Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We're having a real winter here - including frozen waterpipes. Actually not pipes - they are well-insulated - but the pressure regulating valve on the well has frozen two nights in a row and Andy has had to thaw out the valve with a blowtorch each morning before we could get water out of the faucets. We do not have a heated well-house. Top priority project next week is to built a well-house with an electric light inside to warm the well-pumps.

Then we'll be all set for this global warming with the new generator that we bought ourselves for this past Christmas and the wood-stove we got for Christmas the year before. Meantime we'll take our neighbors' advice and wrap the pressure-pump in a blanket with a plastic garbage bag over it tonight.

The people who built this house didn't think they needed a well-house. Mind you they only lived here a few years and had not seen that we can have very cold winters. It has been below 20F for three nights in a row and is expected to be that cold till Monday. This is the third day with snow on the ground. In previous winters it has always thawed by the second day.

Last night I took a walk in the woods. The snow had a crust of ice over it so that it crunched with every footstep. Anybody watching me trudge up and down crunching through the snow would have thougth I was nuts. It was more fun than popping those plastic bubbles that you use for wrapping parcels. And this morning I had to go to the local store before the sun came up. It was magical. The car's headlights lit up the snow which twinkled more brightly than diamonds.

Chas took these pics. It's not easy to capture snow falling. You can see the snowflakes if you click to enlarge.

















































The wind blew the tarp off the boat and now it's full of frozen snow and ice and the ducks' little pond had a two-inch crust of ice on it.