Good for you, Emily! Thigh sorry you had to deal with the creep.

Man. This new schedule, getting up at 7:45 to give Ami his pills is really getting to me. I fall asleep everytime I sit on the couch, waiting for the stove to come up to temperature so I can shut the damper. It's like I can't sit still for even 90 seconds without getting drowsy b and family asleep!.

Spider wakes us up at 515am goes out then comes in and goes back to sleep. I used to fall asleep in the barn in the am while waiting for the horses to eat. I dont sit down till ive been up for awhile because of morning/lack of moving stiffness. And by then i am well caffinated. I used to drink rumba in the morning. Its caffinated orange juice.

I remember that morning stiffness way, way back when. It a several others things got me worked up for RA but it was inconclusive. But the stiffness wasn't. A good hour or more before I moved easily. Still have some, more or less but only for a few minutes to maybe 20-30 at it's worst . But that's typical for osteoarthritis.

My son, as a teenager, used to get up in the morning, trudge to the shower half asleep, turn on the hot water and, unbeknown to us then, lady down on the borrower is the tub with the hot water running over him and NAP until I started hollering at him he would miss the bus. I never actually went up and looked in the tub, just thought he took extra long showers. Not shower naps

Needless to say, our electric usage is way down since he left home

I'm pooped. Just trudged through one deep snow 200' carry a big bag of kitchen scraps for the compost pile. That was work! On the way back, I lost my balance and feel in the snow... Ami thought it was play time and was wooing and play bowing and bouncing all over. Did not seem in the least worried that Mom face planted in the snow was an unusual occurrence. Not did he offer any help for me getting up. Every time I put my hand down to push up, my arm sunk to my shoulder in snow. Fortunately it's rather warm today, 25° when I went out. And admits antics were at least entertaining and even better, suggests his antibiotics are working🥰

@aljones how are things with you? Starting to thaw at all! Hope your pipe leaks are ready to get to and not under the trailor!

@amymeme Well, since you asked ... I won't know about the pipes until, oh, Thursday or Friday at the earliest. I use a small transfer pump for the house (an Aquatec Demand/Delivery pump) and for some reason it had water coming out of the side of it. Yeh, pump froze and cracked the pump head. Here's hoping that the folks I order these from (for me and a couple of other folks) have them in stock - wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. (Thinking, if the motor is still good, I haven't tested that yet, I have maybe 4-5 that still have good heads on them ... wonder if I can mix and match. Don't have a 'press' so putting it back together is an iffy proposition but nothing lost if I mess it up.)

Adding insult to injury, it looks like the Jenny has a clogged jet, it runs fine in the choke position but when I move it to run it dies. I don't understand the relationship but it seems (from youtube) that turning it off and leaving it off during a cold weather run is a problem. I've looked at some YouTube videos and it looks like I could do it myself, my biggest objection to doing stuff like that is that I don't have anyplace that isn't dirt and rocks where I can work on it. Probably going to take a run into town and see if I can locate some Seafoam - neighbor says it help keep his Honda Genny working ...

That, well, shoot, I was out without a shirt for a good portion of the day. My guess is that we were in the mid 70's yesterday and today so we're well thawed, just damaged. I'll have to take a run into town to see if either of the two folks whose places I watch were frozen of not. Main concern with them is since they only come out part time / sometimes we shut their water down at the tank - but if the shutoff valve freezes they lose all their water.

Faceplanting isn't a good habit to get into - it's too easy to bend / break things that shouldn't be. Take care ma'am.

Just dont add the wrong oil. My hubby killed our 9000 watt craftsman that way. Bearings spun out and the motor seized. It was recommended up here that if your going to use it in winter, only shut it down long enough to add the gas.

Sucks about your water pump

Falling sucks also glad your ok

Regular oil for the engine is 10w30 - the Seafoam is an additive that's supposed to help with cleaning the carb. Sure hope 'cause I really don't want to take it apart!

Eh, water pumps aren't that big a deal, a little irritating but nothing I can't live with (or rather, without) I'm just having to get used to hauling water again for a while.

We had well issues when we moved in because the pressure tank was shot. And the other week for about 2 hours our water was orange... there is always some very light orange residue in the dogs water bowls but the water has never done that in the house, but the outside hose hookup does that when i havent used it in awhile. We dont have a filter other then the pur filter on the sink. The last house we lived in we got evicted because the well ran dry and the landlord couldnt afford to have a new one done right away. For over a month we were filling about 20 1 gallon jugs and several 5 gallon water containers every day. Gotta say the biggest issue was flushing the toilet. Well and driving to the community center or one of the campgrounds to take a shower.

Yep, relate to all of the above. The gravity feed from the tanks is from a iron pipe so it's always muddy for the first couple of minutes - worse if I haven't used it.

TMI: Flushing the toilet is a pain, I have a bucket I use for just that but I still have to carry it through the house from back door to commode. (( I also adhere to the "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down." school of thought. ))

I have the same pump at my Canadian friends place - and since he hasn't been here in over a year, I may just "borrow" his pump till I get one in - if is is working, that is.

@aljones I guess your problems are mild compared compared to some in Texas. And I'll bet you are very glad your are not connected to the grid. 10000 electric bills. Unbelievable. Hope you find a pump head that fits.

Falling today was just inconvenient - I fell into about 15-18
Inches of very fluffy snow. Except for the icy crust. Which breaks easily under my weight. It was just awkward getting up in my tall boots and heavy clothes. And I was facing downhill so my butt was higher than my head.

I finally succombed. On the last stove loading, after sitting the damper and valves, off to nonny land. And not a quick nap either. 2.5 hours. And now, hubby wanted to go to bed around midnight. Which is less than 1.5 hours away. Don't know if I'll sleep that soon again or not...

What I woke up to...

That is kenzi pretty much all day. She has her side of the couch and I sit on the other. If she isn't on the couch then she's on the foot of the bed.

Mine have thier own couch.. and a laundry basket with a pillow and 2 blankets and a big pillow. Spider will try to jack my seat but usually gets up if i sit on her. She also seems to think my side of the bed is hers. If i get there first she lays on my legs, if she gets there first my legs end up on top of her.

Gov Abbott has said that the state will intervene in the prices that are being charged for Electricity. Texas is pretty good about taking care of price gouging and while this isn't technically price gouging (it's the way the tariff for power is laid out.) Of course we independent Texas always look somewhat askance when someone say "I'm from the government and I'm here to help!" ( and I imagine that's a left over from reconstruction, Texans have long memories! )

Water pump is to be here Thursday and then I get to see if I have any broken pipes. I've got the doors and windows open to let some fresh air through, it's still not warm (it's only 65) but at least I can let some dog and cat (and human?) odors out of the place.

Two of my pups are more than happy to head to their respective crates when I say "okay, bed time" and Avalanche sleeps on the floor beside my bed so I don't have the challenges you all do with our animals. (( but I do have THREE cats who have decided that I make a good warming pad ... rolled over on them a couple of times and they're rethinking the situation. ))

Going back to @amymeme comment, I really do have it better than a lot of folks, even during "normal" times ( define normal and I'll tell you the last time I saw it ... ) No water bill and for some that's going to be atrocious - meters don't stop running when the pipes break (found that out when I lived in Houston during a freeze) nor do the electric meters. (( should I tell this kitten that she's not going to be happy if she catches the bee that just flew through?? )) I have a friend whose wife is on oxygen so he has commercial power and solar (no he doesn't get reimbursed for any fed back to the system, co-ops down here don't have to) but he's dreading that electric bill.