Deep Freeze

This morning we woke to the farm blanketed in hip deep snow.

And tonight the area is going to be hit with below zero degrees weather like it's never seen before.

Environment Canada has sent out warnings, advised us to raise the temperatures overnight and to keep a tap running so pipes don't freeze.

So we prepared today for this unusual deep freeze occurrence.

We chopped lots of wood and stacked enough for both fireplaces for a couple days. My horses are usually outdoors 24/7 year round however with the -35 forecasted, we decided it would be safer to bring them inside.  This meant we had to do some rearranging.  One of our horse stalls was housing all of our straw so we moved it out and across the aisle instead.

This left the stalls open for the horses.  Sierra is our only full-size horse left on the farm which meant that we could double up in stalls.

This did mean however that the goats were booted from their stall and forced to move in with the sheep.

Which in turn meant Dodge, the ram, had to leave the sheep pen and shack up with Caesar, the billy goat.  Ya, that's going well.

They\ll get over it so I'm not overly concerned.  However, this leaves no empty stalls for my maternity pen.  And I have a ewe who is due any day or week.  I've put her in the nursing pen with the newborns and their mothers and have my fingers crossed she won't deliver until we build something for her.

Back outside, we called in the Calvary, or er the neighbours, as the snow was far too deep for our usual snow plow truck driver.

The fireplaces have been burning all day log and getting the house nice and warm in preparation for tonight's deep freeze.  I'd like to think I'm ready, but time will only tell.