Water

Watering the animals in winter has been a challenge here since we bought the place. Initially, we ran a hose from the basement up the stairs and out to the barn. Shortly after I put in an outside faucet and ran the hose from there. This has worked well for the summer months but didn't improve things for the winter. Up until recently I was hauling water buckets up the basement stairs, loading them in a toboggan and hauling the water to the big trough at the barn. Pretty labour intensive and not at all fun as I spend more than enough time in the Spring hauling sap buckets and don't feel the need to train for it. In an effort to simplify the process I bought a 10' length of hose and appropriate fittings and now run the water out the basement window into buckets already in the toboggan. This saves a lot of time and energy but is still not the perfect system. I'm saving my pennies, rather nickels, for a frost-free hydrant and water line that'll run 8' deep and span the distance from the house to the barn AND work year-round. Until then, I'll run the water to thirsty beasts with the toboggan but NOT up the stairs!