One man bucket brigade

It's officially winter. There is snow on the ground and temperatures got to negative three degrees yesterday. Yeah, -3. That's freakin cold! Part of owning animals is planning ahead for these super cold months. Having hay stored up, feed bins filled (in case you can't get out of the driveway), and water deicers installed. This year I actually planned for the freezing water situation. Usually I'm hauling buckets of water to and from the house spigot to fill up the horse tank but this year I actually used my brain and coiled up the hose and stored it in the shop. So yesterday I noticed the horse tank had gotten down far enough that GoatMan might find it difficult to get water. I got my unfrozen hose from the shop, hooked it up to the house, turned on the water and waited for it to come out the other end. Never came out. I could actually hear it freeze as it was traveling down the hose. There goes that idea. So back to the one person water bucket brigade. Bummer. Good workout though.

Since this is the first winter having chickens I decided to try out one of the heated water troughs for them. There really is only one or two on the market so the options weren't great. I decided to go with the cheaper one. The reviews were mixed, many said it broke or leaked but quite a few said it worked great. For $37 I thought even if it worked for one season it would be worth it. Unlike the horse tank deicer it only uses 100 watts, which is like having a light bulb on 24/7. Definitely something that won't run up the electric bill. It's super nice not hauling water to all the animals. I'll have to agree with the reviews saying it's not very durable. I've already managed to break it and I've been pretty gentle with it. A little duct tape over the hole and it's back to working. We'll see if I get another winter out of it though.

Everyone seems to being keeping warm enough out there. I went out before I went to bed around 11pm last night to throw some extra brome hay in with the horses and they were just pigging out in their shed. Those little mini's have several inches of fur to keep them warm. The baby goats and their mom are staying warm in the shop. Even after it hit -3 last night the shop was still sitting at 34 degrees according to the thermometer. And those little kids were nestled down deep in the straw keeping each other warm. Let's hope this frigid weather moves along quickly, I'm already dreaming of spring.