Friday, February 12
Not long after I published yesterday’s blog post we lost power. It was about 6 o’clock. CountryBoy was watching some movie trailers and I was crocheting when all of a sudden the TV was dark and quiet, the blower on the fireplace was silent, the refrigerator was quiet and the light I was using to see my crochet was off. There was just enough daylight left to go around and light some of our hurricane lamps. They created a warm glow throughout the living room…
I’ve always enjoyed collecting them and the fact that they are every bit as pretty as they are functional fits perfectly into my pretty and practical decorating style.
I could also be classified as a ‘prepper’. Not to the point of having a bug-out bag at the ready but I do like to be prepared. I would encourage everyone to be prepared for power-outages or various emergency type situations. Have a Plan B for lighting, cooking and if you live up north a secondary heat source other than electric. Maybe living in Florida and through several hurricanes have spurred on my prepper nature. There were several times we were without power for days. We cooked on the grill, collected rainwater for toilet flushing and had enough food in the pantry to get by for several weeks. When we first moved here the ‘ol farmhouse did not have any real heat source. We moved in during February. We could see our breath inside the house. You’d better believe that we immediately started to remedy the situation. We talked with the owner of our local hardware store and we ordered an insert for one side of our double-sided stone fireplace that no longer had a chimney. Then we talked to our local gas company and ordered a ventless gas heater for the other side. We also have a kerosene heater as a last resort.
I made a great discovery during yesterday’s power outage…
… the bottom rack in our oven fits perfectly inside the fireplace! Is that not cool?! I was wanting some hot tea and had set the pan on top of the fireplace but the water was only warm at best. I knew I needed to get the pan over the embers so that it would get to the almost boiling point. That’s when I thought about the oven rack and decided to give it a go. Voila! In minutes I had some hot, bubbly water for my tea. With this discovery we will be able to cook or reheat food if ever necessary.
As the power remained out for several hours it dawned on CountryBoy that the plants in the sunroom were reliant on a small space heater to keep the room above freezing. With the power out and the space heater off the temperature would plummet well below freezing and we would’ve woken to limp, frozen plants. We brought them all into the mudroom. Shortly after that the power came back on. We left the plants in the mudroom just in case. We don’t have a Plan B for the sunroom yet because that room isn’t quite finished. We’re hoping when it’s finished that it will be insulated well enough to stay above freezing.
Shortly thereafter we blew out the hurricane lamps and went to bed. LizzieBelle had a rough night with several short bouts of coughing. I got up with her shortly after midnight and she and I spent the rest of the night on the couch. She coughed a few more times but otherwise we managed to get some sleep. CountryBoy never even heard her or knew we had gone downstairs.
This morning we woke up to a still-frozen tundra. The birds needed more seed in their feeders but they were frozen. CountryBoy brought them inside so they could thaw…
The birds have been hitting the feeders hard so needless to say, they were thrilled to have their feeders back and full of seeds.
I spent most of the day crocheting. I finished the body of the blanket before breakfast and had gotten started on the border…
With being so close to the finish line my goal was to get it done today – two days before my personal deadline. I’m happy to say that I reached my goal! I finished it early this evening. Next up will be to pack the two blankets and get them in the mail next week.
This afternoon I took a break from crocheting and CountryBoy and I walked around on crunchy ground for an hour or so taking in the beauty of the frozen tundra…
Evergreens drooping with the weight of the ice.
Water flowing from the mountain down the ravine. The ferns hanging on even though the ground is frozen.
Nature has created a beautiful waterfall complete with small pools in the ravine. We could not have created anything better. I could’ve hung around there all day if it hadn’t been a tad bit cold outside.
We wandered back through the unused paddock and walked along part of the creek bank. We eventually crossed the creek and headed back to the house both of us thankful for the piece of property we live on. There is just a little bit of everything making it a nice, diverse piece of land.
.
Our guests cancelled due to the weather but rescheduled for the first available weekend which was in March. We were disappointed but relieved at the same time. I know we would’ve worried about them – hoping they were warm enough, praying they didn’t slip and fall on the icy deck, wondering if the toilet would flush before freezing, and so on. The weather should be better by mid-March.
.
Farms news: 11 chicken eggs and 1 turkey egg
Saturday, February 13
LizzieBelle had a good night however this morning she became our alarm clock with a coughing spell around 6:30. We rolled out of bed a little after 7. After an hour or so she finally stopped and has been pretty good all day today.
Today is day four at home. I’m loving it! We are still covered in ice.
The day time temperatures are not getting warm enough to melt it off.
I don’t think we’re going to get any warm days any time soon. In fact, I just checked The Weather Channel and there is another Winter Storm Watch for Sunday evening through Tuesday with daytime temps not reaching above freezing with more ice and 1 – 6 inches of snow predicted. I may need to message a co-worker about getting me set up to work from home.
At one point during the day the mountain behind the cabin (above the tree line) disappeared in the clouds…
I spent the day doing things I have been putting off. Things like writing some letters and cashing in some points for some free stuff from Young Living. This morning I made some garlic butter in anticipation of tonight’s supper of leftover baked spaghetti and toasted artisan bread. After a nice, long hot bath I dug out a cross-stitch piece from long ago…
Now that the baby blankets were finished I wanted to focus on finishing something rather than starting something new. It was easy to pick up where I left off.
The other three days off flew by. Today seemed to last a while which was nice. CountryBoy says the days I’m home always fly by!
.
Farm news: 12 eggs
Dream Valley Farmstead 