A few joyful things from this week past:
New lamp for my writing garret.
November Hill at night:
Katherine Dunn’s artwork now hanging in the mountain house den:
We’ve had a little snow, a lot of ice, and then some rain, so the farm is a soggy mess, I have the remnants of a barn project to finish, and I’m suddenly having cold symptoms and planning to send in my Covid test today as a precaution, so these little joys are really BIG joys right now!
8 comments:
Nice lamp and art work. November Hill looks very inviting and warm lit up. Hope you don't get the cold and your test is negative. We've had some bad weather, little bit of snow but the ice is very dangerous. Last weekend we had temps of 0 with a wind chill of -21 so needless to say the barn work went pretty quickly and we got back into the house in record time.
I often think of you and the temps and weather you deal with while caretaking your herd during winter - we’re starting to consider how we might build a barn and pasture at the mountain house that would make life easier during the winter months when there is a lot of cold/wind/snow - much more than we are used to on November Hill. I don’t know yet how to create a barn where the horses have shelter to move in during times when it’s either dangerous or just unpleasant for them to be outside. Am thinking an open barn design where we have a couple of stalls at one end but the rest of the barn is open for all, since they get along so well and are used to being together, and with some kind of deep wrap all the way around loafing porch that maybe has half walls to keep snow out? I can’t find anything that looks quite like this online. Or maybe build an indoor arena and put the barn in the middle of it, LOL. :)))
Your barn idea sounds like a good one. We turn them out with their blankets and they eat out of the hay baskets for most of the day. When the weather gets too nasty for them they go into the run in shed which is big enough for all of them or they split up and two go in and two stay in the horse port. We have hay nets in both places. I've found that horses are very adaptable to their environments. They have been coming in much earlier than usual. I would say that automatic heated waterers are a necessity in the winter. It beats breaking up ice in troughs. I'm sure you'll come up with a good plan for a barn.
Do you have any issues with your seniors being unsteady on snow/ice going in and out? Thank you for describing your set up and routine!
No they seem pretty stable. Blue has studs on his shoes and he’s fine with it. Sami and Rosie are shoeless and they’re fine, we go slow and they all manage fine. Hanz also has studs on his shoes. We also plow and shovel and put driver salt down on a path where they walk. It’s not a far walk from paddock gate to barn ,maybe 10-15 steps.
Good to know - that is what I worry about most but it sounds like it’s not a big issue. :)
Those are the most wonderful paintings and completely perfect in the mountain house!
I’m happy you like them as much as I do!
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