The Hale's Freeze Over

Its Sunday...what a great day to work on family history. So, what are we doing at this time in our lives? Anything to stay WARM!! We are having (along with the rest of the country) a very cold dip in temperatures. We have brought in the kerosene heaters, oil filled space heaters, more blankets and closed off much of the house with curtians in doorways. I love our large old farm house, but it is very hard to keep warm. We had the elder's over for dinner and they asked if we were training the kids to be street bums, as they were all huddled around the kerosene heater warming their hands before they ran off to play again in their rooms. I was tempted to call the cops and make 'em move on; no loitering here! They keep giving their address as this one. What do ya do?
The cold has even effected all the animals. Emmy our 16 year old cow dog is down with her hips. We have had to bring her stinky goat smelling body into the house, good for her, bad for our sinuses. Pete the Sheppard continually beats on the window whining to join Emmy. Not that there is much chance of that happening.
The woes continue with a couple of our appliances; somehow the washing machine has decided that it is too cold to wash. It flashes that it's water hoses are frozen. Not so sure how this has happened since it went through half of a cycle before this "code" started to flash and the machine is inside and all the water everywhere else in the house is fine. Oh, well the water line that goes to the refrigerator also took a spell of not working. I think its back on line now. We wouldn't mind the cold if only it would snow!