Praise Be and Pass the Cookies...We have electricity again!!! We made it through 3 days and 3 hours with no power. Yeah for two old people making the best of what life tosses our way. Tuesday posted a slide show of our first day of snow. That snowfall was Monday night into Tuesday. The next thing was ice Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday, followed by more snow Wednesday afternoon. We had a little more snow on Thursday. Then today, Saturday, the sun came out, the temperature didn't make it but just above freezing and we began to hear the ice break (sorry, I lapsed into Northern Exposure mode there for a second!!).
I totally enjoyed watching the little picnic table on our upper deck during this storm. After the first snowfall it was covered on the top with snow (we got about 5-6 inches the first round of snow). The hole in the middle where you would put the pole of the umbrella didn't fill over with snow. To me it looked like a huge white donut. Then the ice came (middle picture) and the snow was smashed a little lower and it looked like the big white donut was covered with glaze (1/2 inch of ice). But the table now also had icicles hanging from it. After the 2nd snowfall (about another 2-3 inches) the table took on a real interesting shape to me. The last picture shows it best. It looks like one of those lamps you see with the fringe hanging around the lampshade.
Another thing that caught my eye the 2nd time I was out taking pictures was Elmo and the Owl. These two treasures are on the patio under the deck and behind a planter so they were protected from the first snow a good bit. I noticed them then I went out on the patio to take pictures of the ice in the back yard. It was about 7:30am Wednesday morning and it was still dark. There was little Elmo peeking around the post at me. The middle picture was Wednesday afternoon after the snow fell on top of the ice. The last picture was taken this morning as the sun came out on all that ice and snow.
Our home sits on a hill. Claude has built a terrace and we have placed a bench on it to sit and watch the creek. There is another terrace below it and then the altar below that, but, again, I digress. These two are shots of the 1st terrace with the bench. The first picture was taken after the ice. The 2nd picture was taken this morning as the sun shown on the land again. Notice the fir trees bending over.
This is our home weathering the storm. I have a few more fun pictures I'll put in a slide show and attach it to the blog for you to enjoy after I finish this posting.
We were ready for the storm. Our home is ALL electric. So, when the power went out Wednesday morning, Claude set to work gathering the Coleman cook stove, flashlights, batteries, generator, etc. I gathered the candles and matches and brought up craft projects to finish and some to begin. Claude set up the cook stove on the island in the kitchen. Wednesday night we had a feast of hot dogs and pork 'n beans. Thursday and Saturday mornings we had hot oatmal for breakfast. Claude even heated water for us to wash our faces in this morning. We did have hot water in the hot water heater for Wednesday mornings dishes. We only ran the generator a few hours each evening. We did learn that we can get it to run the TV so that we watched movies one night. Last night we found we get Dish Network while hooked to the generator so we were able to watch a new Monk and Psyche and the news and weather. We had a hand crank radio but we had lots of double A batteries so we used those instead. One radio station in Lexington just donated their usual programming time to let people call in and share their experiences. This was very therapeutic for all of the area. We learned that it is very hard to read with only candle light and needlework by candle light is next to impossible. We learned that we could run a space heater and a lamp at the same time so we could then read and I could do a few Sudoku puzzles in the evening. We learned that the evening is the hardest time unless you can get the light to accomplish some reading or handwork. We had extension cords running from the generator all over the kitchen, living room and our bedroom. We managed to keep the fridge stuff cold and the little freezer frozen throughout our 3 day adventure. We finished shoveling the first snowfall from the drive just as the ice was beginning to fall. There was at least 1/2 inch of ice that fell and we didn't try to shovel it. But when the next snowfall came on top of the ice we did shovel it. Claude fell in the driveway going to the mailbox and bruised his left elbow. Then he whacked his left hand turning on the generator. This morning we found ourselves lying in bed watching the smoke as we blew our breath into the air. I did put on the nice flannel sheets last night and they were very welcome. It was in the single digits outside last night and so inside was quite cold. We spent some time talking before getting out of that warm bed this morning about times we were really cold in our lives. Two of them were when we were riding our motorcycle. One of those was coming home from the Virginia State Rally and it was raining. We drove up I-71 in Virginia from Roanoke to Winchester before turning east to get to Maryland. We stopped in Winchester to get something to eat. There were several couples riding together and we must have looked very interesting to everyong at that restaurant as we entered in dripping rain gear. The other time on the motorcycle was coming across Pennsylvania. We stopped in Reading, PA on the way home from the New Jersey State Rally to shop at the outlet malls. We got away later than expected and it grew dark as we got to Lancaster, PA area and on into York, PA. I shall never forget looking across those fields at the farm houses with lights in the windows and thinking how warm they must be in those homes and if they really appreciated it. I also thought of a family vacation when I was young. We stopped somewhere out west to camp. The next morning we needed to bathe so we went to the stream near our camp spot and after soaping up my mother poured ice cold water over us from the stream to rinse. Papa was on the other side of the rocks laughing as he heard his 3 little girls squeeling after each pouring of cold water. I also remember one of the really cold times we had in Louisiana when I was a child. It was so cold that we closed off the bedrooms and only heated the living room and kitchen. I remember going to bed in those cold bedrooms. I also remember being really little and visiting my mother's parents in Starks, Louisisana. They lived WAY out in the country and had no electricity or running water. The house had one big room that was the living room at one end and my grandparents bedroom at the other. In between was a wood stove and that was the heat for the house. We would sit around the stove all together in the evenings and listen to the radio. When it was time for bed, we took the oil lamp and crossed the hallway that ran thru the middle of the house to the other side of the house with a bedroom at the front and a bedroom at the back of the house. All 3 of us girls slept in the front bedroom and my parents slept in the back bedroom. There was a door between the 2 bedrooms. There were always flannel sheets on the beds in the winter and a huge stack of blankets. These were homemade blankets and they were filled with kapock (spelling is probably wrong there) batting. This is a heavier batting that what we use today. It seemed like there were a dozen blankets on top of us but I'm sure there weren't quite that many. With 3 little girls and all those blankets and flannel sheets, we were quite warm in the bed but getting there was really cold. I have learned again to appreciate those pioneers who crossed the plains. They didn't have candles probably. They only had a fire. I understand why the arose early and went to bed at dark. It would have been practical to do so. They were really strong people. We did manage to finally leave Sadieville on Thursday afternoon and went to Georgetown. Claude signed an emergency order with the Mayor for help getting generators to keep Sadieville going. Then we went to Papa's and had a nice shower in a warm apartment. I even got to check eMail really quick while I was there. Then we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for a really great meal. Friday we could still travel so we headed to Florence, KY to shop at Hobby Lobby and have another really great meal at Smoky Bones. It has been an adventure. We learned a little more about how to set up our home in an emergency. We bought our generator after we moved to Sadieville 4 years ago. This was its first outing. So we really learned a lot about what it will and won't do and how to best utilize it to meet our needs and some of our wants. We also learned that when the cell tower has no power, you have no cell phone usage. So be sure you have a phone that plugs into the wall and isn't cordless. They always seem to work.
