PLEASE MAKE WINTER GO AWAY!

[Mali]

I am so tired of the wind this year - it seemingly never ends. I'm ready to just sit and cry...

[sketcher]

The only thing that makes me not totally at the end of my rope is the thought of how much work we have to clean up from the ice storm we had in december. It looks like a tornado went through town.

[DressageGeek "Ribbon Ho"]

The only good thing about winter is when it is too crummy to do horse stuff you can get other things done. Like laundrey.

[Beanz]

Cheer UP!::winkgrin:

I saw buds on the tulip trees, my horse has commenced rubbing his tail
and I can see the grass(uh, leaves that didnt get raked!) instead of snow.

ALL sure signs spring is right around the corner!

And its light out at 5:45pm, woo hoo!
Winter sucks the major wang but its almost gone!:lol:

[FindersKeepers]

I am so there with you... this has been unreal! I got home from the barn this afternoon and planted my tush on the couch. I have been here ever since, because its winter and I don't want to do anything... and I just let the dog out and we got another 2 inches out of nowhere!!!

I hate being cold. I hate scraping snow and ice off my car, I hate chipping ice out of water buckets, and I feel absolutely stir crazy!!!

[mswillie]

For what it's worth my crocus are up and blooming. I have a great Southern exposure in the front so they do tend to come up early but they're here in all their splendid white, yellow, and blue glory.

Spring won't be far behind.

[saultgirl]

I'm so jealous of those of you who are seeing signs of spring. Forcast for tomorrow morning is 0F (-18C) windchill -15f (-26C).

There is no sign of bare ground anywhere, just a bit of bare pavement on the really busy streets.... the snow on my lawn is at least 4 feet deep... supposed to get another 6 inches in the next few days... I think at this rate the ground won't be dry until July!!

[tradewind]

I really HATE winter, always have, even as a child..This winter has plucked on my last nerve and it just cant end fast enough, I too could cry...the forecast for the next week is below average the whole time with windy conditions...cant it just please warm up....sigh..

[Kenike]

you know, you *could* send winter our way a little bit. I'm getting pretty tired of watering the lawn. Oh, and my crocuses are blooming.....4 weeks early. Much of January was in the 70's, and I don't know the last time we saw any form of precipitation. It's really....not good.

[pines4equines]

Ditto...I'm freezing.

I think everyone is angry here too and their minds are elsewhere. I almost got hit by a car this morning getting my coffee, I was walking in a parking lot and the woman just kept coming at me. I slammed my hand into her rear window of her SUV to stop her. Then someone cut someone else off big time right after that and then someone backed right into me at lunch WHILE I WAS SITTING IN THE CAR trying to get out of a parking lot and then just drove off!!! It was an old, old man so I just let it go. (Hit the bumper, no damage.)

I think everyone went nuts today...32 degrees which is not bad but the wind is ice cold and ripping!!! UGH, UGH, UGH, UGH!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad::no::mad:

[WNT]

I know how you feel. Although we don't have the snow here, it is just cold enough to keep the ground either frozen or let the top inch or so thaw into grease over hard ground. And the wind!!! ACK!!! It would be bearable temperature-wise, but the wind is relentless! My poor horse is going stir-crazy from boredom since I don't have somewheree with good enough footing to ride him, and he's out 24-7. Thank God he's not in a stall.

[ddashaq]

I am in a milder climate than some, but I am still sick, sick, sick of being cold. I am tired of my horse having to wear his blanket, I am tired of having to do 20 minutes of physical labour at the barn before I am warm enough to even consider riding, and I am jolly well sick of MUD. While KY is vastly preferrable to the Midwest (where I used to live), it is still cold and brown.:mad:

[Sansena]

Bringing my dog to the vet for an abdominal ultra sound, lifting her 70lb butt into the truck, I damned near slipped on the ice and fell UNDER the truck.

I'm ot one to complain about the season, but DA-AM.. I'm DONE this year..

[pooh]

the older I've gotten the more I hate winter!!! Had a riding lesson today and before I even got on I couldn't feel my hands or my feet! I just can't relax and have fun when I'm too busy shivering to keep warm.

[sk_pacer]

I am SOOOOOOOO over this crap!!! We have had winter since November. They say this January was the coldest on record - not for a few extremely cold days but because the average temperature was 15ish degrees celcius below normal and the temps are STILL 10-15°C below normal. As of today, we have had 6 days since Nov 1 with normal temps, and of those days, 2 were above normal. Back to the deepfreeze tomorrow, and the blizzard machine is coming again. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be a balmy -18°C (roughly 0F) and by Friday, we are going to have a delightful -25°C, and on top of that, there will be windchills of too cold to stand. A little birdie told me to get groceries yesterday - good thing i listened to said birdie as my drive is now 3' deep in drifted snow, and more on the way. Won't be getting out anytime soon.

