Not a Winter Wonderland

We have been enduring a severe winter storm and have not had power at the farm since Saturday around 7:30 p.m. We are fortunate to have a marvelous fireplace that can just about heat the whole living area and some of the bedroom. We shut off the two bedrooms we aren’t using and were warm.

DH brought up his camping stove and I was able to cook a little and heat water for coffee and tea. We were surviving. I’ve stayed close to the fire but DH has had to go to town and he said it looks like a frozen war zone, with tree tops down and over the road. Power poles are leaning at 45 degree angles if not totally snapped in two. Ice and icicles are on every surface. It took him 45 minutes to clear the lane up to the barn; normally a 2-3 minute trip.

Then yesterday, Monday, I called the power company to see how long it might be before we would get power and they said it might be3 more days due to out living so far from town. I had already had to take the food from the refrigerator freezer and put it in open tubs on the deck where it was in the teens. I had avoided opening the chest freezer in the unheated basement, hoping things would be safe until the power came back on. But three more days? I was getting concerned. I was also missing a nice warm bath. Then DH came in and suggested I call my neighbor at our lake house to see if they had power there. She said it was fine a the Lake and she did not know of anyone who did not have power.

So, we packed up some clothes and the food from the refrigerator and headed the 26 miles to the lake. We could hardly believe our eyes when we got here. NO ICE! It was like another world. So, I fixed us a nice hot supper while Bennie got a hot bath. We were even able to watch TV and I could get on line with my laptop. DH had to go back to the farm for the night to keep the fireplace going so the pipes won’t freeze but he came back this morning with everything from the chest freezer. We have a small chest freezer here in the basement of the lake house. Everything was fine.

DH is working on getting a generator running but needed to order a part from the factory. He called awhile ago and said that there were over 50 people standing in line at the dealer who ordered the part for him. May not get home till late. Still no power at the farm. Tonight is supposed to be the coldest night of the year so far.

All the signs pointed to a rough winter; the warm spell made us doubt the signs. We were wrong. Old timers knew how to predict the weather based on generations of observation of nature. We need to relearn those skills.