Ice storm and no power (27 Jan - 5 Feb)

With weather reports saying that we were in for an ice storm, I stayed up late Monday night baking bread, making food, washing up dishes, and finishing up laundry to be prepared. (I was a Cub Scout leader for 2 years. :))

Tuesday started out normal. The freezing rain was falling when we did morning chores. The trees looked really pretty with the ice building up on them.

Then, the willow tree in the pasture fell over from the weight of the ice.

Limbs started to fall out trees. Our power went out at 9:20 am.

All day Tuesday, the trees were breaking under the weight of the ice. We went from this view

to this view. The tree in the blueberry field in laying on the telephone line and blueberry bushes. :(

And this view

to this view.

We went to bed Tuesday night to the sound of popping and crashing noises. We felt a real sense of God's protection. It really sounds like the trees were falling down around us.

This is a picture taken on Tuesday of the sycamore tree that the turkeys sleep. It is located right next to the chicken house and barn.

Here is that same tree Wednesday morning.

The section of the tree that the male turkey sleeps in was laying on the ground close to our house. The female turkey was at the morning feeding, but no male turkey.

Besides the missing turkey, the pole that held the power line going to the pump house broke off at the base.

No damage to the dome.

Andrew spent all Wednesday clearing the road down to our friend's house. She lives a mile and a half further down the road than us. Using his tractor, chainsaw, ax and machete, it took him all day to get to her.

Along the way, he found a telephone pole standing in the middle of the road.

On Thursday, Andrew started clearing towards the head of our road. In the afternoon, he met the county road crew with the grader.

Thursday afternoon, I went looking for the turkey in the woods. I walked around calling to him. I heard turkey noises, but did not find him. I took Andrew a drink on the four wheeler and when I came back, the male turkey was in the front yard looking at me. His feet were really pink, but he looked fine.

Here are the trees along the creek in the blueberry field.

More trees in our front yard and a glimpse of the dome.

More broken trees.

A shot of our house from down the road.

The view from our front pasture.

The ice really melted on Friday. We went to Home Depot in Harrison and bought a generator. Thankfully, we had wood heat, a gas stove, and running water, just no hot water. Our power came back on at 6:00 pm on Thursday. We were out for 9 days, 9 hours, and 40 minutes or almost 226 hours.

Thank you, God, for all of your protection!

A special thank you to all the electric workers that have worked to get our power restored! I heard on the radio that there were 1800 poles that had to be replaced in our area. WOW!

Ike

It started raining on Saturday. The wind picked up that evening. Our electricity went out at about 2:30 in the morning. We woke up to a tree uprooted leaning against another tree that was starting to uproot and had pushed one end of our propane tank off its base. Both trees were resting against a walnut tree.

Thankful, they hadn't fallen and hit the house, power line, or the gas line. Andrew climbed the walnut tree and cut the other trees down before they fell. Our neighbor, Bev, let us borrow a generator. A couple times a day, we would plug in the freezer, refrigerator, and water pump. We have a gas stove, so all I had to do is light it with a match. We used hurricane lamps and flashlights for light. Our electricity came back on last night at 8:00. We were without power for 65 1/2 hours. The only thing we really missed during our "pioneering time" was the computer. The cleanup in our county continues. There was massive tree damage. I have never seen so many trees pulled up by their roots. The power company said that all customers would have power by today.