Goodbye January Thaw

What about this weather?

I have really started to become a fair weather rider!     I rode on Monday night and it was cold.   I think the temp outside was -5°C without the wind chill.   So I will assume the indoor was -5°C.   I had on all my winter gear.   Fuzzy lined winter breeches, winter Mountain Horse boots, 3 layers of jackets and of course my ear warmer under my helmet.   I was as comfortable as one can get when you feel like the kid off 'The Christmas Story' that can’t bend any of his joints and when he falls in his snowsuit he can’t even get up!   I managed 30+ minutes of light exercise and gave the riding arena a good first test ride since the sand was removed.    Which by the way is wonderful!   There are a few mushy spots that will need some TLC but in general the improvement from move in day is 110%!  

Fast forward to tonight…Thursday…I am now on day three of zero riding.   The temps have plummeted to a chilly -10 to -15°C for a day time high and then colder over night. (At least for southern ON this is cold…Please don’t scoff at me too loudly my friends in the north; you are getting it way worse than us at -30 to -40°C!)

Is it wrong to just want to get the chores done, give the horses a once over, a few scratches and nuzzles and then park myself in front of the fireplace?   I just can’t bear to freeze when I ride anymore…at least not to go round and round inside.    Dressage work just doesn't have the same precision and feel when you're hands and feet are frozen.  Freezing out under the full moon would be far more worthwhile!

It’s been so cold on the farm that we have taken a bit of a break from the outdoors.   The home front has been pretty quiet this week.   It’s been too cold to work outside in the evenings.   Other than DH made some make shift doors on our 2 water areas in the barn so that the electric heaters will slow the meter from spinning off the pole!   It may be costing a small fortune to heat those two little rooms but the alternative (bucketing water from the house) is not up there real high on my favorite things to do list!   So I will swallow hard and pay the hydro bill because my back would cost more at the chiropractor.

This week we hired a farm business consulting firm to take over our taxes and help us with our financial planning.   We have no idea about HST and filing taxes to best maximize our returns.   I think stuff like that is best for experts that know the laws and know the interpretations that we can best take advantage of.   We will stick to building an agri-business and creating the farm life we have dreamed of. 

The cold has given me a chance to spend my very first moments in my studio this week!   Insert happy dance here!   Creativity has been at a stand still since before the move and it felt wonderful to just sit in there and think about the creative process.   I did do a very small amount of work organizing and then getting restarted on a UFO (Un-Finished Object).

Here is my studio at move in…

This is my studio now. 

I still need to hang up the design wall and repaint but I’m in and that’s what really matters.

Even tho it has been a cold week on the farm, I am still happy for the cold…there has been no mud and I’ve had time in my studio.  :-)