It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better!

When I posted last we had just got our power back. Well, that was all just a tease. It went out after having it about half a day. It was right after I stopped doing things I needed to do with electricity when it went off again Thursday Morning. We finally just got it back Saturday evening at 8 PM. Thank God too because I was a bit worried our Kerosene heater wasn't going to make up for the 9 degree temp outside. It has been an extremely hard week roughin' it here with 4 kids who have no idea what in the world is going on. Dominic after about the third day got the point that he couldn't play on the computer or Xbox and finally by the 5th day no power he just stopped asking, period. Mia has screamed and screamed so much just to be held all dang day. She slept with us two days and then one of those nights we had both Mia and Damien in bed with us. They would wake up every night screaming hysterically like they were dying. I had a candle on a hallway shelf and I think just the unfamiliar-ness of everything was getting too hard on them. Dominic and Alex slept on the couch and love seat all week since Dom's room gets so cold and Alex's in the basement was about 50 degrees!

Most of our neighbors had either whole house generators or little generators like us and stuck around. Some didn't and just abandoned ship so to speak. We used our generator mainly for the fridge and freezer, a kerosene heater for heat, tons of jugs of water to flush the toilet and give baths since the pump had no power to get water to us. Dave ran to his aunts twice for showers but I just warmed water on the stove top I bought to take baths. We had no phone since we had Cox so we had to run our phones out to our car and hook the chargers on a converter we have to charge them up.

By Friday I had finally hooked up a 13 inch TV to our generator and started watching the 5 air channels we could get with the bunny ears. They were reporting some serious snow fall for Friday which ended up knocking out our plans of eating out with Dave's boss and coworkers because it was falling an inch a hour. So along with all the ice we then got snow too. Sigh. Saturday we woke up to 8 inches and being totally snowed into our house. I told Dave to get up because if we didn't clear the drive we'd never get out if it kept snowing so both of us cleared the drive to the road so we could get out. Two hours later I opened the door to see one of my neighbors with his huge tractor in my driveway grading it clean the rest of the way. I wanted to bawl. Everyone out here has been trying to cope yet still has time to help each other out. Dave and our neighbor Levi who's trees fell on our horse pen will be trying to get that mess cleaned up when the weather gets better. Living in the country we don't normally see our neighbors as much as someone who has someone right next to them in town but when situations like this happen our neighborhood seems to stick together. The guy behind us who lost tons of his Cottonwood had about 3-4 other neighbors over there cleaning up with him.

Dale's Cottonwood- or I should say what's left of it.

We heard a lot of comments about our choice (or I should say MY choice lol) to stay here instead of going to a Red Cross Shelter or staying with family. Everyone offered to take us in but I felt we would be fine at home. I really don't feel selfish for my feelings of doing this but I think plenty of people thought I was. We had water, food and heat. Like a friend said, "if they'd just come over they'd see we're not in that bad of shape." So true. I wasn't going to leave our fridge and freezer to go bad either so we needed to keep the generator on in spurts to keep that from going yucky. There's probably a good $500 + in food in both. I had the little electric stove top or toaster oven plugged in to the generator to make food. They weren't great meals but it was food! Dave had a hard time and just wanted to escape from it all. He didn't want to stay at the house at all. I seriously called him a pussy because of the way he was acting. LOL! Electricity is a blessing but everyday hearing people in the Walmart, etc complaining to a friend about being out was really starting to get on my nerves. People in town at least had water and didn't have to go somewhere twice a day for it. They could take hot showers, and they were first priority when it came to putting power back on. It really makes you wake up and think what would happen to people if there really is an energy crisis or something.

So the kicker was that this happened at such the WRONG time. Before Christmas I mean. We probably spent $200 on things we really didn't need to buy this week. Kerosene was $42. Gas was $14. Eating out three times $60. Misc. survival supplies at Walmart $100. I can't imagine the people who spent $500 + right before Christmas for a generator. My friend spent $900 on one big enough to power their pump to pump water again. Even though the wrong time, all of us can agree here in town that this whole ordeal brought friends, family and neighbors so much closer. Our kids were all lovey and hanging on us constantly. We had a hard time keeping them off of us and although cute, it was sometimes annoying. lol

Another kicker, I started itching my head and I think I just got the beginnings of Alex's head lice during all this so I did the 2nd treatment of RID Saturday on everyone and did Vinegar/Mouthwash on my head last night. Today I am coloring my hair Auburn. lol They should all be dead after today I would think. It's hard to believe that it's already Monday again, the day we lost power and Dave is back to work. What a crappy vacation but I was so glad he was here at home during it all.

