|
|
Post by comanchediva on Nov 25, 2017 10:18:10 GMT
Only the end of November and already snow on our part of the Pennines. I hope we're not in for a bad one ....  |
|
|
|
Post by gillwales on Nov 25, 2017 11:02:26 GMT
predictions are for a hard winter |
|
|
|
Post by Philippa on Nov 25, 2017 13:36:20 GMT
We had sleet last night but today is glorious if not a bit crisp!!! We have a showing clinic tomorrow 🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀
|
|
|
|
Post by brindlerainbow on Nov 26, 2017 13:11:45 GMT
Snow on Dartmoor yesterday too
|
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 11, 2017 9:42:53 GMT
Second duvet day for all of ours (including the dogs!!) so much for Olympia prep!!
Welcome to the 'snowy South!' Fingers crossed we can get round the M25 this time next week!
|
|
sarahp
Happy to help
Posts: 9,510
|
Post by sarahp on Dec 11, 2017 10:31:22 GMT
My two weanlings and their nanny mare have gone out for a leg stretch today so that the boxes can be mucked out but won't be out for long I don't think! Wet sleety stuff coming down here, very unpleasant.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philippa on Dec 11, 2017 10:58:13 GMT
Second duvet day for all of ours (including the dogs!!) so much for Olympia prep!! Welcome to the 'snowy South!' Fingers crossed we can get round the M25 this time next week! We were forecast it really bad yesterday and got nothing!!!!! Think it’s mainly from the midlands down isn’t it. Can’t believe it’s missed us!! Feel like I’m in the Bermuda Triangle lol xx |
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 11, 2017 12:17:37 GMT
Still snowing here - we have a village sub climate as highest point in Kent. Only way in and out is by 3 steep hills one already shut apparantly and school closing at lunch time!
Hey ho - will walk round to do Jacob and hope it stops at some point soon!
|
|
|
|
Post by comanchediva on Dec 11, 2017 12:31:39 GMT
Our already frozen fields have had a decent covering of snow on top since Saturday . Just letting them out for a leg stretch, luckily they are all on their winter holiday. My worst nightmare is the snow off the fields drifting into the lane which happened for a while yesterday but it's passable this morning. Minus 12 forecast tonight so it's not thawing any time soon |
|
|
|
Post by Philippa on Dec 11, 2017 13:35:23 GMT
We’ve just got frozen fields. 😥😥
|
|
sarahp
Happy to help
Posts: 9,510
|
Post by sarahp on Dec 11, 2017 13:39:16 GMT
Not freezing here, just sleet that didn't settle. I don't know about tonight though.
|
|
|
|
Post by gillwales on Dec 11, 2017 19:13:35 GMT
no snow here near Kidwelly, bright sunshine but very cold
|
|
sarahp
Happy to help
Posts: 9,510
|
Post by sarahp on Dec 12, 2017 9:51:33 GMT
Lovely day here, sunny and frosty, no snow.
|
|
|
|
Post by flee on Dec 12, 2017 10:00:08 GMT
Well for once we seem to have escaped lightly compared to many other parts of the country , with a very hard frost rather than snow . However I think Jack Frost must have payed us a personal visit , and stuck his icy fingers into random places , as we have experienced some rather weird phenomena . The taps and auto-waterers were all working yesterday , but as it was forecast to be even colder last night I decided to put a bucket of water in each stable as well , just to be on the safe side . The waterers are all still working this morning ( I think the horses regularly pulling water through the system helps to stop them freezing up ) and the ( identical ) buckets are untouched but two have no ice in them whatsoever and the third is frozen totally solid like an ice cube . Similarly in the field I filled two identical plastic barrels with water last night , they are standing side by side and yet this morning one was covered in a thin skin of ice whilst the other had a good two inch thick layer of absolutely solid ice and required the use of a hammer to smash it .
My ponies are currently in at night but go out first thing in the morning and have their morning hay in the field , which is immediately adjacent to the yard so that I can just open the gate and their stable doors and let them make their own way in and out . They're all generally very sensible about it and conduct themselves in a fairly orderly fashion but even so I love the way my wily natives recognise the hazards of wintry weather . If the conditions appear even remotely frosty they come out of their stables very slowly , with their heads held low , noses to the floor and pick their way carefully across the yard , even though it isn't slippy . Similarly at night , they will come belting down from the fields at bed time but apply the brakes neatly as they get to the gate and then pick their way daintily across the yard , noses to the floor , and stand patiently outside their own stable door waiting to be let in .
|
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 12, 2017 17:04:59 GMT
Well flee wish yours would have a word with our silly so and so's! The very elderly mare has decided to offer herself to the boys, which is getting them all but mostly the baby gelding very excited!! They are in 3 seperate fields but have to come down through 2 fields to get to the yard. The gateway to the yard is like 'Dancing on Ice' horrendous so there is me trying to do them all one by one very carefully. I am DEFFINATELY too old for this!!
