Big fail, big chill

I have officially thrown in the towel on the back barn. That's the barn in the new pastures. The barn with the too narrow aisle and the flooding stalls and the doors that stick and the missing front slider and the broken lights. That barn. Some day, maybe, in the future, it will make a good sheep barn, or a workshop, or even a summer barn for the ponies. Or maybe just a big run-in shed or hay barn. But, for now, I'm done with it. No more trips out there in the dark. No more cold wind whistling through the stalls. No more skating on the ice inside. 

With the polar vortex bearing down (now there's a great new term to throw around, "Just the other night, during the polar vortex, ..." ) I worried that the exiled ponies out there would suffer too much. The temperature was predicted to hit -15F and that barn is not snug. It is the opposite of snug. Even with their heavy winter coats, I worried that it would be too much for them. So in the 11th hour, after some heavy duty stall stripping and doubling up some of the little guys, I brought the big ponies back into the main barn. I have to say, snugness aside, it's just a pleasure to see those faces back in the barn when I walk in. I have missed their company! I won't split them up again.

The main barn isn't exactly warm itself, but at least it's still and dry inside. Being a metal pole barn, I doubt it will ever be truly warm. At bed check tonight it was a quiet -3 F in the barn, while more like -10 F and crazy windy outside.





Annie said she was happy to be back in the barn, but the weather sucks.