Frozen Water

Everyone has issues in the winter.  I can deal with most things, even repair minor fencing issues in the winter.  But the big thing for us, frozen water.  Hauling water for a herd of cattle, a group of horses, 100 chickens, several goats, and several pigs everyday, a couple times a day, takes more time then I have in a day.  Caring for three small kids, DH off at work half the day, hauling water to everyone is not an option.  So, of course we turn to deicers.  Now, this may sound like common sense, but I don't think you get just how cold it is here.  You see, here -60 C (-76 F) is not uncommon as lows a few times during winter.  Thankfully, most years -50 C (-58 F) is the normal low.  Although, -70 C (-94 F) is not unheard of, but thankfully very rare.  So, add in some wind, and you have colder then some of the deicers can even thaw.  Now imagine the power goes out for a few hours.  It happens a couple times every winter.  Right now the floating deicers work the best for us.  The sinking ones tend to still freeze on top.  When you have four troughs though, the power can really add up.  So, then, what do you do?  We have looked into some other ways and found something that we will be trying this next winter as we have to have it set up prior to the snow falling.  We are thinking of using system that recirculates the water by shear heat rising and cold falling.  The tank will have a line that leaves the bottom (cold water) and enters into a wood stove or metal barrel.  As the water heats it will rise to the top.  The line will be coiled inside to allow the most heat (without getting the water too hot) to come in contact with the water in the metal coil so that as it heats and rises it will then flow out the top and back into the trough.  With a good sized log and a system designed for long burning (controlling how much air enters the barrel can do this) we should be able to keep it defrosted most of the day.  I obviously cant tell you how well this works til next winter.  But we are always open for alternative ideas to keeping water defrosted.  I also have heard of using fire brick, putting it in the oven for a couple hours in the morning, then setting a ceramic crock on that to keep rabbit waterers defrosted for a few hours.  As it stands, anything we haul water to that does not have a heater will freeze in about an hour.  Lets hear some of your ideas!  Oh, and just as a side note, here trying to break the ice open on top, does not work as the whole thing freezes solid.  So what have you tried?  What worked and what didnt?  Any changes to your system you would make?