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Frigid Air On the Way
It was 26 degrees this morning and that really did feel like a heat wave. The moon was out this morning lighting up the ground even though it is not full and the sun not yet out. I'm amazed at how this phone can zoom in and capture it.
On the walk over to mom's house I saw a lot of the work Mark and Mackenson did yesterday. They sanded most of the drive going to mom's house and then heavily sanded around mom's.
The wheel chair van has almost no traction on the snow and ice but the sand really works. The sun was just peeking through the trees.
After the walk and after breakfast we went out to start moving bales. The first job though was to get the hood of the tractor up and get the battery charger on it. We let it sit with that while we took the hog panels off of the existing bales.
Those were put outside for the next bale going in. As soon as the hog panel was removed the 2 horses in the middle paddock started pawing the hay digging down for the best parts. This is why we use hog panels. They waste SO much hay if it is loose. None of the shelters needed hay but 3 were getting a little low and we have what weather.com calls the bitter blast coming. Air straight from the North Pole will be blasting here in a few days dropping our temps to below zero. That cold is on the way! We want the horses all to have plenty of the best hay which helps them generate heat and keeps them warm.
Valiant got his bale first.
He is given grain on the other side of the shelter to keep him busy while we move the bale in. He knows the procedure and gets excited when he sees the tractor coming and runs to where we will put the grain bucket. The other two had to be called to the grain buckets but when they finally figured out what I was doing they were glad for the grain. That kept them busy so they didn't try to run out of the paddock while we were moving bales.
The middle paddock gets 2 bales as it has 2 shelters up at the fenceline.
While we were out working the temperature just kept rising and by the time we got back in the house it was already up to 38 degrees. I never heard what the high was today but it was warm enough outside that we only used one wood burner today.
We will be bringing back some mares in February for foaling and it helps to have hay in two different places so we don't have any squabbles. We are about 2 months away from the first mares due dates. We love foals and in the past would breed early so had some born in the winter. Below are some of our past foals.
Now we are getting older and don't want to work that hard. It is much easier for us if they can foal when it is warmer. Tatiana is our first mare due March 14th, 2025. We will need to bring her here by the middle of February. Below is a picture of Tatiana with her Valiant foal from a couple years ago.
Both Rosalie and Rosaleigh are due in April with Lily's daughter Rosalie due April 10th and the other Rosaleigh due April 23rd. They will need to be brought in early March.
After working outside for a while we were more than ready for lunch. I made pulled pork tortillas. Below is Mark's.
Since we had a late lunch we were not interested in eating until after 6:30 pm. That was a dish I saw on the internet and tried. Start with a tortilla, spread on cream cheese then chicken. On top of the chicken put a few spoonful's of alfredo sauce, add spinach then cover with mozzarella cheese then a melted garlic butter. Add another tortilla more cream cheese, mozzarella, more alfredo sauce then put bacon on top and them more melted garlic butter. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. I didn't have any bacon but used some of the left over pork for the topping.
It turned out very good but if I do it again I will add a lot more spinach and less cream cheese.
Mark turned on a movie tonight while I was working in the other room making dinner. The movie was called Unstoppable and is a true story about a wrestler with one leg that became a champion. It was a good movie, he found it on Amazon Prime and was worth watching but you may need a Kleenex box near by.