Snow bound

 There had been plenty of warning for the arrival of the Beast from the East, or a significant weather event about to hit the UK so in an amazing instance of forward planning yours truly went to the supermarket in his lunch hour and bought a weeks supply of goodies to sustain humans and critters through the next ice age. Thursday lunchtime it looked a bit like this

 which pleased the Berners, her is Ripley lounging in the snow.

 Morning saw our world look like this so fully prepared we enjoyed our time at Rock HQ until the thaw.

 I had stocked up on all manner of stuff including wild bird food.

 This is us on the pond, more of that later.

 Conditions were pretty cold, the water supply froze.

 Proper winter gear was needed to be outdoors

 and sheep had to be dug from snow drifts. This ungrateful sheep, nose cut from trying to dig her own way out attacked Noel once she was free. Luckily for her he's more placid than she is.

 Everywhere looked picturesque.

 Dogs froze on walks.

 They enjoyed it really.

 I know I did, this is atop Hergest, arctic like.

 So stuck indoors hobbies thrived.

 By Saturday water was getting low, we had stocked up on bottles of the stuff and told the kids not to flush the toilet, they hardly remember to anyway so it wasn't much of a saving. 

 It had been minus 12 plus windchill so super cold

 which made digging out the reservoir and

 attempting to resolve the water problem a tad difficult.

 The amount of snow brought down the guttering.

 The sunnyside donkeys seemed to manage

 and it has to be said the

 kids loved it. RRMK2 tried his hand at snowball fighting.

 He lost, but good effort.

 By late Saturday a thaw was in the air so jumping up and down on the pond to show how thich the ice was was not the best idea.

 But we coped, life in the snow was colourful and different, much more difficult

 especially as we were now running out of water for the animals.

 More nerdy behaviour once indoors.

 This much nerdyness since Christmas!

 Sunday morning brought a surprise, more snow had fallen

 and a sheep had taken up residence in the porch sheltering from the snow.

 Enough snow had melted to give everyone a huge drink so things were on the mend

 and everyone was still enjoying life. A slight problem occurred, lack of water pressure meant that the central heating shut down.

 As it was going to be a long time before this thawed properly alternative heating was needed and we burned logs. So many that some more had to be cut.

 Around HQ there are a number of fallen trees that await attention from the chainsaw

 so this kept me busy and warm

 I even had a go at felling a dead one under supervision of Ripley.

 She moved in time.

 Jobs done Sunday was spent  snowballing

 taking photos

 and exploring.

 Even bigger snow drifts were found by the river

 which were great fun.

 The boys shared a picnic

 which included MRE sausages and beans

 before an impromptu game of hide and seek was interrupted by hypothermia.

 A long slog back as the youngest member of the tribe lost the ability to walk and had to have a 1 mile piggy back ride.

 Meanwhile a strange orb appeared in the sky!!!

 Meaning that monday saw things warming up mightily

 so much so in fact that

 while animals played silly buggers yours truly tried to get the water back on and thus fix the central heating.

 Deciding that climbing into the reservoir half full of ice cold water under a dodgy electric switch was one step too far towards achieving a Darwin award for stupidity several attempts to connect the house to the bore hole pump directly all failed, even when I used nearly all the right bits.

 So animals were fed.

 Dogs were walked.

 Peacocks were dried out.

 And the wonder of nature gawped at.

 Hobbies were done, here RRMK2 is very pleased with all his own work colouring in his own backpack.

 Other news intruded from the outside world, it might be that yours truly is a record holder for the Welsh 3 peak challenge done august 2013, where does time go? Its being adjudicated at the moment and the blog is being looked at for evidence.

 Back out in the cold dogs were walked

 or run and in one of those I wonder moments thoughts went back to the central heating. In particular what does that little valve do on the expansion tank.

 This one right here. So as it looked suspiciously like a bike valve and I had a pump the two were united and one pump later the central heating came on and warmth and hot water was restored. 

 The lane to the outside world was still impossible to drive down

 so we used sledges. The Tuesday morning the school reopened and we decided the school could have the boys, well one of them and off we went. Success!

 Bck in civilisation we did a quick food shop and dog food shop and headed home. We made that leg of the journey too!

 With RRMK2 suitably occupied making models (just like dad) MBAOSPW was left in charge and I banished cabin fever by

 riding my bike! Along the way I met Snowflakes BMW where he left it for the last 5 days.

 Drifts this end were a bit bigger than ours which is why stable sprite was snowed in too.

 Compulsory smug selfie.

 Compulsory pic of Stan.

So here we are Wednesday morning, still thawing, still warm and well fed. It was a good few days, apparently the pest from the west is due, better stock up then!