Happy Holidays!
We had a bit of an adventure for Winter Solstice and the start of Yule. Now that we have electricity again, I figured I’d type some of it out.
As most of you know, or may have heard, there was a massive storm giant that swept across most of this country over the last week. Lots of damage country wide was reported, weather record breakers added up, and the storm giant turned out to be pretty intense for many of us. Other people didn’t get hardly anything from it.
Ours began with wind on the night of the 21st. But the night of the 22nd the wind had reached a steady 40 mph, with gusts up to 80 mph and driving rain. The temps had skyrocketed to 48 degrees. We still had 16 inches of snow on the ground from the storm we had a week before.
The winds shook the house and forest, even the mountains it felt like on the night of the 22nd, and most of the next day as well. Our 50 foot butternut tree in the center of the backyard was uprooted. The tree sat between our sons studio house and our house in the backyard. The entire tree was blown over around 3am on the 22nd. The wind was roaring so loud and the rain was driving so hard that we barely heard the tree fall, right outside out bedroom window! By some amazing “luck” the tree fell as perfect a place as it could. Besides the awning above the back door, the tree missed both houses, both our back decks, our landscaping, our stone bench, everything! But it did block off the backyard from the front porch and driveway, and left a large crater in the yard where the root bundle now faces the sky.
The wind knocked over our wind turbine as well, the very same turbine that powers our “Nature Generator” when the power is out… That will be a beast to fix. It ripped the cast iron pipe right out of the cast iron tee! Ripped right through the treads! The only thing keeping it from demolishing the cars is the guy-wires holding it to the roof.
The severe wind continued all day on the 22nd. Trees all over the mountain and state fell. Our electricity and phone lines were knocked out early on the morning of the 22nd. The temps dropped throughout the day. But nightfall the driving rain turned into driving snow. It was a blizzard. The wind was steady at 45 mph and the snow was sideways. It was a whiteout. 14 inches were dropped before it ended. But the temps had dropped to 2 degrees. The windchill was around negative 25.
We went to bed with the woodstove stuffed full. But with the wind we couldn’t engage the catalyst. This caused it to burn faster. By morning it was cold. Temp was zero and the wind was still howling. The house was about 40 degrees, so the fire must have burned out about 5am. I got the fire burning soon after we got up, but it took about 4 hours to warm the house up to 60 degrees.
Melting snow for water, cooking on the woodstove and our gas stove top. Just have to light the burners with a lighter. All our light (during the darkest time of the year) was with candles and oil lanterns. Washing dishes with heated water and rinsing in melted snow water.
So, our holiday activities were spend that way this year. Our son was here the whole time, which was nice. He dragged lots of wood over from the woodpile. Our dog was having a blast of course.
Our holiday dinner turned out to be Hawaiian Kahlua pork in the dutch oven on the woodstove, scalloped spinach and rice. After the dinner our son had to tromp down into the woods to fix the border fence. Before we sat down to eat I looked out the window and saw our dog trotting up the road! I called him and he came immediately, but we knew he found a break in the fence. Anyway, in 5 degrees with a 30 mph steady wind, our son shuffled through 14 inches of remaining snow to find a tree fell on a section of fence. So, he repaired it and headed back to the woodstove. My wife, son and dog manage to play outside earlier in the day, which was nice.
With the very low temps and the constant high winds, we could only keep the house at 60 degrees, and parts were a bit drafty, so we remained bundled up inside. The living room by the woodstove was 60, but the kitchen area we couldn’t get above 50. I had to sleep on the frickin couch though. To keep the woodstove burning all night I needed to sleep next to it so I could drag myself up and load it 5 times through the night. My wife and son are not that good with the woodstove . But my wife and son were happy the house was warm when they woke up!
About 76 hours later the electricity was restored!
Almost 20,000 houses were out of electricity and phone in the state from this storm giant. Some still are.
We have had it knocked out for a solid week here before, but that was some years back. My wife and I are old hats at living without electricity as we have done it many times in many places. However, we discovered things are more difficult now that we both have these health conditions. It used to be easy, but not so much anymore. And I discovered that with the oil lamps for light, the woodstove burning 24/7, and the icy, dry high winds, my lungs have a difficult time. The indoor air quality goes down, the dryness increases and my lungs faltered greatly. I looked at our useless air purifier many times. Without electricity it doesn’t work. Luckily I had battery power O2 machines! But I feel like a buffalo is sitting on my chest and I’m wheezing like a old geezer… but what else is new!
We are on a dead end dirt road in the mountains. All up and down the road are broken power poles, downed wires and broken or uprooted trees. The workers have quite the mess to clean up. I guess we have “temporary electricity”. The patched the lines while they clean up below. once cleaned up they need to repair the lines with permeant fixings.
So far it has been a rather exhausting vacation. Constant wood shuffling, tons of constant snow melting for water (with it being this cold when we melt a gallon of snow we only end up with about a half cup of water); drinking, cooking big holiday meals and the cleaning up by lantern light with no running water, washing, toilet flushing, humidifying on the woodstove, etc, fighting the wind and ice going in and out the door all day… realized we are not healthy, strong 30 year olds anymore! And in my condition my son and wife had to do most of the works, which eats at me.
Today I am gutted, completely. I get these swells of feeling like bones are broken from too much energy pushing. I did more physical work and talking interaction the last few days than in the last month. I’m so weak today it is difficult to just sit up for long. I’m actually typing this as a distraction!
But even through all that we all managed to enjoy our time together.
Once again, Happy, Safe, Healthy Holidays to you all, no matter what you celebrate.
