I thought I would be mega productive today and get some writing done and get my courses in order for starting teaching on Monday.

But instead, the farrier was able to come early, so I helped out with the hoof trimming, then realized that the heated animal waterer was frozen and I've been trying to troubleshoot that ever since. Taking an anti-grump hot chocolate break inside now, then heading back out to frantically try to fix it before pipes freeze... -20C forecast for tonight ☹️

Took 2 hours of lots of swearing while lying on my belly in the snow working in a space I could only get one hand into, and repeatedly getting that one hand wet while the windchill's about -15C. And I didn't even fix it! Just a dumb workaround. I'll go out and check in a bit to make sure it's still working... Farming is SO FUN.

Time for tea and sitting in front of the heater while getting my circulation back.

I'm stressed about checking to see if my (temporary/bad) fix worked or not, so I'm going to share my stress with all you. Going to check now and see if the water trough is liquid or frozen.

If it's liquid, hurray, I can come back in and drink more tea! If not, time for a lot more swearing and frozen fingers.

It's frozen. SHIT.

After a bit of jiggling wires, it seems to be working. For now. 😬

I'll check a couple more times as the temperature drops for the night...

Anyway, have some puppy pictures as compensation for any stress incurred as you followed this saga.

Time to go back out to the barn for pre-bedtime chores and find out if the water trough is still liquid or not.

(Little things like this happen all the time on the farm and in our old crappy farmhouse, but usually I can complain about it to/with my partner so I don't need to blab it all over the internet. But...still 2 more days until I get my family back so you all get to go on this low-stakes stress rollercoaster with me!)

@sundogplanets I remember it well, vividly, going out in subzero temps to smash the ice on the horse watering troughs with a hammer. This had to be done about every two hours.

I don't miss it.