36 Hours ~ Power is Back On

On Wednesday, we had the worst storm we have had since we've lived here.  The winds were absolutely terrible.  Our electrical service district, along with one other, were the worst hit in the area. I texted my mother and she was also about to head under her house for this storm. It was was that bad.  

That morning, I had checked the weather.  Not one drop of rain was in the forecast, let alone any storms.  I was pulling out to go pick up one daughter at a sleepover, when Mom texted that a tornado went through my cousin's town, just missing their house.  She also said more storms were on their way.  I'm thankful she warned us. Even our porch furniture was blowing across the porch.  Timmy, the newest barn kitty was confused in what to do.

When the power didn't come on after 5 or 6 hours, I knew it would be a longer time.  Thankfully, it came on at 3:50am this morning.

We suffered damage to 2 barns.  One barn completely lost the metal roofing.  The wind tore in off in seconds.  Piece of drain spout and barn wood were ripped off with it.  The loft caved in in the big barn.

Tree limbs were everywhere and yesterday we started the clean up.  I think we have enough brush for a couple of bonfires this summer.

My kids, you know how they are, found ways to entertain themselves.  They played board games, read books, and played glow-in-the-dark frisbee.  Some of the girls washed their hair in rain water (from the rain barrels).

I resorted to heating water on my grill, for a much needed cup of coffee.  Thankfully, we had some instant on hand.  It was too wet and windy to build a fire.

It wasn't hard for me to find something to keep myself busy either.  I kind of enjoyed being able to sit and read a book, and not worry about laundry, garden, canning, or cleaning.

We got out all of our solar powered, and battery powered do-dads, and just dealt with it.  We filled jugs of rain water to flush toilets too.  Not a big deal.  It was the fridge and freezer that were stressing me out.  If the power had not come back on, we'd be looking for somewhere to empty and store our stock.  The refrigerators had already been emptied and place in coolers with ice.  We were even considering buying a generator, as word around town was that it could be 3 full days of power outage.

Yesterday, I was at Mom's with some of the girls getting much needed showers, when my brother called her.  His neighbor had a tree down and needed help.  

Hubby had just had a shower at his nephew's, and when I called he said to meet up at home, and 4 of us will go help my brother and his neighbor.  

At 9:00pm we pulled out with a truck load of wood, and a very, very happy family.  My brother's neighbor couldn't stop thanking us.  The were so happy we helped cut up the down tree, and helped drag all of the brush to the crub. They were amazed at house fast we completed the job.  We thanked them for the wood.  Upon arriving home we were so tired that I told Hubby to park the truck, and take my car to work.  Today, the kids and I have a job to finish - unload the wood, put away the chainsaw, and other tools.

This morning I had a notion to pretend the power never came back on, but the kids figured it out before I could drag my tired body out of bed.  My 16 year-old is already at the griddle mixing up pancake batter for pancakes and sausage. I'm glad the power is back on, but will miss that quiet hour on the porch while I heated water.

All in all, all of the farm animals, including barn cats, came out of this storm unhurt.  Amazingly, our billy goat's (Orion's) "Buck Hut" was never touched in the storm, and is directly behind the barn that lost it's roofing.

One last note.  Hubby told me last night that one of his co-workers couldn't believe he had left me home with no electricity.  We both laughed at that.  I told him, "What woman in her right mind would complain about not having to do laundry, housework, garden work, canning, or any other work?"  They would have to be nuts.   Of course, to us, it felt simply like camping.  I really enjoyed sitting around reading a book, and not hearing all the daily noise that comes with the indoor appliances.  It was somewhat freeing for the mind.