First, a spot of house-keeping.
- Thank you to my friend, Nick, who filled in my blogging gap with his lovely guinea pigs, calendar etc. Much appreciated, as ever.
- Also, if you are feeling kind or mildly appreciative, please can you vote for me for the highly prestigious Haynet Blogger of the Year Award – http://www.hay-net.co.uk/haynet-news/6051/nominees-announced-for-haynet-blogger-of-the-year-2013—please-vote
I am thrilled to be nominated. So thank you.
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Arctic conditions here – the weather forecast said so and, based on what has happened these last 36 hours, I would concur.
4am (2 nights ago), I was woken to thunder and lightning. As BeAnne shot into our bed, I shot out to go round the house pulling out every plug I could find. Sadly the router got it and after 24 hours of no inter-super-highway (as my neighbours call it), I cobbled together an ancient router, started up an old computer with a 30 second working window, quickly entered the password before it broke again, and ta-da here we are, back on the net! It was like a scene from the Crystal Maze. I am feeling rather proud of my techie abilities.
We have had constant gales and it is Arctic out there.
As the wind blew, it was pointless putting out silage for the horses, as it would have been blown away immediately so OH opened the gate and the lads went into the more sheltered field and were fine. They have been playing, eating and even lying down in the most horrendous conditions.
Today the wind has died down. We took the dogs out for a quick walk and then we put out two bales of silage for the horses.
Although the snow is not very deep, it is brutally cold.
Digestion apparently generates more heat than any other body function. Ours are very good at eating.
The burn never ices over so they have a constant supply of fresh water too.
BeAnne luffs the snow and had a delicious silly half hour.
Glad you’re back on line. We count ourselves lucky we don’t live in Shetland, Essex, Suffolk, North Wales, etc.
Worst we had was a panel blown out of the fence (which belongs to next door!) and our two wheelie-bins going walkies – well slidies – round the side of the house.
Keep warm and take good care of yourself 🙂
Brrrrrrrr…………..just looking at your (lovely) photos is making me chilly , Frances!
Nice to see the pics of your ponies being so hardy – they are really tough aren’t they!
And what did Loki make of the snow? Voted for you 🙂
Loki liked the snow. He went for a big run in the fields and was fine. He didn’t wear a coat – and as long as he kept moving, he was warm.
Glad to see you back online. It looks freezing cold, but you have some lovely pictures.
I must show your pic sto Philip. He frets about Ben living out in minus 4 !
AND he has a heated water trough !
I must admit I did worry but they were fine. Absolutely fine. I have never been so cold outside yesterday. It was too rough to go for a walk even, we were blown back and it was dangerous. The horses used the lee of the shed as shelter, were covered in ice and snow and yet were not cold or shivering. They are very tough. Same as the Shetlands.
Newfoundland ponies do very well too without rugs in winter. Mother Nature provides them with very thick warm winter coats, as lofty as a down jacket, just like the Shetland’s and Icelandic’s.
I would love to see a Newfoundland pony. I would love to meet one too!
My pleasure, as ever. Thanks for letting me plug my calendar!
Voted – fingers crossed!
Voting was very easy, best of luck.