Brrr &*$^% Brrr!

I've lived almost my entire life here on the prairies, I know it gets cold in the winter.  But holy heck has 2015 started out C.O.L.D!  The weather icon on my computer has more often than not been a little red square with a lighting bolt instead of the temp... the dreaded weather alert icon, in this case a cold warning. 

It's put a bit of a damper on my riding plans.  Not only is penning canceled when it's really cold but my Monday lesson is canceled and I don't haul to the neighbor's arena when it's that cold either.

There's a Facebook group that I joined this year, to help motivate me to keep riding in the winter, the "2015 Twelve Week Horsemanship Challenge".  But this cold weather has put me behind on that as well. 
We're supposed to do 40 hours with our horse and get in 30 rides, and you guessed it... there's 12 weeks to do it.  The time riding counts toward the total hours, part of the time can also be groundwork but heck it's too cold even to do groundwork right now! 
I made the challenge an even bigger challenge for myself by choosing Odin as my partner.  If I'd chosen Lefta or Voodoo I wouldn't be as worried about completing it because I could take them to penning and count that time in but Odin is sooo not ready for that lol

I tell ya, it sure is nice to come inside and curl up by the pellet stove after chores.  That's one bright spot in this cold.  I plan to spend one of these cold days by the fire cleaning tack, but first I have to get some supplies.  I have a "new" saddle that's desperately in need of some TLC and all my regular use saddles could use a cleaning.  Nice project in the winter, too bad I'm not already stocked up on my supplies!