Today I am going to share with you the excitement I felt this morning.. I was finally successful at winterizing the pipes over the last month so that I had no freezing or busted pipes this morning unlike several mornings last year... This house is ollllllld - like it was built in 1904 OLD. Over the years plumbing was added, and it was done in a way that the pipes are very hard to get to, OR there are pipes in places I wouldn't have expected. This place was pretty much rigged for a disastrous winter, and last year, we had busted pipes almost every day until we figured out the entire plumbing map of the house..... THIS year however, I was ready. I have a light in the wellhouse (as well as insulation) to add some heat to the pipes in there, and my stepdad showed me a few tricks to keep my laundry room (where the pipes are the hardest to get to) from becoming a disaster area by simply shutting off the water to that room during the below freezing temps unless I am washing clothes or whatever.
Another thing in the works is making sure that this year we are totally capable of being iced in and having all the essentials. When you live in the country and your water comes from a well, if the power goes out, there is no power to operate the well, therefore, no water like I was used to living on a city waterline... I am happy to say that my sweet brother is working on finding me the perfect generator for the well pump and we have a wood stove for heat, cooking, and entertainment (fires are pretty to look at, right?). As long as I can have my coffee and water and warmth, I can survive being snowed or iced in!
Misty has grown the most amazing winter coat this year!! Milly used to be the winner of the winter coats, but Misty has taken over that role since Milly passed on. Eli's coat is coming in pretty stong and Ellie and Ellen are more 'meaty' than the others, so they get most of their insulation from fat ;)
Winter brings mice into our home looking for warmth, but luckily Spirulina is my little hunter and gives us some au naturale pest control from those rodents! Eddie and Spirulina share toys, so yesterday when I got home from work and praised Spirulina on a job well done by killing the mouse, Eddie decided he wanted to play with this thing that was getting Spirulina so much attention! He quickly picked it up in his mouth and ran off.....eeeeeeewwwww! I grabbed his leash, knowing that as soon as he walked outside he would put it down. He dropped it, although carrying it in his mouth pretty much cut the mouse in two. Always a circus at the farm, either inside or out.
We are gearing up for one more brutally chilly night, at 25 degrees (yes, here in the south, that is almost unbearable!) and all the babies outside have gotten an extra helping of hay to keep them munching and warm through the night. Tomorrow I get to turn the water back on in the laundry room and catch up on washing - woo-hoo! Good night, stay warm, and sleep tight!!
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