Be Prepared.....

Last week we had an incredible snowstorm with wind gusts of 40mph toppling trees and leaving 100's of thousands of people without power including ourselves. Our road was blocked for 3 days by trees that had fallen across making it impassable.

There was a 90' tree of ours that fell down on power wires and was leaning precariously against my precious Sycamore tree ready to eventually land on our driveway as well as a smaller tree that fell against the side of our house and now lives on my side porch.

And so it goes.... everyone without power and lots of work to do afterward. I tried taking pictures of the storm in progress but the wind was so powerful it made it impossible but I did take some pictures the day afterward that I thought you may like to see.

Look at my beautiful Yellow Cyprus tree ensconced in ice and snow, looking like a prehistoric monster... and if you look to the right you can see the side of my house where the tree that fell is still laying. The next picture is how the tree looks on the porch through the glass doors.




 This last picture is where I tried to walk down our driveway to photograph the 90' tree leaning on the wires but as I approached it and saw how precariously it was balanced against the Sycamore I chickened out. It's hard to see with all the white, but the entire driveway had trees leaning down so heavily that it was a gorgeous tunnel of trees that you had to bend over to get underneath. Of course my husband (fearless?) zipped right through all the trees in his jeep to get out.... no thought of the tree ready to fall.

What I would like to pass on is how you absolutely need to be prepared for situations like this. Over the years I have learned.... sometimes the hard way.... to be completely prepared at all times. I ran lots and lots of water the day before the storm, checked the batteries in the portable radio, made sure we had lots of matches and candles, checked the oil level in all the lanterns and made sure there was plenty of people and dog food along with a manual can opener. I can't tell you how many people were caught without many of these things and I heard that the stores were ransacked for food, candles and water. We did some cooking on our wood stove and other times my husband grilled on the front porch so we were never without the essentials.... food! lol  We even emptied our deep freezer into a cooler, packed it with snow and buried it in a snow bank until the day after our power was restored. Everything stayed nicely frozen.

I must say it's awfully nice to have our power back on and be able to take a nice hot shower or flush the toilet without lugging a bucket of water. I really didn't miss the TV but have to admit that I was hyperventilating without my computer for 5+ days.  It's so nice to be back! :o)

And...........

Remember I won the $50 gift certificate to Jeanette Janson's Vintage Supply Company??? When we finally were able to get mail... lo and behold... a box from Jeanette! Here is a picture of all of my goodies. I had so much fun picking everything out.. although it was tough deciding as she has so many great treasures for sale. Thank you so much Jeanette!

I hope you all had a great week and you will think about being prepared for storms and power outages at any time. ...  You'll be glad you did!

Best...

Canace