still coooold

I didn't go out until the car had thawed out today - probably about 2! gaynor does turnout weekend mornings.... but it was still pretty nippy, still dodgy ice on the roads, nearly lost the car at one point but happily didn't! you'll have noticed our original plans for the weekend went pear shaped!

this is nessie last night (she'd been after my tea):

doesn't do a lot for me, of course...

ice rinks

on the roads, as they hadn't gritted. i was toodling along at 15 mph or thereabouts in 2nd & 3rd gear and using engine braking, and people were driving too fast... the road to and from the stable is a hill..scary where the sun had hit it, fine, but not much of that.

on the other hand, poo picking frozen poo is easy, and i took my jacket off whilst doing that as the sun was beating down on the field and i would have melted.

and i bought us a present - new wheelbarrow, LOL

overnight snow

but only a couple of inches at home and it's a gloriously clear sunny day - but freezing!

cooold

and there was us thinking it was starting to warm up.

ZERO tonight on the way home (i had planned to go to the car wash when leaving work,but decided against, the mud etc. will have to stay a bit longer!)

i didn't go down to the stables tonight; late out of work, freezing, and had made up teas etc this morning, and gaynor volunteered to fetch in etc.!

Do hope we can ride over the weekend, that was the original plan, but it may not happen

but, something is growing grass wise, or was earlier in the week; molly more than happy to stay away from the gate with her head down nibbling and they're both happier to stay out later, than goodness!..

thrush gone!

thought it was better, but a really good look in really good light today, showed i was correct.

Her feet are now trimmed, we're very pleased with how they are looking.

She has that (I am told) rare thing, bars that grow further forward than bars generally do, overgrowing somewhat and thus creating a space where dirt can be trapped, hence the thrush. now that's sorted and the trim is right, that shouldn't happen again.

She was pleased to be out, i'd kept her in until the trimmer had been due to the mud!

it was not dark!

well not fully - still a glimmer of light left in the sky, in a vague sort of way .. another month, i reckon, before we'll be able to do anything at night (we are already planning lunging for the period when it gets dark at 7!)

new trough looks good, could just about see it!

molly fine - but nessie kitten a bit put out!

because she had her first visit to the vets today for her jabs, had her ears well poked (mites!) was weighed and generally assessed!

hadn't intended that for today, but got her registered and they had an appointment, so did it - next jab 3 weeks, then she will probably be big enough to think about wrestling with the cat flap and to meet neighbour's cat Charlie and then the other neighbourhood felines.

this is her firstly helping me work last week, and secondly popping her head out of her favourite sleeping place..


Molly?

had her feet done - we're just about on top of the thrush, but still scrubbing and medicating every other day - hope we'll be able to stop soon!

the water trough? will be replaced tomorrow. chap had only replaced the ballcock yesterday, didn't believe there was a leak until gaynor showed him!

still dark at night...

2 weeks ago it was light at 5 but last week and this it hasn't been - too much cloud cover, depressing! so tea and done is the order of the evenings for a while longer, but molly is happier to stay out longer, which is good.

the trough has been mended, yay! so fingers crossed we get no rain to speak of for a week or so (i know, wishful thinking, but it would be good if the muddy pond would be able to dry up a bit!)

rode!!!!!!

we went up the park down beside the geldings field to harbour house, had 10 minutes in the arena there, and then back; I had to get off and lead to go back down the park, it's a seriously steep hill and molly wasn't having any of it and started backing herself towards the cattle grid! that was fair enough, i haven't asked her to go down a hill of any great steepness since we left blackdene (you will recall, the hills there showed up her lameness); so i doubt she has the confidence to do that sort of steep hill mounted yet! fine when i got off.

does poo picking

keep you fit?

4 barrows out of the paddock today - we're still wrestling with the stuff that was buried under the snow, and I think this finally got on top of it!

that was after mucking out

end result, no time to do anything with molly (we'd been out in the morning to hairdressers...)

