Deutschland friert

We're having a cold snap that won't quit. (The caption in my husband's newspaper says, "Germany freezes." )


Although the news had warned us, our basement got cold enough to freeze our water pipes this morning. My man ran a space heater down there to blast the pipes and so far our water-based heating system is still working (furnaces in Germany use warm water to heat a home).

I am home sick today because of my injury on that horse this weekend. The doctor even took xrays of my head (I got to see my skull!) and says I have a sprained neck. I'd never heard of a sprained neck. As is normal in Germany, they gave me Ibuprofen.  This is what they give women who have c-sections too. Nice. Next time I'm in America, I'm going to Canada, if it's still possible to get the good stuff up there OTC.

So although I'm in pain, it's a good thing I'm home today to keep an eye on the water pipes.

It's -10C (14F) and impossible for Baasha to navigate the frozen mud, he is pretty  much living in his stall lately. Every morning I remove the frozen solid bucket (there's no point in trying to break the ice, the entire thing is frozen) and I swap it with the one from the night before that's been sitting against a radiator all night. I still worry, so Baasha is getting three beet pulp mashes per day, each one is 2 pounds dry (which makes a full small bucket soaked) with a half cup of canola each time. I'm desperate that he stay hydrated and not waste away on our poor quality hay.

We haven't been able to reach our hay farmer (until yesterday, he was on vacation) so I went to the feed store and asked for hay. You cannot buy hay at a feed store in Germany - they only have the bagged kind for rabbits. So basically if you are a horse owner who doesn't know other hay providers, you're screwed. But I bought it. Scary though, who knows what is in it! It says "herbal grass" but it looks just like very fine grass hay. Note: hay is never green in Germany. (This bag is 5kg, 10 pounds, and cost 7Euros. It's a great deal if you hvae a rabbit.)

I've been mixing it in with our very last bale of hay because I'm afraid it's very different. He seems to like it, he seeks it out.

I'm sick of having to use a shovel to pry frozen horse poop off the stall mats, and again to chip out the frozen horse poop from the wheelbarrow onto the frozen-solid manure pile.

Here's a photo I found today in our local paper's website. Oops, not an Egret, a HERON. (This is a case where learning the German word has pushed the English one out of my brain.) Ducks and other waterfowl are only able to stand on water in Germany lately.

Here's my car with one bag of bedding pellets. This was taken on Saturday, shortly after I took my car to a self-service car wash, which was strangely working. But as soon as I got to work I realized the water was freezing solid as soon as it hit the car. There was a layer of ice all over the car, that I sprayed there. The soap just froze solid immediately and wouldn't spray off. I think in this photo you can kind of see the frozen sheet of ice on the bumper.

Saturday we took a freezing cold two hour walk and his hooves are totally salted now from the roads. Our roads are white with salt/ash. It's what I'd call an excessive amount of salt, especially on the village's sidewalks. There is no way anyone's gonna slip here. But if they did, and broke a hip, at least they'd get some nice ibuprofen. Pfft.

We walked all the way to Coin's house (pretty bay Standardbred of an aquaintance) and boy were those horses freaked about a ghost-white Arabian with a fire-engine red blanket on staring at them from the forest. I love that, sneaking up on horses and then just standing there. Baasha just watched as they tore around, prancing over the ice and pavement of their winter paddock. I was a little worried they'd hurt themselves but they were obviously having a great time.  (Sorry Aarene I forgot a carrot but honestly they were too "terrified" to come near!)

This is weird: It's too cold to form new ice outside. I have not had to scrape ice off the car, because there is no moisture in the air at all. It's literally too cold to snow.

Here's our attic where we dry our clothes (we have no dryer), with some clothes hanging down. See the ice on the window? It's on the inside. You can imagine how long it takes our clothes to dry.


The following photos show what our lawn looks like, and our rain barrels, Baasha's "good weather" trough, and my goldfish pond:

We are so sick of this! It's not as bad as being snowed in but I worry so much about Baasha. He cannot walk on this frozen ground so I have to take him around streetside to the pasture.

I have to admit that I regretted shaving him one evening when I came home and it was gusting very strong wind and sub zero temps, and I'd locked him out that day because it was sunny. Bad move. His two blankets weren't enough in that wind. It was so windy we had bits of hay all over our front yard! That's never happened. As soon as I opened the stall he ran in there and I realized he was shivering. I gave him two hot mashes and made him do all his tricks for treats to get him warm, and my man and I put a third blanket on him. He was fine in about 10 minutes but I felt horrible. I will not lock him outside again this Winter. He can just hang out in that stall until the thaw, if it ever comes. However if it's not windy and I'm home, I put him out to the frozen pasture for a few hours. He nibbles what he can and then asks to come back in.

Everything you touch shocks you from static, and I even read in the paper today that a Duesseldorf school gave the kids an "ice day" (there are no snow days in Germany) because the school's water pipes froze.

I tacked up a wool blanket over our basement doorway (the door really should have been put back up before now) to keep the meager warmth in so our pipes won't burst.

All this and I must think about the homeless people who've died in the cold. Although that's a better way to go than drowning on a cruise ship in your cabin, this cold is more than an inconvenience to many.

Please God let this end soon.