I spent my morning putting everything back – everything being the buckets (empty ones, ones full of dried hard feed and ones with feed already made up), water containers that lived in the kitchen to stop freezing, and haynets that took up residence in the porch.  It all went back to where it belonged in various sheds and my house looks a bit better.

While I was moving the buckets, Edna barged her way into the porch and I thought to myself “why not” and gave her the extra fattening mash that I had made for the horses but had decided they didn’t really need as it is so much warmer today.

She was in a very happy shovelling mood.

I peaked outside and weI decided to say nothing. This extra food was none of their business.

Once Edna had eaten enough for three horses, I took the buckets to my feed container.

I did a spot of tidying up too.

The big thaw started last night and is going well. The outside taps are now all running but the Eggbox remains stuck in a four foot drift on our track!  So much for having a 4WD – we left it there and I will attempt to move it tomorrow.  The last time my Land Rover (old type Defender) did this, I managed to slide into a fence so I know what can happen if I don’t wait until it is safe.

And my life is much easier. No one is interested in the haynets and I am not bothering to make up anymore unless it snows again.

Plenty of grass everywhere for everyone at the moment.

OH and I both agree that yesterday we made the right move to get the Minions home.  Ok, they were unhelpful and it wasn’t easy, but it is good they are home and much easier to manage.

As the weather descended to lumps of snow falling out the sky all morning, I put out more haynets and reminded everyone about sharing nicely or “lovely sharing” as we call it in this house.

The snow is getting deeper and deeper but the ponies are clever and have made deep tracks through the snow, which they all follow one after the other.

The Icelandics are also doing fine. They get two buckets of food and unlimited hay.  No one says they’re cold.  Fluffy coats doing their job.

And I saw Lambie chewing his cud this morning and that really cheered me up.

He even ate his normal breakfast, like a good boy with no mooching it around the bowl and having a speshul moment.

So proud *** sniff ***.

Tonight brings rain and hopefully a thaw.

I think everyone will be glad to see grass wherever they live.

Today we struggled.  There was a lot of snowfall overnight.

We set off in the Eggbox and slid our way to the Minions’ field (about 1 mile down the road).  Even with extra-grunt 4WD on, we slid in a scary way down the hill and got stuck on the track.  So we gave up, grabbing buckets, haynets and water containers, lugging them the last bit to the ponies.

The ponies were pleased to see us and our food. We broke the ice off and refilled the water bucket, noting the stream that runs through the field had completely frozen over.  I have never seen that before.

I almost felt sorry for Newt. Almost.

Then we dug and pushed the Eggbox out of its drift and wobbled our way home, getting stuck again on our track, so again, we abandoned it, walking home feeling rather shaken by this experience.

After lunch, OH and I walked back to the Minions’ field and I caught Fivla, Vitamin and Waffle.  OH led Fivla and Vitamin and I had Waffle.  The others were wild and free and they galloped up and down the road having the best time.

Meanwhile, I struggled with Waffle who was awful.  By the time we reached my neighbour’s house, I had run out of steam.  My neighbour took pity on me, came out and offered to lead Waffle for me so I could shout at the others who were now departing over the horizon (having scrambled over the cattle grid!) and not going home.  Luckily, they realised they were on their own, turned tail and galloped home, following OH with Fivla and Vitamin with Waffle and my neighbour bringing up the rear.

We shovelled them into a field and shut the gate fast.

Since then Waffle has had the water bucket over twice. OH has dragged the duck pond over to be their now un-turnoverable water container with rocks in.

I have put out haynets and I am barely speaking to anyone.

Lambie update:  Apparently he is still with us.

He might manage a small piece of hay – yay, go Lambie.

I told you – we are struggling!

More and more snow overnight but everyone equine is doing ok.

This lot can get to the grass if they bother to dig through the powdery snow and they have a bucket in the morning.

Monster of course is in his element.

Invisibility is his middle name.  He is the master of stealth and surprise.  No one expects…….. a white cat in the snow!

Meanwhile, I am worried about Lambie. He hasn’t eaten his breakfast for two days in a row and seems depressed.  So I put the others in a field, so they couldn’t hassle him.  He likes to eat on his own and I tried everything.

I opened a fresh bag of sheep crunch – nope, he turned away.  I gave him a fresh block of dried grass – he quite liked that and I wondered if he is missing fresh green grass.  I can do nothing about that. The snow has covered it up.

I even held the bowl for him between my feet so it didn’t slide around while he was eating.

Then I sprinkled some of Edna’s favourite food (Rowen Barbary Ready Mash Extra) on the top and he quite liked that.

The minute I thought “good, I’ve found what he likes”, he would stop eating.

I tried fibre beet (dried sugarbeet cubes for horses and he quite liked them – but no real enthusiasm).  He’s gone off hay too.

So I found a box of beet shreds with barley and he did like that.  Sadly you can’t get beet shreds anymore but I hope I can jolly him along until the thaw at hopefully the weekend.  Lambie has always been a fussy feeder, and sometimes he will only eat if I promise to hold his bowl.

*** sigh ***. I shall now worry constantly about Lambie.

The snow is pretty and all that but it is also an awful lot of hard work too.  So, because I am totally exhausted from waiting tables – horse, pony, sheep, duck, hens – since 8.30 this morning until it got dark just after 4, I am not going to write much.   I just want to curl up with some ginger wine and a hot water bottle really.

But in between lugging buckets, water, haynets, etc, I managed to nip out with my big camera and take some photos of Haakon and Iacs. Kolka was the other side of the shed.

As you can see, they are all doing fine.  Their coats are working well. No one is jittery or cold and I would almost say they have all eaten themselves to a standstill.

I feel like I have fairies, or furries, at the bottom of my garden and you can see why I have to keep going out with food or fresh water….. they keep standing there trying to get my attention.

“Excuse me, could we possibly have the next course?”