Herself's Blog

 My last blog did not do paragraphs. I moved from Google Chrome to Firefox, hope this is more readable as I do not half ramble on...firts publishing try showed a lot of rubbish after this bit.... Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

In my last blog I thought life was in a lull before next storm. It was, literally. Two days ago Hisself measured 52 centimetres of snow, but more has arrived on both days since.

It was last years snow that destroyed shed roofs. Old steading is now demolished and power permanently re-routed underground. Water however is a different matter. New water tank wobbles on few pallets under a bit of remaining roof and all water pipes are laid bare on the ground. All naturally waiting for the new shed to house them all plus some (a lot) of insulation.

We have had snow since 20^th December. On cold nights water freezes despite my carefully timed dishwasher / two washing machine combination that is designed to keep the water flowing all through the night. Usually it is just the pipe over ground that I easily defrosted in kitchen in couple of hours but once or twice we have now lost the borehole pump too. To be honest there is no casual once or twice about it -  first time we were heading towards Christmas eve, nine people on the premises, when mother nature gave us a surprise afternoon thaw. Second time was two days ago, it was -18°C.

I do not like the fact we cannot wash, but I ignore it. I despise washing dishes in a bucketful of water and drying them by hand, but I suppose that will build my character. I really, really hate carrying water for the toilets from the burn. Not so much the steep climb down and up the banking but hauling the full buckets over the frozen gate. That is a real killer.

Every time I have made Hisself leave the premises for light commercial entertainment (read sales) things have gone from bad to worse. First time No1 one son went down with  sickness and diarrhoea, spending the time in the bathroom, leaving water pipes in the kitchen and livestock fending for themselves.

Second time he returned to the mystery of self emptying header tank. Leak was suspected but No2 daughter refused to investigate. Apparently she did not know what a leak looked like, and anyway it was too cold to go out in her flip-flops. She had a hard two days shopping in Edinburgh where her fancy shoes ate holes into her heels, hence the need for footwear that was not touching the healing skin. Nevertheless a leak was finally found in the pipes leading to cattle shed, which naturally cannot be replaced before the snow goes away.

Yesterday Hisself returned to a road blocked by a feeder trailer still attached to the forklift. Freezing red diesel was diagnosed. No3 son had never seen any before and was not quite sure what to do. As long as he does not do what his father says we will be fine. At one point the forklift needed a jump start and in his big hurry Hisself parked the tractor to a rather unfortunate angle on a slope where it gently slid through the (naturally brand new) fence. The neighbours had a good laugh and sons learned a lot, or so I hope.