The joys of living on the farm...

[Spiritus]

NOTE: All temps are given in celcius, wind speeds are in kph....

A little while ago I took the dogs for one last potty break. I'm outside keeping track of everyone - IN A BLIZZARD and I look out towards the pasture, and what do I see? Four LARGE shadows standing with their backs to the wind beside the hay stacked IN OUR YARD! One large white shadow almost blending with the blowing snow, and three smaller ones. I had one mare and three weanling foals LOOSE - IN A BLIZZARD! Visability in the yard is close to nill. How I managed to see them, I'll never know.

I quickly call the dogs, who have yet to notice the horses, get them in the house (yes, all FIVE of them), and call my husband. We bundle up, I grab my ONE halter for the ONE halter broke horse (thank God ONE of them is halter broke), tell hubby to go find some grain (to keep him away from the horses), and quietly and slowly walk up to my beautiful grey mare and slowly put a rope around her neck then haltered her. I shouted at hubby that I had her, he ran down to the corral and opened the gate, and I led the mare, with three babies following, back into the corral.

It is nasty outside. The horses were loose in the pasture, but in the wind and blowing snow, busted right through the fence. Hubby doesn't know if he can even fix it until spring. It's only -12 right now, with a windchill of -22, sustained winds of 30 kph gusting to 60+ kph.

Just another beautiful evening at our house....

[sammy]

Bah! I hate winter when it's below -10 or is windy. Somehow we've been lucky this year and it's mostly been very mild. I wonder if that weather is coming my way next ?
Glad everyone is ok. I hope the horses have a nice cozy shelter to bed down in and the good sense to stay put and use it

[Rivsky]

Yuk - don't think I could handle all that cold wind - makes me shiver just thinking about it!

Good to hear you got the horses and you managed to find them in the first place in the middle of a blizzard.

[Pearlulm]

What a sissy I am for complaining about Winter's in Virginia. The sun is shining and it is around 20F and I was thinking how I dreaded going out for milk today. Good luck getting through the Winter!

[fancychicken]

I hear ya! Try rounding up 2 3lb chickens in a snow storm that have hunkered down UNDER the coop. How they got out is beyond me ( think the door must not have been latched tight enough wind blew..bigger chickens getting a little stir crazy and the banty's ran for it.) Poor little things. Daisy I found out is perfectly happy to go under the coop though and flush them out..lol

[IceyBlueSibes]

I'm sitting her shivering as I read that. LOL

I'm glad you were able to round them up. I bet they were colder than ever! Brrr!

[calgal]

I'm freezing now and it's cold here but not freezing. Glad I don't have to shovel snow, scrape windshields and plug the car in any more. I lived in Cheyenne Wyo, WV. SD. ND. MN. and am finally out of all that and loving it.

[babywillow]

we caught the tail end of that blizzard up here ..visibility was horrible couldnt see the barn from the house.. critters have a nack for playing hudini in a snowstorm found one of my goats curled up under the back deck that morning.. guess she wanted to be the first one in for breakfast .... i love saskatchewan weather you never know whats going to happen from one day to the next

[Spiritus]

Yes, this is the third night in a row with blizzard conditions.... fun.... NOT. LOL.

[babywillow]

finally died down here this afternoon .. the sun even peeked out for a few min just before supper .. tomorrow i start digging ,, there is a huge drift accross my driveway. its nearly as tall as i am .. i dont know whats worse .. snowstorms or windstorms!! sheesh i cant wait for spring

[shandoggy1]

WOW, Scary for you all! I miss the snow we haven't had any here in Boston and it is one of my most favorite times to hike after it snows

[Spiritus]

Ah heck, blizzards aren't scarey. LOL. People ask me why I live in Saskatchewan - how can I handle the cold? I tell them that we can always put on more layers of clothing (and more, and more). I'll deal with the cold, because it's much easier to deal with than earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricaines, etc. LOL

[sammy]

I agree. I love the snow. The dogs love the snow.
I thought I wanted to live somewhere with four seasons but a less cold, harsh winter. My friends in Nebraska seemed to have it made. Then I went to visit them in July the heat was unbearable You could literally see it in the air over ashfault (?sp) Temps hit 104 F (40 C) and I melted. It was absolutely exhausting.
The cold you can dress for. My dogs are good to -30 ish C so long as they keep moving and the wind isn't too bad but you can't undress them for the heat.
the only thing I really hate about winter is the shovelling

[Spiritus]

Shovelling? Who shovels??? LOL. We've got a tractor for that.

My dogs are great until about -30 too. Even IN the wind. It's insane. The last three nights it's blowing and storming and just plain nasty out, so the dogs are of course in the house.... Well, time to go potty before bed and they are running and zooming and rolling in the snow, having a grand old time. I'm standing there telling them to hurry up and PEE ALREADY!

[rmci]

Brrrrr. Sounds cold. I've never been in that much snow.