coping with snow-induced power outages

so, first off, in case you’re wondering why a snow storm (or any storm, for that matter) always seems to result in a power outage, allow me to explain. this is where we live: that is the view from my front door. we live in the woods. HUGE fir trees, weighed down with very heavy snow, and see those power lines? yup. they’re up on poles, not buried underground, which would be a logical place for them, out in the woods like this. at any rate, big limb, falling or leaning, or otherwise causing problems with the power lines = broken lines, blown transformers, thousands of people without power… you get the gist.

so most of the people in my neighborhood have generators. most of them got their generators after the big wind storm in 2006. that was before we moved out here to the woods. we lived in civilization then, and were out for 4 days. out here, I think they lost power for something like 2 weeks. crazy.

at any rate, we don’t have a generator… it’s on the list.

but, we do have a wood burning stove, and a camp stove, some flashlights, a camping lantern, and lots of candles.

so we cooked hot dogs, campfire style (my absolute FAVORITE) for dinner.

and used the camp stove to boil water for coffee. look at my good son, out there in the cold, babysitting the camp stove.layla spent a lot of time, out playing in the snow, but when she came in all cold and wet, we had to dry out all the snow clothes by the fire. glad I have this drying rack! also, once the water was hot, it the stove did a good job of keeping it that way. so I had a constant flow of hot tea all day. which was great. the wood stove does a good job of heating 1 room, when there’s no electricity to run the fan, so I sat near the fire (so did the cat) most of the day. of course, the snow bird needed some hot chocolate to help her warm up, so we heated some milk on the camp stove too. and, she was super excited to realize that her leapster runs on batteries, not electricity, so she could have a little electronic stimulation! LOL! after awhile, I started to get concerned about stuff in the fridge. no worries though, we have a cooler on the back deck… it’s called snow. and last, but not least, the all important task of charging the cell phone! I just chiseled my way into the car, turned it on, and left it running about 30 minutes to juice up my phone. thankfully, the longest our power was out was about 14 hours. we had a few other 1-2 hour outages. nothing major, just enough to be annoying.

Comments

finally!

here are layla’s curtains! actually up on the window! i have to say i’m quite pleased with myself for actually getting this done. but i have to give credit where credit is due… so thanks to my MIL for going to the fabric store w/ me and helping me with measurements and all that. AND, thanks to debbie for letting me use her sewing machine and for ironing all the hems for me! YAY!!!!

can someone please explain to me…

… how THIS qualifies as a dress: ???????? i mean, i realize that it’s probably a sure sign of getting older when you go shopping and statements like that go through your head, but really? why would somebody wear that? what’s with the band around the bottom? i find the thickness of that band kind of comical, but most of them look like this: what the heck? it’s grotesquely reminiscent of 5th grade when the big thing was super long sweatshirts worn with stirrup pants. because that sort of thing is just so flattering to someone’s body shape. apparently the pear-with-chicken-legs image is all the rage this year. who looks good in this? skinny people? no. fat people? no. who??? even the models in the pictures look ridiculous! this is what i encountered when i went shopping for a dress last night. it’s funny to see how trends change. i’m not claiming that everyone had the best taste when i was in high school… fortuna...

dear neighbors which shall remain nameless,

i am writing this informational letter on behalf of your children, your bank account, and your auto insurance company, all of which suspect an impending blow to their current, healthy state. it appears that you may not be aware of certain traffic laws which pertain to the proper seating and safety of your children while in your vehicle, so i will take this opportunity to share them with you. Washington's New Child Restraint Law Effective June 1, 2007, children less than eight years old must be restrained in child restraint systems, unless the child is four feet nine inches or taller. A child who is eight years old or older, or four feet nine inches or taller, must be properly restrained either with the motor vehicle's safety belt or an appropriately fitting child restraint system. Children under thirteen years old must be transported in rear seats where it is practical to do so. The fine for improperly restrained children in motor vehicles is at least $112 per c...

what’s in my car?

it’s time to play an exciting round of… WHAT’S IN MY CAR????? (applause) yes, that’s right, this morning, I was incredibly irritated by all the crap that was in my car. SO irritated, in fact, that it was making me a little twitchy. (and I may have yelled at my kids once or twice for less than reasonable things.) it was so bad, in fact, that I decided to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. dun dun DUNNNNNN… and so, after dropping my 3rd (and final) kid off at the 3rd (and final) institute of learning (aka: preschool), I came home and cleaned out my car (instead of taking a nap and/or brewing another pot of coffee, which was what I really wanted to do). when I get bees in my bonnet like this, I’m really bad at remembering to take a “before” picture. although, in this case, it’s probably better that I didn’t. it was BAD. so, we’ll have to have the “after” pictures suffice. and, of course, I have to account for what was actually IN my car before this. keep in mind, this does not include the...

sourdough – installment 2!

well, i guess i did it right! today was day 4 since i made my starter. it had bubbled, grown, shrunk, and bubbled some more and was starting to smell more like wine than yeast. my experienced sourdough-making friend angie assured me that this meant that it had ‘soured’ and i could now use it. so i did. i decided to use my bread machine to do the mixing and kneading for me, but i wanted to bake it in the oven. i used the recipe for sourdough in my bread machine instruction book, and then used the baking instructions in a cookbook i have. at any rate, we have success!!! i was afraid they were a little too done, but actually, the bread and even the crust is still soft, even though it looks kind of dark. we dove right in and holy yumness! i think it could be a little more ‘sour’, so i’m going to leave my replenished starter out a day or two before i ‘put it to sleep’ in the fridge. but as it was, it was wonderful. i tried to take a picture of shane enjoying it, because his piece was big...

rachel's continued ramblings

Search This Blog