BREAKING ICE

It has turned cold here and that means ice.  These cows are waiting for us to break the ice so that they can get a drink.

Every day the water haulers and cowboys go out to break ice on the range. Today some of the guys have the day off so I went to help Dave.
 This is one of the ponds the cows drink at.  We have to make drinking holes in the ice. 
 Dave uses and ax to break a hole, then we pitchfork or shovel out the chunks of ice.

The water is kind of muddy,  but it is good enough to water some cows. There are several places on each range where cows can get a drink.  So that means with the 5 herds out on 5 different ranges, with several water spots on each range, there is a lot of ice to break.  We went East, Clay and Ashley headed South and the water haulers covered the rest.

Once the ice is chopped it has to all come out.  It is heavy!

Yep, that's me.  It is really hard work.  No need for the gym today.  (not that we have a gym, or that I would ever go if we did.)

It is important to get all of the ice out so it doesn't freeze back over as quickly and so the tub doesn't turn into one giant ice block.

There weren't as many cows around our water spots as there should be so we went looking for them.  Those silly girls were headed east in search of water.  They were a little impatient today I guess.  This big trough will have to be filled. 
 "You never know what a cow will do."  (One of Lee's favorite sayings.)