Cold Mornings!

The mornings are getting colder. I always seem to delay getting the winter heaters into the water tanks until after I have to break ice a few mornings. This year, I have been breaking ice for more than a few mornings. Some mornings, there is just a thin layer of ice. Some mornings, there is a heavy layer of ice. Some mornings, I can’t break the ice with the grain bucket, and I need to use a T- post to break the ice.

We have had lots of horses who think it's neat to play with the water heater and get it outside the water tank, pull them apart, and tramp on it! Those early years, I have found bits and pieces all over the lot. What do they do? Run with the pieces or fling them around? I always wonder if they get their mouths burned on the element when it first comes out of the water. The element does automatically turn off when it is out of water, but the heater is hot to the touch when it first comes out of the water. I suppose the wire cage around the element protects them while they trample it!

I have learned to put the extension cord of the water heaters through PVC pipe so that the horses can’t chew on the cord. To keep the water heaters IN the tanks, we wire the PVC pipe to the fence posts. It is wired right below the electric fence, and when they touch the fence a time or two to try to play with the pipe, they eventually get shocked. They have learned to leave the tank heater alone!

I finally got the water heaters into the tanks over this past weekend. I plugged in 2 water heaters and the electric fencer to 1 outlet. The heaters were only plugged in for 1 night before I blew a fuse! No extra fuses in the barn! Where are the fuses, and how do you open this darn fuse box? My hubby told me that he hid the fuses…why??? I’m back to breaking ice until I get my husband to show me where the special fuses are!

I’m back to breaking ice this morning. I find one extension cord in the steer lot! How did it get there? Luckily, the cord wasn’t frozen into the mud and I pulled it out of the lot. It seemed a lot longer now! I stretched it out toward the barn where I have TWO separate outlets. My extension cords were long enough to get TWO extension cords from 2 water tank heaters into the barn and plugged into 2 different outlets. Yeah, I have electric to 2 tank heaters. Now I hope that those 2 outlets are on 2 different circuits! I’ll find out tonight at chore time whether I have ice or water.

Now, I just need to get the fencer back on and electric to 2 more tanks. I need to find more extension cords to run to 2 more lots! I’m back to breaking ice until then. Do I have enough water heaters for 2 more tanks? I think I’m missing one. I need to replace the one that I picked out of the pen in bits and pieces last winter. Time to run to the farm store.