dancing horses

dancing horses

Monday, February 23, 2015

Ice Baby

I am so over winter.

Seriously.

Yesterday was a rainy day, on top of all the snow. Some barns have collapsed and locally two people just finished riding when the riding arena collapsed. In the morning I went to the indoor track to go for a run. It's been a long time since I did it but I managed to run 5 km straight.

While it was nice to have mild weather it became apparent that the water was getting dammed by the piles of snow. As a result, Lexi's stall flooded. I had to empty out my spare stall so that I could move her over to that one. Armed with shovels and my ice scraper I began to dig more trenches to give the water a place to go.




Nothing like cutting through water logged snow and ice in the rain to make one feel, well, homicidal. 



After futilely trying to stop the flood into Lexi's stall we took a break. Ed headed into the house and I brought the horses in. Lexi was fine with her 'new' stall but Irish got all upset. Heaven knows he doesn't like change but I thought he was over dramatic. Plus he was completely unappreciative of all the work I did. 

I fed them and headed outside. I surveyed the situation and the solution came to me. You see, a few weeks ago in trying to get Lexi's stall door open to the outside we chipped away the ice. This created a basin for the water to pool and it was seeping to the inside. The other doors were blocked by snow. So I started shovelling and packing snow up against the door. I stomped it into the basin. 

I headed into the house, grabbed a beer and two advil and told Ed "I've either solved the problem or made it worse." I sat down and drank my beer before continuing on making supper. 

Turns out that my solution worked, so yay for me. 

That night I was asleep as soon as I turned out the light and didn't move all night. 

This greeted me in the morning: 

Belle is not impressed

We could skate on my driveway. Fortunately I have these spike cleats that I put on my boots so I don't slip. Best $20 I've ever spent.

I had to fortify myself so that I could tackle this morning's work. Fortunately I was off on monday. 
Lexie's stall

I cleaned out Lexi's stall and cleaned up the barn. It looked like a bomb went off but yesterday I was too tired to tackle it.


And my other project- digging a trench for the water to melt away from the barn. This drift is about 4 1/2 feet tall so I'm going to 'chip away' at it over the next several days. If anyone needs an upper body workout let me know.....

Tonight it's going to down to some ridiculously low temperature. 

Sigh. 

I hate February. 

On a happier note, Charlante's vetting is Thursday. My vet passed the x-rays, this is for the physical. Now If I could just get shippers to call me back. Also, thank you everyone for the votes on my photo. I really appreciate it. 

10 comments:

  1. I was just writing an Identical post!!! Minus the exciting pre-purchase exam news.
    We've had over 100 roofs collapse in Massachusetts. 4 of them were horse barns. Everyone is so over this.

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  2. When does Charlante arrive at your place? (pending further postive results from the PPE - which I'm sure she will pass with flying colors!) Good for you for getting a run in :)

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  3. I feel your pain, Teresa. I, too, had a "stall flood", although in my case, the stall was the third level of my house (I have a four level sidesplit), which I have spent five figures renovating over the past six months. Uh-huh. All that new millwork is looking pretty bad from water damage. And the floors. And the furniture...

    I strongly feel that living in a climate that does not get winter would work very well for me.

    I believe this strongly enough that I went to the Moncton RV show on Saturday "just to look", and came home with a new 36-foot travel trailer! It is designed for living aboard...(need I say more?) ;o)

    Glad Charlante's X-Rays passed inspection, I am sure the rest of her vetting will go well also. Being a sort-of "southern" horse, she probably doesn't have much experience with ice (given the unimpressed look on her face in your last post)...are you considering studded shoes to help her out while she adjusts to our northern footing?

    Hope we get a good break in the weather to make her trip up easier...I think we all deserve it!

    Looking forward to reading more about your pretty new girl...

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  4. Homicidal is right. This relentless winter is sucking the joy right out of everything.

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  5. I don't know how you guys live with that weather. You would laugh your arse off at this old post of mine!!

    http://allieandgracie.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/winter.html?

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  6. Wow! Why would anyone want to live there???? You should move down here with us! I'm glad you solved the stall flood thing... I hope the clean up goes quickly. Fingers crossed spring gets here soon.

    Yay I'm glad the x-rays passed! I can't wait for her to get to her new home with you. I'm so excited for you!

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  7. What a mess! I don't envy you in the least. Fingers crossed for the (rest of the) vet check. I can't wait to read about you getting to know her better.

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  8. Homicidal is a very apt word...March is marching in soon! xox

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  9. O do empathize, but I see a tractor in your photos so I don't get why you have to do so much shoveling? Is it something to do with traction?
    My husband would know & patiently explain it in a way that a 3 year old would understand (because that's how much I "get" those kind of things, not).

    http://lifeatthe4shoes.blogspot.ca/

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    1. the tractor is good for the bulk of the work but it doesn't work so well close to the barn so that still needs to be shovelled. The problem was that the snow was piled so close to the barn that when the rain and ice cam it was trapped up against it. I needed to dig out channels for the water to escape.

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