could ship out that night, we finally got him loaded and on his way only to find out that the brand inspector couldn't do the inspection after dusk (we got there 15 minutes too late). Spent the night trying to find a way to get him on the transport anyway, and finally did. They arrived at 11pm and took him on to his new home in Colorado. So, while we spent a frustrating day fighting the snow and much of the evening thinking that we'd have to drive him to Colorado Springs ourselves and on our own dime, we finally finished the day with everything working out well.
In the midst of all that craziness, we got a call saying that our trainer (whom we love, but who just moved 8 hours away) found a good transport option to get 3 of our horses to her if I could have them ready to go by Sunday. So, after being up most of the night on Thursday seeing Cory off, I got up at 6am on Friday and rushed these three horses to town for Coggins tests and health certificates (and brand inspections) so they could travel the next day. On Sat. we got them onto the transport and sent off to do a few months of training.
Add to this weekend that we weaned all the babies on Sat. - very smoothly and successfully (the easiest weaning we have done yet) - and I feel like it was really a great weekend.
We now have one herd in the Big Barn pasture of yearling boys who are on Free Choice feed. I just put out multiple bales in feeders once per day, making sure that they always have food, and they eat as often and as much as they want (since they are growing, they need this). Now I also have a herd in the Lower Little Barn Pasture with 7 weanlings, 2 yearling girls and Blackie who are also on Free Choice which I just keep full all the time. And additionally, I have 8 mares in the Middle 20 whom I feed twice per day. Ryder is away at training for a few months so that I might start riding him on the trails more often this summer. All in all, it was a good, productive weekend at the ranch and all is well.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Thursday January 10, 2008
We're hard into winter by now. Feeding involves pulling a sled of 2 bales across a pasture with 2 feet of snow (about 140 lbs) two times per day. Breaking ice every day but still not happy about how much they are drinking. Have found a water option that might work out here - submersible propane heaters for water tanks. $500. Might be worth it. Just evaluating.
Cory goes to his new home this afternoon. Thinking of sending Ryder, Rose and Cami of for a couple of months of training. Still want to get Sahara going on training, but would like to wait a few months to start that up again. Thinking of weaning babies at the end of this next week.
Been snowing most days for the past two weeks +. We usually get a few new inches every night. Our snow blower is broken, so I am shoveling paths to all the pastures (and through them - anywhere I have to go daily to feed). Hoping to get that fixed soon!
Cory goes to his new home this afternoon. Thinking of sending Ryder, Rose and Cami of for a couple of months of training. Still want to get Sahara going on training, but would like to wait a few months to start that up again. Thinking of weaning babies at the end of this next week.
Been snowing most days for the past two weeks +. We usually get a few new inches every night. Our snow blower is broken, so I am shoveling paths to all the pastures (and through them - anywhere I have to go daily to feed). Hoping to get that fixed soon!
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