Finally above freezing, house guest, cleanup

Though the temperature this morning was 9° F, it is supposed to get to 40° F by late this afternoon. It will freeze again overnight but tomorrow night is forecast to be our first night above freezing in almost two weeks. With only a few of the nights over the next ten days predicted to be below freezing, we may finally be out of the extreme cold that has caused so much damage to our area. That would be nice – a return to normal temperatures. Yesterday afternoon, even though it was only 24° F, I was able to use the yard hydrants to get water at the coop and at the barn lot wellhouse. That was a relief. It saves me and Mama a lot of steps. By this afternoon, that should be a regular part of our feeding and watering routine – at least in the afternoons. The snow is melting and soaking into the ground deeply. That will help the plants and the grass immensely, so it is not all bad. Additionally, the blanket of snow kept the ground from freezing too deeply when the temperatures hovered near or below 0°.

I fed by myself yesterday evening because Mama was entertaining. The Wycoff’s came over to take showers. They have been without power for several days. No power means no water. Additionally, their septic line froze so they were unable to flush toilets with the water they had accumulated for doing so. They did not stay long after showers were done, but Donna, the matriarch of the clan (Sister Wycoff’s mother) will be staying with us for a couple days as the family gets things working at their house. Donna is 83 years old, tiny, frail looking and sweet to the core. It will be no problem to keep her as our guest until Sunday. Having a guest in the house is always a bit of a disruption of routine, but she is somewhat like my Mom. She sits and knits or reads a book. Quiet and undemanding.

Mama and Victoria are going shoe shopping this afternoon. If Mama can Victoria out of the house. Mama worried about leaving me home working with Mrs. Donna in the house, but I do not think it will be a problem. The shopping trip was to include Grandma and Grandpa but when they heard that Victoria needed to shop for shoes they backed out of the trip. Not sure why, but that is the way things happen with the two of them. In addition to looking for shoes, they will go to Sam’s to get a few items. We do not need much, but there are always items we can use or stock up on as prices start to rise, partly because of the damage caused by the recent freeze and partly because of horrific fiscal policy being implemented under our new administration. If you doubt the prediction, take a look at fuel prices and the rise in price since January. Yesterday afternoon, when Mama and I went to town so I could look for a breaker I stopped by QT to fill the Sequoia and they had no gas. All the pumps were out of service. Same at the Valero across the highway. That is mostly due to the cold weather, but it is also a harbinger of what is ahead of us.

This weekend will be spent on cleaning up from the snow and freezing weather. There are a few repairs I can do while I wait on various specialty items to effect other repairs, but it will be nice to have the animal’s waterers thaw for the first time in two weeks. I have ordered some items through Amazon, but I checked local availability first. I know ordering online is convenient, but I do not like the way Amazon is putting so many local small businesses out of business, so I try to go local first – even when the price is significantly higher. My little bit of business may not help, but I do not like the thought of sacrificing someone’s livelihood for my convenience. In that vein of thought, I am looking for a way for Mama to migrate off Facebook for her business, but the monopoly they have is difficult to overcome and far too few are willing to expend the effort to restart somewhere else. Same with Amazon. Same with Google. Their monopolies are almost unavoidable. Sad day for all of us.

I still have the two huge cabinets I got from the side of the road sitting in my shop just waiting to be installed. Sadly, I cannot do that by myself and there will not be help available this weekend as most of those I could call on for help will be busy with their own repairs and cleanup work. There is no hurry, but I am anxious to get that done. By the middle of next week, I should be able to tell if my fruit trees and berry bushes survived the very hard freezes. I am hopeful, but not confident. Additionally, I will be able to tell if the bees survived the cold.

Again, I am hopeful but not confident.