Water

We woke to lovely showers with the new water heater yesterday, no more scalding hot water and no worry about having enough.  But after breakfast there was suddenly no water at all.  Dan and Jay went out in the eleven degree morning to look at the pump (no city water or sewer out here).  Dan was able to diagnose a broken pressure sensor, and just a couple of hours and a trip to Cooperstown later, we had water again. It was a little taste of the vulnerability of life in the country, and a reminder of how lucky we are to have Dan here. Dan’s mom stopped by later in the day and told us that this property had once, long ago, been part of a farm owned by Dan’s great uncle.  The house we see down the hill to the east was his farm house. And at the vet the other day, the young assistant told us she had once lived in that same house.  It’s a community with history and connectedness.

Snowing again today, the heaviest we’ve had so far, but still just a few inches.  Too much for Charlie by far, so he gets carried out to the barn.  Despite the snow, we drove to Oneonta this morning to do some shopping. Jay is getting used to driving on snowy roads, and happily he drives very cautiously.  On Sundays they’re not very aggressive about plowing, but it was manageable. For me, as a passenger, it’s just incredibly beautiful.

On the way home we stopped at the Hartwick Restaurant where Silvio made us salmon and baked potato, and a very nice Italian wedding soup. He’s friendly and chatty, a transplant from Brooklyn by way of Iraq.  He didn’t want to say exactly what he had done there, but he was there for three years working for the government. He gave us the phone number of a couple who’ve recently retired to a nearby town, Mt. Vision, on 100 acres. He said they’d done a lot of research into beekeeping and other used of their property and would probably be happy to share what they had learned. Right now, under a thick blanket of snow, there’s nothing to do but learn and consider alternatives, but all this space just cries out for use.  We’ll almost certainly plant apples, and maybe pears, cherries, and blueberries. But for now, it’s time to wait.