In My Neighborhood XII 1

We've had weather since last we met. The week between Christmas and New Years, we recieved an inch or two of snow most every night. Some would melt during the day, and it'd consolidate some. The temperature didn't vary much from the freezing point. Then, the night of Friday 2nd January, it snowed another six or eight inches. We got up, had breakfast and proceeded along. Since there was a dance scheduled that night, I started a batch of cookies. In the middle of that process, I opened the kitchen water faucet to wash my hands, and ... nothing! No water. After the snow had stopped falling that morning, the temperature had plummeted, and our water lines froze during the day!
Well, I put the chains on the pickup, drove to town, bought heating tape, drove back & put the tape on the water line under the trailer. Then we put a heater in the water shed. No joy. I finally figured that the water line was frozen in the six or eight foot underground loop between the water shed and the trailer, where I can't get to it to heat it up. So, we "borrowed" water from a neighbor for a couple of days until the weather warmed up and the water line unfroze. As far as we can tell, the water line did not rupture, but quite a bit of rust did get knocked loose, so we've had to clean a few of the faucets.
During the cold spell, the temperature hung out around ten degrees F at night and up to mid twenties during the day. That makes for some nice fine snow. Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough to temp me to get the skis out for some cruising. Since then, the temperature has mostly been in the forties and the weather overcast and damp.
One of the lots to our south sold recently. The lot with a house, so we have a new neighbor. I suggested to the two neighbors who live here that maybe it might be time to think about some road work, perhaps a truck load of gravel or two? We ended up having five truckloads brought in. Storm King Road (SKR) is relatively level for a little over an eighth of a mile. In the middle of that stretch, there is a low spot which collects water. At the end of the level stretch, two driveways come off, and the road starts to climb. At a quarter mile, another driveway turns off, and our driveway is at the high point just past a third mile from the start of the road. Only Brian lives on SKR beyond our driveway. One load of gravel went on James' driveway, Brian had two dropped at his place, and one was dropped where the three of us who use the hilly part of the road can use it later to fill the eroded places. Most of the last truckload was put into the wet spot and the remaining third dropped beside the road. After I paid off the truck driver, Barb, Brian, Donnelle and I spread out the gravel in the low place, then used several wheelbarrow loads of gravel to fill in potholes in the rest of the level part of the road. Most of the week since then has been overcast with only a light rain at nights, so there hasn't been enough water to accumulate where the next set of potholes will be wanting to form. Today, however, rain all day; so, tomorrow we'll find out where to throw the next few shovelfuls of gravel.
Whilst talking to Donnelle about the gravel, she asked me if I knew a carpenter who could do some work for her. She wants to add a room onto the place she's just moved into. A friend had started the job: the foundation, floor framing and floor were down, but he is unable to continue. I ended up taking on the job. We have the walls framed, the rafters up, the roof and wall sheathing on, and roofing paper on the roof. The last few days have had more or less rain, mixed with snow. So we've taken short days and a couple off. Which has given me time to work on getting out this rag. In the evenings after a full day pounding nails, dealing with e-mail has been about all I could handle.