Oh The Weather Outside Is...

So here's what we woke up to this morning...

I'm pretty sure this is Bentley's first encounter with snow at about 9:30 this morning when I got up to take him outside (my 9:30 class had been canceled this morning due to "inclement" weather).

 Bentley and Porkchop both were a little thrown off by this new development outside.  It's been pretty warm for most of the fall here with temperatures ranging anywhere from 70 degrees to 50 degrees during the day.  Then yesterday we woke up and it was only about 25 to 30 out all day and then here is what we found this morning....  It's still only about 32 degrees out right now and as far as I can tell it is still snowing a little bit.

Finally, this is what I can see right now looking out the library window at school (I came up here because I thought I was going to have a class at 3... it was canceled too!  Drove for an hour in the snow for no classes today... Awesome!).

Now my husband says there will only be 6 more snows this year because the first snow (today) happened on the 6th day of the month... I think he read it in the Farmer's Almanac or something.  Anyone else actually believe that or are you kinda like me in thinking that this winter is probably not going to be so nice since we had such nice weather for most of the other seasons (we had a particularly mild summer with temperatures not really getting too bad until right before school started)?  I don't know how this can actually be since there were some places in the states that received snow back in November...

Season Changes and Blankets

So it's getting closer to the time of year when I have to start thinking about blanketing Buck for the winter. Now, normally it wouldn't be a big deal because he usually lives in a stall and the sheet I have for him works pretty well. Now I have moved to a place where there are no stalls, just a shed he can go in and out of with Dolly whenever he wants.

My concerns are 1) he doesn't really grow a good winter coat so he needs something pretty thick I think, 2) since he is out all the time it makes it difficult to keep him from tearing up the blanket so I need something which will hold up and 3) like most college students I am running on a limited budget so I need to find something which has 1 and 2 but is also not a ridiculous price.

Last year I had purchased a Wrangler (I think) blanket for him when he went out to the pasture during the day but sadly one of the girls who turns out turned him out in a pasture with a horse who ended up almost ripping the blanket right off of him. Needless to say I do not think it is repairable.

I'm hoping maybe some of you will have some suggestions on blankets you've tried and liked because at this point I'm not really sure which way I want to go with this.

P.S. I don't blanket Dolly because she turns into a wooly mammoth in the winter and some how always manages to get blankets off and wrapped around her no matter how many straps they have on them!