Everyone's ready for winter

The ponies have their blankets on. I waited till the second snow. Apache doesn't grow as much hair as Ben does. If I blanket them too early he stops growing. The first snow was mostly just a skiff. This second on he was wet and shivering just a little by mid afternoon.

The chickens got a heated waterer. I've been knocking the ice out of their bucket morning and evening, but I worry they don't get enough water in between. Scott gives them and Hello Bunny warmed water hoping it will take longer to freeze. So this morning he took me to Valley Co-Op and we got a heated waterer and a tarp. They don't care much for the snow. Two days ago I put the girls up in the top of the condo for the night. We'd had a stray cat take up residence in the bottom. Last evening I had to put their water up their with them as they weren't coming down the ramp. Again this morning I had to do the same.

We installed the waterer. Brought out an extension cord for power. Scott shoveled out the snow in the run. I spread out some oat hay to get them off the frozen ground and to give them something to scratch and peck in. Then Scott and I pulled the tarp over and tied it down. This will give them some protection from the snow. It took some coaching by Scott with some bread to get them to come down out of the top of the condo, but they scratched a round for a while, found the water, and huddled back up in the bottom of the condo. It's been snowing here since last night. A steady, gentle, non-stopping snow.

 Scott is building a box for me to store wood next to the fire place. It'll have the same cattail pattern to it as the bed he made me the first year we moved in.  Eventually all the furniture will be something Scott built with his own hands. We have plans for coffee table, end tables, shelves, a stand for the fish tank. All in iron with the same design. 

Pipe being heated to be hammered into cattails

Pat making cattails

Please people, remember to clean out your chimney!!! This is just the inside of the little topper that goes on top of the flue to the outside from out wood stove. It got cleaned out every other month last year. Scott got up on the roof before the first snow this year and cleaned everything out. We'd had a fire in the wood stove here and there over night, but it hadn't gotten to where we were running it all day and all night, and relying solely on the stove for heat.

As quoted from: http://www.mychimney.com/blog/about/chimney-fires-can-be-prevented/
"Besides the raging blazes, slow burning fires can also take place within the chimney walls and you may never know these fires are going on. These fires may burn silently, but their silence is no indication of the harm they may cause, slow burning fires burn at incredibly high temperatures and can cause serious structural damage to the chimney as well as nearby walls of the home. "

Be safe this winter.