For the last few days it has been dreadfully windy here. Trees have been falling down around us at a rate which I have never seen before... we lost at least eight yesterday and down through the forest that borders our land, they were popping like fireworks for two days. It is still sunny and has been all through these windy days, it's warm too, we just have to endure the wind from hell! Saturday we lost our power and Teapot was making bread in the bread maker. So we trotted the bread off to the school to be baked since the school had power and we didn't..... I might have mentioned that. Anyway, just as Teapot was putting the bread in the oven at school the power came on and so we took the bread to the parents house and baked it there, since their house was closer to the school than ours. Yesterday the same thing happened. Just as I was putting bread in the pans (we usually stock up on the bread making for a week of school lunches when the weekend rolls around) out went the lights again. No power? No bread. No toilet flushing. No water. No TV. No computer. No anything. So I called the parents once again in an effort to see if their power was affected too. Yes indeedy. The whole town was powerless except for one small section where the hotel was.
Mother was at church when the power went off and the organ died, which she happens to play. The organ went off, and the stand-in minister who just happens to be the fire chief got called away. The youth group who were making muffins for the seniors couldn't finish baking them and all was a fiasco. They canceled the rest of church and everyone headed home. It was then that mother had to make a detour because a tree had blown down across some electrical wires and the wires had broken. There were lives electrical wires on the ground and a grass fire in someone's yard which was directly in her path to her house. Because of that, we knew the power was done for good this time.... at least for a good long time.
Meanwhile, back at home, the bread was rising nicely in the pans and was just about ready to go in the oven.... oh yeah.... no oven. What to do? Teapot came to the rescue and fired up the barbecue. Yes we have barbecued bread.... and it worked like a charm..... the bread is awesome.... very evenly baked and just about the most perfect bread you could ever have. The parents arrived in short order for a lunch of tea on the Coleman stove, and fresh baked Barbecued bread with some cheese on the side. Perfect!
The day wore on and the parents went home with the hopes that the power would be back on by evening. I was knitting, Teapot was working on the steps to the veranda, Daughter #2 was off to her friend's house, and Daughter #1 was reading in her room. The wind blew, and the trees kept falling, and still the power did not come on. Thank heavens we had planned our Turkey dinner for Monday (something else for which I'm thankful). Around about 5 p.m. Pops called to say that he had been talking to the fire chief/minister. The power would be off for a few hours yet. I had taken chicken wings out in the morning (before the power went off) and so I whipped up a caserole of honey garlic chicken wings, once again, baked on the barbecue. I also cooked some oven roast potatoes which we had for dinner and out to our house came the parents once again. So all in all we saved the day, cooking-wise at least. The parents left for home around 8 p.m. in the dark and cold. Our evening was like something out of the 1800s since we had a lantern burning in the living room and no heat.... but you know, that lantern kept the living room quite warm! It wasn't cold out so that helped and it is still getting up to +11 degrees in the day. I think we were all grateful for a day that turned out better than ever could have been expected.
At least it wasn't -42 degrees like the great power outage of 2009 when we lost the power for several hours and the water pump froze. At least this time it was actually pleasant. And still I wait for that lovely little wood stove that I have been coveting for so long.... (something like 8 years now)!
All's well that ends well.... the power came on about 9 p.m. last night. We had 10 hours without power and it makes me think once again that we may need to get a source of heat in this house that doesn't involve electricity.
And so that brings me to this..... Turkey today and just one more thing to be thankful for...... power, heat, and a good mind to figure out how to bake bread on the barbecue, and a family who are easy going enough to come together in the dark for mutual help.
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all..... isn't it good to be alive?! Really gives meaning to the words... Thanks be to God...
No comments:
Post a Comment