Deep Freeze!

Got up at 4:11 this morning, thanks to the dogs stirring and wanting to go out - why? It is 9 degrees outside! With 10 rescue dogs living in the house it is dufficult to let out the first shift and go back to bed. By the time your head hits the pillow, the second shift wants out and the first shift wants in, and trying to keep them quiet because my husband is still asleep does not help matters. So, since I needed to check on the pregnant jennets - in case they had foaled (4:00 - 5:00 am are preferred foaling times for my crew), I took a shower and got dressed. Hmmmm, what to wear, what to wear? This used to be a quandry when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale and socialized with well-heeled people. Not to fear, it is no longer an issue! The following is what I am currently wearing in the office which is not at the house and is not insulated very well - A ThermaCare 8 hour heating thingy for my back, longjohns (top and bottom), sweatpants, a sweater, Walls insulated overalls, an insulated sweatshirt hoodie, a heavy Carhart jacket, a polarfleece scarf thing that goes over your head, Muck insulated boots with self-heating handwarmers in the toes and gloves. I may not be able to open the chain snaps on the gates and can certainly not bend my elbows or do anything else that requires manual dexterity, but by God, I'm warm! I must also add that none of the previously mentioned apparel matches, but who the hell cares? The animals sure don't care and I'm not going anywhere that what I wear matters to anyone but me! Oh, the smartasses (two legged, not four legged) around here may have some comment, but until they go up and feed 50 equines at 7:00 am when it is a 9 degree air temperature and a close to 0 wind chill, they can kiss my Ass - and I have a field full that they can pick from! It is such fun breeding Asses....and half-Asses. You get to use the word all the time!

Meanwhile, my pregnant girls......I was up at the barn at 5:30am. The barn cats met me at the gate and baby Eden was close behind. I located Dusty and Delta and they were waddling around like fat hippos and giving me that look that says, "What?!?" I would imagine that they have decided that they will not foal until it is 7 degrees later in the week and in the middle of our scheduled snow. Why make it easy on the human caretakers? The babies have been very active the past couple of days inside their Mama's; kicking and moving around. This is a good sign, but boy are they going to want back in their warm, liquid world once they join ours! We have insulated foal coats (one blue and one pink) and the Jackstock babies are born with a very thick foal coat, so they should be fine, if their Mama's have them in the nice clean, dry and warm straw that we have down in the stalls. We shall see.