A Series Of "FROZEN" Events.....

I am pretty sure that a few months or years from now...this will all be fun to talk about...and we may even find a little humor in it all...but at the moment...I am COLD!

Being from AZ...I have never really mastered being cold.

While growing up I don't think I ever owned a coat...light jackets, yes...but a coat...no.

Who needed one???

Cold is a bit painful for me...really! It hurts to be cold. I am not a fan....although I am a fan

of a cozy sweater...I do love sweaters....anyway......So we all know about the terrible cold and storms that have plagued parts of the US and Mexico over the last couple of days, it was fun

for a few minutes...having the kids home from school...and The Farmer sort of home too. We made yummy food...drank lots of Hot Cocoa, and Herbal Tea...(a favorite), had fires in the

fireplace and ate more yummy food. We checked on the farms...took tons of "frozen" pictures,

and were having a pretty good time, until Friday morning.

(frozen sprinkler heads on the pivot)

We awoke early to no heat in the house. The Diesel for the heater...had frozen in the tank somtime in the night and shut the heater off. Nice. I was so toasty warm in my bed...but had the sense that the house had gotten pretty darn cold. I check my clock...which along with the time, has the temperature...and it read 52 degrees. That was in my bedroom. The Farmer had realized this a little earlier than I had, and was working downstairs to get a fire going in the wood stove in the kitchen...(thanks to Grandpa and Grandma S. who left it behind when they moved back to Mesa) He got that going...then a fire in the family room, and then we called for help.

Well, it turns out that everyone else in our area also need the "heater guy" and we were...seriously....number 19 on the list. They assured us that in a couple of hours they would be at our house and all would be well. Two hours came and went. The Farmer had to go to Chihuahua, and so he and The Boy took off, fully expecting that the heat would be restored shortly. I jumped in the shower...atleast the water was hot....and got dressed just in time for the electricity to go out. So now...no heat...no electricity. Luckily it wasn't off for too long. I needed to go to work...I hadn't been in a couple of days and so I set out for the plant. Once there, I was informed that several pipes had broken and everything was shut down do they could be repaired. The office was darn cold...good thing I had layered clothing to keep warm at home;)

I worked for several hours...returned home...and the "heater guy" still had not come. It was getting late in the day and I began to think it was going to be a long cold night. The Farmer and The Boy arrived just after the sun had gone down, to a very cold house. Around 8 o'clock, the "heater guy" and his crew showed up and I wanted to hug him! After a few adjustments the heat was restored and we settled down for a toasty warm evening. We watched a movie....warmed ourselves up and around 10 o'clock, PreShie walked into the house, returning from a ball game she had been cheering at. She asked if a few friends could come over...they wanted to play games in our house next door...."Sure...why not?!!" I said...because I was comfy and warm now....and she dashed out the front door, headed to the other house to get things set up. Ask quick as she left...she was back...and yelling "the house is flooding....the house is flooding!!!" We all ran to the house to see water running out the back door. Yes...a water line had broken in the laundry room and water was spraying everywhere. The Boy ran to shut off the water...while The Rooster was holding a bucket to catch the spraying water...all the while standing in 3-4 inches of water. Once the water was off...we...in pj's and slippers....began the clean up. With mops and brooms we pushed the water out the door and little by little we got the water up off the floor. Luckily very little damage was done...

So....becasue the two houses have connected water systems that meant that we had no water. So now it is nearly 11 o'clock and The Farmer sets out to find water.... Well, it seems that we are not the only ones with broken pipes and no water....So The Farmer ends up at Uncle Dave's house to fill the large containers he had with him....with enough water to get us through the night and morning. That brings us to, today. Saturday morning, crews arrived to dig up pipes, and install a valve that would allow us to have water and the other house to remain shut off until the pipes can be repaired. At the same time another crew arrived to fill the diesel tank, for the heater in the house....heaven forbid we have more heater problems during the weekend!

If Mexico had any type of "emergency" system. It would have been called upon...but it does not. Instead everyone was basically on their own. And truthfully...it all worked out. I did overhear some tender phone calls...early Thursday morning when we could see this was going to be bad....it was The Farmer...contacting The Bishops in our area...asking each of them to make sure that their congregations were all ok, and to let him know if anyone needed help. Thankfully, we belong to a church who does have great systems in place when things like this happen. Just a side note....every LDS church building in our area had some type of broken pipe issue today. One building was quite flooded. The Farmer spent the afternoon, checking on each building and getting them ready for services tomorrow. As I type...I can hear the wind blowing outside. Preshie just asked...if another storm would be blowing in.....are we ready for round two?