Farm Life

Last week my parents decided to take a (much deserved) vacation. I think they decided 5 days before they left, they figured better to go now while we aren't too far into calving season, hay season, and before Mike and I go on our survey trip to New Zealand. So Monday they left and we are taking care of the farm, Grandmas, and meals. My brother Will is here to help us too. Well Monday morning we woke up to no water. It was freezing cold here even though it wasn't snowing and the thermometer was reading in the teens, it was very windy. Well we hadn't let our water drip so we thought it was the pipes in our house were frozen (and all the other houses). We needed to the grocery store so we headed out to buy groceries for the week and was hoping it would warm up enough that the pipes would defrost while we were gone - nope. So Mike pulled out an electric heater and headed under the farm house to try to defrost the pipes. After quite a while passed without any results he decided to check the pump house. Sure enough the pilot had blown out and pipes in their had froze (and that is why none of the houses had water) so Mike re lit the pilot and took the heater down there - Success! Funny to think about that as today is Friday and it is in the 60's here today. My sister Holly in Africa lives with these conditions of no electricity and water consistently but it is something to get used to and seems to have happened pretty often lately. Then on Tuesday the cows broke loose for from their field so Mike and Will had to spend time getting them back in their pen before I ran my Grandma to the Dr.'s office. Despite all this it has been nice to be back where I grew up. I was able to take the boys out for a hike yesterday and look forward to doing more of that and fishing in the pond, and all the other cool things there are to do here. We have 6 baby calves now too.