Our Ice Storm Journey

[forHISglory]

Ye-HAW!!!! Our electric juct came back on about 30 minutes ago!!! We had an ice storm Saturday, and the electric went out. We belong to an electric co-op, and rarely ever lose power. But this was a doozey. We had no power from early Sunday until 30 minutes ago today (Wednesday). Here's what we did:

Heat: Heat was a priority. We have a wood heating stove, so hubby fired it up. We were toasty all through the ordeal. But we didn't have much wood from the woodpile put into our garage. So we dared to go out and carry wood. The woodpile is uphill from our home. Hubby and dog made it to the top of the hill; then both lost their footing and slid down the hill into the garage!!! Fortunately they weren't hurt, but they sure looked funny! But we got wood carried down and we remained warm.

Food: I'm thrifty, so we had plenty of food in the fridge and freezer and pantry. But after a few days, the freezer food was getting soft. But by that time, the roads had cleared enough that we could get out, so we took the food to a friend's home and stashed it in her freezer. We put some of the freezer food and all the fridge food into coolers and put them out on the porch. It began to warm up yesterday, so had to buy ice and put in the coolers.

Cooking: This was the fun part. I have a set of Calphalon cook ware and the wood stove. So we cooked on the wood stove. I had only done this once before and it wasn't pretty. But this time it worked out well. We grilled cheese sandwiches, heated up meatballs, heated water for instant coffee and tea, made soup, heated up veggies that were thawing in the freezer. The most exciting discovery of what I could cook on top of a wood stove was pot pies. I had 4 pot pies thaw out, and knew that I had to either cook them or throw them away. So I put a pie still in the aluminum into a pan, put on the lid, and put it on top of the stove. It made a little oven. The pie cooked perfectly: hot, steamy, lightly browned crust. It was delicious. We had enough greens to make a small salad, one tomato, a handful of grapes, and some apples. So all in all, we fared pretty well.

Entertainment: Here's where we had to get creative. We had candles to see by, and we did some reading. It's hard to read by candlelight, and it was so overcast outside that not much natural light came in. We also pulled out games: uno, rummy cube, skip bo and such. It was hard to distinguish colors in the poor light, but it passed the time. One night, we pulled out the hymnals and took turns singing hymns by candlelight! I played the piano a little, but it was in the dark (really didn't make much dif if I played in the dark or not..... he he he). We have a radio that we could crank. No batteries for it, but we had to crank like crazy every 10 minutes. That way we could listen to the news and find out that we still had no power!!!! We told stories and just talked a lot. We ventured outside and took pix of the ice storm. There was great beauty even in the destruction.

I love being at home. But I started to get a little cabin fever by last night. We had water, but because of how the sewer system is, we could not flush or put any water down the drains. The water was cold, since we have an electric water heater. We could not shower, do dishes, do laundry. We were isolated for almost 3 days. I began to understand to a very small degree what our forefathers endured and I admired them all the more.

Overall, we were blessed in this storm. So many around us had it far worse. Many had no heat, no way to cook. Some didn't know that they shouldn't flush, and their sewage backed up into their basements. Some had trees fall over their houses or cars. And many didn't know what was going on in the outside world as they had no crank radio.

So that's our storm story. It's been quite the journey!

[warramra]

I am so glad you made it through and it wasn't too tough.

In 2002 we had an ice storm come through. My oldest daughter was only 3 and she still has really good memories of the storm; cooking in the fireplace, reading and playing board games by candle light and so forth.

[frugalfriend]

Wow!!! What an amazing story! You did good! What a relief it must have been to have the necessities on hand that helped you make it through. Glad you're o.k!

[baxjul]

Wow, glad you all made it okay!

[nodmicks]

What a great story! I'm glad it is all ok now!

[ktsmama]

Glad you guys made it through okay!!

[sdrjeolsen]

wow, good job, your kids will have great memories of it!

[IntlMom]

WOW - we had it too - but not like you at all. Sagging trees, power flickering....but nothing like that! Praise God that you are on this side of it now!

[Luv2BeFrugal]

Goodness! Glad none of your food spoiled!! And that you were able to be so creative!! Sounds like it was a bit of an adventure to me!

[dolphin]

Great writing! I felt like I was right there with you! LOL, have been before. Sorry you were without but sounds like you forged your way through. Hope this week is better for you all in the storms path.

[Ceashels]

What a great adventure! Congratulations on seeing it thru so creatively.... and frugally!

[jamie79]

glad you made it through

[cottageliving]

glad to see you and yours made it through the storm as well as you did - and what an adventure!

IntlMom: I was glad to see you posted here - wanted to make sure you made it through the storm as well since your hubby was out of town.

[miss_thrifty]

glad everything went well while hubbys out of town. glad the storm is over and you got your elec. back on too.

[MarshHen]

LOL, reading your account, it made me want to be there with you guys, especially when you got to the pot pie part! You made them sound sooo wonderful, LOL! I'm so glad you finally got your power back and now things can get back to normal again. One thing you learned from "Ice Storm, 2007," is that if need be, you could survive if another one hits......God Forbid.

Please post your ice pics when you can. LOL, I'm determined to see snow, ice, something related to winter! It's gonna hit almost 80 here again today