Baymule’s Farm

[baymule]

You take SUCH good care of your critters!
I have had to search high and low but I FINALLY found an available farrier!!
My poor 25yo mare is really overgrown, but next Thursday she will get trimmed. This is a new farrier, so I made sure to tell him that if there was time, trim all 3, if not, Just trim her.
She is having trouble walking. Beautiful front hooves, no imperfections, just.too.long.
ON a positive note, 20yo help across the street is in between jobs, so he has been cleaning stalls for me!

I hope you and your mare like the new farrier! And a strong young man to clean stalls! WHOOP!

 

[ducks4you]

I know, Right?!?!?
He gets three stalls stripped and bedded in less than one hour.
I pay him $20/hr cash.
We both are happy.
I hope that my mare believes me that relief will come tomorrow morning at 9AM!

 

[baymule]

Winter showed up a few days ago. It’s below freezing and of course it snowed north of me and ice stormed here and all the way to Houston and beyond to Galveston Island. Roads are icy here, sheriff was on Facebook yesterday warning everyone to stay home and featuring wrecks, one an 18 wheeler. It’s 14F this morning. I turned water off and drained pipes Saturday afternoon. I drew up water for house hold use and a big stock tank of water outside, I have to break ice on the horse tub and water buckets for the sheep. I carry boiling hot water to pour in the sheep buckets, twice a day. Got pots on the stove now.

I’ll suit up in multiple layers of clothing and put insulated bib Carhart overalls on and a Carhart coat. I have a heavy sweat hoodie under the coat and a knit hat under the hood. I wear gloves.

Yesterday evening as I was finishing up, a hinge broke on the storage room door, at the top. I was trying to hold the door up, grow a third hand to hold screw and drill, standing on an icy ladder, when the bottom hinge broke and the whole door fell off. I said cuss words.

So I found a tarp to cover the door with. Up the icy ladder, wind flapping the tarp just out of reach, down the icy ladder, grab tarp, up the icy ladder, realize nails aren’t going to work and the screws I got to rehang the door were too short. So I went inside to get longer screws.

Came back out, no tarp. Wind blew it away. The fence caught it. Wound up driving nails on one side to tie tarp to and strips of wood screwed through the tarp on other side. So today I can untie one side, fight my way in and out and retie the hay string this evening when I feed again.

Door frame 2x4s are rotted enough that I will have to replace them. Door was homemade, on the building when we got it, and frame is splintered, bottom is rotted so I might as well replace it and build another one. I’ll do that in better weather. In the meantime I’ll fight the tarp twice daily and blast it with ugly words.

Sheep have stayed huddled up in their shelters. I deep bedded with hay and pine shavings. Dogs curl up with sheep for warmth. The minute I crack the back door open, sheep are yelling at me for feed, pity and sympathy.

Tomorrow it will get above freezing. I’ll turn water back on, get a shower, check for leaks and turn water back off because night temps will plunge back down in the teens.

Sheep and dogs are up and walking around. Guess I’d better get to work!

 

[pjn]

Take care and stay warm super woman

 

[SPedigrees]

Winter showed up a few days ago. It’s below freezing and of course it snowed north of me and ice stormed here and all the way to Houston and beyond to Galveston Island. Roads are icy here, sheriff was on Facebook yesterday warning everyone to stay home and featuring wrecks, one an 18 wheeler. It’s 14F this morning. I turned water off and drained pipes Saturday afternoon. I drew up water for house hold use and a big stock tank of water outside, I have to break ice on the horse tub and water buckets for the sheep. I carry boiling hot water to pour in the sheep buckets, twice a day. Got pots on the stove now.

I’ll suit up in multiple layers of clothing and put insulated bib Carhart overalls on and a Carhart coat. I have a heavy sweat hoodie under the coat and a knit hat under the hood. I wear gloves.

