Surviving

 We woke up to the furnace not working. Thankfully the wood burners were holding the temp to 65 in the house. I got up at 1:30 am and filled both of those. When Mark awoke at 5:00 am he also filled the wood burners and discovered the furnace had shut off. It was -9 with very strong winds making the real feel at -35 degrees.  Mark spent a lot of the morning working on the furnace and got it running thank goodness. He took the car over to feed Joan's cats and dog then checked on the waterers. Both of the waterers on the south side were frozen solid which meant Evan had nothing to drink. The new hair dryer was brought downstairs for the next job.

Even dressed properly it was hard to stay out more than a few minutes. The hair dryer was taken to Evan's waterer but it wouldn't work. The breaker was off for that side. I hauled a bucket of water out to Evan then needed to get inside to warm up so went into the apartment. The weanlings thought I was bringing grain to them and Tessa came out to see but didn't stay long, the wind was just too fierce. All of the horses were staying inside their shelters. The breaker was flipped, the hair dryer was working and Evan drank so let the wind blow me back down to the house.  After warming up Mark and I hauled a bunch of wood in for the wood burners. After letting that hair dryer run for 4 hours I went to see if the water was open but still thick ice. I chopped and chopped but could not reach water and had to go back in to warm up.

Around noon Mark and I drove up, the walk takes so long that I couldn't stay out long enough to get the job done. This time we could see the water, the ice was chipped away making a pretty big hole so Evan could drink then he was put in that paddock. He went right over and drank. The water felt warm which was much better than hauling buckets.  I tried to get a picture but just taking my gloves off to turn on the phone was awful. Frostbite starts quickly in these temperatures. 

The wind has been howling all day, the snow is being blown sideways and the temp never got above zero although the last time out it was only -1 The temperature is supposed to rise to zero tonight before falling back to -1 then tomorrow sunshine and 12 degrees. That will feel like a heat wave if the wind slows. We are hunkered down in the house sitting in front of the wood burners reading. No one is going anywhere in this weather except poor Philip. He had 17 no heat calls. Thankful he was willing to go and help those in need.