Winter Weather-the Following Days…

Daughts and her Hubs suffered from power outages and frozen pipes for the first three days of the winter storm.

Fortunately they have a fireplace and plenty of wood…

and an axe which he’d borrowed from his brother the week before to try out the handle before carving himself a custom one for his axe head…

which would have been useless for chopping wood on its own!

All that to say, Daughts’ Hubs made a huge dent in the pile of firewood, left by the previous homeowners, and was out every day chopping mesquite to keep the home-fire burning.

Her very own lumber-jack!

They also have a gas range where they could cook and heat water for coffee and tea.

The two frozen pipes affected their kitchen water and their master loo but fortunately, because they wrapped the pipes with towels when they were first discovered, neither of them burst as the thaw began.

On day two Footlights took on another coat of snow and wowed us with its beauty.

SnowD2Trees

Behind these pastoral views was chaos as the electricity grid tried to manage its overload by rendering whole neighbourhoods powerless.

The internet gave up the ghost and caused Hubs and I to turn to books and board games for entertainment.

We cooked nourishing, comfort foods like battered fish, roasted veggies and home-made tartar sauce,

SnowD2Food2

and the ever favourite chicken pot pie with its creamy sauce bubbling up over the thick topping of potato and carrot mash.

SnowD2Food

We treated ourselves to steaming mugs of  hot chocolate which I did not photograph…

Our patio afforded the cats a rare opportunity to experience their first snow in the quasi outside…

SnowD2Patiothey rushed through the door to catch a closer look at the feeding birds and stopped abruptly when their warm pads hit the crisp snow.

Like grand-daughter Sophie they lingered just long enough to leave their mark,

SD2CatPrints

shaking their paws vigorously after each step, unsure of the sensation of burning cold on their feet.

Our heat pump worked tirelessly to keep us warm,

SnowD2HeatPump

and we added layers of clothing indoors to help it out, although it did run all day and only got a break when we climbed into our electrically blanketed bed at night.

We wore long johns, sweaters and extra socks, laid blankets at the doors to block the ice draughts, and put them on the tile floors under our slippered feet.

The previous month our electric bill had shown that it was costing us $9 a day to keep us warm, usually it’s around $4…I have no idea how much the last couple of weeks are going to cost but in a crisis it’s just money and I’m very grateful that apart from 90 minutes somewhere around 1am on the first night we had no other power cuts.

The outdoor cat, Achilles, who we were watching, had suffered from freezing water and a ransacked food dispenser.  His folks were stranded in Louisiana and when they heard the impending polar forecast they had him moved indoors to the vacant rental house on their property.

We were still able to drive the car on the dirt road at this point so hurried up with a litter box and more food; for the rest of the week we tramped up the hill on foot to visit him.

We discovered that he made a very sweet indoor cat.  He enjoyed a good cuddle

Achilles2

and a brush and for a few short days he was thoroughly spoiled,

until his owners were able to get home.

Achilles

By day 3 I had grown a little stir crazy and developed some new routines.

I’d get up and hurriedly put on my outdoor gear before I got chilled and together Hubs and I would walk up to Achilles.

We’d come home and the last thing I wanted to do was hop into a cold shower stall,

“I’m warm and toasty,” I’d say to Hubs!

There were no horses to groom,

no schools to sub at,

no grocery stores to stock up at,

no email to check,

no shopping on-line and…

no early morning showers!  I’d take mine closer to bed-time when the house was at its warmest and my cozy bed awaited.

And so we weathered the winter storm and entered day four.

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