In my humble opinion, this is well worth the read, even though it is OVER ONE YEAR OLD! February, 2010 had a bitter pill to swallow where the weather is concerned. And anyone who experienced the Ice Storm in Kentucky was thankful in February, 2011 that nothing even close to the 2010 pattern was repeated!
WRITTEN BUT NEVER POSTED IN 2010:
I'm sure many of you will not read this until you get back from your vacations in the islands or Europe, as February is such a good month to be away from the grey days of Winter. Some take their family trips now to beat the blahs of boredom or the bleak streets of dirty snow.
Where are we vacationing in February you might wonder? We are barely through the first half of the month and our adventures are in full game.
Not all our Christmas decorations are down, but by the 2nd of February we have already survived the worst ice storm of the century and have come out strong. Our particular county had every tree in existance bowing under the weight of an inch of ice on each branch until what seems like more than half of the trees succumbed and broke in two, snapped their branches, or just cracked up the middle from the pressure. This all came on Tuesday, January 27th and lasted for two days. Then came the blocked roads slick with ice and the power lines down everywhere. Most of the surrounding counties including ours had no electricity. And then to add insult to injury, after the second day, we were informed that the water company would be shutting off their pressure as they had no electricity in which to filter the water.
We had to lug water out to our livestock when the well stopped pumping, and all our electric mesh pasture fencing hung low to the frozen ground from the weight on each wire. All our chickens and goats were able to step over it and roam freely, once again foraging for nothing alive, mixing flocks and having rooster fights. And we had it good.
The county water supply to our Farm really never went off, except for about an hour, even though the pressure went low and high regularly. Having lived in New England for most of my life, upon hearing that rain was coming with freezing temperatures, I immediately went into rote measures and we filled every cooler and tub with reserve water, not knowing how long we might be out of power if we lost it. Therefore, we had plenty of water and only had to put our goats in the colt barn for a couple of days. We lost a few of our two month old chicks and I don't know if they were too crowded in the milking parlor or susceptible to the frigid air. It was too cold to move them into the teen barn, who had already been laying eggs for a month, and it's not good to mix ages of hens. We were some of the few who had it good!
In the meantime, we were snug in beds like bugs in a rug. Someone up there had seen fit to have us purchase an Amish farmhouse equipped with gas furnace in the living room, gas domestic hot water heater, gas cook stove and gas lights. So, we were warm, we could prepare warm food and we had lights. I had the foresight last year to buy an emergency radio so we even had updates of the rescue efforts.
The clean up crews of volunteer neighbors were out 24/7, removing broken limbs from roadways, driveways, and dangling power poles. Our door usually had someone knocking to be sure we were OK and the National Guard came 3 times to offer us water in case we were out. We finally took some the last time they stopped. People were very resourceful and cooked on their grills, fired up little used wood stoves or basement stoves. We were able to give away dozens of eggs to anyone who came whether they thought they could use them or not. After all, it was the least we could do. We were stuck at home so we baked, gave food away, sat in our cars to recharge our phones, talked a lot and watched the ice melt. For the most part neighbor helped neighbor or families bunked in with each other, and those who just couldn't survive at home went for shelter in public buildings. The schools were subsequently closed to students the better part of a week and a half due to most families having no water or electricity or both.
We finally got our electric back on Saturday morning and life kind of got back to normal. Normal here is being concerned about our neighbors and they being concerned about us. When we went shopping, we started our conversations by asking people how they were doing with the storm, or how the waitress was handling the aftermath. It's been about a week and a half now and many are still without power and some without water. A cashier about 30 minutes away from us calmly told us that she was told not to expect electricity back for 4-6 weeks!
So, we just about took all the jugs of extra water out of the kitchen when we got the warning yesterday that a tornado was heading our way. It never showed, but the high winds blew off the house siding strips on the ceiling of our front porch. We got out there, holding on to the brave daughter hammering, standing on our picnic tables to reach, taking pictures for posterity, waving to the drivers-by, all amidst 40-50 mph wind gusts. What an adventure!!!
Leave for vacation? The great escape? Not on your life. We are here for the full adventure, helping one another and helped in return. I suggest that if you are ever in a situation like this, that you help someone more needy than yourself for the moment and it will eventually come around to you in time.
Darlene Rose
Country Girl #1
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