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Hi everyone,
From a cold, cut off Siminoc. Sian's friends are saying it is all her fault, she wanted a lot of snow and we have got it. But I best let the diary tell you all about it.
Monday and I left you last Sunday up to our eyes in snow well not literally of course (I don't think). Monday we woke and things were no better. The water pipe was frozen so the first thing we had to do was thaw the pipe. Well that's Lew's job, but I had forgotten to fill the emergency water containers, so before Lew could thaw the pipes, I had to melt the snow and turn it into boiling water. It takes one bucket of snow to make one small saucepan of boiling water so it took some time before the pipe was thawed. It was still snowing, then came the fun of feeding the animals, making pathways through the snow drifts that have formed, luckily I had left the gates open because we would never have opened them this morning. It took through till lunch before everyone was feed and watered. We warmed up and started again. The village is cut off nothing can get in or out. Much of Constanta county is the same. The woman phoned about the car papers today, they are ready for collection. I remember to fill the water container tonight.
Tuesday, thaw the tap again this morning. John walks down to Basarabi to get the bus and goes to Constanta for the car papers, we cannot use the car before we have the papers, apart from the fact we can't get the car out of the drive at the moment. The weathermen are predicting more snow on Thursday. We are a bit worried because Sunny didn't come home for her dinner.
Wednesday and it is thaw the tap again. It is an early start for Sian and John, they plan to clear the snow on the road so that we can get the car out. The road has been cleared up to John's turning, John starts there and works towards us. Sian starts outside the gate and works towards John. By lunchtime the road is cleared enough for the car to get through. They had some lunch and went to Port Alba to stock up again with animal feed. The buses are running again. Then they go to Constanta to stock up with food, John says he doesn't want to do a stock up shop with Sian again, they had two shopping trolleys. That's both humans and animals stocked up. Still no sign of Sunny Puss.
Thursday, the weather is still good when we get up and at our breakfast meeting it is decided that Sian and John will go into Constanta for logs. They try to beat the weather but nearly come unstuck. Sian wants to turn back when they are half way because she said it was like living in Wales, she could see the bad weather coming our way. John thought they would be ok so carried on but by the time they reached the log store he was wanting them to hurry. Laura arrived with us, she should have been at school. I knew she was going to school today, but on her way there the bus had become stuck in a snow drift, she heard the driver on the phone telling his colleagues not to come through Siminoc on the way Medgidia. That meant she would not be able to get home, she didn't go to school but caught the next bus home, this bus driver decided not to come into the village and gave her the option of which side of the village to be dropped off, she decided to get off at the T junction and walk down. She managed to hitch a lift with some lads from the village, but they got stuck in a snow drift on the way into the village and had to wait in the car for an hour and a half for a tractor to get to them to pull them out. She was frozen but she wanted to warn Dan that he would not be able to get the bus through to Siminoc. She was worried when I told her Sian and John were in Constanta. I rang them, they were on their way home. Sian checked with Dan but he said, "Go on home, he would get the bus as far as Basarabi and walk up". We were relieved when we saw the car coming up the road. The weather was really setting in with a strong wind blowing the snow. I was relieved again when John let us know that Dan was home safely. We had blizzard conditions all evening and through the night. Still no Sunny Puss, she has spent the odd night away from home but this long is unusual.
