In the interest of trying to keep this blog focused mostly on me and my horse life, I started a new blog for the new additions to the farm and to keep track of the other livestock additions that may come in the future. Future goat news will probably be posted there as well.
The wind and snow have started! The horses and goats are all bedded into the barn. Drifts are starting to build on the western side of the buildings. The snow from earlier is blowing away and fresh new snow is coming down hard.
Dangerous Winter Storm to Hit Western Washington
Radar Map of Western Washington
Enumclaw area Wunderground Station
Update:
Click on the image to view the QuickTime video.
A few girlfriends and I have been e-mailing about the weather. We are spread out quite a bit and not everyone has the same amount of snow. I guess one of the local news stations equated it to a donut; lots of snow around the area and a center area with relatively nothing. We’re closer to the nothing than the 18+ inches in many parts of the Puget Sound area.
The goats have been thoroughly enjoying their straw bale condo. So much so that they have started to destroy it! Goats will be goats.
Buster loves the snow. What lab doesn’t?
And the horses like the fluffy stuff, too. Much better than mud or being cooped up in the stalls!
The poor shed looks so forlorn!
And the pumpkins on the back steps just make a person get the chills looking at them!
TOO COLD!
One Wunderground station near us recorded a low temp of 9.5°F last night! That’s just too cold!
The horses, goats and dog now all have heated water buckets in the barn. Already had a stock tank heater outside, but since the run-in shed is no more, the horses get brought in at night and if the wind is blowing. The goats have a new straw bale condo set up. And the barn cats huddle en masse either in the barn or out in the hay shed somewhere. I have seen them venturing out and about in the sun today since there is no wind. Also, I spotted a little mouse in the barn last night when we were installing the heated buckets. Barn kitties must not be doing their jobs very well! Mouse looked cold scurrying around on the rubber mats int he stall.
My husband came in this morning around sunrise to inform me that the run-in shed flipped over in the wind and that the horses were fine but were out running around. I dressed to go outside and help him put the horses in the round pen and then collect items before they blew away. Once that was done, then we grabbed a quick bite of breakfast and headed back out to the barn to reorganize the straw and hay bales to get the goats, barn cats, dog and horses all settled in. Took a couple of hours, but everyone is now cozy in the barn out of the wind.
Here is what it looked like before:
