Early Morning Adventure: part one

Right now where I live its awful outside. The cold isn't so bad because I have warm clothes, layers, warm gloves etc. to deal with that. The real problem is that at our farm whatever isn't covered in 2+ feet of snow is a skating rink. Its so bad the horses are locked in two small pens which aren't bad thanks to the manure and leftover snow. Even getting out to feed them is a slow process as it means traveling across our ice rink, which used to be a driveway, and on a small path cleared for me, which is also glare ice, to our shed. One corner of the shed is particularly bad and is not only an especially shiny polished ice but it slopes downhill which means I can't stay up on it at all.

Because of that, when I woke up this morning and saw that Jackson and Khepri had gotten out I knew that getting them back into our pen would be an adventure. They had lifted a small red gate off its hinges, traveled out the path by and around our shed, across our driveway, and up another small path to our bird feeder where they were happily munching on spilled bird seed. Sora, my funny little angel, was staying happily in the pen regardless of the wide open gate.

I fed Sora to keep her calm and in the pen, grabbed a halter and some grain and skated slowly toward the horses. As I approached they occasionally lifted their heads to watch me and when they figured out I had grain decided that it would probably taste better than stale bird food and began to approach. They met me at the end of the bird feeder path which wasn't that slippery and as I put Jackson's halter on and gave him a handful of grain for the journey I contemplated how to approach the crossing of the driveway/skating rink.

Having come to a decision I tossed Jackson's lead rope over his back and climbed onto one of the snow piles. As I walked on top of the snow towards the shed I lured him along next to me with grain. He is extremely experienced with Minnesota ice and snow but was still slipping and sliding. Luckily he kept to his feet and went slow. Khepri slowly followed alongside him but at some point she hit a bad spot and all four of her feet started going in different directions. With a look of desperation she quickly slipped and slid her way to the huge snow pile at the edge of the driveway and went down on her knees in the snow. I breathed a sigh of relief that she had handled herself so well and continued with Jackson who was able to reach the path to the shed safely.

Having passed the first obstacle we continued toward the shed.

To be continued....

Even Worse Weather

This is what Weather underground is telling me today

"Breezy. Widespread snow. Blowing and drifting snow in the afternoon. Visibility one quarter mile or less at times in the afternoon. New snow accumulation around 1 inch. Highs around 25. Northwest winds 20 to 25 mph."

To me a Windchill of 10 °F is not "Breezy". That along with the fact that all the melting we were having turned back into ice and has been further polished smooth by snow blowing across it makes even walking difficult.
The horses are warm and cozy in their shelter. No one's hair was standing up and there was no shivering this morning so I didn't blanket but I will be tonight, if I can remain standing up long enough to do it =X
A few days ago we spread cat litter, the only thing that works that they won't try to eat, all around their pens to help with the slipperiness. It works well but with the melt it simply sank to the ground and now is caught within the ice. Verrrry Helpful *snorts*

Here is a short video clip that I caught while taking the pictures trying to show the desolation. It's hard to capture just how strong the winds are though.


Finally, an update on Model Khepri. Last night after I posted my previous entry the artist that was donating a paint job on my donation to Show for the Cure emailed me this picture.
This is, as far as I know, the first copy of Khepri to have been painted. Cassie Black, the artist, paints in oils and acrylics and her website can be found here.