The Horses are Back...!

I have been going out to Nordegg a couple of times each month, all winter long.  Partly it was to monitor our heating system and make sure that things aren't freezing up.  And.... partly it was to keep working on the interior finishing at our cottage.  I understand that one of our neighbors had a major issue recently.  Their furnace froze up and quit working and the water holding tanks and their plumbing system froze solid.  Our furnace is a forced air electric and can't really freeze up.  Perhaps slightly more expensive to operate, but we turn it right down low, and only run it over the cold winter months.  In addition to that, the heat is only ducted into the parts of the cottage that have plumbing.  It was a bit of an experiment for me this year as it is our first winter heating the place.  But even with the record cold this year, it never dropped below +8C in the cottage, and the electricity bill never exceeded $250.  Even in the summer months when nothing is running but the fridge, the security cameras, and a few other small items, the bill is still about $45.  So it is the difference between the two that needs to be considered in terms of heating.  I also have a second electric baseboard heater running on low down in the basement.  This provides heat to the water storage cistern and the pump, in the event that the furnace fails.  We have some propane fired room heaters in the bedrooms that we can also leave on if needed, but I have only been running these when we go out.  Short of a long term power failure, I think we're covered....

With all my trips back and forth I have not seen the herds of wild horses all winter long.  There is one herd of black horses near town.  These guys mostly hang out around the Trunk Road and the Industrial Park.  There is a second herd, of mixed but mostly dark color that hangs around between Beaverdam and Harlech campsites.  There is a third small herd, that includes some white horses, that hangs around up on Saunders Ridge.  The last two times that I went out, this small herd has been feeding along the highway.  My neighbor tells me that their numbers are down by a couple, and he thinks that maybe a cougar or the wolves took some down.  

On this last trip out I saw a couple of the horses from the Harlech/Beaverdam herd down along the highway, and I also saw the smaller Saunders herd feeding in the ditches.  I took these couple of snapshots with my digital camera.  Nice to see these guys again, though I guess if they are down along the roadside, it means the winter is rather harsh and they are having difficulty finding enough to eat.  Daylight savings time kicks in next weekend, and the first day of spring is coming up soon.  Hopefully we are over the hump and these guys will find things a little easier going forward.