Just saying to allison, not totally sure i've enjoyed this winter with molly, first time for years with no immediate safe access to arena at all times...so no work done really! she has kept some muscle (more than Charlie, I think) and not dropped more weight than she needed, which is good, but it's all to start again!

rain and water...

it was raining this morning, and the trough still leaking. we've decided to tie up the stop cock and empty out the trough and just use large tubs (of which we have a selection) until the trough gets emptied. then if it stops raining the area round the gate might dry up, you never know...

hoping for reasonable weather at the weekend!

the cover up...

covering up the suit with the drizabone and long muck boots, lol!

haven't done that for a few years!

we have a hole in the water trough in our field ... happily the water keeps running in so it isn't emptying, but it's clearly been there for a while and the ice has finally made it large enough to be noticeable.

this will account for the mudbath inside the gate/round the water trough as well, we'd thought it was just run off from the slightly higher ground outside the gate on the stable side, but clearly not!

hopefully it gets replaced soon!

out earlier

because i've got part time self employed work in addition to what i was doing anyway (pays money!) so the horses went out 1/2 hour earlier than usual... at least it had thawed a bit! no frost on the car, water could be done....but then of course i didn't finish and get home till 5.30...

minus 3 again...

and guess who hadn't taken the hose off the tap and emptied it?

doh.

and then freezing fog through the morning ...

at least it came above freezing for the afternoon!

warm or cold?

this morning when i turned out it was 7 degrees C. tonight when i brought in, it felt really really cold - it was in fact 3 C.

and more snow is forecast!

But - it was still light at 5pm, so can look forward to lighter nights and being able to start bringing her back into work again soon...

the river subsided!

We were somewhat surprised, but subside it did thank goodness... probably until the hills start melting sometime later than the lowlands.

and we did lunge - took them both out together! they were pretty good considering it's the first time they've done anything at all for weeks. a bit full of beans, but settled well and we were pleased with them.

Molly's feet improving - of course, the one advantage of all that snow was that Gaynor didn't have to deal with muddy feet, but with clean feet - she says, they were pristine! not cured yet, but a huge amount better than they were...

river rising with the thaw...

at 10.30 it was still 3 degrees C and sleeting/raining and the river was full but within bounds and not too fast.

by 11.45, when we got back from getting shavings, it had noticeably risen

by 15.30 it had speeded up substantially, all sorts of interesting things were being swept downstream (entire trees, Gaynor saw a huge bit of ice with a bin on top!) and it had burst its banks...

we are, of course, keeping a very close eye on it and Gaynor is hoping not to get a call from the flood watch people....

and by that time it was 5 degrees C and thawing fast, very little snow left our way, i saw some people riding (we'd spent the afternoon digging out the beds and grooming, as they hadn't been groomed for a while!)

we think we need to do some lunging before we start riding again!

doctors....and kittens...

is where i'm going on tuesday... i've had a cold since just after i went on holiday, spent the entire time carrying boxes of hankies round with me, and lost my voice wednesday just in time to get back into the country...someone pointed out this morning that getting pneumonia would not be a good plan, and since this has now gone on for too long and self medication isn't working, the doctor is the next port of call... oddly, i feel fine in myself, and no problems sleeping ... anyway, we still, of course, have snow lying, although it is starting to thaw... not that you would have felt warmer today, windchill being what it is!

horses were pleased to come in this evening, and pleased not to do anything even though they are bored.. but no where to take them anyway if we wanted to -

pics of new kitten...

guess what? snowed some more!

but it's a lot better than i am told it has been.

Molly is now in Charlie's old rug - the one he first had when he was 3 (some years ago, that was) - as the thick one i had for her got soaked and also Gaynor thought this might fit her, which it does.

if it carries on thawing a bit (currently hovering just over 0 every day) then we may be able to go into not quite so heavy rugs.

no prospect of doing any work with them though .. and no point taking them out for the very small mouthfuls of grass that have appeared under the trees.

we are hoping that any thaw is slow, as a rapid thaw in the pennines up Weardale may result in a flood... gaynor and i both had the same thought on that one a couple of weeks ago...

have got some pics of kitten to put up...

and for caroline:

http://clairesholidayblog.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-12-20T00%3A20%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7

explains all...

hello again!

had a good run back, got off the boat about 9 or thereabouts, and was home by 16.45, having gone via a farm outside Doncaster to pick up a new kitten, 9 weeks old (photo when she's settled enough to sit still when a camera is pointed at her!). All black.

Given we were in good time, I went down to see Molly - had thought it would only be possible to talk on the phone, but turned out I could go down.

Gaynor is REALLY pleased I'm back - and whilst she is pleased it is thawing out, she's a bit annoyed it didn't hang around long enough for me to see just how bad it was, LOL.

went in to see molly who was still discussing her tea and not that bothered to see me in consequence.

Gaynor's had them out most days, the only horses on the estate that have been able to go out regularly due to it being no distance from stable to field ...

BUT she says they're both bored rigid due to there being too much snow and no other animals of any sort to be seen (one email whilst i was away, she said Charlie had taken to chasing the pheasants for something to do)

dratted royal mail were meant to have all my post on hold... and still tried to deliver a special delivery item on the 5th; it'll have been sent back to sender by now, drat!