Our power went out yesterday morning. This storm TRIED to rival the storm of '96, but here I am, one day later, with power. Ha HA! But yesterday we didn't know we'd get power back. And M doesn't do well without power. Not that he is a pansy or anything; he just needs to work. He gets restless and cranky, like a husky with no sled to pull. Or a caveman with no mammoth to spear. Not having a computer caused a series of crazy events that resulted in a pretty fun day.
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| The Twin Firs, covered in ice and snow |
First, we are well aware of what happens out here when there is no power. But we are prepared. I was completely content to sit by the wood stove and knit all day. M paced, worried about work and having no power for 14 days (like his parents in '96), and exclaimed variations of, "We're in trouble!" I sat calmly and said, "No we're not. We have bottled water, a propane stove and four bottles of propane, Folgers coffee-and a hand grinder if we run out of Folgers, vanilla creamers to make the Folgers taste better, plenty of firewood for the wood stove, and plenty of food." That was like stirring up a bees nest! I should have agreed with him and cried about how doomed we were. We also have an old-fashioned phone that plugs into the wall so we can call people to check our email for us. And lots of batteries and flashlights. But that wasn't good enough! He was making me crazy! Couldn't I just sit and knit in peace? Couldn't he just find a book and read by the fire? He finally lost patience and made us all go clean our rooms (myself included), because just because the power is out, doesn't mean we get to sit around all day. He then decided he needed a cup of coffee and headed outside to fire up the stove.
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| Everything has a coating of ice like this |
About a half an hour later, I decided to see how the coffee was going. I stepped outside and found the car missing and the sound of a chainsaw in the distance. 'Thank goodness, he has something to do!" I thought to myself. And I went downstairs to knit by the fire again. And dream about a little cabin that has a generator for M to live in when the power goes out. With his dogs.
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| The driveway-when there were only two branches down |
It is pretty dangerous outside. The 12 inches of snow froze. The weight is pulling all the trees down. You can go stand outside and listen to the crackling ice as the breeze moves the frozen branches. It is hard to walk because your legs get stuck in the ice crust on top of the snow. Several trees have fallen around the property, but none have damaged anything. Only that pesky madrona that landed on the power line on our street. When M drove up to see what he could see (he
refuses to be snowed in), he found the people that live in the development behind us passing their children and car seats to people on the other side of the madrona. The power had only been out for a few hours, but it was cold! I can understand how people without wood stoves would be anxious to get their kids someplace warm. Especially when you never know how long it will be until the crews get this far south to rescue us!
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| Flushing water courtesy of snow melt |
My hero pulled his car over to the side of the road, opened the trunk, and whipped out his chainsaw! He rescued all the helpless residents and saved the children! And since we happen to have a wood burning stove...He came back home to get the van.
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| Who needs a pick-up truck when you have a minivan? |
He will never be allowed to say the kids trash the van. He is still, one day later, salvaging firewood off the side of the road. That madrona was very old. M said, "I walked by that tree countless times as a kid." But we now have a least a cord of wood for next year-and that doesn't even count what has fallen out on the property! When the power company came out and M asked if it was okay for him to salvage, the guy said, "I don't know your name!"
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| The first load-and more coming! |
After spending the day cutting and hauling trees off the power lines, M was finally ready to relax by the fire and wait for it to get dark. I got the flashlights and batteries ready to go and got the kids started on some fun:
The lantern in the above picture is the one Costco sells. It has that energy efficient light bulb, but the batteries can't keep it lit for very long. There is plenty of juice left in the batteries to run the LEDs, so I won't change batteries until the LEDs don't work. Don't waste your money on that lantern! I heated leftover beef stew in my cast iron pot on the wood stove for dinner. We ate by candle light, complete with battery-operated votives and throw away dishes!
After dinner, the kids each took a votive and played hide-n-seek in the dark. That is one of the best things to do when the power is out! It was so fun! And since the heat register runs on batteries, we could see the back half of the house was 50 degrees. Or colder. It can't register lower than 50. So we had the kids bring all their blankets and pillows and had a sleep over party downstairs.
I read out loud as the little ones dropped off one by one. M and I eventually fell asleep too, after we listened to the sound of snow, ice, and branches breaking from trees. I woke up when M added some wood to the fire place. I asked him what time it was since I felt relatively refreshed and very hungry. It was only 11:20! Now I knew I was in for a long night...or longer if the power stayed out for days....But the power came back on an hour later and the heat started to run and everything was all better! The heat is actually running. It took an hour and a half to get the house to 50 degrees. M turned the heat up to 55, just to take the chill off. I still hear it run every once in awhile. Well, we survived our first power outage! But it
was only 16 hours. I didn't even get into my canned food or other emergency supplies. Maybe next time...