We had a bit of an adventure for Winter Solstice and the start of Yule. Now that we have electricity again, I figured I’d type some of it out.
As most of you know, or may have heard, there was a massive storm giant that swept across most of this country over the last week. Lots of damage country wide was reported, weather record breakers added up, and the storm giant turned out to be pretty intense for many of us. Other people didn’t get hardly anything from it.
Ours began with wind on the night of the 21st. But the night of the 22nd the wind had reached a steady 40 mph, with gusts up to 80 mph and driving rain. The temps had skyrocketed to 48 degrees. We still had 16 inches of snow on the ground from the storm we had a week before.
The winds shook the house and forest, even the mountains it felt like on the night of the 22nd, and most of the next day as well. Our 50 foot butternut tree in the center of the backyard was uprooted. The tree sat between our sons studio house and our house in the backyard. The entire tree was blown over around 3am on the 22nd. The wind was roaring so loud and the rain was driving so hard that we barely heard the tree fall, right outside out bedroom window! By some amazing “luck” the tree fell as perfect a place as it could. Besides the awning above the back door, the tree missed both houses, both our back decks, our landscaping, our stone bench, everything! But it did block off the backyard from the front porch and driveway, and left a large crater in the yard where the root bundle now faces the sky.
The wind knocked over our wind turbine as well, the very same turbine that powers our “Nature Generator” when the power is out… That will be a beast to fix. It ripped the cast iron pipe right out of the cast iron tee! Ripped right through the treads! The only thing keeping it from demolishing the cars is the guy-wires holding it to the roof.
The severe wind continued all day on the 22nd. Trees all over the mountain and state fell. Our electricity and phone lines were knocked out early on the morning of the 22nd. The temps dropped throughout the day. But nightfall the driving rain turned into driving snow. It was a blizzard. The wind was steady at 45 mph and the snow was sideways. It was a whiteout. 14 inches were dropped before it ended. But the temps had dropped to 2 degrees. The windchill was around negative 25.
We went to bed with the woodstove stuffed full. But with the wind we couldn’t engage the catalyst. This caused it to burn faster. By morning it was cold. Temp was zero and the wind was still howling. The house was about 40 degrees, so the fire must have burned out about 5am. I got the fire burning soon after we got up, but it took about 4 hours to warm the house up to 60 degrees.
Melting snow for water, cooking on the woodstove and our gas stove top. Just have to light the burners with a lighter. All our light (during the darkest time of the year) was with candles and oil lanterns. Washing dishes with heated water and rinsing in melted snow water.
So, our holiday activities were spend that way this year. Our son was here the whole time, which was nice. He dragged lots of wood over from the woodpile. Our dog was having a blast of course.
Our holiday dinner turned out to be Hawaiian Kahlua pork in the dutch oven on the woodstove, scalloped spinach and rice. After the dinner our son had to tromp down into the woods to fix the border fence. Before we sat down to eat I looked out the window and saw our dog trotting up the road! I called him and he came immediately, but we knew he found a break in the fence. Anyway, in 5 degrees with a 30 mph steady wind, our son shuffled through 14 inches of remaining snow to find a tree fell on a section of fence. So, he repaired it and headed back to the woodstove. My wife, son and dog manage to play outside earlier in the day, which was nice.
With the very low temps and the constant high winds, we could only keep the house at 60 degrees, and parts were a bit drafty, so we remained bundled up inside. The living room by the woodstove was 60, but the kitchen area we couldn’t get above 50. I had to sleep on the frickin couch though. To keep the woodstove burning all night I needed to sleep next to it so I could drag myself up and load it 5 times through the night. My wife and son are not that good with the woodstove . But my wife and son were happy the house was warm when they woke up!
About 76 hours later the electricity was restored!
Almost 20,000 houses were out of electricity and phone in the state from this storm giant. Some still are.
We have had it knocked out for a solid week here before, but that was some years back. My wife and I are old hats at living without electricity as we have done it many times in many places. However, we discovered things are more difficult now that we both have these health conditions. It used to be easy, but not so much anymore. And I discovered that with the oil lamps for light, the woodstove burning 24/7, and the icy, dry high winds, my lungs have a difficult time. The indoor air quality goes down, the dryness increases and my lungs faltered greatly. I looked at our useless air purifier many times. Without electricity it doesn’t work. Luckily I had battery power O2 machines! But I feel like a buffalo is sitting on my chest and I’m wheezing like a old geezer… but what else is new!
We are on a dead end dirt road in the mountains. All up and down the road are broken power poles, downed wires and broken or uprooted trees. The workers have quite the mess to clean up. I guess we have “temporary electricity”. The patched the lines while they clean up below. once cleaned up they need to repair the lines with permeant fixings.
So far it has been a rather exhausting vacation. Constant wood shuffling, tons of constant snow melting for water (with it being this cold when we melt a gallon of snow we only end up with about a half cup of water); drinking, cooking big holiday meals and the cleaning up by lantern light with no running water, washing, toilet flushing, humidifying on the woodstove, etc, fighting the wind and ice going in and out the door all day… realized we are not healthy, strong 30 year olds anymore! And in my condition my son and wife had to do most of the works, which eats at me.
Today I am gutted, completely. I get these swells of feeling like bones are broken from too much energy pushing. I did more physical work and talking interaction the last few days than in the last month. I’m so weak today it is difficult to just sit up for long. I’m actually typing this as a distraction!
But even through all that we all managed to enjoy our time together.
Once again, Happy, Safe, Healthy Holidays to you all, no matter what you celebrate.
