Water, Water, Everywhere....

Inside Day!

Ah, April.  Spring!  Well, apparently Spring hasn't deemed us fit for her company this year.  Winter arrived so late, I joked one day on Facebook that it's like the guest that comes late to the party, then refuses to leave. 

It wasn't really a surprise earlier this week when we heard predictions for ice or snow.  Wednesday it rained most of the day; Thursday was a rather nasty bit of every type of precipitation but hail, and Friday, the ice storm hit.  It was crazy windy the night before, but I was relieved to find the power was still on when I got up at 6:30am.  For about two more minutes.

Outside, the freezing rain had started and letting dogs out and making my way to the barn was a little dicey.  Because the ice was already weighing down branches, and the wind was rather wild, the horses were definitely staying in.  I went back in the house to let it get lighter out before I tackled stalls-in-the-dark.  Thanks to the woodstove, I wasn't going to be cold, at least, though it was obvious the cappuccino wasn't happening!

 Running the gauntlet with the tractor

To my surprise, the power came back on at 10:30am.  Not entirely trusting that, as the trees were loaded with ice, I skated out to the barn to top up all the waters and fill the troughs and a clean muck basket for reserve.  I started on stalls, and got maybe half of them done before the power went out again.  I also needed to go to the feed store, though a walk partway down the lane with the dogs made it obvious I had some work to do before I managed that!

Made sure everyone had water before it got dark out, then did one last check by flashlight before I went to bed, giving them hay as well.  The house is eerily quiet without the furnace fan, but I still managed to sleep better than I had with the wind the night before!  I woke up a few times, hoping I'd hear the hum of that fan, but no such luck.  Fed breakfast in the dark, and turned everyone out in the slop under dark grey skies.  When it started to rain again, I brought Vivien and the foal in, but left everyone else to deal with it!  A couple of hours later, Vivien starts to get colicky!  While with this kind of weather, no matter the precautions, colic isn't unexpected, it's particularly disconcerting when you have no power, no hot water, and the patient has previously had colic surgery.  I dashed to the house for some Banamine, and breathed a sigh of relief when it eased her discomfort, but knew I'd be keeping an eye on her for a while.

I was just contemplating firing up the ill generator to replenish water, when the I heard the hum of the furnace fan kick in.  I still went directly out to the barn to fill all the waters plus extras, but I'm hoping that's the end of it!  Viv was still doing well at last check, so hopefully I will get to sleep tonight.  And while I maybe should be heading down to the easel tonight, I'm going to park myself in front of the TV and watch the hockey game.  Tomorrow we might actually see the sun for longer than five minutes, and Monday the predicted high is 15 C.  It's going to take a lot more than that to convince me that spring is here!