I have automatic waterers that have heaters in them. It is SO COLD that one was mostly fozen over and the other was COMPLETELY frozen.
So, I got to haul water. Luckily, I have frost-free spigots at the barn that still work. So I fill a bucket out there, then hauled a bucket of straight hot out to the barn. I mixed some of the hot water with the water in the bucket and gave it to Angel and Thai. They were thirsty, but not as much as I thought they would be, seeing how they have ZERO water!
I broke the ice off the other waterer and dumped the rest of the hot water in to thaw it some.
I'll be back out at the barn a couple times before I go to bed to make sure the girls aren't thirsty.
It's supposed to be like this all week. Guess I'll be getting my exercise hauling water and making trips to and from the house.
Time to move south for the winter...
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I remember working at a barn in Olympia some 18 years ago. We had a water pipe in the barn burst and it made just the biggest mess! We had to keep shavings on the floor of the isle to keep humans and horses safe, and then we hauled water to fill buckets from the heated bathroom. Not my idea of fun!
Yeah, no fun! I rigged up some hangers in Angel and Thai's stalls so that I can leave the bucket hanging for an hour or so. I'll be taking warm water out again in an hour or so.
I just found out that the "frost-free" hose bib at the front of the barn is froze up. I use that one to water Dobbs and Millie. Dobbs is fine, he's got a bigger tank with a sinking heater in it.
Millie has two heated 5 gallon buckets.
We were thinking that we're missing a heated tub... Hmmm.
The new parts for the automatic waterers should be here Thursday or Friday. Then we get to turn off the water, use the shop vac to suck out the water and yuk, replace the heater, then re-fill - ALL before it freezes up.
If we have to, we'll just get 4 more heated buckets and miss out for Christmas. As long as the horses have water, that's what's important.
Ugh. I wish the barns I grew up working at had heated water buckets! Takes 3x as long to clean stalls if you have to run up and down breaking ice in all the buckets every hour or so. Now, do that in a big barn of 30+ stalls and it takes almost all night to clean stalls!
I have no idea if the automatic waterers at our barn are heated or not. I can't get to the barn where we board Casey. There's only one bridge that goes over the river and it's closed. Or was yesterday and this morning. Really, the barn is about 1/2 a mile, but it's on the other side of the river from me. The next bridge that goes over the river is clear down by Albany and that's a hike for us.
Same here! Hauling buckets, back and forth! Hot water to unfreeze what's left.
I've had enough. Ready to return to our NORMAL PNW temps now!
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