I remember the days when I had a barn full of horses and it was snow/ice on the ground. The horse poop was frozen solid so it was like walking on marbles when cleaning the stalls! If it was icy, I tried to leave them in until it wasn’t so slick - always afraid they’d get to running & “horsing’ around & do the splits on the ice .... not a good thing for a horse to do. My old, fat pony was more than happy to stay in her stall - very contented. The Thoroughbred mare, being more high strung, wanted OUT .... as did her younger son(s) when they were on the place. I did have a heater in the outside stock water tank so that helped, but the water buckets in the stalls needed to be hauled outside, ice broken out, then re-hung & refilled. The buckets were black rubber, so you could stomp on them to get the ice broken out without breaking/cracking plastic. I always did like walking into the barn on a cold morning - the horsey smells and seeing the horse heads over the doors, hearing the happy nickers of welcome (”breakfast lady” is here!) and watching the ‘steam’ blowing out of their nostrils ..... nice memory (before we get to the frozen ‘marbles’ part!).
Glad things are getting easier for you with taking care of your animals!
Great memories! We’ve got the logistics all worked out now, so I’m a Happy Camper...and steer feeder! ;)
I just sorted through the potatoes; mushy ones are in the compost (about a dozen) and today I’m going to make Lisa’s Famous Potato Soup; a perennial favorite and extra special when it’s made with your own taters!
If I had a milk cow I could have my own cheddar and cream cheese, too. And if we had hogs, our own bacon...
I’m working on it! I think I’m done with chickens though, if the new pole barn ever gets built, I’ll reconsider a ‘chicken corner.’ ;)