So this past weekend's ice storm hit our place a bit harder than it did the metropolitan area, but not as hard as it hit many other areas, or as hard as the 2005 ice storm did. We lost trees limbs, (which also downed our clothesline), but no serious damage. Since I was already very sick with a head cold, I didn't even attempt to get out and about during this, either.
Saturday morning Steven and I had go into Wichita to attend my company's employee party, and that didn't do much to help me feel better, and the weather was getting bad. I went ahead and attended bible study Saturday night, but by Sunday didn't feel like going anywhere at all, as the weather was getting increasingly worse. So we missed church, missed attending the musical Oklahoma that I had tickets to for the afternoon, and missed choir.
Sunday night we realized our windmill drive stock watering tank was very very low (no wind for a couple of days, and the cows drink a lot). We have goldfish in there to keep algae down, and at that rate, we were going to lose them all, if the 2 inches of water left were to freeze clear through.
We have a gas water pump for emergencies, but it was frozen up. So we had to bring the gas pump inside and put it in the bathtub to thaw out and drain. Then at 10 PM at night, Steven and I were out there in the dark, with pouring freezing rain, hooking up that pump and filling up the tank. We carried it down in the pickup, which was covered with a solid sheet of ice.
Ah, farm living!
We only lost power for a bit of time on Tuesday night, but the house sure did get chilly during those hours. We played gin rummy by candelight in the dining room until it got late enough to go to bed.
Our water heater quit working, too. Appears to be a faulty thermostat, so I hope to pick up that part this week and fix it.
It's always something! :)
Last night we finally hauled the entire big round hale bay into the goat pen near the barn for them to forage as necessary. Up until now, we have been "doling" it out in quantities to control how much they ate and prevent waste. We realize having the whole bale in there will lead to more wasted hay, but it's supposed to snow up to eight inches tonight, and so it was our best option for now.
