Horse'in Around~Winter Prep

Yesterday our neighbor came over with a surprise, see that cute light that is personalized with a brown horse and black dog? He made it for us since DH wouldn't take any money for helping out with a computer problem. I ADORE it, it lights up at night and has the softest glow! We are blessed to have such kind neighbors, they called many times when the heater almost caught on fire to see if they could help out.

This is what we have been working on these past 2 weekends, extending the horse fence up to the barn so that this winter we don't have to walk down that steep hill. You can see the white electrical wire going down the hill, we are hoping that it stops HOSS from jumping the small fence. We have to finish a small section here by the barn door and move/re-install the gate, this is where I'll be this weekend..lol..at least this winter we are prepared and hopefully able to deal with letting HOSS out and the never ending mud.

It's very cold here today and spitting freezing rain, HOSS and Pipen are snug inside the barn and the kids are snug on the couch watching "Dragon Tales"..It's a gross day and It's making me sleepy!

WE HAVE POWER!!

WOW, so our power went off around 4:30 on Sunday, right as I was thinking about dinner, We had leftover wind from Ike blast through here along with some other storm and got gusts up to 75 mph. The wind lasted for hours and while the kids and I were hiding under the beds my lovely DH was outside loving it! He also helped the next door neighbor with a fallen tree and helped me tie down the grill to the porch cuse it was rolling across it.. We lost many tree limps but not a whole tree this time...something worse than a tree..our run-in shelter for Hoss down in the pasture! DH was talking to the neighbor and I was on the hill watching the horses never mind the wind storm and graze when a huge gust of wind picked up the shelter and rolled it across the whole pasture! It ripped the tarp and broke many bolts clear off! The horses freaked and bolted one way and then the other so I had to put the kids in the house and run to grab DH, He had to ride the 4-wheeler down the hill because of his knee and I drove the truck..This huge run-in shelter was rolling around the pasture with metal parts falling off of it everywhere! We caught it and had to take the tarp off so it wasn't acting like a parachute anymore and we slowly grabbed the horses and walked them back up the barn and in the stalls, now later on is the hard part of finding every bit of metal in very tall grass, until then Hoss and Pipen are living in the barn. This all took about 2 hours..so we got back into the house and grabbed...nothing to drink...no power means we have no water because we have an electric well! So we had to load the kids up in the truck and drive to find something to drink..I was craving a diet coke now!! We drove about 8 miles into town and my mom had no power and a tree fell on her sidewalk and barely missed her car...The whole town of Lancaster is without power...one gas station open and boy ya should have seen the lines for that, we waited about 1/2 an hour for gas! We never found dinner and we went back and checked on my mom again and picked up my sister to come over and help. came back to more none powered up house! So we went to bed after a dinner of PB&J's to wake up at 7am to our Power! I grabbed a whole coffee pot full of the good stuff and tried to call mom but she still has no power, called her cell and she was on her way over to my house for coffee...so I had my mom and Sis plus then my other sis and her family showed up...then after lunch our power went back off for about 2 hours and we thought it was never coming back on but around 3 it came back on. So school has been canceled on Monday and now today due to lack of power and my mom said that she heard that her power should be back on around Friday Midnight. It hasn't been easy and my mom is having a rough time of it but we are not as bad as Houston, I'm praying for them down there!