Water Freezes When It's Cold!

Oy. The Bag Lady has had quite a day. The Rancher started on night shift last night, so when he got home at 6 am, the Bag Lady made him something to eat, and he tottered off to bed. Shortly thereafter, the Bag Lady sat down to write a blog post, but first she settled in to read her email. She had just opened the first one and read the first line when the electricity went off.

She waited a few minutes, then phoned the power company. Got a recording saying that the power was off in her area due to a vehicle striking a power pole. It would be restored by 11 am. This was at 9 am. So she did a little puttering around the house, read a little and waited. And waited. At 11:30, she called back and the recording told her the power would be restored at 1 pm. She did her chores, and tried to be patient.

She also tried not to cuss out the dumbass who blew through a stop sign at a T intersection.... who must have been driving far in excess of the speed limit not to notice the 5 rumble strips he drove over, nor the BIG ASS stop sign at the corner, nor the fact that there was no road where he was heading, but there WAS a big ol' power pole... dumbass. (She has no idea if he was injured or killed - she had no electricity, so couldn't listen to the news on the radio...)

Please remember that when you get your water from a well, you have a pressure tank that runs on electricity. No electricity means no water. Cattle drink a lot of water. They sucked the waterer dry, but that didn't stop them from fighting over it.

"Let ME try - you must not be doing it right!!" Pushing and shoving and fighting. The Bag Lady lured the cows away from the waterer with a hay bale, but the calves are locked in the corral, and were perplexed by the fact that there didn't seem to be any water where there had always been water before!!

The electicity was finally restored at 2 pm. so the Bag Lady suited up with all her winter gear yet again and went out to check on the waterer. Naturally, after 5 hours with no electicity and no heat, the lines under the waterer were frozen. Fortunately, the heater was doing it's job (the Bag Lady could tell this because there was steam rising from the empty water bowl...) so she covered the bowl with a few boards so the calves wouldn't sizzle their noses and to help keep the heat in and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

She went back to the house for a few minutes, but could see that the cows were now in the corral, milling around, fighting to get a drink, so she got togged up again and stumbled out to the corral. Still no water. The cows had knocked the boards off so the Bag Lady put them back on, then stood guard. Finally, she thought she heard a gurgle. Then a swish. Finally she heard what she knew was water filling the bowl. She waited until it was almost full, then took the boards off and let the cows have a drink. Of course there was much fighting and jostling, but they did finally all drink their fill.

The Bag Lady sent the Rancher off to work, then made herself a little supper. She finally sat down in front of the computer and started to read her email. And the phone rang. It was her mother in law saying she had a little problem with the waterer at her place.....