The Unexpected

February has been a very exciting month but not always in the ways we would like.

On the school front, Debbie and the kids have been struggling with new and constantly changing school routines. We are in the partial-school phase and will be transitioning to even-more-but-not-normal school soon. 

On President's Day weekend, we had planned a little road trip but canceled that when we heard a significant winter storm was coming through. The storm lived up to expectations and brought in freezing temperatures and lots of snow.  We were mostly prepared with food and things but what we didn't expect was to have frozen pipes.   The previous owners had left a heat lamp in the well house indicating that pipe freeze was something that has been dealt with in the past but we had not really thought about it when we did our planning. We also have a section of vulnerable pipe close to the house. While that little bit has its own bit of protection it is not air-tight and couldn't handle the deep snow and freezing temperatures. After a day and a half we were able to thaw the well-house as well as the pipe near the house and we were able to get the water back flowing.  No pipes burst and it looks like no ill effects so that's a hug relief.

The snow started on Thursday afternoon. By Friday morning the kids had a good amount to play in. They loved sledding, playing games, and generally rolling around in the snow. Alex didn't last quite as long as Abby did. He's not a huge fan of being cold.

We stayed indoors Thursday through Sunday but we were going a little stir-crazy by Monday and decided to trek to a grocery store and some other errands.  While we were headed down our hill we realized how much snow there still was, especially on some of the non-paved parts of our private road but at that point were committed.

We got our errands done and, not surprisingly, got stuck on the way home.  We actually got way closer to home than we expected to but couldn't make it up some of the last inclines on snow/mud.  Luckily we were able to leave the car in an ok place and make a hike home with the perishable groceries.  It took us another 3 days before we were finally able to get the car up drive.

Our septic system has worked without issues but we had known it was reaching end of life and we wanted to be proactive on replacing.  What we didn't realize is just how extensive of an operation it was with a huge section of the side lawn being chewed up to install the drain-field.  It was fun to watch the diggers work and surprising to see the size of rocks that were brought up but it's a little stressful to see the yard such a mess.  Luckily, we think it will be inspected and covered up in time for spring grass growing.  In a few months it should all be back to normal!

Overall, February has been pretty wet and pretty cold.  We are emotionally ready for Winter to be over! Maybe next year we'll make an escape to somewhere warmer in February.