Thaw

I Used the Hose!!

It was over 40F today with sunshine! We are still under at least a foot of snow and it's not easy to get through the darn stuff.

I put the lunge line on Chance and tried to work him just a little in the arena.  He walked around me in a circle but when I asked for trot, he made a game effort, made it once around and then fell back into a walk again after struggling to lift his legs high enough to get through the snow cover.  I then asked Tucker if he'd like to try, but he made it clear he wanted no part of it.  Since chasing after him in the snow was too much for me, I simply gave up the idea altogether.

I thought maybe the Boys would like the diversion, but I guess they aren't quite bored enough to put in some extra effort.

I switched Tucker over to a lighter blanket so I could bring his mediumweight inside....to repair it. Yes, that's blanket #3.  This time, it was just a ripped surcingle.  This would have proved an easy fix on the sewing machine, but Murphy was visiting again today.  I did manage to sew one side of the strap back on, and then the machine's bobbin ran out of thread.  Since filling a new bobbin is a pain in the neck, and I didn't have a new one ready to go, I let Murphy's Law win the day and simply sewed the other side of the strap by hand.  Since I was wearing my contact lenses, that was a bit frustrating.  I simply cannot see for super close work, even with my reading glasses on when I'm wearing my lenses. If I take them out, I can see really close just fine, but I didn't want to do that for a minor job.  So I found a needle with a really big eye so I could thread it, and managed. All in all, a five minute job turned into a 20 minute effort, but the blanket is fixed for now.

Outside, the news was good.  I'd taken the coil hose out so I could clean and refill the water trough, but to my delight, I didn't need it! The outdoor hose was nicely thawed and for perhaps only the second time in the last three months, I was able to fill the tub with no extra effort.

I also used my new toboggan--I found one on EBay--to cart some hay over to the barn.  We're supposed to get some potential bad weather in again tomorrow night, so the extra bale will come in handy.

Then, it's a matter of watching the weather forecast to see what's going on with another storm that seems to be developing for the end of the week. The storm tomorrow will, hopefully, not amount to much, but at this point, I just need to be prepared for anything.

Either way, a trip to the feed store is in the cards for mid week. I don't want to run out of anything...just in case.