December Weather, Or New Use For Full Seats

I know how annoying it can be to hear people complain about winter weather - i.e. we live in Canada, get over it. Too bad. I'm writing about sucky winter weather anyway. If nothing else it will be an antidote to reading one more saccharine Facebook post about a storybook perfect Christmas. 
(Just to set the record straight, I'm happier than I've ever been in my life, and had a great Christmas - don't want my family to think I'm ungrateful - but enough of that already. Let's trash the weather!) Okay, here goes...
I don't remember ever having a December with weather as bad as this year; it usually holds off to January to get this much bad weather, this frequently. It started with days on end of record lows, -20's at night, - teens during the day. Our first year running the new stable + early record lows = frozen pipes, scrambling to find a foal blanket that fits our big foal, and running wires for heated buckets with frozen hands and feet. Yes, but that was a mere blip on the radar. This was quickly followed by multiple snow storms, and then a 24 + hour ice storm. Some people are in their fourth day without power, and we didn't loose power, but why not complain anyway? Here are some of my ice storm incidents:

• I needed to bring in wood for the wood stove, but the wheel barrow was frozen to the ground. In trying to wrench it free I broke off one of the handles, so no wheel barrow. I decided to put wood in the back of the truck and bring to the wood box (of course the truck was covered in a thick coating of ice). The wood box is outside and opens into the living room. It had four inches of ice on it and was so heavy I couldn't lift the top. I carried wood to the back door, but this entailed walking over a sheet of glass and up steps that had curved mounds of slick ice on them. Just so you don't think Doug was being lazy letting me do all this, Mom and I are at home in Noel Shore keeping the house warm and he's at the horse facility much of the time. (We go back and forth and stay in the same place at the same time a few nights a week.)
• Christmas Eve Mom and I were going to Five Fires (our arena facility) to spend the night in the cabin, so we could all be together. I went to her house to pick up gifts that were left there, and found that her house was surrounded by a sea of ice, all sloping away from the house. Mom waited in the car while I attempted to navigate to the sun porch door. About half way there I realized there wasn't a snow ball's hope in hell I'd make it standing, so gingerly lowered myself to the ground and started crawling to the door on my hands and knees. Looking back, I can see this is kind of funny, but it wasn't funny at the time :). Even that didn't work. I lost my tenuous grasp on the sloping ice and went sliding down the hill away from the house and came to rest on an ice covered snow bank. By turning over onto my full seat breeches I was wearing I was able to sort of crab walk a bit at a time back up the slope until I could grab a corner of the car. From there I launched a reccy at the other door,  and somehow gained the doorstep and entry to the house. I won't bother boring you with how I managed to get presents from the house to the car, but suffice to say it included presents dropping and sliding off into the icy darkness.
• On Boxing Day some intrepid natural horsemanship people trailered in for schooling with their horses. We thought the driveway, which goes up quite a hill, was fine. Turns out we hadn't factored in the weight of three horses on a trailer. You guessed it - the trailer went through the packed snow onto ice and got stuck. The horses had to be unloaded and we hooked both the tractor and our 3/4 ton truck to the truck and trailer and hauled it up the hill. I'm very impressed with these people though - it was -12  and they were out with their horses! Luckily we have lots of sand and will keep the driveway sanded.

Don't even get me started on dressing for this x%%^$# weather. Currently I'm in double faced wool long johns, with too tight breeches over them (who needs THAT extra layer two days after Christmas?), Mountain Horse winter riding boots with two pairs of socks, fleecy top, hoodie, and getting ready to put on a long down filled coat and lined leather gloves. I'm not sure I'll ever 'feel' my horse again.

That just about brings me up to date. I'm sitting here as snow falls and the road is completely snow covered. We had a snow storm last night and another one forecast for Sunday. I'm heading to Five Fires and will enjoy some riding - I can't forget my riding goals, the first check in being this weekend.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a very Happy New Year!