American Farmers: Facing a Cutoff at the Start

"The power's out?" Rachel exclaimed.

"Oh no!" Roy jumped up, listened intently, and his expression changed drastically:

"The greenhouse! All the heaters and heat lamps over there have been turned off!"

In such extremely cold weather, if the film greenhouse is not heated, the temperature inside will drop to freezing point in no time.

Those piglets that were only a few months old simply couldn't withstand it.

"Don't panic! I'll go develop the motor!"

Roy grabbed his flashlight and coat and rushed into the freezing rain.

Less than two minutes later, a muffled rumble came from the backyard.

"Rat-a-tat-tat—"

The generator started.

The lights came on again, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Roy returned from the backyard, shivering with cold; the muffled roar of the generator could be heard even through the walls.

He brushed the ice off his clothes, picked up the landline on the coffee table, and dialed the power company's repair hotline.

"Feed? Is this the power company? I'm Roy Green from north of Eudora Town..."

The phone line went dead and the operator sounded tired.

Roy listened with a frown for a while, his expression growing increasingly grim.

After hanging up the phone, he plopped down on the sofa and sighed.

"It's hopeless. The operator said that most areas of the county are without power, and the rescue teams are simply too busy."

"Moreover, the freezing rain is too heavy now, the roads are icy, and repair vehicles simply cannot enter our remote rural roads."

"When did they say the power would be on?" Aunt Rachel asked anxiously.

They said we'd have to wait until the freezing rain stops and the road conditions improve before making any decisions.

Roy gestured, "Conservatively speaking, it will take at least a week."

"A week?!"

Old Frank exclaimed, "How can that work? The generator can last for a while, but we don't have enough diesel fuel at home for seven days!"

"If the oil supply is cut off, won't the piglets in the greenhouse still freeze to death?"

"We can't just sit here and wait."

"Don't rush."

Although Roy looked grim, he didn't lose his composure.

He walked to the window, observed carefully for a few seconds, and pointed to a very faint light on the distant horizon:

"Look over there, that's the direction of town."

"Although the light is very weak, it means that the town's main power grid should not be completely paralyzed yet."

He turned around and gestured the name on the table with his finger:

"The electricity in our area comes from a branch line connected to the large transformer on the main road, which is specifically for supplying electricity to our farms."

"If the main line is broken, there's nothing any of us can do but watch helplessly and wait for repairs."

"But what if something goes wrong with this branch line..."

"The break point must be on the route within a few miles of the village."

Roy paced back and forth in the room:

"The power company doesn't really take care of this side road. If we don't fix it ourselves, they might not come even if we wait until next year."

"I reckon the power outage was most likely caused by the heavy freezing rain breaking a section of the power line on the branch road, or by a tree branch falling and knocking the line off."

"But...can we fix this wire ourselves?" Aunt Rachel asked worriedly, holding a cup in her hands. "Won't it be dangerous? It's high voltage."

Don't worry!

Roy patted his chest, looking confident:

"Have you forgotten that I once had an electrician's license when I was young?"

"Although I haven't renewed my license in many years, I personally climbed up and down to connect every single line of electricity to this farm."

"As long as the insulation is done properly, there shouldn't be a big problem."

"Then don't just stand there!"

Old Frank stood up and put down the cup in his hand:

"While Fett and I are still here, we'll go with you and maybe even help you out."

Fett nodded in agreement:

"Yes, Uncle Roy. Although I don't know anything about circuits, I can still help you carry a ladder or hand you a pair of pliers."

"OK!"

Roy stopped refusing and glanced at the still dense raindrops outside the window:

"Let's wait a little while, until this freezing rain subsides a bit, then we'll set off."

"I'm going to the garage now to find the electrical connection clamps, duct tape, and that extension ladder."

Fett thought for a moment and added:

"Uncle Naroy, please prepare the tools first."

"We'll drive my family's pickup truck there in a bit. It's huge, big enough to carry a ladder."

"The roads outside are probably frozen solid, like mirrors. Driving on them would definitely be slippery."

"I'll go put snow chains on the pickup truck, just to be on the safe side."

"I'll pick you up in a bit!"

"Good lad, you've thought of everything!" Roy nodded approvingly, then turned and left the house.

"Dad, let's go home and check on things first."

Fett said, "Turn on our generator too. The water pump won't work without electricity, so be careful not to let the water pipes freeze and burst."

"I'll go put snow chains on the pickup truck, we'll set off in a bit."

"Okay, let's go!" Old Frank put on his coat and raincoat, and the two of them walked out the door together.

Just as he reached the door, a pair of slightly cool small hands suddenly grabbed Fett's wrist.

Lyra stood in the shadows, her eyes filled with worry, clutching Fett's hand tightly.

"Fett...the roads are slippery outside, you have to be careful."

Fett squeezed her hand in return, feeling the coolness of her palm, and his heart softened.

He gently patted the back of her hand with his other hand, his tone gentle yet firm:

"Don't worry, there are three of us together, we'll be fine."

"You and Aunt Rachel can stay home and relax."

After saying that, he let go of her hand, put on the yellow raincoat hanging by the door, pushed open the door, and rushed into the cold rain.

Back in his yard, old Frank went straight to the machine room in the backyard.

Fett then went to the pickup truck parked at the garage entrance.

He took a pair of cotton gloves from the drawer in the driver's cab and put them on. He then lifted the tarpaulin covering the vehicle, and with a "whoosh," the thick layer of ice on top shattered and slid off, hitting the ground.

He opened the garage door, crawled inside, and dragged a heavy canvas bag from a corner, inside which were several thick iron chains.

He first laid the chain flat on the muddy ground, positioned it, and straightened out the tangled iron rings to make sure there were no knots.

Then I started the car and moved it forward a little so that the tires were right in the middle of the chain.

Then, he knelt on one knee in the cold mud, wrapped his arms around the mud-covered tire, pulled up the hooks at both ends of the chain, and laboriously fastened them to the steel rim on the inside of the tire.

The wind was biting cold, and even though I was wearing gloves, my fingers quickly became stiff and unresponsive from the cold.

Fett gritted his teeth and used a screwdriver as a pry bar to tighten the tensioner on the chain little by little.

"Click, click."

As the tensioner locked, the thick iron chain, like a layer of hard armor, tightly wrapped around the rubber tire.

With all four wheels installed, Fett stood up and stamped his numb feet.

After picking up old Frank, Fett floored the gas and drove towards Lyra's house.

The road surface was indeed covered with a thick layer of ice, and the iron chains on the wheels were biting into the ice, making a teeth-grinding friction sound.