There have been a few mornings I’ve woken up, let the horses out and checked their water to find a razor thin sheet of ice covering the top. It’s not a problem for the horses. They just bash through it and take an ice cold drink.
This summer, Evelyn was convinced she wanted to try fish so Jack took her fishing but to no avail. I use corn but Jack bought a bucketful of minnows. After about five minutes of not catching fish, Evelyn decided she’d rather swim and we ended up with a school of fish we weren’t sure what to do with.
Eventually they got dumped into the horse trough. They can be a bit messy but they keep the tank free of mosquito larvae so they’re worth the mess. But with inevitably colder weather coming, we needed to install the tank de-icer so the thin sheet of ice doesn’t turn into an impenetrable solid block.
With leaves to hide among and incredible speed for their size, it was surprisingly difficult to catch them. In the end, we prevailed. The girls guarded the bucket of fish against an attack from Hercules while I rinsed out the tank.
The trough and fish are ready for winter. It’s no lake but I think they’ll enjoy the cold season in a balmy tank rather than being used as fishing bait anyway.
