Sentinel, Cold and Ice and Snow 210212

      We are having a cold winter blast at the moment. It has gone on for 5 days now, with icey, snowy conditions and it may last for several days more with temperatures well below freezing. It has brought back memories of the January 2007 ice storm.

      January 2007 it began with a night of freezing rain in which the ice stacked up and took out our power lines and snapped branches off the trees all night long. The branches blasted off sounding like shotguns right outside the house. One large branch snapped, hit the roof, slid off like a torpedo hitting the deck and blasting through the railing on the back deck.
      We went through 14 days with no power, that meant no heat, no water, but we made it through by me using ice off the garage roof for Joyce to melt on the gas stove top for our bathing by the fireplace and washing dishes and using gray water to flush the toilets. I spent every day dragging frozen chain sawed branches out and into the house to thaw and then fuel the fireplace to try and keep the house at 40 degrees so the pipes didn’t freeze. I hauled all that in a radio flyer kiddy wagon to keep us warm enough to sleep at night.
      We had been through this before, so I know we can survive whatever comes with this aberration in the weather. If power goes out here, we will be on top of the list for power restoration instead of at the bottom of the list this time.