Yesterday evening as I was finishing up, a hinge broke on the storage room door, at the top. I was trying to hold the door up, grow a third hand to hold screw and drill, standing on an icy ladder, when the bottom hinge broke and the whole door fell off. I said cuss words.

So I found a tarp to cover the door with. Up the icy ladder, wind flapping the tarp just out of reach, down the icy ladder, grab tarp, up the icy ladder, realize nails aren’t going to work and the screws I got to rehang the door were too short. So I went inside to get longer screws.

Came back out, no tarp. Wind blew it away. The fence caught it. Wound up driving nails on one side to tie tarp to and strips of wood screwed through the tarp on other side. So today I can untie one side, fight my way in and out and retie the hay string this evening when I feed again.

Door frame 2x4s are rotted enough that I will have to replace them. Door was homemade, on the building when we got it, and frame is splintered, bottom is rotted so I might as well replace it and build another one. I’ll do that in better weather. In the meantime I’ll fight the tarp twice daily and blast it with ugly words.

Sheep have stayed huddled up in their shelters. I deep bedded with hay and pine shavings. Dogs curl up with sheep for warmth. The minute I crack the back door open, sheep are yelling at me for feed, pity and sympathy.

Tomorrow it will get above freezing. I’ll turn water back on, get a shower, check for leaks and turn water back off because night temps will plunge back down in the teens.

Sheep and dogs are up and walking around. Guess I’d better get to work!

That does NOT sound like fun! Stay safe and warm, and the same to your critters.

 

[baymule]

This is my tarp “fix” for no door on the portable building. I pull the flap back for access. I got to tell ya’ crawling in and out of that ain’t easy for an old lady. I don’t bend and flex like I used to. LOL I’ll have to get on replacing the door frame and building a new door. But at least it keeps the weather out.

Sentry found a place that blocked the north wind.

I couldn’t get the hose off the water faucet. Didn’t have one of those styrofoam cup things that are so popular here. So I did the redneck thing.

This is the tub I filled with water so I could bust ice, dip water and carry it inside to pour in pots. Bring it to a boil, pour in the buckets and carry outside to melt the ice in the sheep water buckets.

It’s going to get above freezing today. I’ll turn water back on, check for any broken pipes. It will go back to 20F at night Friday through Sunday but above freezing during the day. Then it ought to get back to our version of winter, hopefully until spring.

So all in all, East Texas winters aren’t so bad. A week or so of inconvenience, then it’s past. This house really isn’t set up well for extended freezing weather. Maybe I’ll work on that, but probably not.

My big project for this year is to build better accommodations for the sheep and dogs.

 

[Carol Dee]

Baymule, Mobile homes in these parts use heat tape on the water pipes. Might be worth looking into. We got up to 5 F this a.m. a heat wave! It might make it to 15 this afternoon. Then back in the deep freeze for weekend. Next week is looking better with days in the upper 20's and lower 30's.
A friend was in NOLA with her daughters family. They got delayed 2X Monday and finally back to Houston on Tuesday due to ice conditions.

 

[Branching Out]

And in our area people would sometimes place logs in swimming pools, to prevent them from freezing over. The wind blows the floating logs around and makes it more difficult for the water to freeze. Just a thought, in case that concept could be adapted for livestock water troughs. You and your animals are certainly in the middle of a tough stretch. Take care!

 

[flowerbug]

And in our area people would sometimes place logs in swimming pools, to prevent them from freezing over. The wind blows the floating logs around and makes it more difficult for the water to freeze. Just a thought, in case that concept could be adapted for livestock water troughs. You and your animals are certainly in the middle of a tough stretch. Take care!

i'd take a weatherproof extention cord and a metal aquarium heater or perhaps they even have a livestock tank heater already for sale and use that instead...

 

[ninnymary]

Brrrrrr, I can't even imagine going outside in that weather!

There has to be a way to keep that water unfrozen. I'd definitely try the logs and or look into a heater. I'm sure it will be worth it.

Stay warm Bay.

Mary