The drive home from the hospital on Friday afternoon was slow, but we made it with only a few adrenaline rushes. What a relief to be home! The further south we went, there was less snow but more ice. Mixed icy rain was steady. Once we got unpacked and had dinner, I decided to treat ourselves to some delicious blackberry cobbler. It had been in the oven for no more than 10 minutes when the lights went out! Of course, it happens every time we get any kind of storm. Time to pull out the lanterns, battery-operated candles, and yes, the generator, if the power isn’t back on soon. The blackberry cobbler? Well, it was in a silicon pan, which I put on a rack inside a large pot with water at the bottom and a lid on top over the flame on the gas stove. It steamed until firm, and while it didn’t brown, it was fantastic! Certainly better than anything at the hospital.
We tried getting the generator going, to no avail. The house was getting colder and colder. We have a gas fireplace, but it wouldn’t ignite without power. After taking off the front panel, we found the battery back-up pack, put in 4 AAs, and Voila, we had a roaring fire. If we hadn’t come home, the kids (our son, daughter-in-law, and their two teenage daughters who live on the other side of our house.) would have had no heat.
Since we have a well and the pump needs power, we didn’t have water, so we used our water storage and dipped buckets of water from the hot tub for toilet flushing. Saturday, we hovered by the fire, but we were able to whip up some tasty meals on our gas stove-top. It was surreal hearing all of the crashing limbs from our big beautiful trees! The icy mix kept on coming.
By Sunday morning, there was an inch of ice on every surface. Every blade of grass had a bubble of ice around it. Branches of trees were so heavy that they couldn’t hold themselves up and hunkered to the ground, with many branches snapping off and some trunks simply splitting in half. Multiple limbs on the big old Douglas Fur slammed to the ground, with one totally destroying the kid's playhouse. We still had huge branches on the play structure from the wind storm! One tree that split in half was blocking our driveway, so we couldn’t get out, but there was no going anywhere on that sheet of ice!
Then, angels arrived! Several of the guys from church, including our bishop and his counselors, came with tools to fix the generator. A few days ago, they didn’t know how, but now, they were experts! In no time, they had the generator hooked up to one of our main panels—the one to heat the other side of the house, power the pump, and keep the refrigerator and freezers going. They had planned to remove the tree from the driveway but didn’t think it would be wise to use a chainsaw while skating on an ice rink!
Monday brought warmer weather, and the ice began melting. Hunks of ice plummeted to the ground from the roof and trees. It was like raining giant balls of ice—no going outside today either. Falling branches or huge chunks of ice - neither good! We hear that trees are down everywhere in the area, with many leaning on power lines.
Our daughter-in-law went out Monday afternoon—most of the driveway was melted. As she was trying to remove some ice, she slipped and went down hard, knocking the breath out of her, and causing excruciating pain in her back. After helping her up and slowly making our way into the house, we knew she had to go to the ER. Mark maneuvered the van around the broken limbs. X-rays showed a compression fracture in a disc in her lower back. She came home fairly well medicated, so she was able to get upstairs to her bed, where she will spend lots of time now. Full recovery will be around three months.
Today (Tuesday) PGE workers were spotted in our neighborhood, so we are hopeful!
As for Mark, he wishes he could do more but just doesn’t have much energy. Today he did get his chainsaw out and cut a few branches to clear the driveway. For him, that was play! But after less than an hour, he was done. Pain meds control some of the muscle aches and pains that are a side effect of the IL-2. Constant itching and peeling skin will be a thing for several weeks. Overall, not bad!
Life can certainly be challenging. A friend recently sent us a book entitled, Find the Good. It’s been a great reminder to look for the positive in every situation. Often, we have been recipients of tender mercies that are such a blessing. One of those comes in the form of earthly angels who so generously serve others. (Our new neighbors have been most helpful!)
Dinner has arrived from one of those angels, so it’s time to go! 😀
After dinner, we found out that our granddaughter Katie who went to a cousin’s house since her mom has the back injury, slipped on ice and broke her left wrist! Crazy!
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No picture could capture the hunks of ice falling from the trees!
WE’VE GOT POWER!! YEA!!!!!
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