We’ve been hearing for days that the frost line in the ground has deepened to five feet and water pipes to homes are bursting all over the place. We got evidence this morning that this is true, our wonderful frost-free water line to the barn stopped pumping water and when we went to the basement to look at the water line, it was frozen, a huge icycle spreading to the floor. We turned it off, I imagine it will not be working again until May.

The farmhouse draws water from a point well, that is running, we are fortunate in that. But the line to the frost free runs four feet underground and that has probably just given way to the relentless cold, which is freezing the ground to nearly unprecedented depths. It will be fascinating to see if this is just a bad winter or a dramatic change in the way we live. In any case, back to hauling buckets of water  from the bathroom to the barn.Lucky it lasted this long, and it will not be resolvable until May. This winter is a hummer.