For the record, I have the dubious distinction of having predicted this crap last fall. Sometimes I wish I never learned those old prediction methods...they are often more right than any long-range forecast from any weather service.

I have been cold and shivery for weeks now - one just never really warms up when the temps are so cold and the humidity high. On the plus side, I have only fallen once this year: took a misstep on ice whilst I was dragging my water bottles from the barn to the tractor. Bottles went in about 40 different directions, and I skidded north rather rapidly until I hit a heap of snow. The other day, did try to remove my kneecap with the tractor step - that hard packed snow is slick.

[AnotherRound]

My crocuses are up and I had so much hope this weekend, and now it is bitter, bitter, bitter cold and wind and it is so discouraging. This is the inbetween time, when we go out looking for spring and assessing the deadwood of the winter. Its hard to be positive, and sometimes we are just discouraged.


Tangled Spring and Dead Wood
by Cheryl L. Higgins


I rode the old stagecoach road again
and searched the woods for spring.
In light dull and canted through
cracked limbs and old leaf dust
along gullied turnpikes
so deeply littered with shed wood
the horse paced a wary walk and I, sharp for sign
could not distinguish spring’s swellings
for winter’s bruises in it.

A pale suspicion grows
on these early morning rides
of a sun stronger yet than the one
shafted onto winter's shitting on the track
as if a long breath inspired has just let out
to gather will for yet another suck at spring.

He's path-smart, this horse.
He stays on track without my hand to tell him how
the old oak grew up before us years ago
How its spindly chicks want only the
roadman's saw to clear the arcing tunnel
How winding here away, we turn back here
and pick it up again. He knows
He more than I can see the wheel ruts in the leaf mould
I lose them across slab rock
but something in him remembers skating down it
before a farm hand hauling on iron brakes
to slow their descent and spare his heels.

He's found the gait of a Mountain Walking horse
from some genetic marker activated
towards a destination he must know
and turns with purpose through a broken wall
where once stood two pillars
(or where the glacier dropped a load, I can't say which)
onto some vague farm lane
thickly brushed and grown up with witch hazel

Intent, he knows the place
or believes he did once
where at the end should stand a barn
where he, certain of old colonial memories
of deeply bedded loose-boxes
should find himself at home at last.

From the dark mulch his own hoof
has turned up an iron shoe
leeching rust a hundred years or more
where strangely split-hooved cousins
stumbled in the glacial till
they worked up from the rich loam
He's frozen - as though he's heard the oxen groan
and seen them dip their horns his way
He will not leave until at last I
pull him from the strangled woods
when the witch hazel arches cross his chest
and the wild rose catches his face
thrown back in confused ire:
Who neglected this? he asks
I answer when I turn him from this place
which can be no home to us in this life

[baileygreyhorse]

Even though it's still freaking cold here (15* now), it's staying light until almost 6pm. And that's 15* ABOVE zero. Definite progress. Folks, I think we might make it.

[Chardavej]

Yea I'm with ya, yesterday the wind was brutal, just non-stop blowing. I stayed inside most of the day, finally did venture out and put out a round bale and then harrowed the pasture, wind just stinging me. Rode with a friend in the arena till the wind drove us out and then we blanketed all the horses in the dark (not fun). Thank God she was able to help me. Whew!

[fivehorses]

I am in central NH, and we maybe have had two, three days above freezing. In other words, it has been below freezing since before christmas.
We have had at least 2 feet on of snow on the ground since before christmas as well.
do things with my horses...like what, groom them in the barn is about it. They won't even go out to the pasture since the snow is too deep.
So, those complaining, I just smile and think, yeah, right.
crocuses? jeesh, I haven't seen ground in months.
no offense, but unless you are in upper MN or northern New England, I say cowgirl up...you have no idea what winter is and you just sound like whiners.
That is said with a wink, but you know you are~

[MistyBlue]

Welll...in many areas of the south it's a lot cheaper to live. :winkgrin: At least it's a lot cheaper than CT and MA, etc. :yes:
I'm actually more pissed that we had a long thaw in February! :mad: Seriously...I HATE March/early spring. Only time of the year I really dislike. And now we got to "enjoy" an extra week or more of it in mid Feb. Blech...thaw to muck during the day and frozen ruts from overnight. Means I'm out on the tractor every freaking day after the horses go in raking the paddock smooth again so the horses don't go out on big hard ruts all over.
I'd much rather have it cold and stay frozen until winter is over. And then skip early spring...just damp, cold, icy mud then. Horses roll to remove loose winter hair and it's too cold to bathe them...hate it. Shins all bruised from the wheelbarrow stopping dead trying to shove it across the paddock...and I don't even get deep mud. Never get mud more than 2" deep here. But it's still annoying. I spent forever today picking the paddock because the poop and mud are the same color right now, LOL!

