This morning in the dark, I went to get water. Our water is in a cistern and or as we call it a well. The water level right now is a good six feet below the surface and we have a long hook to get the water out in buckets. I pulled the lid off the well and hooked a bucket to the rod and dropped the bucket into the well. All I got was a bouncing bucket. The rod was not stout enough to break the ice; so?
The surface of the well had frozen last night…
Then I sat on the edge of the well and thought a second, while my butt started to freeze and remembered a very long steel rod I have. Very heavy, but very long (over 6 feet,) it is an old piece of over an inch wide rebar. Darn thing is heavy and I had to be careful not to drop it in the well. But it worked and I cracked the ice and got my water. I will get more buckets later…
Now if you want to know how cold it got last night, then what I said above should tell you. Our thermometer said -20 and less; no way to tell how much less. The next two weeks will be as cold and it looks like it could be a challenge to get water from the well. So today, I will fill up all the buckets that I can, for emergency…
Besides we have tons of fresh snow daily to melt down also… 😉
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It seems that the only camera that I can keep going on a walk with Boza is my cellphone camera. It is so cold that everything else freezes up and simply has no battery or will not expand the lens out. I do not want to tear them up so I will just take pictures from the cellphone and be happy with that. I can take images nearby the home, by starting the Olympus up inside and going out for a short time. That is no good for a long walk and it just freezes very fast…
My cellphone is a beast and has a huge battery. No moving parts and just works under all conditions…
Kyle and Boza reporting from The Tiny Russian Village…
Windows to Russia (WtR)