CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Since I moved to Arkansas, I have whined about the lack of snow here, often ranting to my Ohio folks about how jealous I am of their snow. Well Nature heard me but was not paying close attention to what I actually wanted. Instead of snow, She sent lots of rain and freezing temperatures, voila, an ice storm. This was my first , hopefully but doubtfully my last.

Power went out shortly after my last post. I am used to enforced darkness having lived in Florida so long and I knew this too shall pass. I was impressed with the pure beauty of the ice as it formed on the trees and power lines. What I was not used to was how Nature used these storms to prune its flora.

The first night, I was heart sick as I kept hearing the crack of a rifle which is the sound limbs make as they snap off a tree. I kept running to the porch and shinning a light on my lovely Elms and stately Pine. Huge limbs were hanging or laying on the ground. All night, crack and thud. If I heard the thud I knew it was my tree. If I heard no thud, it was a neighbors tree. Rifle shots rang out all night.

In the morning, while I was distressed over my tree, it was not as bad as imagined in the dark night. Nothing came close to the house and only the fence line was damaged. That is repairable. All is well. Unfortunately I do not have a before picture but here are some afters.

The radio informed us that we would possibly get our power back by Thursday around midnight. However when they found out just how severe the damage was, the estimate was expanded to three weeks for some. I like my creature comforts but can slip into a survival mode quite easily. I had propane heat, hot water and could cook. My only problem was with refrigeration. Since it was below freezing, I just put my frozen foods in coolers outside in the giant out door ice box.

When my brother was able to get through on the phone yesterday ( phone service kept going out), I told him the good news was that the temps were now over 32 degrees. The bad news was that the temps were now over 32 degrees. Great to melt the ice but killer on my food storage. Oh well rather the ice melted, I can always buy food.

A friend, Julie, was going to come up to stay with me for she had no heat. She has a dog who saccharinely sweet with people but is a bit aggressive with other dogs so I offered my guest room out back which has heat.. Unfortunately her father had a heart attack so she had to leave the dog here while she went to be with her dad in the hospital. Brandy is a lovely Chow mix ( I think Wolf is in there somewhere because of her eyes.) She and Mighty never see each other but there is competition peeing going on when I walk them separately. Lots of yellow snow.

A very well mannered Brandy

Mighty looking for the elusive pee'er.

Last night I was jarred out of a sound sleep by every light coming on in the house. Why when we know the power is off do we still flip the switches? The refrigerator came to life. What glorious sounds and sights. I live on a main power feeder so I know we are first to get power back. I am sure the poor folks in very rural areas will be a while yet. Julie will be one of those. Just heard on the news that 104,000 people are still out of power in Arkansas. I am feeling very lucky.

Well got lots of work to do. Putting a house back in order ( at least the refrigerator got cleaned out) and lots of clean up and chain saw work outside. Will post more pictures tomorrow.