[EqTrainer]

I don't think I have been warm in the last 72 hours. Apparently I've turned into permafrost.

[SmartAlex]

I came looking for this thread on purpose to co-miserate with all of you.

For those of you who say you could just sit and cry... I spent most of Saturday on the verge of tears because I was just so pissed off that it was still winter, and the horses were shedding, and the stalls needed to be stripped, and... well you know. It's 6 degrees out...

My horse is grey. He spends most of his day turned loose in the indoor arena rolling in sand. Of course we have to wet the sand down somewhat because of the dust, so he is filthy FILTHY...beyond what vacuums and hot damp towels can fix...he may never be clean again. I've been taking him out to roll in the snow, but he spends all his time searching for grass (who can blame him).

This winter is twanging his last nerve too. He was such a brat today he just knew I was going to kill him, and he was close to being right. I growled and poked and threatened him for half an hour while I tried to scratch it where it itches, and then decided I had just better go away before I really lost my temper. He got his carrots, and his face washed, and we're friends again, but I just don't know if I'm going to make it to spring. March is coming, and it's so looooooonnnnnnnggggggg.... and muddy.

[SkipHiLad4me]

Ok I feel like a real whiner because "cold" for us has been a constant pattern of 40s/20s - which for us is FREAKING cold. I've just about had my fill of it and I pretty much hibernate when it gets like this. I just can't deal with cold. I'm a native southerner... I wasn't bred for this type of weather ;) haha!

[Mali]

The consensus at the local feed store is YES, all of us horsepeople are totally sick of winter. I've noticed that tempers are flaring, and stress levels are high - which we totally blame on winter. The one good thing that has come of this is that I have discovered Rescue Remedy! I hope the bottle can make it to spring :winkgrin:

[Nski32]

I am right there with you. Its probably about 10degrees or so right now. I dont know how much more I can take. I keep trying to tell myself "its almost over", but its not helping too much!

Im ready for the days when I can roll out of bed, put and t-shirt and jeans on and go. Not spend 15 minutes layering up!

:sigh:

[paohatch]

One way to help look forward to the spring.. shop for Fly traps, masks, feed through etc.

I just bought $200 worth of fly stuff getting ready BEFORE THEY come in March :-)

[sk_pacer]

Well, we got ANOTHER dump yesterday - my best guess is between 6 & 8". All we need NOW is another fugly wind to make things even more delightful. This morning, the temp is a balmy -11°F, windchill is -26. The projected high is what it is now, with the temp zooming all the way to 10°F by Saturday, then more snow. Lovely, just flipping lovely. My drive is FULL again, and I am running out of places to put this crap because, despite my best efforts, pushing the snow twice as far as I thought i should wasn't far enough. In one case, far enough would have been across the road, down the ditch, and into a grain field - where I parked the original heap is now 60 odd feet away from where I now have to dump the crap (said heap is almost 200 feet long, average 10' high and 60 across the base). A second one is probably 100 long, 60-70 at the base and 12' high, and the 3rd heap is unreachable - it is a distant 150 yards away with 3 feet of snow covering the intervening space. I am horribly afraid we won;t have spring, but a giant meltdown. Someone got a spare ark for rent come mid-april??

[Catalina]

Yikes sk_pacer :eek:!!!! I don't know how you do it.

It has been in the low 30's here, which for many of you sounds downright tropical. But, the darn wind has been whipping at 25+ mph and it has been overcast most of the time. On the few days it has warmed up some, it has flippin' rained. My riding ring is grass, so it has been well nigh impossible to do more than walk and some trot and then spend 20 minutes desperately trying to stomp the divits back in. I grew up in NM and I still am not acclimated to this cold weather stuff, even after almost 15 years. :sigh: I HATE FEBRUARY!!!!

[lcw579]

Catalina, I hear you about the wind! We finally get sun and then you go outside and get blown away! The horses act like idiots because wind is scary. :eek: And yep, no wind means rain and then the bad footing, then the wind comes to help dry it out, then 15 minutes of ok conditions and then the rain is back. :lol: Maybe I'm exaggerating - but not much! :lol: I just want Spring to arrive - I'm tired of being cold. :(

[Catalina]

Nope, not exaggerating at all :lol:. It really is frustrating. My husband keeps saying that I need an indoor. Hey, sounds great! Minor problems: money to build one and land to put it. He says, there I go being realistic again :lol:. :sigh: