Sunday, January 7, 2018

The Polar Vortex from Hell

We've finally had a break from the extreme cold, thank god, because I am absolutely exhausted. Today was only -10, which felt so good after -30 to -40 temperatures for the last 3 days.

Thursday I worked a 12 hour shift at the local feed store. The extra money is nice after Christmas and since I used to work there, I'm pretty savvy with most things. I got to the farm to feed just after 8pm, and it was something stupid like -38 with the wind chill. Everyone seemed okay, but got extra blankets, and I left the ponies and the paint mare (Sierra) that goes out with them inside, since they don't have a big shelter, and it was supposed to be even colder all night. I got home at 10:30 that night and stood in a steaming shower for a good 20 min before I could feel my ass and legs. Stupid me forgot my insulated overalls.

Friday morning was still stupid cold, and I was working in the office, so dad took care of things at the farm and left the ponies and Sierra in for the day. They weren't too excited to go out anyways. One of my boarders texted me mid-morning to say that her mare and two others were shivering outside, so she brought them in too. Stupid Vinnie was standing in the doorway to the run in and wouldn't let anyone else inside. That night, the ponies and Sierra went back out, and I left the 4 mares and Vinnie in. I don't normally leave anyone in, but they were all so cold. It's so much more work to leave them in though, which added on quite a bit of extra chore time to an already long day of work. I got home late again, I think it was 9PM, and I just could not warm up.

Saturday morning, everyone went back out, but my dad called me to tell me there had been an accident with Sierra where she had been scared by a round bale being put into the feeder and had run into the tractor. Insert eyes rolling here. Why do horses have to do the stupidest things on the coldest day of the freaking year?! I rushed down to the farm to meet Sierra's owner and my poor father who was beside himself. We agreed it needed to be stitched and called the vet. It took me about 4 hours to do the extra work from everyone being inside, as well as keeping an eye on Sierra, until the vet came. Luckily, my dad let us set up in his heated shop to stitch her up, as it was just so damn cold out that the meds would have frozen while we were working on the mare. My vet did an awesome job stitching Sierra up, with two layers of stitches.
Before

Beautiful stitch job!
I was so exhausted, and I still am. You don't realize how much the cold takes out of you until you work outside in it constantly. I'm so looking forward to more normal temperatures this week, including a couple days above zero towards the end of the week! Hopefully no more hurt ponies!

No comments:

Post a Comment

25 Questions, stolen from The $900 Facebook Pony

I saw this blog post on The $900 Facebook Pony , and I love these things, and I haven't been blogging much, so I thought I would give i...