I was commending us because I thought we were prepared for winter. We had hay in the barn, wood in the shed, compost in the station, and odds and ends in their respective sheds. Who was it that said that complacency is like a dog that when you aren’t looking, will bite you in the behind? I think it was me.

Well, I was complacent to the degree that I even slept in – this is easy to do because the sun now comes up (I think) at 9 p.m. I don’t get up before the sun rises. I don’t think it’s healthy. Alarm clocks are the bane of my existence. We were not meant to be woken up by a device set to a specific time. Actually, our alarm, some old thing that was left here when we moved in – makes such a soft sound that Pete wakes me when it goes off.

I have a view of the great outdoors from my bedside. I raise my head up and see what the day will bring. Today, first thing, I realized that the day was bringing us about 6 inches of new snow. I didn’t want to deal, so I went back to sleep.

Time to break out the sled

Couldn’t stay in bed forever because I had animals to feed. So I got up, dressed, and went outside. It was a slog, going down to, and into the horse pen. I hate slogging, which is why I put shoveling out the pen and surrounding areas high on the agenda.

Picking up manure after a snowfall is always a pain in the ass because with it comes a great deal of snow. I usually pick up four five-gallon buckets in the morning – when it snows, I pick up seven or so. On such days, and this was such a day, I remind myself that the wet stuff is good for the compost.

Later, after studying, I let the horses out into the yard, opened the middle gate, and began pushing the snow that had accumulated in the front area, into the paddock. I used the snow scoop. It was wet snow and the horses had packed it down, which was why I then made piles with the small shovel, scooped them into the sled, and hauled the sled out to the yard.

After I was done doing all this, I first took Tinni and Ryder for a walk around the loop. We’d planned on going for a ride and opening up our trails, but by the time I got back and Pete was done plowing, the sun was low in the sky. I suggested that we forego the outing because the horses would be wet when we got back. I like to give them time in the sun after a ride.

Together we took Hrimmi and Tyra for a loop walk, then I took Raudi solo. It was dark when, finally, all the horses had been exercised.

I think that winter preparedness is to a large degree a state of mind. It wasn’t like we had a great deal of things to do; rather, it was that we had not yet accepted the fact that snow removal and the like was again to be a part of our winter routine.

Next: 319. 11/18/19: Fireball X-L 5