What A NOT so Beautiful Mess I'm In.

Geez! My weeks just get better and better. First off Dave is on vacation this week (he's been off since Friday) so that's good right? lol Well, we had heard bad weather was headed our way but I guess didn't realize it was going to be THAT bad. Monday morning we tried going to our grocery store and at 10 am there was no parking. I figured it was just because all the old retired people go there in the morning so we tried again at 1 and it was still the same way. We parked way out (making our own parking place) and went in. It was a mad house and then I started noticing all the water being bought which meant people were thinking this was gonna be a dozy! When we left it had started to rain quite a bit and it was in the 30's. Well I started writing a blog post Monday evening to report that Dave found a recipe for 1/2 Vinegar and 1/2 Mouthwash and we killed all the remaining lice in Alex's hair using that recipe! Then the lights started to flicker. They kept going dim and then lighting back up till eventually at 10:30 PM the house went dark. I had already lit about 10 candles "just in case." We live out in the country so looking outside it was pitch black, raining, freezing cold, and the trees were creaking with ice. Our back tree was teetering on our power line to our house making us a nervous wreck. We went ahead and brought Alex up from the basement to the couch and went to bed HOPING they'd come back on by dawn.

My Apple Tree has taken quite the beating.

It rained all night and by Tuesday morning we were freezing in our beds and no lights. Did I mention in the country? This also means no water because our water is pulled from a well. Yeah. So no lights, no water Tuesday morning, it's freezing and branches of ice are cracking everywhere around us. We went out to start our generator that I made Dave get as a rewards incentive for work because I knew living in the country we needed one. Our neighbor's 100 year old Cottonwood was losing massive branches left and right while we were standing outside. Not only was it sad it was frightening because the crack of the branches breaking sound like lightning.

Our Power line with a heavy branch just waiting to take it out if the wind picks up.

So Tuesday morning we warmed up the house with our Kerosene heater and put our refrigerator on the generator and turned on a radio. We decided by 10 am we'd take the monkeys to Walmart since power obviously wasn't coming on soon. We ended up buying an electric cook top, a camping water storage container, board games, a Carbon Monoxide detector so the kerosene wouldn't kill us. lol We came home and I hooked the stove top in to a generator cord and made burritos for lunch. I thought for sure we'd get power soon. It didn't. We made it threw all Tuesday and Wednesday using our generator for electric items and gallons of water to flush our toilet. Yes because with no power we have no water, I keep 20 gallons of spare water in the basement for flushing the toilet. lol Our poor kids were so bored. We colored, played games, Leapster, etc. They were stir crazy because we shut all the doors to the bedrooms and they were forced to do everything in the frontroom so we could keep us all warmer. Mia was screaming so much out of pure confusion I'm sure. All of us sleeping in the front room together was a bit different for her and the others. We told them we were having a slumber party. lol Out of the blue, the power came on tonight at 5 PM right as it was getting dark and I was lighting candles all over the place to prepare for another night in the dark. None of us had taken showers or baths in 2 1/2 days so we flew as fast as possible to the bathroom to get started just in case this was just a cruel joke and it was going to go out again.

The lights are flickering again as I write this so I may not get it posted. We'll see. There's over 10,000 people out of our town of 40,000 out of power last I knew. They were estimating 7-10 days to get everyone back on. I heard that before our's came back on and I figured with how far out we are we'd be in 10 days. Thank God I was wrong. Our town though is trashed. My step grandmother's laundry room caught on fire from a branch hitting her power box and igniting. My grandparents yard is a disaster. My mom has an evergreen blocking her driveway and still has no power. Most of the trees are either doing ok or look like a peeled banana. Just standing outside makes you cringe because the sound of crashing limbs is so frequent and you can only wonder what they are hitting. My brain is fried from playing Chutes and Ladders about 100 times in 2 days but Dave and I honestly did enjoy all the extra bonding time with the kids. It was refreshing! (and so were today's showers! lol) Dave is just lovin' this vacation so far.

Trees fallen on Echo's horse pen. I'm hoping the poles don't break because I really don't want her out. The branches spooked her yesterday and she almost ran me over on accident from running away.