That is how cold it got this morning.  And sometime between 3:00 and 4:30 AM our water froze.  I was at work covering for a colleague that couldn’t make it due to the snow.  Tom was home and ill.  He had dropped me off at work yesterday morning and picked me up this morning. But we had to stop to find heating devices to unthaw our pipes.  So we didn’t get home until 10:30.  I did the chores while Tom worked on the water.  Water is essential for a lot of things, but watering the animals is chief among them.  I did grab a lemon mince pie to eat quickly, and I am glad I did.   It was a long morning.

As I did the chores (with mighty cold fingers) I noticed the paths through the snow.  Here are the meandering paths of the donkeys.

We had opened the gate so the cows to go to the next pasture and use its shelter.  They could get their legs out of the snow.  I can see paths going through the gate.  I didn’t feel like going out there to see if the paths go to the shelter or not, but at least they have the option.

Meanwhile the sheep and goats have not ventured out into their snowy pasture.  You can see the quad paths that Tom had made for them, but they are unused.  There is only one path I can see between the quad trails.

Well after noon Tom was able to get the water pumping again. He refilled all of the water containers, and the animals were thirsty.

It turns out the problem was in the pump-house.  We have a heater in there, but apparently it was not enough for 4 degrees.  Tom got it unfroze using the propane heater he bought this morning (on the bottom of the photo). But the pump kept cycling, and we would repetitively lose our water supply.  Then it started leaking heavily near the gasket attachment of the pump.  So Tom packed up to buy more supplies to fix it.  This is partially because there is freezing rain predicted tonight, and we do not know if we will be able to get out tomorrow. I have experienced freezing rain when I lived in Portland, and it is the worst weather event I have witnessed.

Amazingly though the water started working again just as Tom was about to leave.  He still went to get those supplies just in case.  And I quickly did laundry and dishes while we still had the water.  Tom found out they do not sell this pump or its parts anymore.  So now we will look online.

I was then able to participate tiredly in my Taste of Old Colony History zoom.  This time it was Spice Cookies.  It is flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar, oil, molasses and eggs.  The cookies these ingredients made are amazing.  It was hard to stop at one.

Next it was time to bust out the Aged Egg Nog.  This is supposed to age 4 months for peak flavor, but I didn’t start mine until September 22.  It is 12 egg yolks (ours), sugar, nutmeg salt, cream, half and half, milk, brandy, rum, bourbon and vanilla.  You whisk these together and move them to jars in the refrigerator.  You need to shake them every few days, which I did.  So it was to great excitement when I finally busted into the jar to see if it was good or not with others on the zoom.  And it is actually really good.  It is fairly alcoholic but smoother than I expected.

Then we busted out and watched Christmas Vacation which I was able to watch while sipping some of the egg nog.  It was a decent end to a rather crappy day.