Friday, after a night of snow the road is blocked again and the water pipes are frozen again. Laura isn't trying to get to school today and Dan isn't going to work. But we are now as a base camp well equipped and feel we can go out knowing the base is secure. Laura comes with me to see Jenna our elderly neighbour, she has her son with her but we know she has friends who are not so lucky. We are given a list of people she is worried about, Laura knows them. We meet at the caravan to discuss our route, Laura, John, Chip, Sian and I all set out to work our way through the village. Our first port of call is Illea, this is the gentleman we bought the land from, he and his wife are both in their nineties. We call to see if they need anything. They need some logs moved and snow clearing, so we set to work. Chip, John and Sian deal with the snow clearing while Laura and I sweep the snow off the porch and move logs inside the front door so they do not have to go outside for them. Next stop is an elderly couple living at the other end of the village. We struggle through snow drifts sometimes up to our waist but their daughter had arrived, they are ok. Next stop Mady, just to make sure they are ok. On our way to the next check, Laura tells us that we are passing an elderly couple who have no family. We call to see if they need help, we are a bit worried when we find the gate locked, but Sian climbs over and knocks on the door, no help needed, they are fine, but they thank us for our concern. Then off to an 'elderly' (she is 45) teacher of Laura's, she lives on her own and Laura is concerned. But, she is ok and thanks us for thinking of her. Next stop, another elderly lady living on her own. She is fine, but has run out of bread and is worried, there is no bread in the shops in the village, deliveries can't get through, bread is an important part of the Romanian diet. We have some in the freezer, so I promise her that we will bring her some later today. We struggle home the light fading. John and Sian struggle back through the snow drifts to take her bread and some chicken stew. We then remember another family who might be struggling but decide to check on them tomorrow, the wind is getting up again and blowing the snow into new drifts. It is like ice needles when it hits your face, stinging and making your face ache. While we are getting dinner the pigs start making a great deal of noise, Sian goes to investigate. She screams at me, " Quick she has had some of the piglets". Lew is the midwife around here so he grabs his jacket and heads for the pigsty. It is blowing a gale by now and the temperature has really dropped. Lew shouts he needs more straw. Now with straw bales all round us this should have been easy but they are all frozen and to each other. The three I had covered were no better. Sian and I struggled to get them through to Lew and build more protection for the sty. Next Lew wanted the fire lifted, no problem I thought, went round the side of the chicken house to be meet by a wall of snow. I cleared away enough snow to reach the fire and raise it up six inches. Lew is worried about the three that were born before we arrived, Sian and I take them inside to try and warm them up. Sian's room seemed to be the best place. Sian goes to check on her dad and brings in another piglet, we have the fire on and are rubbing them with warm towels but we lose the first two, they have got too cold. Babe has six piglets in all and four of them are fit healthy and demanding food by the time we think about going to bed at three. Leaving Sian to do the feeds with syringes every two hours, Lew and I crawl into bed.
Saturday and still no Sunny, we wonder if she has been accidentally locked in somewhere, it is no good trying to look for her she has a large area which she considers her territory. We check the mum pigs, they are both ok. While I feed Lew and Sian sneak the new babies back into the sty, mum accepts them and settles down to feed. Feeding still takes its time, having to thaw the water and feed containers before they can be refilled. The wind has been blowing the snow about all night and we have to dig the chickens out again. This morning I begin to think that they are switching the water off at night then back on again at nine in the morning, it isn't a frozen tap every morning, if this is right it doesn't help with a feeding program. John confirms my suspicions. Now we wonder if we have no water because it hasn't been turned back on yet or the pipe is frozen. When we have finished feeding, I start making a potato and sausage soup enough for us; John's family (because Anisoara is always sending things up to us); Illea and his wife; Mahela's family (5 children, mum, dad and grandmother, all living in one room with no electricity); and the elderly lady we took the bread to yesterday, Jetta. Lew and John delivered the soup after they had taste tested it. Baby piglets doing well, we shut everyone down for the night. Sian is thinking up snow type names for the piglets; 'zapada' (Romanian for fallen snow), 'ninge' (verb for falling snow) and ... well you will have to wait till next week for the other two.
Sunday I collect the water containers to thaw them while the water is boiling for the feed. I put the ice in the sink with hot water running on it to thaw and realise we have a leak in the sink drain pipe. That is Lew's first job, it turned out to be a bigger job than I thought, the main drain for the building had frozen and we spent the morning thawing the drain. Sian spent the morning digging out the pig run trying to stop a very soggy run when the thaw starts. We then made chicken, sweetcorn and pasta soup which Sian and John took to the three houses. Illea tells them his son has arrived with supplies and is staying till the thaw, so we don't need to worry about him anymore, he gave us a pumpkin as a thank you for our help. The animals are coping with the weather well, even the new little pigs are doing well, so we feed and shut them all down for the night making them as snow proof as possible. Still no sign of Sunny Puss and we are now really worried. We will leave you with tonight's sunset.
What's been happening in the village this week? Nothing! No one who doesn't need to be out is outside. The cleared roads are now full of snow drifts again and cars have come to a standstill.
On a wider view, most of Constanta is at a standstill. We cannot contact any of our families to see how they are doing, Medgidia has been cut off more than us this week and we stand no hope of getting out to Pestera even though Mel's glasses are ready for him.
Well I think that's all the news from Siminoc this week ...
So I'll say cheerio for now ...
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