Sleet, I still hates it...

Well, now the main roads are fairly clear, and you can mostly go the speed limit. YAY! The back streets however are even worse than they were the first day. The temp's have been so low that even the ice is not doing a good job of melting stuff. The roads by the barn are abysmal and very dangerous. What little stuff melted has now frozen again and is a solid sheet of ice. If I had a pair of ice skates I would be having some fun, but in my pickup it is pretty scary. Here in Oklahoma, we do have some winter weather, but usually it doesn't last long, so we don't have a lot of experience driving in it. People don't slow down and it is downright scary sometimes. I really hate going out in it, but so far I have done pretty well. The only trouble I've had is turning into the barn drive. It is right at the top of a hill and it's polished to a very nice shine - in other words, it is slick as greased owl shit. You have to creep up and roll in. If you try to brake or accellerate, you are in trouble. Now that I have that figured out, everything is peachy!

The prisoners love this weather. They are pigs, and live for anything that gets them extra food. Because the temps have been so low, and the fact that Prisoner X is old, and Prisoner Y has almost no hair, I have been giving them some extra alfalfa. They are going to be upset when it warms back up to normal temps and the extra slop stops flowing. They have been very busy shitting up the barn. I bedded it down with some nice bermuda hay so they would have a good dry place to sleep, with the added benefit of being able to eat the bedding. Besides, it was *waaay* cheaper to use hay than shavings. I will have to pick out the poop tonight. It has just been too cold for my weenie butt to stay out there and pick. The wind has finally died down today, so they ate outside this morning. YAY!

I actually saw the BM throwing hay to the old man and his gelding friend today. I have been breaking the ice on their tank and I took them some warm water yesterday. They seem to be doing fine. It is supposed to warm up to the 60's Friday. I will have to fill my water tanks then. The watering system at the barn is primitive - a bazillion hoses strung all over god's green earth, and when the weather is freezing there is no water to the paddocks. It sucks, but it's what it is and you learn to work around it. Last year it was cold so long that I had to haul in water twice a day. Hopefully this year that won't happen, but if it does, oh well :-) As my DH says, "Isn't horse ownership *wonderful*?" And I say, yes, indeed it is!