Nothing amiss...

I know it's been nearly a month since I last wrote an entry, but I'm afraid that the cold and snow have dampened both my ambition and anyone's ability to do a whole lot of riding. One of my biggest fears has always been footing in the winter - especially on a green horse who is still trying to figure out balance and the like, to add a slippery step to that and you're just asking for trouble.

I walked out to my roundpen through snow up to my knees yesterday to see if there was any possibility of taking R up there to longe him, and the footing was fine but it was such a trek to get up there through the snow, I thought I would wait until I get a chance to take the tractor up and clean it all out.

Winter, for those of you who don't keep your horses at home, proves to be such a difficult time of year for farmers in general. Everything is twice as hard because you're wading in snow, your water is freezing, your labor is more intense because your animals are in out of the weather. Add to this that the brakes on our pickup truck have gone and we're now without a truck. We have been hauling 5 bags of oats (lasts us about a week) in the back of our 2004 Chevy Venture for the last couple of weeks, and our hay supplier is close so we haul that with the tractor.

My father works for the government plowing roads and we have gotten a ridiculous amount of snow over the last couple of days. I would hazard to guess that we have already gotten more snow this year than we got all winter last year! Anyhow, when we do get big storms, he sometimes has to work up to 20 hours straight, and that leaves a lot on the rest of us here. I can drive the tractor but I can't maneuver it for snow removal (he promises to show me how this weekend).

Last night, we were catching up. We were hit with two huge storms last week and he spent a lot of time cleaning up the residual and keeping the roads clear. We ran to get oats from our supplier, who luckily agreed to meet us at 7:30pm. At 9:30, when we got back, we had to go and get a couple of round bales. It could have waited until this morning if we hadn't been expecting a big storm, which we are getting now, and dad went to work about an hour ago. We ran into a big crowd of skiiers coming off of the local ski mountain, and lots of folks passed us. Dad does not have a cab on his tractor, and it is hard to see his hazard lights around the round bales he carries in the bucket, so I went ahead with the Venture with my four ways on. We only got up to a top speed of about 20km per hour. It took us about 45 minutes to move two bales. Man can dad ever use the bucket of the tractor! I watched him load a round bale into the shallow bucket of his tractor, tipping and rolling it until it settled in on its own. Quite impressive!!!

Today, I have to run the hose out to the barn and fill all the water barrels before the snow gets too terribly deep. I think I've done something to my back unloading grain last night so I am a little sore and looking for sympathy. None to be found! R needs a grooming but there is so much to do for chores that the ponies rarely get the extra attention that they want in the winter!