At Least It's Warm in the House

The pipes in the house froze again last night despite Brett wrapping every pipe he could find between the house and the well. We had the space heater on in the bathroom where we think water comes into the house. I packed the wood stove full of wood before we went to bed and it was still warm this morning.

However, outside it was 11F this morning when we did chores. The animals were all fine, with their heavy winter coats (and blankets for the horses). The dogs prefer to be outside and I have to coax them in with doggy treat bribes. They get hot in the house, even in the freezing cold laundry room. So, their beds are on the side porch next to the door. Inside the door, is the wood stove. Outside the door is the wood pile. They get some heat from the wood stove - I suppose that is a benefit of a poorly insulated house. I watch them sleep, stretched out across their beds, snoring softly. If they curled into tight balls, or tried to come in the house when I go out for wood, we would bring them in. Instead, they lift their heads for me to pet and then go back to sleep. Sedona has fur like those wolves in Yellowstone. Kersey has a thick layer of blubber.

I took hay to the horses, donkeys and goats using a method I remembered from Lori Skoog's blog: a sled. It works great. Brett refuses to use the sled and instead pushes, shoves and swears at the hay cart as he plows it through the snow. The price of being macho; heaven forbid he should be seen by the neighbors pulling a girly green sled.

I wanted to take hot water to the goats, but we have no water. Brett used his hammer to break the ice on all the water buckets and troughs but we couldn't do more than that.

We decided to go out to breakfast so Brett scraped the snow and ice off of the truck windows. The driver's side door lock was frozen shut so he used my blow dryer to melt the ice. We needed 4-wheel drive to get out the driveway and onto the icy road. The snow plow had come through last night so it was like driving on a skating rink. Slow going.

Back home, the pipes were still frozen. All of our planned activities for the day were cancelled. No water = no shower = no church. The contractor was going to come by and work on the kitchen but decided to play in the snow with his family instead; which was the right choice. Riding lessons were impossible with the arena frozen and buried in snow. Not to mention the fact that Katy couldn't have driven here in her small car. There was a function at one of our favorite wineries this afternoon, but they cancelled due to the road being inaccessible.

Brett watched football. I did some yoga. We checked the faucet every hour or so. The water never started running. We never got out of the 30s so the snow didn't melt much at all; just some dripping off of the eaves.

But, we had a gorgeous day with the sunlight glinting off the snow. Quail scurried across the drifts, falling into the holes left by our footprints. The sky was bright blue and the pine trees stood tall with heavy white frosting on their boughs. The oaks look like pieces of sculpture with snow accentuating their twisting limbs. The power didn't go out. Snow slid off the satellite dish so Brett could watch football and the internet didn't go down so I could read blogs and download a yoga class.

Tonight is supposed to be just as cold. It may be awhile before we have water. And I may be working from home tomorrow.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad