Friday, December 26, 2008

Power restored!



Well, here's a 'pretty' picture of the ice storm we experienced 5 days ago. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire -- rifle and cannon to be more precise. I opened the front door to listen, then realized it was the sound of trees breaking off all around our valley. And I noticed the view from my front deck looked different, as in wide open. A clump of birch trees was gone! (See the previous post.) Two were lying across the road. The other one took out my beautiful Sweetgum and Red Dogwood trees on it's way down. Thankfully none fell on the house. And the power was out.

We set up the Coleman camp stove and brought out the kerosene lanterns and goosedown. By the time the the power company came by two days later checking all the overhead wires, the temperature in the house was hovering around 38°F. You can see my poor dogwood tree split in half. Thankfully the conifers just lost a few branches here and there.



No electricity = no TV, no news, no phone, no internet, no computer, rationed water (we are on a well). (I can't believe we don't own a battery-powered radio!) But I did get to read a good book, cover to cover. And two days later, just as the food in the freezer was thawing and we were wondering if we would ever be warm again, our power was restored.

So A belated Merry Christmas to all and may the Arctic keeps it's 'blasts' to itself!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here, here! I've had enough, but I didn't loose power like you did. Was it a good book?

Unknown said...

I'm sorry to hear about the storm and power outage! It must have been scary and extremely unconfortable! I've been hearing about all that on the news, but to be honest I have no idea what the feeling must be like... Glad it's over now!
Your ice photo is absolutely gorgeous!

Hilda said...

Oh my goodness! No wonder you disappeared. I thought you had gone a vacation. I'm just so glad your house and your family are all safe. Such a fabulous photo to welcome the power restoration!

Lois said...

What a harrowing holiday! I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your trees, but thankfully none fell on your house. We get power outages like that around here after hurricanes because of the many trees but at least it's not cold! I'm glad you are safe. We missed you.

Stormel said...

Wow, beautiful!! :o)

Virginia said...

We lose power all the time down here for all kinds of weather we have so many trees. The Power Co. guys are sent from heaven when you see them come down your street to restore the power. 4 Days. I would be at the Funny Farm by then!!! Glad to have yyou back with us.
V

Anonymous said...

Oh my word Jill what an 'happening' for you. We heard about the ice storms on our TV news. Thanks goodness you're all ok.

I have to say that although it must have been frightening and sad to lose trees etc it has made for some beautiful photo's!

Take care

Jilly said...

I read about ice storms in America and know how dangerous they can be. Glad you got your power back on and goodness, you got some fab pictures from it.

The Mulligan Family said...

So glad you were OK. The sound of the trees breaking was incredible. It did sound like rifles. I'm really glad we have thawed out. I'm totally OVER the snow and ice.