Our snow is now rock solid, hopefully it will thaw a bit more tomorrow
|
|
|
|
Post by gillwales on Dec 12, 2017 19:43:09 GMT
One year we had freezing rain that coated everything it touched with an inch of ice and was lethal. One of the few times where all animals had a duvet day... x 3. It was a good job they had big stables!
|
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 13, 2017 16:53:14 GMT
Really wierd stuff going on here! Still icey this morning but much warmer and then rain so snow all but gone, then about 3.15 this afternoon the sky went pitch black, sudden gusts of wind and we all had a massive power cut!! Some houses still out!
Need to rename this The Black Stuff!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Philippa on Dec 13, 2017 19:43:51 GMT
Really wierd stuff going on here! Still icey this morning but much warmer and then rain so snow all but gone, then about 3.15 this afternoon the sky went pitch black, sudden gusts of wind and we all had a massive power cut!! Some houses still out! Need to rename this The Black Stuff!! The only time I recall being anywhere with weather like that was in America. I’d gone to the deli late afternoon and all of a sudden the sky went black and the noise was like 30 freight trains going down a track. The deli owner informed me it was a tornado (they were used to them) I can’t tell you how scary it was. We were right in it. It ripped through the track picking the starting stalls up and throwing them 100’s of metres across the middle, it took windows out of the barns, ripped gravestones from the ground carrying them for a distance. It’s something I only witnessed once and never want to witness again. |
|
|
|
Post by comanchediva on Dec 13, 2017 22:03:43 GMT
6.15pm arrived at yard all snow gone. Wonderful I thought! 6.45pm it started sleeting. Not so wonderful! By the time we left at 8.15pm we were having a blizzard and the roads were white. Drove home in 1st gear with my hazards on, my little car's not keen on snow. Fed up now |
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 14, 2017 8:35:46 GMT
Blimey Phillipa I know we are very close to Sevenoaks (or 2 Oaks after the 80's hurricane!!) so I guess we could be 'tornado territory'!!! It was very very windy in the night but hopefully not a tornado!!! Where is Michael Fish!
How scary - we were once in Peru (about 20 of us from the village we live in) and same sort of thing, a really unusual roaring noise which sounded like a train heading towards us but there were no rail tracks where we were, it was an earthquake! 8.5 on ricter scale so again very, very scary. Luckily we all survived although a lot of local people did not.
Guess we are very lucky living where we all do we just have to put up with rain;snow;ice and strong winds!!
Stay safe all xx
|
|
|
|
Post by flee on Dec 14, 2017 14:51:28 GMT
I worked in Greece for a couple of years and we had regular earth tremors , sometimes so slight that you would be sort of aware that something wasn't quite right but you wouldn't immediately realise what was happening - almost as though you were having a mild dizzy spell ! We got used to looking at the nearest body of water , like a puddle or a bucket ( and once even the bath water I was sat in ! ) , and if it was rippling and shimmering then you knew it was a tremor . They were so common that the animals largely ignored them but they would certainly let you know in advance on the occasions that we experienced proper big earthquakes and the protocol was that if more than two horses looked unusually restless then the whole lot would be turned out in 'safe paddocks ' until the quake that inevitably followed within an hour or so , and then the subsequent after shocks , was over . To be honest though we would know an earthquake was coming long before the horses sensed it thanks to one of the dozen or so stray dogs that our yard had become home to . This particular dog had wandered in one day , whilst still a pup , with his mother . They were gangly black Doberman looking types , thin and covered in ticks , and neither of them grew into the prettiest looking of hounds but still , they were lovely characters . The mother was called Frictula (' Frictus ' meaning ugly and 'ula' being a term of endearment added to a female name . For males it was ' uli ' ! ) . As the puppy grew he had intermittent bouts of fitting and it was feared that he was epileptic until someone realised that whenever he had a seizure an earthquake would inevitably follow , and the more severe the seizure , the stronger the earthquake would be . He would start with little fits up to 12 hours before , which would steadily increase in length and severity until the quake hit . And to put your minds at rest - the fits never seemed to bother him , he would just get up and wander off afterwards as though nothing had happened . He was called Siesmuli ( ' Siesmos ' meaning earthquake ) and we all acknowledged the job he did in alerting us to potential danger .
