Just when you think you're making progress...

Well, as I said in my last entry, this is Ohio. On Monday I was hitting golf balls at the range, yesterday I was manning the fort and the pumps as we had a doozie of an ice storm and got some snow on top of it all. the ice on the tree limbs measured 1/2 inch. That's a lot of ice and it's really heavy. We lost power for several hours yesterday and it was off and on over night. Thank goodness we have a commercial battery back-up system for the sump pumps, and a generator to run the lights and pumps.

When we built the house, we put in propane and we have two propane fireplaces. We also have a big pond so if things got real bad, we would have had heat, lights, a means to cook and water ... boy just like the pioneers of old.

The winds came from the northeast so all the windows on the back side of the house were covered with so much ice we couldn't see out. Kinda reminded me of some of the scenes in the movie Dr. Zhivago.

It was four years ago when we had an ice storm that was similar to this. I learned some good lessons during that one that I didn't have to relearn this time:
1. Make sure the batteries for the back-up system are fully charged periodically. The trickle charger keeps them up, but cannot be guaranteed to keep up constant pumping beyond 4 hours or so.
2. Make sure you are home and not deployed. This could have been a real disaster. My wife is a good pioneer woman living here, but I think this would have been a real stretch. I probably didn't have a choice before, but it was good to be here this time
3. Make sure you have a full gas can for the generator, and three or four long, heavy duty extension cords.
4. Make sure you know how to relight pilot lights and make sure you have good batteries in the flashlights. I somewhat improved on this when I bought some of those flashlights that you just shake to charge.
5. Make sure you keep some goodies packed away as well as a good book.

Pam got this picture early this morning. All was quiet -- no cars, no electricity, no driers running in silos, just the sun breaking thru some low clouds and the sound of morning doves taking off in search of seed. While it looked as if nothing much survived that night, the cold, beautiful stillness of the morning seemed to tingle with life.

It is a day for making vows, the kind you tell no one, the kind you keep.

Hooah