Break Out the Buckets

The Hose is "Froze"

So, the Polar Vortex finally struck. Or at least a devastating cold front hit New Jersey. We had a dusting of snow yesterday and now it's well below freezing outdoors.

The Boys are sporting brand new winter blankets, and they have plenty of shelter if they need to get out of the wind. The sun is out too, and that does warm things up a little.

The ground is like a rock and, of course the hose from the barn spigot to the water trough is frozen. I have two options. One is a coil hose I keep on the porch and bring inside to lie in the bathtub in really freezing weather. (My back porch, though enclosed, is not heated.)  If I think it's just a short cold snap, I will usually fill the water trough carrying buckets of water.

It took twelve trips with the 2.5 gallon buckets last night to fill the trough. I have bigger buckets, but they can get a bit heavy for me at times when I have to lug them through Toby's stall and out to the trough. Besides, it's good exercise, considering that I do need to do some walking to lose the weight I gained during the holidays. I figured out is was about 435 steps making the twelve trips back and forth, and that's carrying a bit over 16 pounds in one direction. Not exactly a top level workout, but a good start considering I'm not in shape right now.

It has taken "forever" to get over my broken hip and it's still sore sometimes. My knees, despite the replacements aren't that great comfort-wise either, but I won't complain. Not only is there no point, but complaining only makes is worse. Better to ignore things and just go on carrying those buckets.

Don't know if I mentioned it, but I will be getting allergy tested to see if I am allergic to the metals in my replacements. But that's another day and will leave plenty of questions to be answered. Meantime I go merrily on my way.

Which brings me right back to that "froze hose."  Somewhere on the rather messy porch is the coil hose, If I want to dig it out, I need to some major porch cleaning. Subzero temperatures do not make that a happy prospect either.

Reorganizing the porch was something I should have done in better weather. Then again, the porch was relatively reorganized before I broke my hip and suffered a lot of disorganizing when my friends dropped in to do the house cleaning intervention. It didn't help that I wasn't exactly in shape to do a lot of re-reorganizing while I was recovering.

But, as with all housecleaning, I really have no excuses in the end. I need some motivation to get going when it comes to it.

Maybe the "froze hose" will do the trick.