What do you do to prepare for a BIG snow?

[TheCaseFamily00]

We're supposed to be getting a huge amount of snow in the next few days does anyone have any suggestions to make feeding and care easier? What about power loss? I know alot of you have been threw this any thoughts. Thanks!

 

[Riverrose28]

We make sure that we have diesel for the tractor and park it up by the house, we also make sure we have gas for the generator in case we lose electric so we can run the pump in the well. I also stock up on water, we have two five gallon containers in the indoor, and several containers full in the stallion barn. I make sure to have plenty of hay down, and all feed bins full. I bring my small spade and the large snow shovel up and put them on the porch, this year they havn't gone anywhere else. I put kitty litter by the barn door it always gets icy there. We stock up on fire wood for the wood stoves and pray the electric doesn't go out. Last week we lost electric for four hours only but the phones were out for over a day. I keep my cell in my pocket when I go out to feed we are like the mail man, snow, sleet, freezing rain animals must be fed, but I have it just in case I fall being a senior citizen I fall a lot. Last year I fell and broke my hand so I learned to carry my cell. Good luck and stock up on hot coco.

 

[billiethekid40]

Make sure you have flashlights handy in the house and the barn- fine to bring them to the barn if the power is already out, but if it goes out in the middle of feeding you don't want to trudge to the house to get them! Have feed and hay (if possible) laid out where you can use natural light to get the job done and make up feeds in the daytime to avoid measuring in the dark. Same goes for stall cleaning. Always have extra hay in each stall/pen during a storm in case you have to go an extra hour or two between feeds to clear paths. Make sure everyone is drinking lots or water down their feed- you don't want a colic during a storm when the vet can't make it out. Try to keep on top of the shoveling its wayyy easier to shovel 6" two or three times than to shovel 12-18" all at once! And remember the buddy system in bad visibility- try to wait for better visibility but if you have to go out make sure someone knows you've gone. And wear ski goggles you'd be amazed how much more comfortable walking/shoveling in blowing snow is when you don't have to squint to keep the snow out of your eyes!!!

 

[bevann]

Draw up plenty of water in case electric goes out We fill up muck buckets so we can just dip from them.Have plenty of hay and feed(although I do not do grain if the storms are bad just in case of colic)encourage drinking with salt diesel for back hoe and plug backhoe and gator in since diesels don't like extreme cold don't go anywhere without cell phone and let someone know where you are going and how long you expect to be.If you can't dump manure clean stalls and dump it in 1 end of barn or empty stall.Gross but they will manage.dirty shavings and manure can be dumped on ice to help with traction for humans and horses.Get a flashlight that doesn't need batteries.I have some you just crank to light.Pray for spring!!!

 

[anoki]

Not much....the 'big' ones they always talk about never seem to amount to what they talk them up to be. It's the ones they don't talk about you gotta watch out for, so it's kinda hard to prepare for them

We don't normally lose hydro in our snow storms (usually....the odd time we do.....), so other than making sure the tractor is plugged in so we can get out once it's all done, there isn't a whole lot to do....

~kathryn

 

[TheCaseFamily00]

Thanks for the suggestions,I'v done everything I can to prepare.It's starting to snow now so we'll just have to see what happens.

 

[Frankie]

Don't forget about water for you inside. We use to fill jugs, big coolers for drinking water. I didn't know if you were getting the ice my family is getting. Fill your bathtubs full, it is great for flushing if you lose electricity. Deicer, helps to get in cars and gates. I'd say batteries, but I hear the whole world is out of D size up there.

Be careful, be safe.

 

[Riverrose28]

I know I posted earlier, ditto on the flash lights, I keep one on my night stand and one by the door, also we get wet snow, snow blowers won't work only the tracter will to make a path to feed, but worse still is this storm that is moving in on us tonight, freezing rain, hate it. Then more rain, which means mud, hate it, if you have a submissive horse bring them in, you don't want them to get rain rot or left out in the cold when the others won't let them in the run in. Also water in the house so you can flush the toilet and water for the cats and dogs. you can fill the bath tub and also fill all buckets cause believe it or not, it is a good time to clean house, read a book or get some sewing done.

 

[HGFarm]

Luckily I dont have to worry about that here and I sure hope everyone is ok.

What would I do though? I would book a cruise in the Bahamas a.s.a.p.

 

[Sterling]

Make sure gas tanks in the vehicles are full. Make sure we have oil in our tank for the house. Fill up horse troths and water jugs inside and we keep big packages of bottled water always stacked. I always make sure the dogs, horses, livestock and cat have a good stock of food and a couple of days before the storm hits I go to the grocery store for essentials. Hubby preps the generator and the snow plow. And I always have flashlights in practically every room of the house. I also have one of those miner's lites which has a band you wear around your head. This way I can go walking about without having to hold a flashlight in my hands. I really like it. I can also read a book instead of just sitting in the dark and twidding my thumbs. We don't put salt down for the slippery ice and snow. Even the pet friendly stuff has chemicals in it that we've had to rethink because Lakota decided she liked to lick things here and there...so we now use fine sand from Home Depot. After the snow and ice it may be a little bit more to clean up, but it beats having the dogs licking on it. Oh yea...and I make sure the birdfeeder is full too....lol...lol....

 

[Minimor]

We don't generally lose our hydro in a snow storm--though it did happen once in the 25 years we have lived on this place (I'm not sure that it really had anything to do with the storm, someone said afterward that a car had hit a hydro pole & that's why we had no power for several hours) so we don't usually worry about having no electricity. It's different if we're getting freezing rain, especially if there is a strong wind with it. Wind & ice isn't good for the hydro lines!

We do always have drinking water anyway because we buy our drinking water. If we think we might end up with no hydro we'll fill a few pails with water to use for flushing. Here it's pretty much impossible to run enough water to water all the horses & keep it "just in case" because it would most probably be frozen by the time it's needed. If there's snow on the ground the horses do eat a certain amount of snow anyway, so if we had no hydro/no water they would get by provided it was up & running again within 24 hours. It would be doubtful that a plain snow storm would knock out our hydro for even 24 hours.

We do make sure that we have enough feed & bedding on hand--hay, oats--if there's a storm or heavy snow coming. We also make sure that we're stocked up on cat food, and of course food for ourselves. We do have a camp stove & a canister of propane for it, so we can cook a simple meal or heat tea water on that. I make sure my cell phone is charged up, though of course we'd have regular phone service even if the hydro was out....we have a crank flashlight....horse feed and cat food are the big things we make sure we're stocked up on!!