Winter is...

...My least favorite season. Chores take just so very long. All the waterers are frozen at least once a day, generally right thru. The livestock need so much more high energy feed. For the horses this means a bit of grain for the young, old, hard keepers etc. Fortunately we only have one youngster, and Sunny is needing a bit this year. I think his teeth need floating. With the chickens it means a extra scoop or two of scratch feeds added in on top of their normal fare. The scratch is at least the cheapest of their foodstuffs. Egg production is fortunately holding steady. Thanks to a dear long time friend in the city now that we have a bit of a back up so to speak we will be having a ready costumer base for eggs. He's already got more than I have sold...

The ice is just awful as well. Horses are stabled at the moment with no going out in sight. There is no way they can get down the hill and back up it with out either them or I slipping and falling. It is definitely better to prevent injury and vet bills or worse broken legs, which in me would just mean a god awful mess to deal with, and with a horse of 1200 plus lbs, even with the little 400 lb ponies, a certain death sentence. We love our livestock and I do what I can to keep them from avoidable health issues. 

Fortunately April is coming...all be it slowly.