AND IT IS COLD

A cold but beautifully Sunny Morning. It was -20.7 F at 8:AM, now two hours later, it is 11 below.

There is no wind so I felt quite comfortable when I was out doing the chores. I ran into a little problem with the chicken water. I water them inside the coop using a rubber container. I think they are rated at five gallons but they hold close to seven when brimful. I have been breaking the ice or adding hot water or both every Morning. This Morning I couldn't break the ice with a hammer. I had to haul out the bucket and slam it on the ground to break the ice. There was very little water left unfrozen. I haven't taken a head count of my chickens lately, but I don't have enough to make the water chores easier. In times past, the water would only get a skin of ice when it got down to zero. I never had trouble breaking it at any temperature. We usually carried 35 to forty chickens. They put out a lot of heat and that was enough to keep the water from freezing except in this kind of weather and then it was easy to break the ice. We need to get more chickens,

We were very grateful to discover the water pipes under the kitchen sink were not frozen. Yesterday morning one was and it took two hours of hair dryer action to thaw it out. We have lived here since 1975 and only had frozen pipes in recent years. The kitchen is over a crawl space. About thirty years ago we had some freezing pipes and Jamie stuffed some insulation down around them and that solved the problem. Then a couple years ago the problem returned. Last Winter we had a cold spell in December and we had a few nights where a pipe froze. It is always only one, for a couple years it was the hot and recently it is the cold. The years when we had no trouble were not particularly warmer. We decided that some mice or larger rodent was having a good time with the insulation.

Last year our daughter Laura gave us the tip to use a fan to blow air under the sink on these bitter nights. It worked and we had no more trouble last year. On Monday night I noticed it was already 12 below at Midnight so I set up a fan. I must not have had it positioned right and I had it at low speed. I didn't think we would need more than a gentle flow of air to keep the pipe from freezing. It is very warm in the kitchen. It was frozen on Tuesday Morning. Jamie set it up last night. We were very happy to find it worked. We are going to get someone to crawl under the house and fix it once and for all. Jamie has been threatening to, when I was younger I crawled under there a couple times to fix a plumbing problem, but now..... uh uh.

I suppose I am going to have to look at the new tax law. We haven't had to pay state or federal income tax for ten years. Our pension is taxable income but we don't make enough. If it was a higher it would trigger the inclusion of our Social Security. From what I have read I can't tell if we are going to need to pay. We live like royalty. We have no financial needs and we have a sumptuous and elegant life style. It is amazing how little money one needs when they don't owe anything. We have had times when we made four or five times more money and were poorer.

We have considered moving occasionally and we come up against the obstacle of paying for housing. We couldn't move w/o being able to come out even. All young people struggle when they first attempt to get established. I think my generation had a much easier time than the current one. I went to college, bought a house, had children on the G.I. Bill and a minimum wage part time job. That would be impossible today.

We need to start being nicer to our young people; all our people. I know this old world isn't going to last much longer. I look forward to the day when we can just love each other and care for each other and enjoy the marvelous benefits of living on this wonderful planet. It is time for our separation to end.

Love and Peace, Gregg