I am not even saying snow. The ice is what did us in. Forewarning this will be a longer blog.
The last 2 weeks have been a crazy adventure for our household. We live out in the country between Kerrville and Junction. Thursday 2/11 I left work early to get my boys and get home before the roads got icy. I went into the weekend thinking I probably wouldn't make it to work Friday but by Sunday the excitement would die down and come Monday I would be back to work and the boys back to school.....Man, was I soooo wrong! The week turned out to be so much more and the days started all running together. Somewhere between that first Thursday and Friday my dad called me and insisted that I go and find a bunch of fire wood. He said I would be without power soon and didn't know for how long. I was glad I heeded his warning and did just that. I brought in what I thought was more than enough fire wood to dry in the house, since it was pretty wet already. At some point between Friday and Saturday (It all starts to run together) the power went out and even now we still are without. When the power went out I didn't anticipate it being 12 days later and still being without it. Day 2 I pulled everything out of the fridge and put it in coolers outside so we wouldn't have to throw all of it out. Day 3 in I knew it may be some time before we had power so I ventured back out in search of more firewood to keep the fireplace going and everyone warm. Luckily my husband had stacked some wood from some trees he cut down awhile back and I was able to dig through it to find wood that would fit in our wood burning stove. We holed up, the boys, 2 dogs, 2 cats and me, in the living room with the fold out couch around the fire. Feeding the fire would prove to be the easy part, though tiring to maintain at night, keeping a 3 and 4 year old entertained when stuck in the house for the entire day proved to be the hardest task. We played cars, colored, played hide and seek, made shadows with the flashlights, made a pool of pillows to jump into. Anything to keep them entertained. We even made a game out of cleaning out the refrigerator. I almost broke out the paint, but then realized we didn't have the extra water to clean them up afterwards. We did venture outside a couple of times, but that lasted about all of 5 minutes before the came in saying it was way too cold. The first few days we lived on peanut butter sandwiches until I finally found 2 small propane bottles to use on our of camp grills and we were finally able to have a hot meal.
After almost a week in the house with no power and no water in sight I decided we should probably leave and find someone to stay with. This was easier said than done because of the roads still being icy and a broken power pole that was causing a line to hang over our only exit point. Again, we ended up being blessed when the weather let up Thursday and the ice on the line melted enough for us to be able to drive under it. The pole is still broken, and the line still hangs over our only exit today. It isn't energized, however once the power comes on driving under it definitely will not be safe.
Once we were finally able to get out we made our way slowly to Fredericksburg to my cousin's house. Blessing. It was so nice to finally be warm, have some adult interaction and take a hot shower. Making it the best though was the company. Getting to visit with my cousin, and have the boys play with their cousins made everything better. In wake of the recent year of Covid, vising with even family has been further and farther between. Even though the circumstances were less than ideal it didn't make the time together any less meaningful. The kids played games, chased each other around the house, played hide and seek, watched movies and kept themselves entertained. Come Sunday we did what laundry we had and headed home in preparation of heading back to school and work yesterday. It was also one of the first nights my husband was finally able to come home to sleep so we all wanted to see Daddy. Tonight we are headed to stay at a friends house for a few days and then possibly back to my cousins house for the weekend.
My husband is a Power Lineman. To say he has worked a bunch over the last 2 weeks is an understatement. He has pretty much been non-stop for 12 days. He has slept in his truck, slept in the warehouse, and didn't sleep at all some nights. DJ and his team have been working non-stop to restore power to others all while his family was and still is without. (We live under a different power company than he works for). I am thankful to his work and the people who put the guys up in a hotel and have fed my husband and the crew over the last 2 weeks. Him and his team still have some long hours ahead but he has been able to come home 2 nights in a row to sleep before getting back to it at 6am in the morning. I wanted to share some of the pictures he has taken while he has been working.
What does the future hold???? For our property we have a lot of work ahead. We have lots of limbs and trees that need to come out, including our favorite tree that was the center of our backyard and hung around our fire pit. That was a sad one to lose. A few days in one of the neighbors drove his tractor down the road to our property and down our driveway and cleared the limbs that were blocking the road. Those have been moved but also still need to be cleared. We are currently running our deep freezer off of a generator that a friend graciously brought us. I am so thankful to not lose all the venison and food in the freezer in addition to everything else. Losing the deep freezer was one of my biggest stresses. They are still saying we could be 2-4 weeks without power. Which for us means no water as well. Once we have power the pump house can come alive and we can see if we have any pipe issues then. Still a long road ahead...... Friends with chainsaws welcome......I'll bring the beer.