WOW, shorthorsemom, that's a lot...
I've not done either the regular calving or 2x daily milking, but have helped w/ several roundups and dipping of up to 1,0000 first year heifers on who knows how much pasture space (have no idea how large those pastures were). THAT was done in relatively good weather in CO, however, I had to have help saddling the horses I rode and thanked everyone available that at the time I had an iron bladder, 'cuz once up I didn't dismount thru the whole day... I'd been in a car accident that flipped rear over front 3x and while nothing was broke I was literally "green & yellow" for a long, long time with full body bruising, torn ligaments and tendons and a concussion... I remember those days of "git 'er done".. AND I now pay for some of that with my body approaching fifty and feeling some of those youthful injuries (several horse wrecks, too, and the "pounding" while in the army later)...
Some of these other posts make me very thankful I at least know how to deal with winter, even if it's hard to prepare for it completely here... Here's a pic of our 4 youngsters out in the round pen during part of a heavy fall ("white out")... They weren't staying in the barn, so I put them back out where they had free choice hay and alfalfa pellets away from the mature ponies. A pic of the ducks both during the first part of the snow when their "pond" is frozen solid and the next day when we had a partial thaw and rain and the ditch between the house and barn was full of water...
The Jr mares - their pasture has trees in the back edge. It was completely clear of snow and blocked from the majority of wind by the trees & underbrush I haven't cleared yet in a 20 x 14 area. They preferred standing at the hay and getting covered in layers of snow! Though the manure this am shows that they've spent time back there - I will need to concentrate on pick up there when we get dry.
Well, I was supposed to get a load of 4 round bales this weekend. That water (above) is the ditch that I need to cross - there isn't supposed to be any standing water there - that's what the ditch is for to drain it away from the house, hillside in front of the barn and drive. Hmmm... may be getting a load of small squares and using ponies to pull them up to the barn thru the snow and water on tarps or a skid... I've only got 2 small squares left from the last load of 50 I had. The supplier I get small squares from has 300 left and I have 100 of that, but hadn't planned on getting but about 5 this weekend. We'll see. If I have to feed the small squares to the one pasture that is low on round bales this will be a hard working weekend. UGH. We can't seem to keep ahead of the storms since last June (when I got the 4x4 truck stuck in the mud hauling round bales and it "broke" the truck).
WOW - Chandab - you are having a heat wave!! It's above freezing. And it's the exact same temp here right now.
) Hows that for not gloomy? We had our neighbour come in with his skid steer and clean up our front yard and driveway so I could get in after I left for my dentist's appointment (and hair cut) so we should be fine until my guy feels ready to fire up his own equipment this weekend and finish the clean up - provided we don't get even more of that white stuff.
