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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Power is Back!

One of our maples snapped off at the top. This happened to hundreds of thousands of trees in our area.

Hi All,
We finally got power restored here several hours ago. THANK YOU ALL for all your well wishes, it cheered us up. We feel for the people who still don't have power, keep your spirits up. We know that hundreds of electric crews from all over the country are working, through the snow storms we are having now, to return power as soon as possible. More updates are on PHNS.com.
Some images from the crisis:

Our lifeline for the first 6 days without power, was our wood stove. It kept our pipes from freezing. You can heat up things such as soup, instant coffee, oatmeal and you can toast bread on the cake cooling rack. But it needed to be fed every 3 hours through the night, so we had sleep deprivation.

You don't want to go far from the wood stove where it's warmest. It's toasty by the fire, but 55 degress at the corners of the house. The Corgis really liked the fire.

Puppy Abby just wants to have fun and provided much appreciated comic relief. Do you think she has enough toys? One of her favorites was the little blue squeaky dinosaur she has in her mouth.

On top of all the other problems, we started having a big snow storm yesterday at midday and it's still going on. We have had about a foot of snow and tomorrow 12 inches of snow are predicted.

Looking out at the snow. The Corgis sit by the door looking out. Today was supposed to be the Christmas Bird Count for our area, but it was canceled. We were supposed to have the big countdown party at our house tonight, not happening. The count for our area is postponed until next Sat. with the results called in, no party. We saw lots of birds at the feeders today including a flock of 50 plus goldfinches, a small flock of robins and a Red-tailed Hawk. We did get a generator 2 days ago and were able to have the furnace, cold water, some lights and one burner on the stove.

Today, we got power back. What a difference it is to have full power and how easy it is to get used to it. Phoebe and Abby at the door watch the snow and the birds. They paw at the door to go out and romp in the snow. They were aware we were stressed and were patient.

Our thank-you's go to all who sent their best wishes, to Barbara and Kit for a hot meal and showers, to the guy at our local hunting store for the apple crisp and coffee he was handing out to everyone and for the batteries and lanterns, to Cliff at our local hardware store for staying open late to get us our generator, to Don E. for hooking it up, to Dianne for clothes wash, showers, homemade soup, much moral support, and for letting us have Phoebe and Abby, and to everyone else who sent their concern.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to read that you have power back and can now begin to get back to a somewhat normal life again.

Anonymous said...

yes!! great!!! are you happy?

Anonymous said...

Joy returns to the Stokes family. Enjoy the beauty of nature now in the warmth of your home!!

CAA

jonathan said...

Happy Winter Solstice! The days will get longer from here on out. I made the best of the cold weather where I live by going to to look for birds that only visit in the wintertime.

Mary C said...

It's good to hear that you have full power again. Sorry to hear that your CBC was canceled. Enjoy the snow from indoors. Indeed you will have a white Christmas!