Powerless

Using a coal oil lamp to see the keyboard. Now isn't that hi tech. We had a huge snow dump over the last four days. No Hydro, No Telephone, and no plowed driveway.




No one around here can remember such a snow storm in October. By the time it was finished, presuming it's finished for now, there was close to four feet of snow on the ground. The fence line around the place only has the top strand showing. The highways were closed down for a couple of days and Savory road, our connector to Highway 16, was just plowed one lane wide. Don't know what would happen if two vehicles had to pass. I guess it's fortunate that not many people are up and about.

We have to wait for a snow plow and don't know how long that will be. It could be a week. I put the off road chains on our Toyota and made it the kilometre down our driveway to Savory Road. I was pushing snow all the way. Fortunatly it was down hill. I had to stop every 100 feet or so and cut trees off the road. The heavy, wet snow has pulled a lot of them down. I managed to fuel up and get some groceries. Actually the groceries were even getting scarce. The Hydro outage caused the freezers in the local Safeway to pack it in when it came back on. They were throwing out all the thawed frozen foods. Even staples like eggs and milk were in short supply.

Getting out was tough going, coming back, uphill was almost a no go. The engine was running at 6000 rpm in first all the way. The problem is that I get highcentered. So I won't be doing that again untill were plowed out.

We were luckier than a lot of the folks in town. They got the power back on yesterday, but while it was off, a lot of them didn't have heat or water. No flushing toilets.

We have a gravity fed water system, and the house is heated with wood, which I have been stockpiling. We also have a small generator which we are very grateful for. Especially to keep the fridge and freezer cold. Saves having to take all the stuff outside and stick it in the snow. We don't have the power or phones back up and our satelite phone has packed it in. Fortunatily I was able to plug in the computer and get email and update our Blogs. We are kinda rationing the fueltho. We just don't know when the power or phones will be back up.


I was looking around the kitchen wondering if I could put a wood cookstove in. In the meantime we have a Coleman camp fuel stove, and today I pulled out the propane one. It's nicer and we can use it indoors. Of course we also have the barbeque and have been manageing to exist on some T bones and rib eyes. Roughing it.



But you know, it brings the kid out in us. It's so peaceful here. It's Xena's first snow and she just loves it. Doggie snowplow. The temperature now is -10, mild for winter. The furnace and fireplace is on and we're snug as two bugs in a rug.