Global Warming....

It's true that we have had a relatively mild winter so far but this past week we had a severe freeze. Unlike the millions of homes in the northern states, we did not lose power and for that I am grateful. I did get up one morning to find that there was no water. I assumed that I had not left the water dripping enough and that the pipes were frozen. It's one of the hazards of living in the country.
Being a town dweller most of my life has made me take things like water and electricity for granted. When I turned on the water and nothing happened I thought that all I had to do was wait for the thaw. After all, it had worked in the past. When the temperatures rose and we still didn't have water I decided to investigate. Behind the house is the pump house for the well. It no longer houses the pump but does have pipes, the tank and the electrical breaker box for the pump. Not something I ever had to deal with when I lived with city utilities.
As I approached the pump house I noticed water seeping underneath the door. Except for the absence of penguins on surfboards, opening that door was a cartoon moment. Water poured out! I found myself drenched in icy water with more gushing from the broken pipe in the back and another pipe that had come loose next to the breaker box. Read that: next to the breaker box. So what would any reasonably intelligent person do in this scenario? Exactly, I reached across the spewing water and turned off the electricity. As I was walking out of the pump house, thanking God for watching over fools, my son, son-in-law and a friend drove up. They fixed the pipes and we had water in less than an hour.
I can't imagine living anywhere that I can hear a car or see a neighbor. I love to look out the kitchen window and see everything from common morning doves to Prairie Chicken. It's a thrill to watch the hawks swooping and diving. In comparison the pump is a small matter.