I never thought I would welcome a morning temperature of 30 degrees!  But it sure felt good this morning after several days of teens and 20s.  It even got below zero with the wind chill factor one night this week.  We have had record breaking lows for our part of the country and it is wreaking havoc.   Ft. Huachuca, where Steve works, was pretty much shut down because people were using their heat so much that the base ran out of natural gas.  The same was true of East Tucson and people were moved to shelters.  The City of Benson had a water main break and so many pipes are broken that many people are also without water.   Our daughter has moved in with us until the gas and water can be restored in Benson.  

We also have had problems.  I have a big sink in my barn/kennel that I have never used because I could never get the water to come on in there.  Well, last night when I went out to feed the animals, the sink faucet was busted and water was flooding the barn, running our under the sink and out the back of the barn, water covered the floor and ran out the door and out to the pasture.  We had no idea how to turn it off, mostly because we never had water in there before.  Weird!  Anyway a pipe busted from freezing.  Two neighbors helped out, one with advice and one told us how to turn off the water.  Turns out we had to turn off the water to the house to turn off the water to the barn.  We were afraid to leave it on because it could damage the well pump and afraid to turn it off because of freezing again.  We ended up turning it way down for the night and on a little more this morning so we can flush toilets etc.  Every store in Benson is out of plumbing supplies to fix the broken pipe.  Our neighbor, who is a well driller, said he had been getting calls about every 2 minutes with people needing help with broken pipes.  He said the best thing would be to fix the broken pipe ourselves but if we needed help he probably won't be able to get back to us til Monday at the earliest.  What a mess!

I feel fortunate that we still have electricity, water and heat.  Our heat is electric and we have propane gas for heating the water and cooking.  We are not hooked into the natural gas system or we would be freezing too.  

Stewie was out in the yard yesterday morning when I got up.  It was freezing!  My hands were numb just getting hay to the alpacas.  There was no chance to fill water buckets.  Which is probably why he got out.  All the water buckets were frozen solid the night before.  Water buckets are very heavy so I had Steve empty the ice out and bring the bucket to a working faucet to get the animals some water.  I figure he must've not secured the gate or something.  Anyway, I had to recruit two of my daughters to help me get Stewie back in his pasture.  Alpacas are fast and good at not getting caught.  The girls had to walk behind him and push him toward the pasture gate, while I stood at the gate and kept Prince from escaping too.  Prince also tried to discourage Stewie from going back in the pasture by running toward him whenever he got close to the gate.  Stewie escaped the girls once and they had to start over.  I let Buddy into the pasture with Prince to keep him away from the gate and distract him so Stewie would go back in.  We got him in on the second try.  Thanks to the girls!  I put a bungie cord on the gate now in addition the the hook so hopefully, that won't happen again.

I have been busy sewing myself some summer clothes.  Ha!  It helps to remember that it will get warm again when it is so bitterly cold.  It is amazing too how warm 30-40 degrees feels after only 10-16 degrees.  It's almost like spring! Ha!