Brrrrrrr!!

It’s damn cold here.

Currently, it’s a toasty 6.6 degrees. It’s supposed to climb up to a steep 16 tomorrow, slide up to 9 on Tuesday, and 11 on Wednesday. We are expecting a heat wave on Friday as it spikes up to 29. Every night this week the low is forecast to be 0.

Yes, I know that Iowa is cold in the winter. It’s not a new thing. But I have endured a week of cold, and I’m already ready for spring! Our neighbor happens to be gone this week and has asked me to feed his horses. Ugh, I don’t mind helping a neighbor, but he had to pick the coldest week!

His barn and paddocks have no electricity, so I have to be sure and feed while it’s light outside. He has 5 horses, and they all get different grain, too, so it takes forever. He’s a feed salesman, so nobody gets “a scoop of that.” Instead, you have to mix several scoops from about 6 different bags into one bag and a bucket. It’s like a recipe! And then this horse gets 6 scoops from the bucket, that horse gets 8 scoops from the bag. I am just kvetching here, his horses are healthy and his care is paying off. I do take issue with his watering system, however. He does not have any electric, as I said, so with it being so frigid, the stock tank freezes. I have to take a metal fence post and smash all of the ice up in the tank, and then pick out the big “icebergs” (as I fondly call them) with my hands. You know what I hate most? When my wet gloves stick to the gates as I try to open/close them and latch them closed. I am always exhausted and freezing when I come back. Thankfully I only have to feed through Tuesday.

In my own barn, I have to change out water twice a day, simply because if I don’t, it will freeze solid. The buckets are always frozen, and the trick is to break the ice, empty the water, and then also break the ice that is on the sides and bottom of the bucket. If you smack the bucket too hard, it will break, so beating the crap out of the bucket is not an option. (Though I have gone that route.) You don’t want to slosh water on yourself, however, because that has serious ramifications.

Okay, I’m just rambling about the miserable cold. I know, I asked to be here, I asked for the animals; I pretty much made my bed (in my unheated bedroom). But have a little sympathy for me, okay?