busy

The weather over the past few days has been an amazing roller coaster of a ride. Temperatures rose from cold and temperate mid-week readings to almost 60 on Friday with rain, freezing rain, ice, high winds and snow. The rain and rapid snow-melt caused flooding in many places including the Ira Creek and in my own basement.
It is amazing to consider all the steps necessary to maintain equilibrium at home here on the other side of the creek during weather events like these. The flooding activated the sump pump in the basement with the worst possible scenario being that the basement would flood and the furnace be damaged should the power go out. I had purchased a generator to help address that possibility. I worried about the difficulty of getting to the generator in the garage in time. The door to the garage operates electronically, and it would have to be manipulated by hand somehow in that eventuality. I left the car out of the garage during the ice storm to help deal with that eventuality.
The weather turned cold again but the sump pump is still running. Ice accumulates on the end of the pipe leading out of our basement, and so one of the last things I do every night is knock the accumulated ice off the end so that it won't hinder the exit of water from our basement. Another concern is the water from the basement gathering on Kahle road, freezing there, and causing driving difficulties not only for ourselves but for the snow plow which is about the only other vehicle that uses this road. I spend some time reopening the ditch along the road to eliminate that problem.
Then of course there are the usual wintertime concerns. Keeping the wood stove going. Activating the heater in the bathroom off the kitchen so the pipes don't freeze during frigid evenings. There's kind of a lot to do.

But if you can take a minute and look around, it's still beautiful.