LOL! You guys crack me up!
I got home from Albuquerque around 1:30am. Snow on the ground, ice on the sidewalk, and pipes are frozen. Cats were excited to see me though. One of them ran up and jumped on me and wanted to be held and then followed me around for awhile.
Since one or more of the kitties peed on my electric blanket (somehow pulled the waterproof cover off) I decided to sleep in the front room with the kittens. They were happy to sleep on top of me.
Got up to move to my own room and took the pissed on bedding off and slept under clean stuff. My cat with Leukemia ran in and started clinging to my neck for dear life and would not let go. She tried to sleep on my face. She's not looking so great & I think she has a fever. My orange kitties came up and wanted to snuggle-- got one in my arms right now, purring away. Oldest kitty yowled until I told him to get on the bed and come over to me, so he buried his head under my chin and is now asleep on my lap. It's warmed up so there are only 3 kitties on me instead of the six that were there earlier.
I'm hoping no pipes ruptured, but need it to get warm enough for stuff to thaw. I'm pretty sure the town plumbers are busy with calls in town so I'll have to see what we can do from our own end. In all the years I lived here, it never got below 30 before, so having temps like 18 and 22 is just wrecking things for the whole area. (I know, people in the north can have a good laugh about it).
At least I get to be in my own bed-- even if I don't have it all to myself and it seems some kitty puked on my keyboard while I was gone. New kittens are adorable, but I need to find a better way to help keep them warm bc their mother is a bit of a derp.
Mom's little dog Fippy was absolutely ecstatic to see her. He was jumping up on her leg and then he ran up his little stairs on to the bed and was jumping on her and trying to lick her face. When she sat down he climbed on her lap.
On the thing about the pigs-- once we broke the clay layer, even pigs didn't keep water in the pond. I don't know if it had been a man-made pond or natural one. It could just be the soil type we have though. I remember the pigs loved playing in the pond. We had been told hogs would kill piglets so we put the hog in the yard with chickens, ducks, and geese. He ended up calling the piglets over to him, they climbed through the fence, and he led them to the pond and supervised them while they splashed around in the water. They got along great.