After a recuperative night’s sleep, I woke up feeling fine today, until I looked out the window and saw that it was snowing. Enough!
And it snowed and snowed all day. The 1 to 3 inches forecast was sadly underestimated. Luckily, Jane was able to reschedule her second Covid vaccination for Friday, so she did not have to negotiate the deadly Highway TT twisting hill in snow.
I enjoyed the barn work, and dressed so warmly that I was drenched in sweat by lunchtime.
The birds were ravenous – I fed at least three times as much as usual. There was a tufted titmouse with a bent tail!
A house finch 
A house finch and a cardinal 
A wren wondering when this snow will stop 
Wren hovering 
Flicker 
A flicker stabs a starling – the cardinals are impressed 
A snowy blue jay
The horses were out all day, and covered in snow, although they do have a shed with hay in it, if they want to get out of the weather. I do not use blankets on unclipped horses, and when I brought the horses in to their stalls for the night, I had to knock off a bushel of snow from each of them. Interestingly, all of the horses were comfortable, and there was no shivering at all. The high temperature today was 3 degrees Fahrenheit ( that’s MINUS 16 degrees Celsius). The snow on the horses’ backs does not melt because they are so well insulated when they are not clipped.
Bart and Stone 
The Pearl Brothers 
Oisin and Stone are snow blind
Picking ice balls from the feet and knocking off the snow took a while.
Bart 
Oisin 
Stone
The cats were warm in the tack room, except for Marmalade and Licorice, who are enjoying extra food, but ignoring the heat lamps and the comfortable bed under them.
Twizzler 
Tom Morris 
Cora
No pictures of Harry or the dogs today. They are staying warm, and Harry is working as hard as ever.
The kitchen window this afternoon
Stay safe, stay warm. Peace.
“A flicker stabs a starling – the cardinals are impressed“ This made me laugh hysterically, yay.
I used to make a mission out of keeping starlings out of the WWU hunter barn…the whole EPM thing you know… Anyway, at one point I bought a life-sized eagle kite on a 15’ telescopic pole and placed it right outside the barn door. It helped a little with the starlings, but it did occassionally frighten a horse out of a student’s hand as he was being led out of the barn. The most effective use of the kite was when I walked it through the aisles around the barn while emitting my best impersonation of a starling distress call which sounds sort of like eeeeek eeeeek eeeeek. I did this daily during the roosting hours at dusk. The starlings would all leave en masse, the hunters would freak out in their stalls, while the saddle horses on the north side of the barn showed no alarm at all, but would watch with amusement, ears up and tails flagged. Yippeee, horse show time!. But I stopped torturing the hunters after only a short time—Jackalope and Elsa began snorting every time they saw me enter the barn with or without the eagle kite. The starlings thinned out after a variety of deterrent strategies. I admire you for liking them. I need to work on that when they show up here in the spring. They are so incredibly social! I guess I relate more to the snippy monogamous Cardinals and the independent little wrens I guess, haha.
Love your blog, thanks!
Peace
That Flicker has some cajones! Loved Linda’s story of the Eagle kite! Ha Ha hahaha ha. I am beginning to feel a little guilty, not my normal thought pattern, about not feeding the birds. But, some neighbors do, although not with the constant gourmet delights you provide! Snowing here all day, a blessing actually, the ice underneath is solid, now we have some traction for our doggie walks, very short doggie walks. I am wondering if the horse’s hair is wet once the snow is removed. Blanketing, the perfect answer seems elusive. Jesse, my 25 yr old TB G. “seems to like his blanket on” when temps reach the teens. He has great caretakers this is what they tell me. They are tough these horses, think of the broodmares out 24/7! No blankets for them, what a mess that would be with twenty or so out together. Old Friend’s Farm seems to take the individual route, if a horse seems to need one, they get one. They are out 24/7, 95% of them, with run in sheds. Not all horses have run in sheds here in KY. I’m blabbering, I’m bored, I love this blog!!