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The weather has turned seriously mild for us lately. However, frosty nights and even a few days of freezing fog have reminded us, and hopefully, all of the trees, that we still have months of winter to go!

Those cold nights have been hard on the tractor and ATV batteries. We’ve been limping things along, but a rat put even that to an end for Zetor the Tractor. Nathaniel discovered a chewed-through wire while troubleshooting what we thought was an entirely dead tractor battery. At least we know the wire is crucial for starting the tractor, and it isn’t a mystery!

Hopefully, we can get a new wire and replace it without swearing and uncertainty. An IG follower tipped me off not to get a wire coated in soy-based plastic or polymer because rodents like to chew on them! She had many problems with chewed wires on her gator until she solved the mystery. So, that was a constructive tip.

As for the ATV, it is getting persnickety on the start; their small batteries are easily affected by the cold season we are in. Getting an adapter to plug it in as we do the diesel engines will help its battery.

While the tractor is out of commission, we cannot feed big bales. We are glad to have budgeted the cows to eat a few tons of small bales and have them squirreled away in the barn. We will feed them now and have the rest of the big bales for when the tractor is fixed! We will also hope that no significant snowstorms come before then!

Horses have a notorious reputation for being accident-prone and causing massive vet bills. But, at the same time, that isn’t entirely inaccurate; many horses float on for good stretches of time without being a money pit beyond their regular feed and care maintenance.

However, both our geldings decided it was time to visit the vet this month! Porter unintentionally attempted a tribal ear piercing, and poor Boe has blood flow and inflammation trouble due to a condition he has that makes his front feet terribly painful after drying out from the meltdown we had after the snowstorms.

As for Porter, I was lucky to catch it with all of his winter hair. I went to brush a small wood chip from his ear and found it was just the tip of a rather long fragment of wood stuck through his ear! Of course, he would have none of me touching it to investigate it further, but I did manage to feel that it came out on the inside of his ear.

After sedation, we could shave the area and admire the splinter in its full glory! He itched on a post or board of the barn with quite a lot of enthusiasm!

Porter was prepped for minor surgery to cut the splinter out when the local anesthesia began swelling the ear around it. Combined with the perfect amount of lubricating puss, it magically backed the sliver out! We watched it getting pushed out. It saved me a couple hundo I'm sure of it, not to mention taking care of a horse ear with stitches in it.

It healed with zero inputs from me, so this ended up just being a wince at the vet bill and laughs as it furthers Porter's accident-prone, bruiser reputation. I don't call him Cheese Ball for nothing!

Boe is on stall rest for another week after getting special backward set shoes to take the pressure off his toe while supporting his heel. These shoes have allowed him to stand and walk out free of the pain he was experiencing and without any pain medications! Unfortunately, he could easily pull these shoes off by catching them with his hind feet, so stall confinement is to protect him from himself! Hopefully, his next trim will allow different shoes that enable him his freedom. Although don’t feel sad for Boe, he is soaking up going on walks and getting pampered!

Happy six more weeks of Winter! YAY- we need it!