I am getting work here caught up after so many grueling days of below freezing temperatures and hours of trying to keep the livestock fed and watered.
Shortly after my last post the ice storm hit. I was on my computer in the sun room and could hear the rain hitting the windows. We were having one heck of a rain. As usual, the dogs were snoring and the furnace was running.
The next day the lights went out. Power lines had fallen all over Kentucky. Over 700,000 people were without power and I was one of them. I thought of the complaints I had made about my furnace running up my electric bill and longed for the days that it had run. Now I was sitting in the dark with no lights and no water. On the nights I spent here my ears strained for sounds of the furnace kicking on.
My livestock depend on my water source so I had the dual problem of no water for the house and no water for the livestock either. So I loaded the water tank on the truck (with the help of my son, Mike) and we went to Taylorsville to buy a load of water. This worked ok until the tank froze up. So Mike went out in the cold and hooked up a heat lamp and thawed the faucet on the tank and drained the water. By that time I was staying at his house and power had been restored there in just two days. So back to the water company and another $1.50 and the tank was full of water again.
Finally the weather broke and the lights came back on after 9 days and the furnace is running, the water is running and the dogs are snoring.
It has been a difficult time but my family has helped me get through the rough times this winter. I lived with Mike and Natalie and slept there for about a week. My daughter-in-law Natalie was ready to help me with the livestock everyday she wasn't working. My daughter Mary Beth and her husband helped me with feeding and letting the dogs out to run so I wouldn't have to go to the farm so early in the morning.
God has blessed me with a great family and a wonderful place to live despite the difficulties. The horses and cattle have made it through this cold weather. I thank God everyday when I look out the window and see all the horses up and eating at the stacks of hay. Soon the land will come alive with green grass growing and leaves popping out of the branches. We will look out over the fields and there will be new life everywhere. We will see the new crop of foals and baby calves. Despite the economic difficulties that affect us all we will have a sense that God is on his throne and all is right with the world. The winter has passed and spring has come and life everywhere has been renewed.
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