and getting your hands all good and cold!!!! Fed cows 6 bales and knew i had to do it, but put it off cause the sun was making a difference. It was 4" thick, he77 it aint gonna last long till it freezes again but cows have been getting water on one tank.

Cool. Oops I meant cold.

put a brine mix in a couple of gallon water jugs and throw in the trough. Surprisingly it will keep most of the ice from forming.

Don’t add to much salt!

I've been breaking ice in my horses water trough for 3 days now. Ice is so thick it's hard to chop through with an axe. If it gets any worse I'll have to use a chain saw.

Good gosh, I feel for y'all tending to livestock right now. Be safe.

We had to break ice on three tanks, only one had any accessible water.

My pond has only a thin slab of ice.

Sledge hammer.

I remember doing that for my Dads cows/horses back in the day. Its been a while though. I appreciate all yall out there helping out livestock and wildlife.

Toss in an aquarium heater on an extension cord and it won’t freeze over.

Sounds like my 4 hour routine of breaking ice on the pool...except no one or thing appreciates it but me. Wife doesn’t seem to truly understand the consequences. Stay warm out there, and hit your sledge sideways — more surface area for fractures

My boy broke my sledge hammer on a trough yesterday. Today he has a metal bat.

Tell me more about this. Do you fill up the jugs with the brine mix and let them float or do you pour it into the water troughs. I have 500 gallon water troughs all over the ranch and anything I can do to help eliminate problems I am willing to learn new tricks. This cold spell has been brutal. I found one trough with a broken float and water running everywhere. It sure was cold shedding all the coats and stripping down to a t-shirt to fix the problem. Oh well. It's all part of ranching. I carry pick axes, axes and use a pitchfork to shovel out the loose ice. Warmer weather cannot come soon enough.

I've been chopping water also for the last 2 days twice a day for the cows, gotta do it or they won't make it.

Same hear. 3 troughs for cows, 2 for wildlife. After about 3 times breaking 5 troughs we adjusted the floats to keep water running. It also keeps the well running and warm.

Have a couple Longhorns here from the old ranch and have electric within 150 foot of the 600 gallon Galvanized livestock tank from the barn. If you have one of these, and have access to electric, "De Icer's" is will keep um clear. No matter how cold it gets around here. Got down to 5 degrees here last night and with the rolling black outs kept tanks free fom ice.

You can take that to the bank. Oops, tank.

Spouse said the ice up at the ranch on the horse water was 12 inches thick today. They also have some creek access for drinking.
He used the big axe to break it up.

Wanted one of the de-icer, could not find one, but it seems it wouldnt have helped me. The power has been off sometimes for 10 hours, come back on for 10 on & on. Maybe it would've.

Been a rough time for all ranchers.

I went into Cuero for fuel yesterday, and at the HEB pumps, out of all the people getting fuel, more than half were ranchers.

While everyone else can huddle up around the fireplace, that's not an option ranchers have. The animals come first.

While I was proud to see all my fellow ranchers out taking care of business, I wasn't surprised at all. Good folks.

Warmer weather, after this will seem like a vacation, even though the work goes on.

Saw a guy breaking the ice on his stock tank by backing his trailer into it. Thought it was a pretty good idea.

$30 deicer was the best investment I’ve ever made. Granted - if you don’t have power it probably wouldn’t be of much help. It’s kept my 250 gal horse trough ice free.

Been breaking ice in the ponds with a sledgehammer and rock bar. About to head out to do it this morning...and it sucks.