And now what?

Some of these trees are seriously damaged, and will die. Some we will have to cut down to protect our house.

double-decker dining

ladderback woodpecker, finches, and cardinals on ice

doglegs or dragons' manes

These icicles began dripping, then the tree bent over under their weight, and now they have a bend. Some of the more graceful curves make me think of dragons' manes (See the picture in the previous post).

Sounded like gunshots

The Great Storm of 2007
Sounded like gunshots. All day, all night, you could hear the creaking and snapping of branches (or sometimes roots) as trees either bent to the ground, rested on our house, or gave up and snapped. Some trees, refusing to let go of their tops, keeled over as the roots snapped.

Freezing rain began just as we were leaving school Friday January 12. It continued in three waves - ice Friday, ice Sunday, ice again - temps that never got above freezing. Our power went out Friday night, restarted at 4 am, then quit permanently later Saturday morning.

We had no electricity till yesterday(Monday) - ten days with the only heat our fireplace, and the only water what we carried in. Our fireplace kept us sort of warm - low was 56 degrees, but high was 70. Most of the time it hovered around 64. We had sun only one day.

We got rather good at cooking in the fireplace - but "campground" coffee tastes horrible.

Did you know you can totally wash your hair in less than a gallon of water?

We had to chop ourselves out - we are really in the woods - and it seems like every tree is damaged - luckily no major damage to the house. Our neighbors had a tree through their kitchen. We had to drive over downed lines to get to town.

I got to remember why I hate laundromats. And even with every drier going (and people waiting), it was still colder there than at my home.

I discovered that the library is a good place to get warm - if you can get to the library or laundromat. DH went to work most days - he has 4 wheel drive. The day I went to town in my car, it took me six tries to get back up my driveway.

DH found a place that makes ax handles and sells scraps for kindling - $5 for all you can load.

We had no phone til Friday - went out and bought a Go-phone - (you pay in advance for cell minutes)

Used it one day, but they sold us the wrong charger, so it was useless. After we got the right charger and charged it, we used it for just one more day and then got our phone back. But it has been spotty - out again last night. I have long resisted the cell phone craze, but think now that I may need to buckle and sign up.