...AND THE WORK

FEBRUARY 6 TO 13

Without power, we had no heat or water. Worse than that, the projection for the return of power was set for Thursday, the 11Th.

We needed water. Fortunately, we have a 2000 gallon cistern. John found it; Frank cleared a path to it. John pulled it up bucket by bucket, and brought it inside in 5 gallon buckets. Some we set in the showers for flushing toilets. Some we put in canners, stock pots, Dutch ovens, and containers with spouts for drinking and washing. Later we remembered that we had a small submersible pump, and used it instead of pulling it up. Ahhh! WATER!!

HEAT--another necessity. Earlier we had been able to hook up a wood stove in the great room. The problem was that we had very little wood split. This was another project.

We also needed to be able to get down our lane and to the road. The sheer amount of snow made this difficult, especially since the lane is about 1/4 mile long.

It led to problems. Thank God for good neighbors who could help us out of this problem!! We finally were able to get out Monday evening.

There were a couple trips in to town to friends for showers. A trip to the laundromat was also necessary. We put all our refrigerated foods in ice chests, which we set out on the deck. We had to bring the produce inside and cool it with ice. It started to freeze outside. Other than some frozen produce, all we lost was some ice cream--both in the freezers and on the deck--even in temperatures as low as 4*. Strange, isn't it?

Frank and I cleared the deck during blizzard conditions the first night. But by morning, it needed it all over again. It took me two days, but I did it! Frank was busy doing other things. Another day, I cleared the roof of the shed.

The deadline for power restoration was moved back to Friday, and then Sunday.