Here in Monteview, we had a supercharged, cold snap! we were getting along at around degrees like 15° and 0°, then on Monday the temperature dropped to negative 21°!! it was so Stinking cold🥶.
I got out early in the afternoon to do chores because I knew it was getting cold, and we had already been having problems with keeping the hose from freezing, but we were getting along alright. the day before I had accidentally bent the hose end while trying to defrost, so I grabbed my pliers and tried to bend it back, bad idea, it broke from being too cold.
I remembered I had left a hose out on the ice pond we'd built earlier this winter, I thought maybe I could pull it out from under the snow and use it. Just my luck it was frozen solid to the ground. Another idea I wrapped a strap around it and tried pulling it out with the truck. It would have worked, but the hose was so cold it just broke.....by this time it was starting to get dark, (and my patience was getting extra thin) the temperature was dropping like crazy! I went back to the hose with the broken end and dragged it over to the shop so I could replace the hose end. I got that done and by this time it was mostly dark and I couldn't feel my toes anymore. I was almost done though, so I thought to myself "I can do it."
Now to get a perspective of what I'm dealing with here, I've got 3 large horses that need water, they are about 100 feet from the nearest tap, also I didn't dress for this weather, because I thought I could just quickly do the evening chores....and I'm starting to make bad decisions because I'm so cold.
I hook the new hose end to the tap and turn it on and......nothing happens....apparently, there was some water in the hose when I pulled it out of the shop....and now it was frozen inside the hose🤦♀️ and when I turned on the tap it froze too, so I couldn't turn it off,(I couldn't get the hose off it either.) I finally decided, being as cold as I was, I couldn't do anything else.
So I went to back to the house and got warmed up. Then I could make a calculated decision on what I could do in this situation. I decided that I could haul a bucket of water for each horse and that would be enough till morning. A friend of mine offered to come and help me haul buckets of water, (from our greenhouse where the tap worked)
The horses didn't get as much as they wanted, but it was enough and the next morning we figured out something that would work a bit better at least to get us through this cold spell.
I've been wondering if there was a lesson to be learned from this experience.😕 I think that I will Never offer to tend someone's horses for them in the winter, without an adequate watering system and housing for them. Also ALWAYS Wear warm Ski Pants when doing chores!!
