It's glittering out

When I went to the store to get dinner, I was amazed to see what looked like glitter whirling around my car. The sky was blue and the sun was shining but miniature ice crystals were falling/blowing around. They caught the sunlight and glistened in rainbow colors. How odd, I've never seen this before.

There's the temporary door I made out of an old wool blanket and two leftover pieces of stall insulation. We will call a carpenter friend to come put the door back up. At least the water has stayed on today, no pipes broke, and I could finally turn that space heater off down there.

I decided to try to make my own insulated water bucket for Baasha. First of all, his bucket needed to be moved because it was right next to the open door. I moved it to a sheltered corner where he's never pooped so far, and I hope he doesn't start now. I thought if they sell these things, I can at least try to fashion one. It's worth a shot. I used syrofoam paper/film under the bucket, a garden seat cushion around the bucket, and my man's red beach towel to fill a hole. All of this is inside of a big circular water trough, and I put some cardboard on the outside. I sure hope this works, it will at least make a difference in how long it takes before it's too frozen for Baasha to drink.

UPDATE: It worked! For the first time in weeks, Baasha's water was not frozen this morning!

This is why Baasha cannot make the trip to the field. This is the steep incline he must climb up/down and it's way too dangerous now. If only we could buy lot #72, then Baasha could just walk right over to the pasture without the treacherous down and up again route. (I asked again recently if the hippies would sell and they said no, but I think there is hope now, they want to buy their own home and probably could use a nice downpayment!)

I also walked down to our ponds to see the effects of the cold. I was amazed at the ice patterns on the ponds. I've never seen this before. I didn't know the cat had followed me down there (it's her favorite place) and I saw a dark shape flow by me and I thought it was a wild animal and I thought I was going to be attacked right on my own property. Then the cat ran up and rubbed on me and I told her she scared the crap outta me.

She stares at the ground where she can hear animals. They're warm at least, but I don't know what they're drinking down there.

I dumped the field water trough as well as the one by the stall. Now we have ice block art pieces, very nice. They will be my weather gauges.