It's just made me remember that maybe a couple of inches of snow and some frozen pipes isn't perhaps too bad in the grand scheme of things .
|
|
|
|
Post by flee on Dec 14, 2017 15:09:44 GMT
The gateway to the yard is like 'Dancing on Ice' horrendous so there is me trying to do them all one by one very carefully. It we have a proper cold snap and we end up with dangerous icy patches on the yard or in gateways I tip the bedding I muck out of the stables ( minus as much poo as possible ! ) on to the offending area and create a 'safe ' track . Bit of a pain to clear up afterwards but better than risking life and limb trying to navigate a skating rink with a frisky pony ! My friend used to keep old carpets/offcuts and put those down in icy conditions but you need to be sure your horses are okay about walking on them - the last thing you want is them freaking out and leaping about in those conditions , though I suppose you could cover them in a layer of bedding too . |
|
|
|
Post by gillwales on Dec 14, 2017 16:40:25 GMT
Blimey Phillipa I know we are very close to Sevenoaks (or 2 Oaks after the 80's hurricane!!) so I guess we could be 'tornado territory'!!! It was very very windy in the night but hopefully not a tornado!!! Where is Michael Fish! How scary - we were once in Peru (about 20 of us from the village we live in) and same sort of thing, a really unusual roaring noise which sounded like a train heading towards us but there were no rail tracks where we were, it was an earthquake! 8.5 on ricter scale so again very, very scary. Luckily we all survived although a lot of local people did not. Guess we are very lucky living where we all do we just have to put up with rain;snow;ice and strong winds!! Stay safe all xx I went to school in Sevenoaks! And I also recall the night of the "non hurricane" we lived at that time in the coach house in Ingleden Park, my room was on the corner, it shock violently and it sounded like a train was about to enter it! Such a small world x |
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 14, 2017 17:22:31 GMT
Hi gillwales yes I remember you said you were originally from around our way, we had just moved in to Knockholt and at the time lived in the middle of the village so it was quite a scene in the morning as we had a tree through our front porch! and being the highest point in Kent hardly anyone could get in or out the village due to trees down on the hills! I think we were without power for 2 weeks! But even that is nothing as flee say's to earthquakes etc! Thanks for the advice flee re ice, yes I do tend to sprinkle the sawdust about, horrible mess when it thaws though!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by gillwales on Dec 14, 2017 17:36:38 GMT
I remember Knockholt very well, I used to go the village discos and rode around the area, I also had friends that lived there. I hope you have thermals! It's bloody cold around there!
|
|
sarahp
Happy to help
Posts: 9,510
|
Post by sarahp on Dec 14, 2017 18:46:59 GMT
We live further west but I remember the 87 hurricane well. I was out the night before (RC meeting) and it was dead still but with lots of red sand on the roads. Next morning we woke up with no power, not unusual, it was always going off, so OH got up and ready for work in the dark, set off and came back 15 mins later having turned one way out of the drive, met a tree over the road, turned round and tried the other way only to find one blocking that way too so come home again! We too had no power for at least a fortnight, but having said that the massed forces of power workers from all over the country did a tremendous job to get us back on that quickly, tangles of wires down all over the roads around. No damage to the house, but lots to all our beautiful oaks, some are still showing the scars.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philippa on Dec 15, 2017 6:33:40 GMT
Yes I also remember it. We didn’t get it as bad up north. I think it must have been the tail end of it but I remember it being absolutely horrendous out and trees and power lines down everywhere. We were lucky and if our power went off (which I honestly can’t remember ) it wasn’t for long.
|
|
sarahp
Happy to help
Posts: 9,510
|
Post by sarahp on Dec 15, 2017 7:56:07 GMT
We had no experience of the hurricane itself - it was quiet when we went to bed and when we woke up. Our house is very solid and we didn't hear a thing overnight! As for power cuts - we had masses for years as we were in a small cul-de-sac of power lines which went in a very old underground form from us for 1/4 mile (that went once, 10 days out then before they got it sorted) and then overground over a wild bit of Surrey, yes we do have some, so every time there was high wind a branch fell on the lines and out we went. To make it worse out bit was not fed along with either of the villages each side of us so ringing up to report we were out and where we were was problematic. Hence OH was so used to getting up and leaving in the dark! Thankfully all rewired not all that many years ago and OK now - if it flicks out it comes back on a few minutes later having been re-routed.
|
|
|
|
Post by chloesmum on Dec 15, 2017 8:49:13 GMT
That made me smile sarah as Chloe had just turned 5 at the time and she slept through the whole thing (true to form) got up and couldn't understand why she couldn't go to school! Only woke up with people banging on our door to check we were safe due to the tree through the front of house!
Yes gill we certainly rely on thermals here! Knockholts sub climate is famous, we can have full on snow and Orpington just down the road will have none! I am sure people used to think we were making it up when we said we were snowed in! But wouldn't swop it, still a lovely village to live in, a true village even though so close to London! No discos now though and hacking is pretty rubbish, lots of idiots using the roads as a cut through when M25 is at a standstill which is proabably every day !!
|
|
|
|
Post by gillwales on Dec 15, 2017 9:17:48 GMT
Well when I grew up in Orpington there was definitely lots of snow! I recall riding through some woods in Pratts Bottom, and there was a path that went up through a dairy farm from there, but that is further south than Knockholt. I am certain though that the roads are a great deal busier than they used to be.
|
|
