Hands

It's been a rough week for these old hands. Monday it was trying to disassemble and unthaw that ornery American hand-pump, which was cold business because the inside of the house was still as cold as the outside. When that didn't work too well, Wednesday we bolted down a Mongolian hand-pump and hauled water to fill the radiator heating system. Then I grabbed a blow-torch and tried to thaw pipes so that the warm water would circulate. Thursday we drained cold and dirty water from the heating system and replaced a radiator that had cracked from the ice, then we unfroze the hand-pump and poured several more buckets into the heating system. That day we also pried the bent grate out of the woodstove, dug in the snow for pieces of rebar, sawed off several small pieces to make a new grate, and had 'em welded together. Friday we drained the cold and dirty water again in order to replace a cracked pipe that was leaking on the carpet. After that we unfroze the hand-pump and filled the radiators again. Saturday we mostly just wrapped and tightened leaking joints in the radiator system. Sunday, after clapping and turning pages and praying in church, we unfroze the hand-pump again and carried 500 liters of water up the ladder into the big water tank. Then we squeezed into a corner with a flaming blow-torch in order to thaw a valve from the tank going to the kitchen sink, after which we took apart and cleaned the kitchen faucet to get it working again and wired a lightbulb to hang directly over the aforementioned frost-prone tank valve. And did we forget to mention the chopping, stacking, and hauling of firewood and the crushing and bagging of coal? It probably wouldn't have been so rough a week if we hadn't sometimes forgotten our gloves and we weren't too macho for lotion...

We've never felt so dry, cracked, scuffed, bruised, frost-bitten, splintered, singed or dirty. But you know what, we don't mind all that much. We figure that means we're doing our part, getting something done, serving our purpose and not just shaking other hands or holding a silver spoon. Not that waving hello or shoveling desserts are unworthy activities! It's just that we would be disappointed if life didn't sometimes require everything we have to give.