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Home > Electric is back temp.... ICE STORM

Electric is back temp.... ICE STORM

December 13th, 2007 at 06:07 am

Our electric went out at 12 a.m. Tuesday morning. It came back on a bit ago, but we only have it for 2 hours, then it will go back off. The lines down our gravel road were down, they are back up now. However, the coop substation we run off of has so much ice damage that it can't run the entire grid. So, we have it for 2 hours, then it will rotate on. Over 700 in our town of 2900 are without power.

It came back on and when we got the word it was for only 2 hours, we flew into action. We turned the furnace back on, took showers, quickly tried to thaw out water tanks and refill with hot water, plugged in the tractor, charged batteries, heated up the chicken coop, did 2 loads of laundry and dried them (which normally I don't do), threw all the carharts in the dryer to dry out, blew dry all the wet boots, recharged my laptop, cell phones and camera....

It should go back off in about 20 minutes.
We have been heating with the fireplace. The stock tanks & chicken house were the hardest to keep warm. All our heaters were electric.

I have now located on craigslist, (and hopefully will go get tomorrow) a propane heater for a stocktank. The amish use kerosene heaters for their chickens, but I am a little leary of those since they have an enclosed flame.....So, the chickens will have to tough it out. Did you know their feet turn green when they get cold?? Just like our nailbeds and lips turn blue....

Had an email forwarded to me by a high school friend from my old high school english teacher. She was cleaning out some papers, and came across some stories I had written in high school. She had published some of our writings, mine included back in the 70's and 80's. She was wanting to know if I had written anymore. Her son is a publisher and she is trying to track me down to write some more short stories to add to the series I had started then. He works for the same publishing house that published the orginal book of short stories. Now, the bad part is, I have no idea where my written copies of my works are even at. I do have it on a disk, but no longer have a computer that takes a floppy disk. I will need to reread by works before I make a decision, but it sounds like fun. That was almost 30 years ago, and the details of the story line are getting a little fuzzy..... If I decide to do it, I think I will try to keep it a secret from my husband for awhile, to see how it goes along.

No one around here has any lamp oil left on the shelves. Luckly we have unlimited wood to burn and a fireplace and wood cookstove to burn it in. And, if worse comes to worse, we can move into our RV and run it all off of propane. Our hotwater heater is propane so that will keep us in hot water. We can cook with cast iron over the fireplace. The kids think that is cool.

The power just died, and I have 4 hours of battery on this laptop, so will go for now. You all keep warm!!!

Oh--$20 spent on a power inverter--to recharge multiple items in my car while driving, $16 on batteries-normally we use rechargeable ones, but not enough time to get them all recharged.

7 Responses to “Electric is back temp.... ICE STORM”

  1. shiela Says:
    1197526824

    Hope they fix the electricity soon.
    Interesting info about the green chicken feet.

  2. mbkonef Says:
    1197553252

    Hope you are yours are keeping warm!

  3. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1197561803

    I'm worried about the chickens! How cold can they take it? This must be why in times past, and in some parts of the world still, people sometimes bring their chickens in the human living space in winter.

  4. fern Says:
    1197579848

    Egads on the electricty situation.

    Has your friend offered to pay you anything for the stories you've written?

  5. Carolina Bound Says:
    1197582971

    I "weathered" (ha-ha) an ice storm back in 1994 that knocked out the power for four days. It was a challenge but I have happy memories. My kids and I played pioneer, pulled out the board games, read by candlelight. Also, it was eerily beautiful. After four days I washed clothes at the busiest laundromat in history -- stood in line for each washer and dryer! What an experience!

  6. mom-from-missouri Says:
    1197598680

    Fern, I assume I would be paid. The ones we did in highschool we got paid for -mine was almost $2000. Since it is the same publisher, I would assume so--but, I didn't ask-yet.

  7. nance Says:
    1198162399

    Wow, I wish I knew a publisher who was looking for my stories. I wrote five stories for toddler "board" books, but have not located a publisher.
    You go for it girl, obviously you have talent!

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