kitty companiona

kitty companiona

Thursday, November 1, 2012

The Wind Blew and the Branches Flew!

Yikes!  What awful winds!
Hope we don't have another such weather occurrence for at least a hundred years.

Deiter sat by the window watching the leaves streak by early in the storm.



When the 50-mile-an-hour stuff started, all the cats ran for cover.

Just after it got dark on Monday evening, the horror show started.  The power went out, we were left in the dark.  Out came the candles and the oil lamp.  We could hear metal shingles starting to fly off the roof of our summer kitchen.  Then there was a WUMPH! like the house had been hit by a fist.  The wind raged on and on.  With the streetlights out, we really couldn't see anything outside but a swirling mass of dark shadows.

There we sat in the dim candlelight wondering what on earth people did before the age of electricity to entertain themselves during the long cold blustery winter evenings.  The light was too dim to read or knit even if I could have concentrated on either.  Thanks to the woodstove, we were at least warm.



Around midnight the wind seemed to slack off slightly so we decided to take our candles and head up to bed.  It wasn't exactly restful sleeping wondering if there would still be a roof on the house in the morning.

When we woke up around 8 a.m. the wind was only a steady stiff breeze.  Still no power!  We had taken the precaution of filling large post of water for the kitchen and several buckets of water for the bathroom.  The biggest concern was that the food in the freezer would thaw before electricity was restored.  It was only about 40 degrees outside.  We put our perishables from the fridge out in the little back pantry where there is no heat.

The pantry.  With a huge piece of tree on the roof!


We have more tree damage this past year than we've had in the 40 years we've owned this house.  The maples are huge and very old and I guess it's time to remove some of them to ward off any more damage to the house.  I will hate to see them go.  We will plant other trees to replace them but it will take years to get the same amount of shade and privacy the old ones have given.

A friend who lives nearby still had power and he offered us his generator.  Of course we didn't have any gas to run it!  So on Tuesday afternoon we headed for town to fill our container with gas.  We had heavy rains, but the water was only up into our front yard a minimal amount.  When we got to the creek between Newburg and Shippensburg we were shocked to find water way up out of the banks.

This is a field beside the creek.


And this is the creek itself. It's usually way down in between the lines of trees with grassy banks on either side.


When we returned from town the power was still off.  We decided to wait till closer to dark to go get the generator.  Horay!  About 5 p.m. the lights flickered and then there was a steady glow from the ceiling fixture.  We held our breath!  Yes, they are going to stay on!

We are so thankful for the storm to be over even though the skies have been gray, it's still raining off and on, and it's cold.  es, that's snow on top of the mountain behind our house.



Deiter says, 'that was a nasty one, Mom!'


Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who had it so much worse than we did.
We were very lucky in our area!

11 comments:

  1. Pat, I'm so glad that you are OK and that the only damage was to a big tree. It could have been so much worst. I can sympathize with you about having to cut down some big maple trees. We had to have to cut 4 in our backyard a couple of years ago and lost most of our shade.

    We have a fisher stove too and it's a good source of heat when it's cold and damp, I keep a big pot of water on top and I've cooked stews and soup when there was power outage.

    The fur kids knows when there's danger and they get scared, who can blame them.

    As for entertainment, Zip can always sing and play some lullabies on the guitar to calm the kitties.

    The sun is shining here and I hope that's it's shining at your place too.
    Hugs,
    JB

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  2. glad to hear you didnt get it any worst and your electricity is back on. such a cold time of the year to not have electricity! im sure the kitties are glad to have it over too! enjoy your day!

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  3. Hi Pat! I've been wondering about you and your family through all of this! Soooooo glad to hear you are all okay and have power! The devastation on the coast is so tragic. I hope you remain safe and have someone to help with the tree damage. I know it's hard to lose the big ones..... but think of all the firewood you'll have for your wood stove!
    Stay safe and warm!!
    Hugs!!
    Cathy G

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  4. Hi Pat
    I thought of you and we got the map out to see how near you would be to the actual storm.
    Glad you are both okay but know how scary these storms are. We had one in 1987, very unusual for us, it was a freak occurance but we lost umpteen trees and actually felt the whole building moving.
    Lovely picture if Dieter framed in the window.
    Lets hope thats it for a while now.
    Hugs
    Briony
    x

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  5. So thankful that you Zip and the cats are OK ....you have been in my thoughts a lot since 'Sandy' came on the scene. AS for the time before there were electric lights ...I know farmers had long days in the summer and short in winter and everyone had bad eyes trying to read,knit and sew and play games by candle light ..I think bed really was the best place to be. xx

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  6. Scary stuff Pat! Glad you all are OK. It would not be fun sitting in the dark hearing all those noises outside and not being able to see what's happening.

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  7. Glad everyone made it through the storm safely and you got your power back!

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  8. Sorry to see your big tree limb come down but relieved it didn't do too much damage!! Your house is very sturdy indeed :-) Even we were affected by the storm, very high winds and our power went out for about two hours but we were ready with candles and flashlights.

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  9. Glad you are all ok. Did you receive your parcel yet, Pat? If not, I should probably try to track it down. Deb

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  10. Yikes-that sounds scary. Glad everyone was OK.
    Love your felines =)

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  11. Glad everything was ok...cats always seem to find the best viewing places :-)

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